"Being authentic, being yourself, is a form of activism"
High-flying transvestite queen, gifted with a quick, witty and refreshing brain, Hudson, born in León in 1999, raised in Mallorca and whose ID appears the common name of Ivan Gonzalez, has planned three more performances of his triumphant show 'Euthanasia Deluxe' at the Poliorama theater. For the bowling this Sunday and the next, there have been no tickets for weeks; there are still, some, for the last one, that of June 27. Take the opportunity. “I live by the anecdote. I don't like things, nor is there a story or a theater behind it. You have to be a filmmaker ”, assures the artist, who displays with total naturalness (and powerful ethical commitment) her uncompromising artistic talent.
Among your many occupations, if you had to choose one to define it, what would it be?
I would put a pediatrician, for inventing something [ríe a carcajadas]. I don't really know very well what I do, although if I had to choose something ... I think that a singer is the most appropriate. Although 'performer' I also like. And a composer. That is the most. I read it the other day and it seemed like the greatest thing they could say about me.
He is only 21 years old and has acquired the status of a 'queer' icon. Does that power give you a special responsibility like Peter Parker from Spider-Man?
All the labels that people give me as a dissident, a subversive, an icon or a revolutionary are simple pins. I do not want to be a standard-bearer for LGTBI rights or for any group. All I do is what I want and all I say is what comes out of the fig. What happens is that, later, each person sees something different about me, and many people end up treating me as if I were a minister or an education counselor. In any case, I am aware that I transmit good vibes. And that's nice and I like it. I think I am a beautiful girl.
What is, for you, to be a "beautiful girl"?
Make your environment feel comfortable with you. Generate a safe space around you. Even though I don't know you at all, I like to pretend we're like cousins. In fact, I may talk more to strangers than to my own mother. Somehow I am a comfort zone, a service area on the highway where you can go to rest. I am a gas station where you can go to refuel.
He was 15 years old when it all started: a job for the institute that ended with a monumental scandal and with the Church and the sectors of the extreme right sulphured.
That's how it is. It was a project for the Audiovisual Culture subject in high school. They proposed us to make a video with a free theme and I threw it for being a transvestite and to make a thug video with a tacky aesthetic to criticize the vexations of the Catholic Church against the LGTBI collective. My teacher gave me a 9.
But there was a sidereal commotion.
The video clip reached the teachers' meeting. None had any problem, except Religion. He caught a rebound and decided to take it to the bishop of Palma. The Church, the bishopric, the far-right parties, Make yourself heard and the Ombudsman for Children started a campaign and took a stand against me. They took it personally, which I also understand [risas], but I think his reaction was excessive.
Have you ever thought about dedicating yourself to acting or singing?
Never before had I considered being a transvestite or making video clips or anything. But, well, at the time I thought I had to take my chance. I felt like Madonna, with a song about Jesus and ex-clown by the Church [más risas]. I actually passed a bit of his ass. Because it didn't make any sense for 50-year-olds to go against a 15-year-old boy. And, hey, if I didn't correspond to your idea of me, then it's your problem, not mine. What I expect of a 15-year-old girl is for her to be a hooligan. If not, what kind of adolescence is that?
To what extent did your family environment help you to express yourself as you are since you were a teenager?
My older brother is gay and the barrier of sexual orientation has always been broken. That is something that opens many doors for you, because the most difficult thing is always to determine yourself. I believe, in any case, that the best thing my family could give me is the blessing of silence. They also did not know very well how to handle the situation. Which is logical, because a transvestite son is not seen every day. At first they were a bit reluctant to the 'looks' she wore to class because she was wearing crowns, princess backpacks and tacky tracksuits. They worried about something happening to me. I want to think that it was because they are really very good people and they loved me very much. But maybe they were just in 'shock'.
What is it to you to be normal? Normality is usually associated with standardization, almost never with difference.
[Piensa durante unos segundos] Normality for me is simply crowds and crowds, a series of codes that a large part of society has decided as a mode of action, and that you no longer get from there. And then there is a great paradox: that people who are doing the most normal and sensible thing in the world, which is to be authentic, to be oneself, end up becoming otherness. I'm surely not normal, but it's not my fault, of course. It seems that the extravagance is the fault of the wearer and I think it is the other way around. The weird thing, in fact, is that so many people behave in the same way. Today, being authentic is a form of activism. Because to go the opposite way, to fall into those margins of society that we have not chosen, but are the remains of the remains of the remains that they have left us, that is really subversive. It is a political act.
