PACHACUNTI
(Pacha) My name in drag is Pacha. Full name, Pachacunti.
(Pacha) Out of drag, my name is Corey.
(Pacha) In drag, I use they, she pronouns, and out of drag, we're figuring it out.
(Pacha) But it's been like hovering on they, he.
(Pacha) So I like solidly identify as bisexual or queer. That took a long time to get to, but like that is pretty solid. In terms of my gender, it was so clear.
And then I started drag and now it's all weird. Where like I'm transmasc, but it's like because I do drag, the like connection of my gender expression gets all wonky. And then like my connection to my gender as seen through my sexuality gets all weird when it's like I'm transmasc, but I heavily identify.
I just got my eyebrows done and I keep wanting to touch them.
(Pacha) Thank you.
I bleached them and that was a mistake. And then I went and got them tinted and shaped.
(Pacha) But I have grown to become a lot more connected to like things related to womanhood or femininity than I was for a lot of my life because of drag. And realizing like, oh, my bisexuality feels a lot more connected to like sapphic-ness than I would have otherwise assumed. Which then makes being like transmasc and also like being on T and having gotten top surgery and having a beard way more complicated, I guess.
But it's on my mind all the time.
PACHACUNTI
(Pacha)I've been Pachacunti from the start and from the start, no one knew what it meant or how to understand it.
(Pacha)Yes.
(Pacha)So there's actually a whole story. So my mom's family is from Peru. And when I was brainstorming drag names, I was like, I want it to be somehow, my mom, my, so my mom's family is from Peru and my dad's family are like Pittsburgh Ashkenazi Jews.
Yes. So I was thinking about like, I wanted to be somehow connected to one of my like ethnic heritages.
(Pacha)Um, and I was really interested and continue to be really interested in like indigenous or like ancient Peruvian history. Um, because growing up, my mom's parents immigrated from Peru, but my mom was born in the, in California. Um, and so she, I didn't, I, I used to study Latin American literature and like culture and stuff.
So I was able to articulate in one of my classes that my mom is in this like halfway point between, there's this phenomenon in specifically in Latino culture, like Latino is in like us Latino culture of people who are born in the U S but they were born so close to when their family moved that they're not quite like culturally us citizens or they were like pushed too hard to be us citizens by their family. So they have an intense disconnect from there, like a country of origin. Um, and so my mom, or on the other hand, like being born in their country of origin, but then like coming to the U S at a really young age.
And so like not quite being second generation, but not quite being first generation. And my mom exists in that realm of like her, she has two siblings that are both younger than her and growing up, her parents were working all the time and were like, she, and she was at like a Catholic school for most of her life. So I don't know.
She has gotten a lot better about this too, but for a lot of my time growing up, she was not like really into being Peruvian. And like every couple of years she would go through like the process of like collecting like pan flutes and having them all over my childhood home. Um, and then like every two years everything would disappear.
And it's like, Oh, cause you, you like feel this intense shame about like being engaged with your culture, which is sad. but I got really into like the idea of reconnecting with my family. And also I didn't speak Spanish growing up because my parents would speak it so that I wouldn't understand what they were saying.
That all to say, I got really into reconnecting with my Peruvian heritage and like seventh, eighth grade. And so when it came to thinking about my drag, I was like, okay, I could be like one of like a million Jewish drag performers in the city. And like, have that be like my main branding, like, like all the Jewish performers in the city who have like Jewish themed themes.
Or I could be one of like four Peruvian drag performers. Um, I literally, I think I know of four. And I realized like, I, I, I was thinking like between putting in the effort to find like a Jewish name that has not been done before and finding something in Peruvian heritage.
I was like, I'm going to go that route just, just to play with it. And I, and in the Inca empire, like the, um, like Machu Picchu and stuff. Um, there was this guy, he was one of the emperors.
He actually was the one who unified the Inca empire from the four, like smaller groups that it was before into the Inca empire that is like known now. Um, and his name was Pachacuti.
(Pacha)And I saw, and I was thinking about it and I was like, Oh, you put an N in that name. It says cunt. Um, so that's where it comes from.
(Pacha)And it's like, no one, no one got it for like a solid year and a half, but I kept telling, and people would tell me at shows, they'd be like, I don't know how to pronounce your name and I, and you should change it. Cause I don't know how to pronounce or spell it.
And you're going to have issues with that. Like if no one can spell or pronounce your name, like no one's going to be able to spell or pronounce your name. And I kept telling myself and I kept telling the people around me that one day someone is going to come up to me and say, wait, your name is based on Pachacuti, right?
And it's going to be like the best day of my life. And in the last like six months, it's happened like four times.
((Pacha)The first time it happened, I was like, I like told the person I was like, I have been waiting for this day for literally two years.
(Pacha) It's pretty great.
PACHACUNTI
(Pacha)My favorite part of drag is the community. Having grown up super socially anxious and in a place like New York city, it was really hard to feel like I didn't really have a place. And like, I was that kid that like would go to like house parties with my family and would literally like sit facing a wall so that I didn't have to talk to people.
Um, but that meant for that, for a lot of my life, I couldn't really talk to people. And by a lot of my life, I mean until like a year ago. I couldn't really talk to people to the point where like, I was sitting in a bar in drag and a drag performer was sitting next to me talking to me and I would be responding in like two word answers.
And I'd be sitting there like, I need to respond to this person and ask them the question. They just asked me and I wouldn't be able to get it out of my mouth. Um, but people stuck with me anyway.
And so like, it was really cool to suddenly feel like this place where I grew up, where I'm now an adult is accepting me as an adult. Like growing up in New York city, it feels hard to be like, okay, now I'm an adult in the place where I grew up. That is like weird.
