For Elsie Saldaña, better known by her stage name ‘El Dana’, performing for a crowd eases the heavy weight of the past 81 years. It’s the one place where she can release and transform all those emotions into an outstanding performance, where no one would question whether it’s part of her performance or real.

Saldaña has won the Harvey Milk award, an accolade that honors contributions made by individuals for equality in the LGBTQ+ community, and currently holds the Guinness World Record for Oldest, Living, and Performing Drag King in the country. 

Born on October 15. 1944, to farm-working parents and the oldest of seven children, she began working from the early ages of five and six in the harvest, picking cotton, grapes, and anything else in season. She worked tirelessly in the fields of Fresno until the age of sixteen alongside her parents and other family members to help with the daily costs of life.

Constrained to the life of early labor meant she was denied access to achieve any form of higher education. She dropped out of school and later received her G.E.D. 

Saldana noted that a life working in the fields wasn’t something she wanted to continue doing; she wanted to perform, but in the meantime, held several side jobs to help until that day came along.

“I couldn’t wait to be twenty-one, to finally be able to entertain and to seek out what was out there,” Saldana explained. Once she turned 21, she entered her first gay bar, the Red Robin in Fresno, one of the few spaces available to the LGBTQ+ community.

In terms of coming out, Saldaña knew from a young age that she always liked girls, and like many traditional Mexican and Hispanic families, they weren’t as accepting of her at first, but gradually showed their support of her lifestyle.

Elsie Saldana standing side by side with one of her brothers
“I was always a tomboy growing up, and for a while, I was the only daughter until my two younger sisters came along. So I grew up with my brothers and cousins. My mom wouldn’t put me in dresses or anything like that either, so I kinda owe it to her for helping me realize that part of myself,” said Saldaña. 

During the summer of 1979, Saldaña and her then partner, along with their late son Mark, moved from San Jose back to Visalia to be closer to her late mother. Saldaña recalls that her mother, still not accepting of her identity, came to quickly love and admire her partner and Mark as her own.

It wasn’t until that summer back in Visalia that she met Joe Victorino, the owner of the High Chaparral Bar, and together they founded a branch of the Imperial Court called the Sequoia Empire of Visalia and Tulare. 

Imperial Courts served as the oldest standing LGBTQ+ organizations in the country, actively supporting the queer community. The Imperial Court in Visalia was the first of its kind in the Central Valley.

Through her friendship with Victorino, Saldaña would eventually perform as a drag king impersonating Tom Jones at Victorino’s bar in Farmersville, CA, and slowly held drag shows in Visalia and in neighboring communities.  Practicing countless hours and learning the mannerisms of each person she embodies takes time and patience, a skill she developed over time. 

“A performance in the gay society, in the gay social life, as performers, we try to be that character, singer, or whatever we’re doing. We try to radiate ourselves in that so that the audience doesn’t see me but the person I’m embodying, and for me it works every time,” explains Saldaña.

In a time when being gay meant you were faced with constant bigotry, discrimination, and prejudice from society, Saldaña used any money she made from her shows and from fundraising to make donations to organizations that assisted those with AIDS and others in the community.

Letter to El Dana, thanking her for performing and helping raise funds for individuals with AIDS.

Despite society’s unwillingness to accept the LGBTQ+ community, Saldana said that her experience was different; she stated that she didn’t have the capacity to acknowledge society’s bigotry. 

“The prejudices that existed were for the queens, the gay men, but as for me, I didn’t really think about it because I just focused on me, and at the same time, I was working, so that kept me busy. I didn’t have time to think about my personal life,” said Saldaña.

However,  she emphasized the different treatment she received from drag queens, noting she was often put on the sidelines. Gender and Power dynamics were rooted in this treatment, and according to Saldaña, conditions in the 21st century have remained stagnant. 

“It was really the drag queens who gave me a hard time because, being the only lesbian performer they knew, I was good but had me on the sidelines,” explained Saldaña.

Though her performances and advocacy have brought her to the stage of recognition and fame, for Saldana, life hasn’t been kind, knocking her off her feet countless times. She’s dealt with grief, heartbreak, betrayal, and hard labor. 

In 1999, she lost her son Mark Saldaña at 29-years-old. After his death, came the passing of her mother, one of her sisters at the age of 57, and two of her brothers. Her nephew’s death followed shortly after, and recently, the death of her former brother-in-law. 

Yet, funeral after funeral, and the hardships she’s endured since being a child, she remains selfless, humble, and kind to the life that hasn’t been that way towards her. Taking care of others before herself, even if it means she is left with nothing.

“There was a lot of hurt when my parents put me to work at five years old, and just from that time, it has hurt me. It hurts me. It hurts me that I was deprived of a lot, and that’s where it all started. I was just deprived, and when I grew up knowing I was different, I felt sequestered,” said Saldana with tears running down her face as she revisited old memories.

Each show she has performed has given her a moment to escape into her own world, away from the heavy burdens of life. It has provided her with a sense of tranquility, peace, and identity she has been looking for. So after many years of hard work, grief, depression, trial and error, Saldana noted that she is finally being rewarded.

“ Maybe that’s why today, slowly, I’m getting my reward. I’m finally getting a little bit of what I want,” shared Saldaña

Her work and life story will soon be put in the archive at Fresno State University for the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.