Angie Xtravaganza

Angie Xtravaganza (October 17, 1964 – March 31, 1993) was a co-founder and Mother of the House of Xtravaganza. A prominent transgender performer in New York City's gay ball culture, Xtravanganza featured in the acclaimed 1990 documentary film Paris is Burning.

Early life Xtravaganza was born in New York City, one of 13 children born to a Puerto Rican-American family in the South Bronx. From the age of 13, she nurtured a family of "children" on the Christopher Street piers and Times Square, primarily made up of those who had been rejected by their own families; they referred to her as "Ma". It was on the Christopher Street piers where she first met Hector Xtravaganza, with whom she would later found their eponymous house. As House Mother, Xtravaganza set high standards for performance and personal conduct requirements. Some of her other responsibilities included helping her house children select their outfits and shoes for balls, as well as simply navigating being gay in an unaccepting world without the support of their families. Venus was Xtravaganza’s right hand in the House and her main daughter. After Venus’ death, Xtravaganza claimed that her murder was an unfortunate reality, and simply “part of life being a transsexual in the city”.

Death and legacy Xtravaganza was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991 and subsequently developed Kaposi's sarcoma, for which she received chemotherapy. Xtravaganza died at the height of the AIDS crisis in New York City in 1993 at the age of 28 from AIDS-related liver disease, although it has also been speculated that her liver problems stemmed from her long-term use of black market hormones. At the time of her death, Xtravaganza’s body was covered with lesions as a result of the cancer.