08/06/2026
Interview with visual artist VAQUERO AZUL - Spaces for Mesoamerican Trans Representation
By Vee Hua
For REDEFINE magazine
READ THE ARTICLE:
https://redefinemag.net/2026/vaquero-azul-artist-interview-seattle-tacoma-mesoamerican-latine-trans-costume-textile/
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Multidisciplinary Indigenous artist and community organizer Vaquero Azul (Indigenous Mexican and Boriken-Taíno) describes themselves as “[having their] hands a little bit in everything.’ Whether capturing attention with custom-made cowboy outfit in transgender colors, making illustrations depicting q***r love, or hosting events that allow Trans and Two-Spirit individuals from Mesoamerican communities feel comfortable in their own skin, Vaquero Azul proudly wears their identity in their many facets of work, in part because it took them to such a journey to arrive there themselves.
“It’s very warmly received, because I have a lot of people who are in my age range of their 30s in the diaspora who are very or are feeling very lost – who feel like they had to choose being q***r over their culture,” they say, of the work that they do with Latine communities.
Vaquero Azul goes on to describe the loss and grief they felt when they first came out in their early 20s. At the time, only their mother supported them, and the rest of the family cast them out.
“I thought, ‘Okay, well, I don’t belong in my culture,’ they recount, “but then coming back to it, it’s like, ‘Wait, no, this is who I am. This is my identity.'”
