Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista is a former member of House Abundance who, after being diagnosed with HIV, decides to take fate into her own hands and form House Evangelista; taking in Damon Richards, Angel, and the new face Lil Papi, she strived to be a known house among others in the ballroom, while providing care and nourishment that lacked in their previous homes.
Watching as aspects of ballroom seem to become mainstream, Blanca pushed her children to seek new opportunities, helping only daughter Angel seek modeling to escape the dangers of sex work. She also sought a new opportunity of her own, having been fired from her old manicurist job. Though building up with Vogue Nails, she repeatedly encountered many legal battles with the landlord Frederica Norman.
Left with an empty nest at home, Blanca sets her sights to providing help as a Nursing Aid at Roosevelt Hospital, forming a passionate relationship with a doctor on the AIDS ward. She seeks a pursuit to become an official nurse for her patients, while continuing to support her friend's battles to keep living.
Biography[]
| This article or section should be expanded. |
Early Life[]
Designated a male at birth, Blanca, born Mateo, lived with her family. Often, while her parents slept, she dressed traditionally feminine and attended the Balls, returning home before they awakened. During one Thanksgiving, however, her mother presented with a smirk, ultimately confessing that she had witnessed a girl sneaking in and out of the bedroom every so often. Blanca confessed to her that the girl was her, coming out as transgender. Her mother disapproved, forcing Blanca from the house during her late teens.[1]
Blanca Rodriguez at a younger age.
Eventually, she attended a Ball, working up the courage to attempt a walk on her own. Despite negative criticisms towards her, she pressed against the emcee. Afterwards, Blanca had a smoke, where a group of women insulted her appearance. Though she tried to push them down, she soon threatened to fight, prompting Elektra Abundance to step in and defend her.
The two women dine in a 24-hour dinner, Blanca treated to pancakes after starving. She converses with Elektra about her dreams and aspirations before being adopted by the ballroom queen, her having proclaimed herself to be her Mother.[2]
Early House Abundance[]
Sharing a small housing unit with two other women, Candy and Lulu, they repeatedly struggle on methods of bringing income to pay the bills, Blanca even suggesting that she enter sex work to supply money, though Elektra rejects the notion and goes instead. Upon her return, she greets the three new members to the House, Angel, Lemar, and Cubby.[3]
Royal House Ball[]
In preparation for an upcoming ball, Blanca brings forth the idea of having the House walk royalty, though Elektra and the children insult her before it is revised as the "Royal House." She joins them to a visit at the Museum of Fashion and Design, checking the exhibits for inspiration, seeking one exhibit with old royal clothings on display. Blanca follows Elektra's order for everyone to hide upon the Museum's closure; minutes out lockdown, she collects the clothes and jewelry, storming to the front doors. Using a nearby bench, she smashes a window and run to the ballroom hall in an effort to avoid the police behind them.
Blanca dresses in the royal cloth before entering the hall, walking as the House of Evangelista. She is arrested alongside her House siblings for the theft but is released the following day.[1]
Defection from House Abundance[]
Despite Elektra Abundance having taken her in and apparently raised her, Blanca was the constant receiver of her mocking and ridicule, especially on her supposed inability to pass or lead. After learning of her being HIV positive, Blanca found an apartment out of which she could run her own house in the hopes of leaving a legacy after her death. Elektra found out and confronted her, saying she would never give her blessing and effectively banishing her from House Abundance.[1]
Funeral and After Gatherings[]
As she cleaned different parts of the apartment, Blanca scolds Damon for a prior incomplete chore. When she checks on Angel's cleaning, skeptical of her hasty tidiness, Blanca discovers that her House daughter had shoveled the mess into the closet. She soon answered a ringing phone, breaking down in a loud outburst and sobbing upon being informed her biological mother has passed away.
Blanca seeks her sister's house, being greeted to a young girl before her mother called her away from the door. Through an unpleasant conversation, she learned that the family believed her to be dead and blames Blanca for their mother's death; she is also pushed to not attend the funeral.[2]
In Her Memory[]
to be added[2]
Papi[]
Pager[]
Blanca gives her farewells to her children Damon Evangelista and Lil Papi. With the house empty, she hears a pager ring in the living space. In her concern, she soon interviewed each of the children as they returned, starting with Angel and Damon. Upon Ricky's arrival, Blanca questioned him about the pager as well, initially receiving another lack of knowledge of the owner before being persuaded to tell the truth. She hears the confession that it belonged to Papi whom was selling drugs outside the house by the Piers.
