When Frank Reyna walks into a room, all eyes are on him.
Not because he’s 6’2″, without heels, but because he radiates comfort, positivity and ferocity. Not only is Reyna a graphic designer and a professional makeup artist, he is a local drag queen who has been in the business of entertainment for nearly three years.
Reyna’s alter ego, “Frankie,” was born on Halloween 2017 after he worked up the courage to put himself in drag.
“Being a theater person, I just felt I resonated with drag so much because it was like theater and Halloween every day; my two favorite things,” Reyna said. “It was another vessel of art expression for me to do it without need, permission, want or reason.
“It’s a form of luxury to get dressed up and perform.”
From coming to terms with his sexuality in recent years to bringing his community together during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Reyna is a queen for the people.
BEFORE THE HEELS AND WIGS
Reyna was born and raised in Sinton. He moved to the Sparkling City by the Sea after graduating high school in 2011.
Growing up, Reyna, now 28, said his parents celebrated the arts in their household with talent shows and vocal lessons. From a young age, he said his parents supported him with whatever he did.
“We always nurtured an environment to have fun for our kids,” Reyna’s mother, Roxana, said. “Since a small age, I knew he was going to be someone artistic.”
He knew at a young age he was different from most boys, but due to his Hispanic upbringings, he stayed in the closet out of fear of rejection. Reyna said his sister introduced him to “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” a reality-competition TV show to find America’s next drag superstar.
“For me, that show was very much a guilty pleasure and hidden,” Reyna said. “I remember just watching it on my internet browser with a whole bunch of different tabs open and the volume all the way down. I was scared for anyone to catch me watching it.”
Reyna didn’t come out of the closet until 2018, a year after he put himself into drag. He said his family members were the last people he told. Reyna said his family already suspected he was gay and accepted him regardless; they were waiting for him to let them know.
“They were waiting for me to blossom, and I think that’s why it took me such a long time to tell them,” Reyna said. “I was really apprehensive for a long time though. As many of us know, going through that internalized struggle telling our family, it’s so much more different than telling your friend from college or your best friend from childhood. It’s your family; your familia.”
His mother said she is proud of him, but is scared that people won’t understand the artistic component of his entertainment.
“Any mother that has a child would be scared their child would be harmed and not appreciated,” Reyna’s mother said. “He’s so talented. To think of where’s he at and where he’s come from, it’s inspiring.”
‘FRANKIE’ IS BORN
Initially, Reyna stepped into the entertainment scene as a vocalist. Wearing a leather jacket, black pants and a smoky eye, he would sing live at nightclubs while everyone else did a more traditional form of drag with glamorous outfits and lip-synching.
After working at MAC Cosmetics for a year and a half, some of the drag queens asked him to “paint” them for a photoshoot, pageant or a gig. Painting a drag queen is another term for applying makeup.
The thought never crossed his mind, but all it took was one queen to ask him why he’s not doing drag to take it into consideration. Reyna took a chance and debuted as “Frankie Stein” on Halloween in 2017.
He said his drag name was inspired by Frankenstein’s monster and the similarities between the two. Both being tall, weird and misunderstood.
The experience that night was one Reyna said he will never forget.
“I was so scared that night,” Reyna said. “When I’m singing I don’t get nervous, but it’s a completely different when you’re lip-synching. You’re really at the mercy of the energy from the crowd.”
Reyna said he isn’t a “stunt” queen, meaning he doesn’t perform splits, death-drops and kicks like other queens. He considers himself a lip-sync assassin.
“I really put a lot of focus and energy into subtlety, theatricality, precision, body isolation, eye movement and capturing every breath of the song and feeling it with my body,” Reyna said.
Ironically, Reyna said his favorite type of drag is the one he doesn’t perform: Stunts.
“Everybody brings something to the table that I always get excited to watch,” Reyna said. “Honey (Andrews) gives you Selena realness; Desiree (Brooks) is giving every spin and kick imaginable; Robyn (Valentine) gives high camp; Miss Matte is the supermodel of the world; Fiji does some of my favorite music of all time; Kitana (Sanchez) gives you a fantasy experience with her belly dancing; Naomi (Evans) does every dance move you can imagine; and Brittany (Andrews) gives you Las Vegas showgirl. They’re my family.”
‘MY CHOSEN SECOND FAMILY’
Normally, when a drag queen enters the world of drag she is brought into a drag family and adopted by a drag mother. A drag mother will guide the young ingénue in the world of drag while creating a name for themselves while also representing the mother’s legacy.
Reyna said he doesn’t have a drag mother; he has “drag tías.”
“Every single drag queen I have met has put forth support, criticism, guidance, reassurance, warmth and love,” Reyna said. “They are my chosen second family.”
His family consists of local drag queens Brittany Andrews, Kitana Sanchez, Desiree Brooks, Anastasia Davis, Robyn Valentine, Miss Matte, Naomi Evans, Fiji and Honey Andrews.
