- Hi everyone, my name is Angel
and today is my draguation ceremony.
The last few years of my life,
I've attended the University of Southern California.
And unfortunately, due to the pandemic,
we weren't able to have an in person graduation.
I have this really big plan on how your girl
was gonna steal the show, I wasn't like some big secret.
All my friends knew, but I wanted to be the first person
to walk across that stage in drag.
I've been doing drag for the last almost four years
of my life and I really wanted to walk across that stage,
like a nice wig with my graduation cap.
I just really wanted it to be like a really special moment.
So when it didn't get to happen,
my co-workers really just came together and were like,
we're gonna throw you your own little ceremony.
I'm gonna take you out through everything.
I'm gonna take y'all through my closet.
I'm getting ready with Jazzymyne Jay today.
We're gonna put on our, you know, be our little morgz
and get this thing, poppin.
And then we're gonna deliver a speech
So lets get started.
(bright upbeat music)
These are nail gloves, these are super pretty.
These are from this company called Unicorn Poops Glitter,
and then you'd just be talking, you be like this.
I love doing that, it's like a very Cardi B moment.
So these are my wigs, I should say,
these are more like, my hair obviously needs to be styled
before we go on stage, but we style them every time.
I'm a little prone to like browns and blondes,
but I also love you know good blue, a good pink.
So this was like one of the first things
I ever wore in drag actually
it's like a little cupcake dress.
This was like early, like first time in drag Angel guys.
I was very much like a leotard queen.
I love embellishments anything that makes it sparkle.
I was enjoying, I like this outfit a lot more.
It's like this holographic money outfit.
This outfit was actually based on Lady Gaga,
Super Bowl outfit.
This is enters like a different era
where like I started wearing ballgowns more often
I'm really into ball gowns, I'm really into crowns.
That's really where I get my inspiration from my outfits
from, I really love this outfit.
This was the first gown that I ever got made for myself.
This outfit is princess peach inspired.
This is inspired by like very like Duchess,
very like English royalty, this was the first crown
I ever got, I actually won this one in a pageant.
Okay, so that was the closet that I'm working with.
We're gonna be day-viewing, obviously
a very new outfit today.
I feel like I'm staying very true to my aesthetic.
Now, I feel like I found myself more as a person,
as time went on and fashion is all
about just like having fun, wearing what you're wearing.
(bright upbeat music)
- So we're here before your graduation ceremony.
I'm so excited for you.
- Yes, I'm so excited.
- First and foremost, what look are we going for today?
- I'm going for like a very like USC Trojan.
Cause that's where I'm graduating
from University of Southern California
and our colors are cardinal and gold, you know,
I stick true to that, do some more like red glitters
and gold glitter I kinda like use it
as like kinda my signature look.
I always kinda pay homage to my school.
So we're just gonna do like that classically today.
- I love it, I'm doing a very simple look
because I want to have to film after this.
- Yeah (chuckles)
- We just met this year, but also we've known
each other before, yes, there used to be this bar called
Barton West Hollywood one day, they were like,
Oh my gosh! We gotta get the VIP table ready,
Miss Jazzymyne J is coming in ,I was like what!
Ever since then, It was just like a very special moment.
Like I was just like, Oh my gosh!
like I just kind of wanna like follow,
like what you've been doing and I've been following what
you've been doing for that entire time.
And like you've slowly become like one of my role models.
- I remember going to the bar that night.
I remember feeling so special, so it was very mutual.
Okay, so why don't you tell me a little bit
about your home life before you moved to L.A?
- I was born in the Bronx, but when I was very young,
we moved upstate to Rochester, New York.
And so my mom raised me and my four siblings by herself.
So she's just like a little superhero walking around.
- Why don't you tell me about, you know,
doing whatever you studied, like as a freshman
and how that progressed through the years?
- I originally was not interested in drag.
- Wait, so you didn't move out to L.A like doing drag stuff?
- I did drag once before moving to L.A.
- Oh, so you grew and found that (beep) here?
- Yeah, pretty much, I actually decided to start
taking it seriously when I was here.
- Now tell me what you're doing to your face.
(laughs)
I'm like watching, like this is some f(beep) art.
What is going on?
- I'm basically a cream contour of like my forehead.
I'm gonna like highlight the areas that need like,
to be raised with some white in a bit.
- Beautiful.
- We'll blend it all out, it looks crazy until it doesn't.
This orange I'm using right now
is to block out my beards,
beards actually reflect blue usually.
And to cancel those colors out,
you use like an orange or red photoshop in real life.
- And its Like true, like it really works.
I just put on a little bit of a bronzer.
I did my brow, I did my foundation.
I'm gonna put on a little bit of blush.
It's gonna be a very natural look today.
Let's talk a little bit about your role models.
- Other than you?
- (chuckles) yes.
- I feel like it's like such a cliche to say,
but like Beyonce, I would say as an entertainer,
like a performer I look up to her
- For sure.
- I also look up like Ariana Grande
like I'm very inspired by pop stars.
And I said you're one of my role models is
that I aspire to be as confident as you,
it's something I'm still learning to do
and to be comfortable in my skin.
And that's why I'm like, you know, and it's not easy.
- No.
- It's just really like I want to feel
like beautiful my skin like,
and I feel like sometime I only feel beautiful
when all the makeup is on. - Yeah.
- And I think I'm beautiful as just me.
I wanna be that confident.
I look at your Instagram and I'm like so inspired.
And I think.
- I'm so glad because you know, like you said, its hard,
there are good days, there are bad days,
there are okay days, so I'm glad that I can be that for you
as well as you are that for me.
what's your dreams after this.
