Mexican-American drag performer Elsie Saldaña, also known by her stage name El Daña, has made a lasting impact on drag history. The performer’s first time on stage was over 60 years ago in central California. Since then, she has been entertaining and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. 

Born in 1944, Saldaña grew up in a family of farmworkers and spent much of her time working alongside them in the fields. To decompress in the evenings, she would perform lip-syncs in her bedroom to some of her favourite artists on the radio, like Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin.

El Daña’s first performance as a drag artist was in 1965 when she lip-synced to ‘La Bamba’ by Ritchie Valens. She was met with great applause and support from the audience, which encouraged her to return to the stage again and again. The artist would study the traits of male celebrities she wanted to impersonate, such as their mannerisms and personalities, to put on authentic, accurate performances.

At this point, Saldaña was the sole drag king, or male impersonator, in her city, though she often performed alongside other drag queens. She continued adding male stars to her repertoire, including Julio Iglesias and Tom Jones, for which she later became particularly renowned.

Despite her successful performances, El Daña found it difficult at times for her drag career to pay her bills, forcing her to spend more hours working at her manufacturing day job and eventually causing her to take a long hiatus from drag. However, after being invited to speak to a class at Fresno State University in 2017, she decided to step back into the spotlight. Today, El Daña still graces the stage from time to time at 82-years-old. 

Outside of the club, Saldaña has contributed greatly to LGBTQ+ issues within her community. She co-founded the Sequoia Empire Court of Visalia and Tulare, a chapter of the Imperial Court System, which is a network of LGBTQ+ organisations across North America. With the organisation, the drag king held fundraisers, worked with advocacy groups, and visited patients hospitalised with AIDS, in addition to holding the title of Emperor on three separate occasions.

 

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Despite drag queens becoming more popular and appreciated within pop culture, drag kings struggle to receive similar levels of respect in LGBTQ+ spaces, let alone mainstream ones. The first drag king to appear on a reality TV show was Hugo Grrrl, who appeared on the New Zealand series House of Drag in 2018. However, the historic all-drag king reality TV show King of Drag didn’t air until 2025, 16 years after RuPaul’s Drag Race premiered.

While El Daña has yet to gain widespread fame, she is a local icon in the California drag scene and holds the world record for being the oldest drag king. In the meantime, Elsie Saldaña continues to do what she can to represent drag kings across the world and further her trailblazing advocacy for LGBTQ+ people of the present and future.