Hector Xtravaganza, 1958-2018

Hector Xtravaganza

1958-2018

Hector Xtravaganza was a leader in the New York City ballroom community for nearly forty years.

Born Hector Crespo, Hector helped found the House of Xtravaganza in 1982. He legally changed his last name and was house father of Xtravaganza from 1993-1997 and 1999-2003. He adopted the honorary title of House Grandfather after 2003. The House of Xtravaganza was notable for being the first Latino house in the primarily African-American underground ball scene in New York.

Hector was a 2018 POZ 100 honoree. The year’s list celebrated people living with HIV who are 50 and older and making a difference in the fight against HIV. His POZ 100 profile noted that Xtravaganza spent much of his life educating LGBT people of color about HIV and AIDS through the house and ball scene in New York City. He has mentored and counseled generations of queer young people in the art of voguing and how to negotiate safer sex. Hector participated in GMHC’s House of Latex Ball since its inception in 1990; the event raises HIV awareness and is the largest of its kind. He also regularly volunteered for GMHC and other community-based organizations.

Also a dancer, Hector recently consulted on Ryan Murphy’s FX show Pose, which takes place within New York’s ball culture in the late 1980s. Hector once said, “This family is more real to me than my biological family. They are first.”