- That's a hard question to answer
cause I think I wanna do so many things.
I don't think that's a bad thing, it's just like order.
And like what's my priority is something
I need to figure out, like I would love to have
like a tour of some kind, like a full, like production
like the whole, like a very Vegas show almost.
- I know you're filming so much today and doing so much,
but take like two minutes
and just realize you've done so much.
And you've just came into a lot of our lives at BuzzFeed,
but you've been affecting so many lives in general
and really give yourself that.
- Thank you.
- Of course you have a beautiful ceremony.
- So I really wanted to mention and shout out
to The Drag Stop, who donated a wig for this video
for the final look that y'all are gonna see very soon.
It's honestly this like beautiful brown wig right here.
Yeah, We're gonna be wearing
this beautiful finger wave wig, yeah, look at that.
(soft upbeat music)
- Every year, another class full of people like Angel,
like you and me graduate and move on.
We are the concrete, so pick a hole
little by little, we work to make it better
for the next that come a small little known artist
from the Third Ward of Houston, once said,
"mission one, I'ma to put this on
and when you see me in a dress, I'ma get me some, hey."
And I don't know about y'all, preety clearly
she wrote this about Angel, cause you be getting it.
But Beyonce also said
"I've accomplished nothing without a little taste
of fear in my mouth." I donno about everyone else,
but my whole mouth tastes like fear.
But that means now is the time
for accomplishing great things.
So I thank God for filling the class of 2020
with people like Angel, people that remind you
that hope is always an option
and possibly that's what 2020 vision is all about.
If there's one request I can make of all of us,
it is to remember that we were created to be light,
light illuminates, light lifts our spirits,
light pulls people out of dark spaces, it's infectious.
Everyone be blessed, wash your hands and Angel,
thank you for inspiring, all of this.
- I do wanna say to the class of 2020,
you have always been the baddest bitches
around the block after the class of 2013,
everything that you guys have worked for,
everything that you guys have put your energy, your dreams,
your blood, your sweat, the cheap 99 cent vodka
every afternoon before your finals, class of 2020
you are a bad b and I praise and salute everything
that you've done, Angel, you know,
I only met you for two weeks,
but you have definitely been someone
who I knew has boss energy, who works hard,
who dreams hard, who dreams big.
I am here to say that I am proud of you
and that everything that you've done
is working towards a bigger goal to your dreams.
And there's nothing that can stop you.
The outside world is intense, you will make mistakes,
but look at what you've already gone through.
Look at what you're going through right now.
So let's introduce the graduates.
- I'm excited, let's go, Angel.
- His motherfucking self, Angel.
- Hello everyone, first of all, and thank you all
for coming, welcome to the Everett Diligent-class of 2020.
- Oh my God! Why is he literally the cutest person
to grace us on God's green earth? I can't even.
- I know we all said this turn of the decade
was going to be our year.
And I'm here today to remind you all
that it still is, whether you are receiving
your high school diploma, your GED,
your associate's degree, your bachelor's degree,
master's degree, or you decided to celebrate
just this moment together.
I wanna have this moment to celebrate
your accomplishments, I personally came to college
to get an MRS, a Mrs. so some man can marry me.
- I was like, what's MRS?
- Unfortunately, that has not happened yet.
So I'ma set this bachelor's degree right now
in the meantime, I'm not bitter at all.
No but seriously, there is nothing on this earth
that can take away how proud the people in your life are
of you for graduating and if you have no one in your life,
please allow me to be proud of you in this moment.
As a queer person, I've learned in my life
that finding your chosen family is something
that we all aspire towards.
Your chosen family are those that accept and love you
as you are and make you feel at home,
regardless of your sexuality, your race, your religion,
gender identity, physical ability, body shape,
or any of those things that make you so amazing.
They're always there to celebrate who you are
and who you are becoming, but I'd like to invite you all
into my own chosen family, we are a family now.
And that does mean my birthday is Christmas Eve
and I do enjoy gift cards, the Cheesecake Factory,
and also the Taco Bell.
If you had told me a year ago that I'd have a job
fresh out of college, at a place I've always wanted to work.
I might've laughed in your face,
a theater major with a job in their field,
fiction, fairy tales, but being part of BuzzFeed
has been my own fairy tale.
I've never felt so blessed in my life
that so many people would come together
to celebrate the accomplishments of a guy who out of drag
looks like the love child of Lizzo and Bad Bunny
(laughs)
and who in drag looks like the love child of Raini Rodriguez
in a scoop of KFC, mashed potatoes.
(Laughs)
We are the class, many of us didn't get to say goodbye
to our close friends, have that perfect night at prom,
or just walk across that stage.
But this is not the end.
This is the beginning of a new chapter.
The choice is yours and you are now incharge
of your own destiny, so I ask you all to remain hopeful
and live out your dreams fiercely.
I believe it was Beyonce,
in her 2014 VMA's Vanguard performance
where she changed the words in her song, "xo ever
so slightly" and said "I'm gonna give you everything."
- Yes I'm gonna give you everything, yes Angel.
- These words have pushed me to become the first person
in my family to receive a four year degree
and out as a man who is Latin next queer drag queen,
who someone should seriously wife immediately.
I'm not joking, but that's not the point.
I encourage you all to give them everything,
to give them all your differences, all your love,
all your passion, all your drive and everything else,
because we are all capable of saving the world
and you get to in any way you choose starting today.
Thank you so much for coming.
- Angel, oh! You look stunning.
- (claps) Congratulations, Angel.
- Just wanted to say that speech was so good,
but not as good as the good
that you're about to do for the world.
Cause you bout to shake it up.
(bright upbeat music)