Enraged, she stormed the house to find Papi at the Piers.[4]
Child of Ferocity[]
to be added[4]
New Job[]
Blanca met with the realtor Frederica Norman for an old building at an intersection.[5] Blanca opens up her own nail salon in , only to enter an ongoing battle against the owner of the building Frederica. After Frederica burns down the nail salon, Blanca begins doing nails in her apartment until the fumes begin to negatively affect her heath and she must quit.
Beach Trip[]
Trapped in the New York summer heat of House Evangelista, Blanca complained of the sweating with her former Abundance family before Mother Elektra suggested that the women take a vacation to a beach house outside the city.[6]
Declining Health Scare[]
Reunion with Pray Tell[]
May 1991; with the house empty, Blanca settled her nail business in her home, servicing a cilent's nails. She received an unexpected visit from Pray Tell, where the two embraced tearfully and amend their severed bond from a year prior.[7]
Hospitalized and Visited[]
to be added[7]
Ballroom Performance[]
to be added[7]
New Life Goals[]
Taking under her wings the young children Quincy and Chilly, Blanca provided a shelter and assistance to their lives while in New York City. She soon grew to join her efforts at Roosevelt Hospital alongside Judy Kubrak as a nurse's aid, learning that a former member of Abundance and Evangelista and House sibling Cubby was bedridden and slowly dying.
Working on the HIV ward, she meets Christopher, a doctor also employed at the hospital working with patients on the wing. The two quickly developed a passionate relationship, regularly arranging encounters at his home and going on dates. Blanca eventually juggles the return of her first House child Damon Evangelista with his return from a finished tour and battling his alcohol addiction. Through time, she loses Quincy in the house, he moving around other houses with the community; she loses Chilly as well, she deciding to return with her birth family.[8]
Another Intervention[]
to be added[9]
The Trunk[]
Blanca received a call from the local jail, speaking with Elektra who had been arrested for a possible connection with the mob. Though she was pleaded into its removal, Blanca reluctantly accepted to help dispose of the trunk in Elektra's closet. Rushing to Wintour Residence, Blanca and Lil Papi were greeted to an anxious Ricky buzzing them inside.[3]
The Wedding[]
to be added[10]
New House Evangelista[]
to be added[11]
Personality[]
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Blanca grew into a bright and optimistic individual, who sets high hopes and great aspiration for her friends and family.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Alma: Though she had limited connection to her in her childhood, Blanca and Alma managed to make small talk after the funeral, unlike the rest of the family.
- Mother: At a young age, Blanca had a stable and loving relationship with her mother. Though young and starting out, Blanca tried to seek balls without her knowledge, unknown to her that her mother had been keeping this secret, though made the assumption it was her girlfriend. After being forward about her gender identity, Blanca's mother rejected her. However, Blanca would later learn, through her sister, that her mother still held love for her despite not knowing how to acknowledge or understand the transgenderism.
- Carmen Rodriguez: Blanca and Carmen, after her disconnection from the family, did not share a positive relationship towards one another. The two women argued over Blanca leaving their mother and causing her pain. She was further pushed away from attending the funeral. However, the two women eventually attempt to bond after some time apart, Carmen giving her sister their mother's cookbook.
- Manuel Rodriguez: Blanca does not hold a loving relationship with her brother; alongside other members of the family, Manuel perceives Blanca's transgenderism as a facade and holds the belief that she is a homosexual male molester.
Romances[]
- Darius: Though he attempted to engage into a relationship with her, Blanca quickly learned that he had previously woo'd other women and had sexual relations with each through flirtations. She ultimately rejected his advances further, citing that she wished to seek true romance rather than relations with a playboy.
- Adrian: Blanca, having been saved by the lifeguard, attempts a romantic relationship with Adrian overnight. The two share an intimate conversation while walking a moonlit beach. After sharing a kiss and going their separate ways, Blanca gave him her phone number and the two try to continue their romance. It is unknown what happened with their relationship as after the time gap she is now in a relationship with Christopher.
- Christopher: Blanca and Christopher met while she was working at the hospital, and their relationship is grounded on a mutual respect and attraction for one another. Their relationship became rocky when Blanca apprehensively met Christopher's parents who were disapproving of Blanca's more humble beginnings and transsexuality, but they reconciled soon after. Christopher shows his full devotion to Blanca by helping her, Ricky, and Papi dispose of Elektra's trunk after Christopher noted how it smelled like a corpse, and they were still together after Blanca's nursing school graduation and the beginning of her job at St. Vincent's.