It was like weird to suddenly like be a kind of different person in the, like the place where I was a kid, I guess. Um, and also because a lot of people who live here as adults are transplants.
Yeah. Was really important to, I guess like my social development in that like now I can talk to people and I tell people that I was extremely socially anxious for most of my life. And they are like, “I had no idea I would have never known”, which is really cool.
Um, I would say that my least favorite part of the drag scene as a whole is not really its fault, but it's the fact that it exists as a community, as a scene, as a job and as a hobby. And for some people it's all for, for some people it's just like one of the four, but it exists in this weird space where it's like, I take it really seriously, but I also know that I'm in college.
I'm, uh, a junior at NYU.
So I have this like very clear understanding of how I am engaging with the drag scene, which is it is a job for as long as it can be. It's a hobby for as long as it can be. I feel like I am a member of the community and a part of the scene, but for some people it's like, it's never going to be a job.
They're not interested in like having monthly shows and like, that's fine. That is like their scope is different, but it also means that like there are people that don't take it as seriously because they don't have to, or they don't want to, which then puts the people who do take it that seriously or have to take it that seriously in this weird boat of like, Oh, you drop 70% of your shows, but you're getting paid to do those shows. But like, I'm not getting paid to do shows, but I'm taking it more seriously than you are.
Like, that's just kind of annoying. Um, but then it's like, I can't like hold that against them, but it creates this weird dynamic of like people who take it really seriously or competing for gigs with people who are treating it like a hobby or treating it like as like a social group when it's like, well, it's also a job and it's like, there is money on the line. And like that I think is the really hard thing is like, it's a hobby and it's like an artistic passion.
And also like there is money on the line and like not a lot.
(Pacha)Like there are not that many paid gigs in the city. The nightlife scene is struggling. The tips are not great.
So we're all really competing for the same $5, which is really hard when like, even like I understand my scope of like, I'm going to go to law school after college, maybe not immediately after college, but like within the next 10 years, my life is going to look really different, which means that like the way that I think about my drag career is going to be different than someone who like is not in higher education or seeking higher education.
Just cause like that's like the nature of your life looking different in terms of schooling. But also like my like career goals are to be a lawyer working with freelance artists in the city in like theater and nightlife because there aren't a lot of people who do that. And so when I think about like, well, why am I doing drag?
It's like, Oh, so 10 years from now when I'm a lawyer, I can actually holistically support this community because I'm a part of it rather than like knowing this community exists and that they need support, but like not actually engaging with it and just like kind of stepping in. Like, it feels important to me to be engaged now so that 10 years from now I can actually help. Cause there are problems, like there should be a nightlife union and there isn't.
And like, it shouldn't be that like $100 is a high rate for the average performer.
(Pacha)Because like I spend three hours getting ready. I've managed to get it down to two, but like the average drag performer spends like two to three hours getting ready for a three hour gig and then gets paid a hundred dollars. And it's like the makeup I wear is over a hundred dollars because makeup is expensive and outfits are expensive and wigs are really expensive.
And it's all this stuff that's like, you're pouring so much money into this hobby job scene community that isn't really then making it back to you to the point where like most drag performers who it is their main thing, have other jobs because it's, it's basically impossible to do drag full time. It's just, it's not a realistic possibility for 90% of people, which then makes it hard when like, then you're all competing for the same $5 that isn't really there in the first day. Yeah.
And then all the bars are struggling. So then it's like, it's hard to ask for like more money from the bars, except you deserve more money from the bars. But like the bars don't really have that.
It's hard. So I think like my frustrations with the drag scene are in, are not like intrinsic to it being like a problem with the drag scene itself, but more just like a problem with marginalized industries. Like I would say a similar problem exists in like theater, especially now with like funding decreasing all the time.
PACHACUNTI
(Pacha) This is one of my favorite things, or I think it's really funny because every drag performer you talk to will have like five different anniversaries.
So I think of myself as having like the first time I got into drag, which was like somewhere between May and July of 2023. And then my first, and then I got COVID. And so I couldn't perform. Um, and then thank you Hush Bar and Hell's Kitchen for giving me COVID. Sorry, the name dropped.
But my first performance was on August 1st, 2023. And I had a blue face and a pink wig. That was a hard front that I'd had for like four years at that point.
And my parents came and I was underage.
And my twin came who was also underage. And I did Brick House by the Commodores because it was my mom's favorite song.
And I was like, but I was like, there is a very small chance that I'm going to get on stage and hate this. So I might as well do something that my mom will enjoy, but it was awesome. And I loved it. And, um, and then I would proceed to have like five more anniversaries of like the first time I like felt like I was doing drag like consistently. And then the first time that I did drag where my makeup looked okay. And then the first time that I did drag and I had my eyebrows blocked.
(Pacha) It was like a light blue. That was like an almost purple. It was, I didn't have foundation and I was kind of scared of foundation. Cause like, I didn't know I, I was that trans masc kid who was in theater. And when they would put makeup on my face for the shows, I would actually start crying.
So I had like really zero makeup exposure outside of like theater and also like playing around with shitty drag in middle school. Um, cause I was really into drag race in middle school.
Um, there's a picture of me and my best friend from middle school at a Bianca Del Rio show. And I'm literally 14. And so, and I was like under five feet and I'm standing next to Bianca Del Rio, who's like probably over six feet tall. And I'm wearing a shirt. I'm wearing a shirt with her face on it that we screen printed at home. Um, it was crazy.
But so I was really into drag in middle school. But like, there's like a six month stretch in my early drag career where I could say any of those days was the first time I was doing drag.