Interview with Felicia Elizondo

Felicia Elizondo, also known as Felicia Flames, is an American transgender activist who devoted much of her life to advocating for the LGBTQ+ community. Born in San Angelo, Texas, she experienced bullying, sexual abuse, and difficulties related to her gender identity from an early age. Her father, who worked as a sheepherder, died when she was three years old. By the age of five, she already knew she was different. At fourteen, she moved to San Jose, California, with a gay man and began spending time in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighbourhood as a teenager. At eighteen, Elizondo joined the United States Navy and volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War, hoping that military life would either lead to her death or help her reconcile with her gender identity. As she later recalled, she thought, “If the military doesn’t make me a man, nothing will.” After six months in Vietnam, she disclosed that she was gay. She was subsequently interrogated by the FBI and dishonourably discharged in 1965, although she later successfully petitioned to have her discharge upgraded to an honourable one. During the 1960s, Elizondo became a regular at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. In August 1966, she was present during the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, a landmark uprising by transgender people and other members of the LGBTQ+ community against police harassment, which took place three years before the Stonewall riots in New York City.

 

Her experiences became part of the historical record through Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, a 2005 documentary co-directed and produced by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman. In 1974, while working as a long-distance telephone operator, Elizondo transitioned to living as a woman. Throughout her life, she worked in a variety of occupations, including receptionist, clerk, nurse’s aide, and sex worker. She also performed as a drag queen at charity events and in gay clubs under the stage name Felicia Flames. Diagnosed with HIV in 1987, Elizondo became involved with several nonprofit organisations supporting people living with serious illnesses, including P.A.W.S., the Shanti Project, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. She contributed panels to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, creating approximately 80 panels in memory of people who had died of AIDS, and helped raise funds for organisations such as Project Open Hand and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. As a Latina transgender woman, she also worked alongside other transgender women of colour to challenge racism within the LGBTQ+ community. Through her activism, charitable work, performances, and efforts to preserve transgender history, Elizondo has become an important figure in the struggle for LGBTQ+ equality and recognition.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 5

Monika: Apart from acting, you directed over 20 theatre plays. How did you find theatre directing?

Aleshia: Directing seemed a natural extension of my years spent touring in dinner theatre. As with most things that occurred in my life, it just sorta happened as a matter of course. The opportunity presented itself and I took it. There had, of course, been courses in directing as part of the curriculum in both undergraduate and graduate school.

Once out in the real world, I gradually began expressing my desire to direct, then negotiating this as part of my contractual acting agreement with several theatres. Nothing ventured; nothing gained. It worked out nicely. I truly love directing, perhaps more than I adore being on stage. Later, when I became a professor of university theatre, the foundation for directing main stage productions was already in place. From time to time, things do just seem to fall naturally into place.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 4

Monika: Before you started your movie and theatre career you were a female impersonator. How would you define this kind of vocation? Could it be regarded as a piece of art or just another form of entertainment or show business?

Aleshia: As I must always stress, Monika, the only assessments I can make on ANYTHING are based on personal experience. I cannot speak to the experience of others. Nowhere would this be truer than when answering your question concerning female impersonation. There are many people, both straight and gay, who are devotees of impersonation as an art form. My experience ‘backstage’, behind the façade at Finocchio’s in San Francisco, was limited and merely a respite during my gender journey. I was a neophyte, a “new Nanette”. I became a headliner at the prestigious nightclub in the late ’50s and early ‘60s because of how I looked, not because of any professional expertise and/or show business acumen.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 3

Monika: Aleshia, in our previous conversation you stated that your true acting career took place in the theater. How would you compare these two artistic worlds?

Aleshia: Ah, Monika, that is a subject on which I could easily drone on for hours, one on which someone could write a book – and indeed many have. Accomplished actors still argue over whether performance styles must differ markedly between stage and film. I tend to agree with those artists who argue successful acting for film is more self-contained. The film is the more intimate medium. Obviously, on stage, the play’s ideas are projected into a three-dimensional space peopled with actors whose goal is to reach and move the theater audience. This requires a project of both voice and manner. Even with a long run of the play, the actors must speak their lines as though they had just thought of them, the “illusion of the first time.” I would further contribute that theater appeals to feelings first and to intellect second.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 2

Monika: Today I would like to focus our interview on your movie acting. Your first movie role was Sherry in „The Love God?” (1969). Did you have to go through any auditions to get the role? How did it feel to be an actress for the first time?

Aleshia: Oh, yes, Monika, Universal had seen every tall redhead in Hollywood by the time I auditioned. That, at least, is what I was told by my agent, with whom I’d just signed. I was so new in the business that I didn’t even have headshots – which almost proved my undoing. Some Universal executives feared I might not photograph well on screen but the director, Nat Hiken, fought for me. Bless that man! I was absolutely stunned by my good fortune, loved every single moment of the process, and promptly buckled down on set to learn my craft. It was a glorious experience.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 1

Monika: Today, I have the immense honor of speaking with Aleshia Brevard, a true trailblazer in the transgender community. Aleshia is a woman of many talents: an actress, writer, and performer who lived her truth fearlessly in an era when visibility for transgender women was nearly nonexistent. Born in Tennessee, she made her way to California, where she became a performer at the famous Finocchio’s nightclub in San Francisco. From there, she transitioned into film, television, and theater, carving out a space for herself in Hollywood while navigating the complexities of being a transgender woman in show business. She chronicled her incredible journey in two memoirs, sharing her struggles, triumphs, and the lessons she learned along the way. A true pioneer, Aleshia’s story continues to inspire generations of transgender individuals seeking to live authentically. Hello, Aleshia! I'm so glad you agreed to be part of this conversation.
Aleshia: Thank you for asking that I participate, Monika. I blush a bit at being labeled an “Icon”, but hopefully by my age, one has learned to embrace any and all positive comments that come along, while summarily dismissing the negative.