“Brittany and Kitana were my initial fairy drag mothers,” Reyna said. “They are two women who have such a strong advocacy for the LGBT community. Brittany would be the one to promote me at clubs and Kitana was behind-the-scenes making sure I was in the right-state-of-mind. My entire lineage of those who came before me have inspired me in one form or fashion.”
Incidentally, Reyna is a drag mother himself. He asked his friend Robert Garcia, otherwise known as Fiji, to be his drag daughter in early 2021, but the young queen was unsure if he was ready to step out into the nightlife.
“I was scared,” Garcia said. “It’s a big commitment; I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that. I realized I was going to have to start putting myself out there more and not just being a bedroom queen. I’m shy, so I just have to push myself to be more social and get my name out there.”
Garcia said he eventually agreed to be Reyna’s drag daughter so he can represent him and grow as an entertainer.
“She’s not my lap dog or personal assistant, she’s representing my legacy from now on,” Reyna said. “I know I push myself to do more than I’m capable of, but I don’t expect her to do that. That’s my journey; she’s has her own.”
Reyna said it’s more about following in his footsteps and not riding his coattail. But he doesn’t want Fiji to follow him down every pathway Reyna has taken. After a bad experience six years ago, he made the conscience choice to become sober and stay away from those vices.
“Pain is a universal language everyone can understand,” Reyna said. “Sometimes we utilize certain things in life that brings us harm to numb other things in life that have brought us harm. Especially as queer people, we are so persecuted constantly. Sometimes as a collective, we tend to trauma-bond.”
‘I WILL STOP RIGHT NOW’
During his first year of college, Reyna started to experiment with drugs and alcohol. He said it was part of the environment he was in at the time and was expected from him.
“I was comfortable drinking throughout the entire week, smoking marijuana and experimenting with prescription medication,” Reyna said. “I didn’t realize the more comfortable I got with experimenting with drugs and alcohol was from being in the closet. I didn’t want to deal with those demons.”
Reyna said by pushing his limits with drugs and alcohol rather than face his fears of coming out, he dropped out of college, burned bridges between people and overworked himself daily.
On Sept. 28, 2015, Reyna had mixed a cocktail of cough medicines and smoked marijuana. The combination threw him into a panic attack where he thought he was having a massive heart attack.
After paramedics arrived and carried him out his bed, he waited in the ambulance to find out the results of his EKG test. Reyna said he thought he was to die at 21 and that is how people would remember him. He felt embarrassed.
“I remember sitting in the ambulance by myself and asking God, ‘If you can pull me out of this, please,’ ” Reyna said. ” ‘I know I’ve (messed) up a lot and I know I’ve done some (stuff) I’m not proud of and I’ve done some (stuff) that would not make you proud of me. But if you can pull me out of this, please, I will never touch this (stuff) again. I will never drink again, smoke again, party again, experiment again and pop pills again. I will stop right now.’ “
After his prayer, the paramedic came in and informed him his EKG test came back normal. He’d had an anxiety attack.
That night was the moment he became sober. and He has not touched drugs or alcohol since. He is an advocate for marijuana usage recreationally, for pain management and mental healthcare, but chooses not to partake in it.
He said his reward for his sobriety was his drag.
“I know for a fact I would not exist if I didn’t make that conscience decision,” Reyna said. “With that sacrifice, I had time to pursue my career and fulfill my dreams. It was and still is worth it.”
MISS SWEETHEART 2019
In 2019, Reyna decided to compete and win the title in the Miss Corpus Christi Sweetheart 2019 drag pageant. A title in the drag community is like a gold star on your report card, Reyna said.
“It puts you a little higher in the rankings because people take you seriously,” Reyna said. “When you win that crown, you become one of the best of the best. I told myself I was going to do it and win it.”
The pageant was a two to three hour evening with three categories for the queens to compete in: Presentation, talent and audience response. Reyna said he was only able to spare $100 for the event, which made him realize how much drag is about using resources such as friends and craft stores.
His hard work and creativity secured him the title of Miss Corpus Christi Sweetheart 2019. He received a crown, sash, $150, a trophy, roses, bookings and a photoshoot.
For the one year as title-holder, Reyna said he was booked for events all the time.
“I was going extremely crazy trying to manage and juggle everything,” Reyna said. “After each show, I would tell myself the next one needs to be better, the wig needs to be bigger, the look needs to be polished and the mix needs to be funnier. It was just a constant pressure I put on myself. I didn’t want to be better than everybody else, I wanted to be the best version of myself for myself.”
Gig after gig eventually began to get the best of Reyna.
ON THE VERGE OF QUITTING
By January 2020, Reyna said he was burnt out. All the joy and happiness was sucked out of drag for him and it became a full-time job that he despised. He said he was mentally and physically exhausted.
Reyna said he felt he was running out of momentum, ideas, creativity, energy and inspiration with his drag. He had hit a creative wall that he could not get past.
“I was just ready to quit drag,” Reyna said. “That idea just seemed so enticing. I wanted to focus on my graphic designing and being a makeup artist. I was done with drag.”
What ultimately started as a hobby became a full-time career Reyna was not prepared for right away. He felt he never gave himself enough time to decide what he wanted to do with his drag aesthetic. Trusting opinions from other queens who had been in the game longer than him forced him to take their advice and not follow his own path.
