Payuca, the first trans actress who performed at San Martín and now shares the cast with Moria Casán

Installing a proper name in the artistic medium is not easy, much less when it comes a trans actress, who has to overcome prejudices in his professional career. However, Payuca-breaking down barriers and based on talent and commitment, it has earned its own space.

The actress is now part of the cast of Julius Caesar, together with Moria Casán, the version of William Shakespeare’s classic that is presented at the Cine Teatro El Plata, directed by José María Muscari. But in 2019, Payuca she was the first trans actress to act in an official theater with Siglo de Oro Trans, a version by Gonzalo Demaría of Don Gil of green tightsat the San Martino Theater.

Reluctant to reveal the name on his ID and his age, (“They are like the actresses from before, it will happen to me”), Payuca chose his stage name as a tribute to his origin. “I am from Pergamino and for my theater mates, in the early years that is the countryside. But it is a city, surrounded by the countryside, of course. And that’s where Payuca comes from.”

to summon people

-A very popular name.

-When I started with transformism, I liked that it was an unattractive, different name. Since I came from below, I first decided it was Payuca del Pueblo. Then I shortened it. And now I have Payuca for work and for life.

Have you been interested in acting since you were little?

-Since I have the use of reason, I’ve always been the center of attention in my family, I don’t know why (laughs). On family birthdays, I organize the party with everything. He did magic tricks, organized games, contests, and watch out for anyone to be distracted. It was a two hour show and they humored me because they enjoyed it.

-A clearly marked vocation.

– When I was 9 they enrolled me in the circus school, I did acrobatics. Until one day my mother saw how I hit my head on one of the jumps, at 11 years old. She got scared and I left. So I continued with the theater courses. I didn’t have a history in my family about anything artistic, but my family has always put me in the bank.

Arrival in the big city

-How did you make the leap to come to Buenos Aires?

– In the last year of high school, with a friend, during the winter holidays, we came to the capital for a day, with a list of places to study. We had never been here, we had no idea. We went to ask for directions to the kiosks, all on foot, why we were afraid of getting lost. Getting on the bus, on the escalator, was all new. Very payuca, “payuquísima” (laughs).

-A tour from below.

– Totally. In January of the following year we came with two friends to study at the School of Dramatic Arts (EMAD) and we lived in a guesthouse behind the San Martín Theater. We couldn’t believe we were walking through Corrientes. We worked in a fast food restaurant in Avellaneda and it was all a great effort. A year later they returned to Pergamino, they couldn’t make it and I was left alone. It was clear that he wanted to continue with this.

– Did the theme of disguise come up at that moment?

– In 2006 I started playing with it, doing research first because I didn’t have many ideas. What he had done was with some characters, at parties, in the nightlife. But I was hooked, because I liked how I looked. I was asking customers for different things about clothes or hair. I was finding my profile by seeing myself in the photos. I was putting together according to the theme parties and tried.

-Before taking the stage of the San Martín theater, was there a lot of independent theater?

– Much. And in the independent theater, as is still the case, we have done everything: from poster stickers, to flyers, to set up the sets, to distribute press releases on the radio and in newspapers, to make our costumes. And after taking action, disarm and clean. This makes you appreciate all areas, the work of others and gives you a unique experience.

-How did the first opera in San Martín come from there?

– I was filming the strip Little Victory, in 2019, where we were several trans girls in the cast. We heard about a casting at San Martín. The protagonist would have been my friend Mariana Genesio Peña. I did the casting, which was complex in verse. I didn’t stay But two months later, the protagonist retires and they call me for an audition. They made me retrace all the characters. And I stayed for the lead role.

-Your dream has come true.

-Unbelievable, it was what I dreamed of when I was studying at EMAD. And now it was there. But all the monsters have appeared to me too, for the responsibility of occupying that place. She had to act in San Martín, like that. I did a lot of research, everything was very intense. We premiered before the pandemic and then resumed. It was wonderful. Sometimes I was out of breath, I couldn’t believe I was there.

Julius Caesar, with Moria Casán

-But the dream got bigger and the second work of the official circuit arrived, and with Moria Casán.

– And directed by Muscari. Not to believe it, I’m still stunned. Everything is beautiful. Working with Moria is so much funshe is super professional, generous, loving.

-This show has a very diverse cast and doing it in the Mataderos room is very popular. How is the experience with the audience?

– It happened to us from the dress rehearsal, receive the affection of the people of the neighborhood who come to greet us and thank us for being there. They tell us stories of years ago, of everything that awaited the reopening of the theater, which had been closed for about 30 years. What happens is great, very warm, good from people. I never imagined that a classic like this would come back, it’s a pleasant surprise.

