Xtravagnaza starts with me in the summer of 1982 in New York City at that time I lived in Harlem. It was quite a difficult time for a transgender person, so to the outside world I kept my gender a secret.
That summer I went to a ball as Carmen St Laurent, my first house. I had been competing in a few categories that other houses would contribute so other houses would compete each other.
In the mid-90’s after my arrival in Spain, after all the modelling, I got more into the club nights and it was the beginning of the drag era, it hit Spain really great and I started meeting and working in the best clubs in Madrid, Angels, Morocco, Pasha, Shangay and many others, I thought this is a great time to plant the Xtravaganza seed and let it grow, and it did!
In those days, Washington DC, was no place for two young beauties, bit we did the best we could. Our parents didn’t understand our ways so we hit the streets and let me tell you it was very dangerous and a great risk we took, I had been robbed, raped and almost killed at gun point. So one day in 1979 we made up our minds to hit the Big Apple, New York City.
When we both got to New York and settled down and met the main people to know, where to go and where not to go, we started our journey through our New York life. We met a few of the other girls who told us to meet the main man of the time, Mr Jimmy Treetop, he was an older man that sold the best estragon, delestrogen hormone shots ever known. One of his hormone shots would make the testosterone in your body loose the battle of continuing the process and make your body turn into the most feminine girl you desire to be. In three days you would feel the change on your body, skin, breast and all. Even though you would be sick for a few days, but we knew it had to do with the male and female hormones in a battle and of course the females were winning my battle, LOl, Jimmy Treetops had his special ones on his wall in his apartment, he was also a great photographer.
I started my modelling career in the early 90’s in Madrid, Spain. It was really a gift to me for I thought about it many times as a younger lady. A famous photographer in Madrid opened the modelling world for me and I did it till 2009. I worked for a few famous agencies and the best thing; they knew my secret but the clients didn’t! Did fashion week, catalogs and runway. Then I went freelance after a few years of working for the agencies. Made more money and didn’t answer to anyone but myself.