What do Alejandra Guzmán and tamales de mole have in common? - New York

I find myself in New York a lot these days and last night went to see Alejandra Guzmán at the Nokia theater in the commercial madness known as Times Square. The show opened with a mini-documentary about none other than Alejandra Guzmán while the real Ale G. hung out towards the darkened back of the stage under a black hooded robe. Um, yeah. As you can imagine, once the show started and the robe came off it was one gran espectáculo. There was something different for every song, everything from huge silver balloons that floated out from backstage during “Hacer el amor con otro,” to an acoustic set played on guitars with amazingly intricate sound holes, to an on-stage lap dance performed on a (male) audience member who had been strapped to a chair. The lap dance was, of course, executed by Alejandra as she sang “soy la diosa de la seducción.” Alas. To Guzmán’s credit, she can sing and she definitely can perform. She can even strum some chords and bang a cymbal while signing, which she did before tossing the battered drum stick (which I am now in possession of) into the crowd.

I must say that at first I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing Alejandra Guzmán on stage. My disbelief was not due to fan fever but rather to the fact that I have been watching Alejandra Guzmán perform(ed) in drag shows from San Francisco to Guadalajara for the last ten years. So when she came on stage last night at Nokia, I had to really struggle to come to terms with the fact that 1) I was not in a gay club and 2) Alejandra was not in drag. She might as well have been though. As I studied her inches-thick make-up, square frame, gold sparkly chonies, and her chichis bouncing around in her bra I began to feel the lines between drag show and live concert show growing wavy all around me. As if to reassure me that I was not in the twilight zone, two bear couples appeared in front of me. They held each other’s hands and waists as they belted out all of Ale’s top hits along with her. Everything, they seemed to say, is as it should be.

P.S. What do tamales de mole have to do with all of this? If you’re ever on la 5a Avenida in Burklin (also known as Brooklyn) near Sunset Park, pop into any Mexican restaurant there. You will not only find tamales de mole, but also quesadillas de huitlacoche and lots of other regional yumminess whipped up by the ex-residents of Puebla, Tlaxcala, and of course, México, D.F.