How would you define yourself politically?
I lean towards Marxist and communist nuances, but mostly because of my class consciousness. It is very difficult to escape the class dynamics that we live in capitalism. In any case, it is surprising that the problems I have are less with the right than with the more radical left, who believe that you cannot be 'queer' and Marxist at the same time, that is why identity politics are at odds with Marx's historical materialism. And I tell them, huff, you are stupid. Communism, yes, but a bit feminine. In Los Feroz, without going any further, there they were all stale left-wing guys who later, after the monologue I did against gender, told me that I was the height of postmodernism. So all of a sudden I'm postmodern.
Are you concerned as an artist, and as an artist without mincing words, that there are colleagues of yours in jail or in exile because of the lyrics of your songs?
Actually, the 'premiere' of my musical career, if it can be called that, was already a bit like that, with the controversy with the Church and the extreme right. I hope that doesn't happen again, because second parts were never good. But it doesn't bother me either. Because, if you stop to think, if I can't say what I want to say, what's the fun of life? The good thing I have is that there is a cloud of tolerance and respect towards me, because maybe you tell me that I am dressed ugly and suddenly that is homophobia. They don't care about being sons of bitches, but looking like one no longer makes them so funny. So, right now, taking a stand against Samantha doesn't quite proceed.
In just six years he has made countless things, including a documentary about his life. Do you feel like everything has gone too fast?
The documentary was when I was 18 years old. Something hilarious. I thought I was going to die tomorrow, like when they pay you a tribute. Now my whole life is like a 'spin-off' of that [risas a carcajadas]. Luckily, as a warrior girl, I know how to keep up with the rhythm. I pull forward. Sometimes I don't even raise what I'm doing: a podcast, a dubbing, a video clip, a horoscope ... And then I think ... but what agenda is this? The truth is that I manage it very well and I even take time to have a picnic with my friends. A privilege.
How have you lived, or suffered these long months of pandemic?
The general context has been very black and unfortunate: the bad employment situation, the thousands of deaths ... But I at least think that I have been lucky; rather because of the confinement. Everyone was bored as a monkey, I was twice as bored, so during that time I did not stop creating content. In a way, it was a turning point in launching my career; rather, relaunch, because luckily or unfortunately I've been giving it up the ass since 2016.
Tell me a little about the show 'Euthanasia Deluxe', which you represent at the Poliorama.
It's a bit what he had already done in the Maravillas room in Madrid, but in a 'de luxe' version. I always define it as Madonna's 'Blonde ambition', but it has come down. A lot of astrakhan and a lot of grotesque. A long hour of concert, a 'revival' of all my songs, some covers, many surprises, a scandal scenery and incredible lights.
Is it something special for you to represent 'Euthanasia Deluxe' in a theater on the Ramblas, a temple of the 'queer' in another time?
Yes, man, those walks that Ocaña Ramblas took down ... For me, coming to Barcelona is always special, because it is the first city in which I lived alone. In Mallorca I only saw a fagot and here they were all modern and everything smelled of ketamine. It was a great experience. So I really like coming to Barcelona. As for acting on the Ramblas ... Well, that's very good. But I am not excited about anything. I'm usually zero expressive, even if it seems otherwise. I am a nap. I am from Castilla-León. I was born in León, although with one year my family went to work in Mallorca.
What musicians and styles do you consider to be a reference for you?
The electroclash of the two thousand was the pitch that prompted me to sing a bit. Suddenly you saw a group of people who did not know how to sing and not only began to sing, but also wrote great songs. Suddenly you see, that you feel so unsuccessful, that you can invent yourself that you have talent. And being the best at the worst ... that's something that not just anyone. Regarding artists, I have followed Chico y Chica, Superputa, La Prohibida a lot. L-Kan, Putilatex ... I was also a very follower of Lady Gaga, but now I have thrown Madonna more. Much more blonde.
How does it look in 10 years?
The only long-term project I have is to buy a flat where I can fall dead. Nothing more. Now I only think about doing things as they arise. But think ahead, no. Very strange things have happened to me. After throwing myself drunk off a balcony in Mallorca, I thought that nothing more beast could happen to me, but suddenly I'm on 'Masterchef Celebrity', which is one step away from being a meme.
Would you be willing to go to Eurovision?
I go where they invite me, darling. If you call me to smoke a cigarette on the corner, I am delighted and smiling. So I would be happy to go, unless it was in a place where human rights are not respected.