-Is it an extra challenge with the theme of changed roles on stage, where the actresses play male characters and men, female ones?

-Yes but there is something androgynous and timeless about the characters that makes the work very accessible and the proposal. Muscari has given us a lot of freedom.

-To all this was added the experience of performing with “Julio César” at the Mérida Classical Theater Festival, in Spain. How did you live it?

– Another fantastic dream. Myself I had never traveled to Europe, so it was a double flash. On the one hand, with the three functions of the Festival, in that wonderful place that is the Roman theater of Mérida. It’s crazy. And then, to get to know a little bit about Madrid and Barcelona, ​​where I have friends.

Bullying and discrimination

-The issue of gender identity is becoming more and more natural, but how was the process for you? Have you felt discrimination at any time?

-My passage was not conscious, I was disguising it with my desire to go for the artistic side. I started doing permanent hair removal, claiming it was more comfortable for makeup, leaving my hair long to avoid wigs and so on. Looking at it in perspective I started looking for excuses.

-The one being already an adult, and before?

– In adolescence it was not easy for me. Y in childhood there was a lot of bullying and discrimination. I never wanted to put labels on myself: ‘I’m gay‘,’I’m trans‘, None of this. I was transforming and people were asking me: ‘what are you now? ‘ People need to put you somewhere. I see my processes from another place.

-It is not something automatic, now I am this or that thing.

-No not at all. At least for me. I understand and respect those who make the decision to say from the start ‘I am a trans person‘, but I feel it restricts me and pigeons me so that new challenges appear.

-If you limit yourself, they limit the possibility of discovering your possibilities.

-As well as, I like to do everything from a place of freedom. But everyone goes through it as he can. Transformation was, from an artistic point of view, the gateway, something that I incorporated into my life.

-Not all identity processes are the same.

-Everyone lives it as he can. I know many trans boys and girls who take it from an early age and in general it is not easy at all. I don’t know what would have happened if I, at 9, had said ‘They are such a thing. It happened like this, it is good that the possibility remains open. But in general, it gives people peace of mind to pigeonhole, to know what you are.

Visibility and militancy

-Are you interested in taking up a position and representing a certain social group?

-Personally, I’m not interested in militancy, but I’m super in favor of making any space visible, I find it beautiful that it happens and that I can do it. It is good that it is a door that remains open for others to continue to have possibilities, in any field.

-How much is still missing in that sense, but it is good that we begin to have more visibility as in your case, from an official theater.

-Undoubtedly, the fact that for the first time it was incorporated, with Trans golden age50 percent of the cast are trans people, I think that’s a great thing. I don’t want to label myself but well … (laughs).

-In fact, in “Siglo de Oro …” there was a trans theme, but in “Julio César” you are an actress playing another role.

Yes, it’s great that this happens. Fortunately, apart from a few incidents at school, I have not experienced many situations of discrimination. Maybe I’m a privileged one. When such a situation arises, I try not to give it importance, I deactivate it. But also we have to make hateful messages visible to fight them. It is not an easy path.

-It is that there is still a lot to learn and to do in terms of tolerance, so that everyone can choose their own path without having to give explanations.

It is difficult to understand something so elementary. What bothers you about what someone does in their private life if it doesn’t concern you? But there is still a lot of resistance. That’s why it’s great that more possibilities are starting to open up, for work, for example, that we can all work on what we like, that there are offers. There are many trans people who still don’t have options.

-The appearance of stories like yours, or that of Lizy Tagliani, among many others, allows you to naturalize the subject and erase prejudices.

-Of course, let it start to be something everyday and don’t classify us as weird. Living in Pergamino I enjoyed seeing Antonio Gasalla in his program The Laughter Palacewith Alessandro Urdapilleta and Humberto Tortonese who played many female characters and this was accepted. I wanted to belong to that world, everyone had fun. But society accepts some things and not others.

-How do you imagine your work from now on?

– Now I would love to do movies or series, but in castings trans girls still have most of the roles as prostitutes, drug addicts, all highly stigmatized as marginal. It is good that it is shown, it is part of a reality but it is not the only thing, you can take another look. Me too I want to create a character like any other actress.

-How is your relationship with your hometown when Payuca returns to pay?

-I always come back for the holidays, I take time to share with my family. Before the pandemic, it was first done in Pergamino, the Gay Pride Parade and they offered me to be the godmother, so I went and it was something unthinkable. It was really nice that in my city, where I didn’t see myself as I am, after so many years, it was possible to fight for equal rights in that way.

Do you feel like some kind of prodigal daughter?

-Could be, coming back like this is very nice and also my whole family is there. The local newspaper is always very attentive to all the things I do, the jobs, the awards. After a long time, it is a cuddle and a recognition to be able to follow my path.

wd