Since I was an age of reason, I have always felt different. I didn’t know why but I always felt out of place even with my friends.
It was around the age of 12 that I gave a name to my homosexuality. I remember that since I was a little boy, when I was alone at my parents’ house, I used to dress with my sister’s clothes, I put on my mother’s heels, I used her lipstick and nail polish.
One of the movies that impacted me in my adolescence was “Priscilla, queen of the desert”, basically because I recognized myself in the characters, between two lives. One in which they pose as a man of the bunch and the other between sequins, strass, heels and women’s suits. It was a decisive moment for me, it was when I embraced all myself as gay even if secretly, since Martinique (my native island) was not so open minded at that time.
I went to live in Paris at the age of 21 and there was liberation. I started taking dance class, going out in gay bars and clubs and making gay friends. We organize parties dressed as girls from head to toe. We didn’t miss a chapter of Rupaul Drag Race.
I didn’t consider doing drag queen until about 7 years ago, when I was already living in Barcelona. A friend proposed to me to organize his cabaret themed farewell party with us being the hosts … From there Geri Lavatza emerged.
Thanks to my experience in the Addaura Teatre Visual company, I improve my drag character with expressiveness and designing my own costumes, taking me to sewing.
To this day, I am Gerald Aka Geri Lavatza, dancer, performer, seamstress, dressmaker.
