“I am La Terremoto and I come from Alcorcón / and today I am here for promotion.” With these verses Pepa Charro (Madrid, 46 years old, according to Wikipedia, she neither confirms nor denies it: “We starlets are not old”) went viral in 2005. “It was very fortuitous, totally unexpected, then there was not even YouTube. Spending 30 euros on a production, changing the lyrics of a song and getting together with four transvestite friends, and achieving the second most downloaded video in the world is strong,” says the star and actress about the success of With Loli. And she recaps the world tour that followed: New York, Buenos Aires, Antwerp, awards at festivals in Hungary, Turin… In 2007 she was chosen to make the official Europride song, Break freewhich was held in Madrid.
Now, the Madrid city that he put on the map of all Spaniards returns the favor in the form of a roundabout. On June 17, Alcorcón inaugurated, as part of the municipality’s Pride celebrations, the Pepa Charro – La Terremoto de Alcorcón roundabout. “Enrique Cascallana, the mayor at the time, offered to give me a square or a street, but I asked for a roundabout. I’m excited to drive by and have the GPS say: ‘At the La Terremoto roundabout in Alcorcón, take the second exit,’ she says in a room at the Yolanda González Youth Center, a few hours before participating in the inauguration. Two days later, she will travel to Santorini (Greece), where she will be performing in the summer.
Ask. What does this roundabout mean to you?
Answer. It was such a surreal request that I never thought I would achieve it. When I claimed her (in 2007, when she was named the city’s favorite daughter) there was a fever to build roundabouts in all the municipalities. At that time, on stage, she claimed that and a hospital in Alcorcón, which did not exist then. I want to start the Roundabout Project, which is to give people who have done something for diversity a roundabout in their name. Kika Lorace and Supremme Deluxe should have one in Fuenlabrada. Faggots, lesbians, trans people… there are everywhere, like roundabouts, and if they decided to build so many, well, let’s give them names. I think mine must be the first roundabout dedicated to diversity in the world.
Q. It has gotten here thanks to La Terremoto. Do you think his career would have been different without this character?
R. I suppose so, because there are so few opportunities I have to act as an actress… I have been fortunate to work with teachers like my dearest Agustí Villaronga, with whom I have made four films. It is also important to have been known for La Terremoto, because I come very virgin to interpretation and I let myself be molded. When I start I do it from very low out of fear, I think I’m going to get The Earthquake, and I think that must give a lot of reality on camera.
Q. How are they similar and how are they different?
R. We are both very forward-thinking. Sometimes I find myself thinking: “My goodness, how could I have said yes to this”, but I like that feeling because I am very enjoyable. We differ in our lack of shame, not that I have much, but La Terremoto is capable of presenting a soccer game or the bell ringing, Pepa finds it a little more difficult.
Q. Did you ever try to get rid of La Terre?
R. Seriously, two years after With Loli I discovered that I could do things on stage, I wanted to delve into the wonderful world of acting, and I was completely stigmatized by La Terremoto, it was impossible to get out of there. A friend inherited some niches and offered some transvestite friends, La Prohibida, Vivian Caoba and me, one each and said: “The day you want to kill your alter egos, we have a big party, we bury the wigs, the heels and the lipsticks and we start a new stage.” But at that moment Mrs. Elvira Vázquez, the owner of El Molino de Barcelona, appeared, she proposed to me to be a super star and I decided that it was the best thing that could happen to La Terremoto.
Q. How do you bury La Terre when you have to play a role?
R. Her eyes help a lot, La Terre always has them wide open, because she is a 360 woman and has to be at everything. Furthermore, she listens very little. Pepa, who is a 180 woman, has to work hard and listen much more.
Q. The roundabout is inaugurated within the framework of the Pride celebrations and has been the herald of several What ingredients does a person need to be an LGTBI icon?
R. I have behaved as I have been educated at home. I have had an important school, like the Accelerated Diabetics group, I have learned to move on stage by looking at a transvestite. That permeates and stays everywhere.
Q. Almost 20 years ago, no one would have imagined that these peripheral Prides would exist. Why are they necessary?
R. Just as the metro arrived in Alcorcón, Pride too, it is the same, it is continuing to grow; With the meter he did it in size, with Pride in his head, in his heart, in his feelings. On Saturday (June 15) there was a controversy here because some drag queens They came to read children’s books. Do you think that a child who sees a transvestite telling a story cares? What fascinates him is the glitter, the wig… We must continue pick and shovel, pick and shovel. Just as you have money to build 2,000 shopping centers, you have to invest in the heads, and that is educating, and you also have to hold a Pride to provide information.
Q. The festive and playful nature of this demand is much criticized. Can activism be done through partying or even humor?
R. I think it is very effective, there are speeches that we have repeated so many times that they are tiring. You have to be intelligent, and the best way to explain things is with humor. What’s wrong with going to a party without a shirt, or naked? With how beautiful a torso is. I understand that not on a subway, because you sweat and get annoying, but on a float… It is very difficult for me to see the evil. Thanks to humor, wigs, glitter, colors… we have taken small steps. For example, I have an 11-year-old niece, and I ask her if she has a girlfriend or boyfriend, and she is not shocked.
Q. In 2018 you gave a very demanding speech for equality at the Goya, has the situation improved?
R. Many women have been given a voice that perhaps would have taken 10 more years to arrive. I know that there are also entities that think that there has to be 50%. But we have spent 20 centuries with 0%, so I am one of those who think: “Guys, you might have to hold on a little bit now.” Because who looked after my grandmother, my great-grandmother or my great-great-grandmother? Who said you are poor?
Q. The extreme right is rising like foam in the West, are rights in danger?
R. I refuse to think about it, but I know that there are people who think that a transsexual is not a person like me. Sometimes I get a little panicked, but I tend to be quite positive and I think that it is very difficult for these rights to be taken away from us, I have no other choice. The first one to go to waste is me, with the speech I have and the projects I do.
Q. What roles are you looking for?
R. If I don’t look for them, I have so few options that I enjoy what I get just the same. I have never chosen like Pepa; like La Terremoto, yes. If I could, I would make dramas all the time, because it is difficult for me and I like challenges.
Q. You already have your roundabout, what dream do you have left to fulfill?
R. I’m not one for goals, I love being given challenges and I throw myself into them, but I’m not very competitive. When we play bingo at home, I start picking out the balls because I don’t like the stress of whether you win or not. What I like is to invent impossible projects, put them together and make them happen.
Q. Speaking of projects, which ones do you have now?
R. I am involved in Fiction for Change, which was born in Nairobi by the actress Marina Gatell and her partner Nico Mallol. They went to do an internship there, they saw the reality of the suburbs and decided to set up a school-shelter where children go to make their films. They write the script, they do the lighting, the costumes, they direct… It’s not a documentary where you see misery, it’s a children’s film. As if you did the Goonies in Nairobi. We are looking for people from the industry to join these teams and train the children.
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