Friends[]
- Elektra Abundance: A competitive rival in the Balls, Elektra wishes to prove her superiority and dominance over Blanca’s new house, to the point where she even bailed Blanca out of jail so that she would still be able to compete and be beaten by House Abundance. Despite this, Blanca harbored admiration, care, and love for Elektra's maternal upbringing and nourishment, though in a rough and rigid manner. After her first house collapsed and her children abandoning her, Blanca provided her housing in House Evangelista for Elektra, her kindness expressed in trophy wins for the house in balls.
- Pray Tell: Pray Tell tends to Blanca in a maturing and often fatherly manner. Since meeting with her, the two have shared their fare of secrets and try to guide one another through their respective livelihoods.
- Angel: She and Angel appear to have been friends for years, both being former members of House Abundance together. Blanca harbors maternal and loving feelings towards her and sees her as the next mother of the House of Evangelista.
- Damon Richards: Since the establishment of the House of Evangelista, Damon and Blanca have strived to have a budding mother-child bond, Blanca having been the first loving and nurturing being to take him under their wings.
- Lil Papi: Opening her house to him after their defeat at their first walk, Blanca provided Lil Papi with a familial upbringing and nourishment that he lacked. When she discovers a pager belonging to him, she learns, through Ricky, of Papi's drug dealing by the Pier, deciding to disown him for disobeying her rule. Over time, she makes amends and attempts to reintegate him into House Evangelista, only to learn he was taken in by House Ferocity. Through her Mother Elektra, she and Papi are reunited.
- Ricky: After Damon and Ricky revealed to Blanca their relationship, she takes him under her care, Ricky expressing gratitude for her nourishment and support. When Blanca asked about Papi dealing drugs, he confirmed her suspicious, begging not to be removed from the house for not informing her sooner.
- Judy Kubrak: Establishing a friendship through their mutual care for Pray Tell and for her HIV-positive status, Blanca and Judy regularly converse with one another on their daily lives, Blanca having regular check-ups on her health. They also push for Pray Tell to manage his own health, taking responsibility to live as long as possible through medications.
- Lulu and Candy Ferocity: Often antagonizing one another, Blanca has a strained but mutually respectable kinship with Lulu and Candy, though it is rarely expressed in their encounters. There was some shallow animosity between the Lulu and Blanca when the latter left House of Abundance. However there were moments where they really had each other's back on various occasions throughout the series.
- Charlene: to be added
Enemies[]
- Frederica Norman: In seeking a lease for a nail salon of her own, Blanca encountered a powerful woman that granted her a lot for her business, but quickly retract her offer when her son clocks her. Repeatedly, the two women were wrapped in conflict, Blanca constantly confronting Frederica's blatant bigotry, even in a moment of false vulnerability at an AIDS cabaret.
Gallery[]
Quotes[]
- “Do you know what the greatest pain a person can feel is? The greatest tragedy a life can experience? It is having a truth inside of you, and you not being able to share it. It is having a great beauty, and no one there to see it. This young boy has been discarded, and he is so young, he believes that it has something to do with who he is. It's like cancer. It is going to eat at him from the inside until he starts to resent even the best parts of himself.”
- —Blanca Evangelista to Helena St. Rogers[src]
Trivia[]
- Blanca is dyslexic.
Behind the Scenes[]
- In an early draft for the pilot episode, Blanca was originally a Black drag queen named Cocoa LaBieja.[12]
Appearances[]
| Pose: Season One | |||
| "Pilot": | "Access": | "Giving and Receiving": | "The Fever": |
| Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears |
| "Mother's Day": | "Love Is the Message": | "Pink Slip": | "Mother of The Year": |
| Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears |
| Pose: Season Two | ||||
| "Acting Up": | "Worth It": | "Butterfly-Cocoon": | "Never Knew Love Like This Before": | "What Would Candy Do?": |
| Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears |
| "Love's in Need of Love Today": | "Blow": | "Revelations": | "Life's a Beach": | "In My Heels": |
| Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears |
| Pose: Season Three | |||
| "On The Run": | "Intervention": | "The Trunk": | "Take Me To Church": |
| Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears |
| "Something Borrowed, Something Blue": | "Something Old, Something New": | "Series Finale": | |
| Appears | Appears | Appears | |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.01 Pilot
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 1.05 Mother's Day
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.03 The Trunk
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 1.07 Pink Slip
- ↑ 2.02 Worth It
- ↑ 2.09 Life's a Beach
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 2.10 In My Heels
- ↑ 3.01 On The Run
- ↑ 3.02 Intervention
- ↑ 3.06 Something Old, Something New
- ↑ 3.07 Series Finale
- ↑ Twitter @StevenCanals - https://twitter.com/StevenCanals/status/1314571152786890752 (October 9, 2020)