22
I passed under an arch of climbing vines and knocked on the front door of an elegant four-bedroom home a stone’s throw from North Mountain in Phoenix. The residents of the house tended to be night owls. My watch read one o’clock in the afternoon, so I hoped I wasn’t waking anyone up.
The door opened a moment later revealing a dark-skinned, slender, sixty-something woman draped in colorful silk that accentuated her curves in all the right places. If Tina Turner had been transgender and Puerto Rican, she would have been Juanita Valdez.
“Oh my Godiva,” Juanita exclaimed when she saw me. “Come here this instant and give your tía Juana a hug!”
Juanita had started out as a drag queen back in the day, performing under the name Tía Juana. She later came out as transgender and transitioned t