“I would rebel against them after being told I need to stick with my initial horror-type look,” Reyna said. “That’s not what I wanted to be labeled as. I feel like I never got the chance, until now, to do what I wanted to do and look how I wanted to look. I used to feel super insecure when I was in drag. I never felt I had the ability to be sexual and pretty.”
It wasn’t until this year Reyna figured out what he wanted to do with his drag: Rebrand himself. He dropped the “Stein” and stuck with the one-word name like Cher or Madonna.
The following month, Reyna was due to relinquish his title of Miss Corpus Christi Sweetheart. That evening was the final straw for him due to nothing going the way he planned.
“The whole thing felt like a nightmare,” Reyna said. “After that, I told myself I was going to take a five month break from drag. Five felt like the perfect number to get some inspiration.”
Little did he know how COVID-19 would change the world.
THE PANDEMIC MENACE
After one week of his initial break, Reyna’s mom, a nurse practitioner, called him to inform him of how serious the virus was. He said he wrote her off as being paranoid and returned to drag a week later after being contacted for a handful of gigs.
One by one though, all the events lined up for him got cancelled due to the country shutting down. What he thought would last a few days, turned into weeks. Reyna said he did not leave his home for 28 days out of fear.
Being quarantined, Reyna, like others, went through a funk from being isolated for so long. He would see his drag accessories in his room and slowly started to miss drag and being around people. After watching a special on ABC where celebrities joined together virtually and performed Disney songs, he found the inspiration he was searching for.
“I called Kitana at 3 in the morning and told her I wanted to do drag at home,” Reyna said. “I told her I wanted to broadcast it so a whole bunch of people could see. I wanted to get footage from all the drag queens in the area and call it ‘Divas for Life.'”
Reyna chose that name because he said people needed to celebrate life at that moment. With so much death and sickness happening, he wanted to push that positive narrative for people to get their mind off what was happening in the world.
“I wanted to pull people out of their depths of sorrow,” Reyna said. “Drag is not always about looking sickening and stunning, it’s about using our platform to show the beauty in the world and using our voice as queer representation to heal. With healing brings progress.”
From the success of that show in April 2020, he was able to produce a second online event called “Divas of the Galaxy” four months later. After places began to open up slowly in town, Reyna reached out to Harbor Playhouse to bring the virtual show to the stage.
Amy Goldson, secretary of the board of directors with Harbor, said he had recently used the theatre for a virtual contest with Smashbox Cosmetics where he won a lifetime supply of makeup from the brand and was able to curate five social media posts for them.
“We had just gone black due to COVID,” Goldson said. “We were thinking of ways to bring money in because we still had bills to pay. We talked back and forth to figure out the best way to host an event like what he envisioned.”
“Night of the Living Divas” premiered in the fall of 2020 to a limited crowd due to safety precautions. Just like his online shows, he was able to produce a second show, “Diva Inferno,” for spring 2021 at the playhouse.
Goldson said the playhouse felt secure and safe with both productions even amid the pandemic.
“We did everything we could to maintain safety procedures with guests and the queens,” Goldson said. “We felt confident in Frankie with his show, and it was a great drag show. He’s so talented and creative.”
This experience gave Reyna an even bigger inspiration to bring the local community a bigger drag experience in the future.
“I think it’s definitely a possibility that we can start branching out and doing drag in even more spaces in our community that would offer a full, live audience experience,” Reyna said. “Especially now that people are becoming vaccinated and the COVID numbers are going down. My dream would be to have a show at the amphitheater at Cole Park. Even a full on drag show at Concrete Street. Who’s to say that one day we won’t be able to sell out the American Bank Center.”
Reyna said it’s all about baby steps, but he isn’t afraid to accomplish his dreams.
‘LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO WAIT’
In drag, Reyna said he fells a strong sense of empowerment. It makes him feel as if he was wearing a suit of armor. Drag gives him a sense of protection.
Being queer and a drag queen, Reyna has come across his fair amount of antagonists. He said he has learned when people have something bad to say about him, it’s their way of trying to feel stronger.
“The opposite of ignorance is education,” Reyna said. “As queer people, the best thing you could do is always educate somebody on their ignorance. I always try to come at adversity in that form, with a sense of compassion.”
Reyna said he hopes to continue to inspire fearlessness in his community, his family, his supporters and himself.
“My advice to the future queer artists of the world that are just starting out: Pay your dues, put in the work, know your limits, take care of your mind, body and spirit and above all, be kind to people,” Reyna said. “Give people a compliment; make someone’s day. We aren’t always aware of the experiences someone’s endured before they cross our path, but we have the ability to shift that direction into something sparkles a bit brighter.”
With some secrets hidden up his sleeve for future endeavors, Reyna said we all have one life to live so we have to live it to the fullest.
“Life is too short to wait to achieve your dreams and goals,” Reyna said. “Use your full potential to be the best you can be. I know I am.”
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John Oliva covers education and community news in South Texas. Consider supporting local journalism with a subscription to the Caller-Times.
