For one hour at this year’s Charlotte Pride Festival, Spanish-language music filled the main stage as local Latin drag performers took turns in front of the crowd. For Oso Chanel and Lolita Chanel, the best friends behind LOC Productions, it was a moment they once struggled to imagine.
“When I started doing drag, it was inconceivable to have Latin drag outside of the one bar that isn’t even a Latin gay bar,” Lolita told Qnotes. “To go from that to having a full hour of Latin entertainers on the main stage is incredible.”
Lolita has performed in drag for more than a decade, while Oso started out backstage as a dresser before becoming a drag king himself. The two, known out of drag as Sebby Locito and Jaime Crespo, met through a mutual friend 11 years ago, became best friends and eventually partners in LOC Productions. The company grew out of something both saw missing from Charlotte’s drag scene: Latin entertainers, their music and their experiences.
“If no one’s gonna be out there representing for us, then we’ll do it ourselves,” Lolita said.
For both, that absence was personal. Lolita, whose mother is from Chile and father is from Peru, said she spent much of her life being told she wasn’t “Latin enough,” while also feeling she wasn’t “American enough for white spaces.” Oso, an immigrant who had to learn English, remembers navigating many of the same questions about where he fit.
“You’re not Latin enough for the Latin community. You’re not American enough for the American community, so what are you?” Oso said.
LOC Productions became their answer. They began creating spaces where audiences could hear Spanish and Spanglish, recognize the music they grew up with and see their own lives and cultures reflected back at them. Oso describes it as “building that bridge,” while Lolita wants people to feel celebrated regardless of how closely connected they are to their heritage.
“This is a space for you to feel welcomed and feel that you can be celebrated, regardless of how close you feel to your heritage,” Lolita said.
Music is one way they build that connection. Lolita grew up listening to artists like Celia Cruz during car rides, house parties and family gatherings, but said bringing those songs into LGBTQ+ spaces wasn’t always encouraged.
“I was told constantly, ‘No one wants to listen to that. No one wants to hear that,’” she said.
For Oso, hearing Spanish-language music outside of traditionally Latin nightlife carries its own significance. He remembers what seeing performers like himself and Lolita and hearing music in his language would have meant when he attended his first Pride in 2016.
Now, people approach them after shows to say LOC makes them feel like they have “permission to be Latin.” This year at Charlotte Pride, Oso and Lolita got to create the kind of moment they both once needed.
LOC helped bring a full hour of local Latin drag entertainers to the main stage in partnership with Charlotte Pride, the Hispanic Federation and Raíces. Shortly before the show began, Oso remembers seeing relatively few people near the stage. Within minutes, the space had filled with friends, fellow drag performers and people from across the community.
“There is a need for this to happen,” Oso said. “There is a need for this to continue to happen.”
Backstage, Lolita remembers sitting, talking and laughing with the other Latin entertainers and realizing the performers needed that space, too. “It felt like you were around family,” she said.
Oso felt it most strongly during the finale. As he performed, the other entertainers joined him carrying flags representing Latin American countries in a moment reminiscent of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show earlier this year. He had planned it, but wasn’t prepared for how it would feel to turn around and see everyone behind him.
“It was so magical,” Oso said. “I wasn’t prepared for the hugs at the end. That’s when I completely lost it.”
For Lolita, the moment showed how much had changed since she began performing and was told audiences didn’t want to hear the Latin music she wanted to perform.
“It is not something that I ever thought was possible,” she said. “So, to actually see the day where that happens for the first time is so gratifying.”
For Oso, seeing the crowd confirmed there was an audience for what they had spent three years building. For Lolita, it meant performing the music she once felt she couldn’t. And for both, the hope is that the next generation of Latin performers won’t have to wonder whether there is room for all of who they are onstage.
Oso wants younger queer Latin people to see two brown adults living fulfilling lives surrounded by people who support them. Lolita wants performers to choose music that means something to them, including songs their parents and grandparents understand.
“I felt like I couldn’t do the songs that I really wanted to, and now I can,” Lolita said.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
