Raquela Rios
Courting Queen Raquela
By Kiki Tan
PUBLISHED: JUNE 2010
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF RAQUELA RIOS

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Her Facebook account has, at one time or another, used Valerija Kushukskina, Snježana Yevteushenko, and Ilena Kokkinopoulou for her profile name – but she may well be more known as Queen Raquela, the main actor in a female role of Poppoli Productions’ documentary movie The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, which won the 2008 Teddy Award for Best Featured Film at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival for Panorama Fims.

THE MANY FACES OF RAQUELA RIOS
“For me everyone is entitled (to be who and what) they want to be. If one wants to undergo sexual reassignment surgery to be happy, go for it.  But for me, I choose to be a non-op since I know I am a woman, a transsexual woman. I don’t need (any) process of going under the knife to make me a woman.” RAQUELA RIOS

She is, of course, Raquela Rios, the MTF transgender hailing from Mandaue City in the Province of Cebu, who, when asked when she realized she was in the wrong body, said: “For as long as I can remember, though I was never a toy-oriented person (like playing with Barbie or with guns), as a kid, I liked to play baha-bahayan and I liked portraying the role of the housewife.  At that time, I still had no idea what I am, who I am.  But it eventually dawned on me that this is me, this is what I am – and what I am is not a boy, I’m a girl.”

The realization did not make life easy for Raquela.

“It was a bit hard for me growing up since many were against my effeminate behaviour,” says Raquela, who also recalled having to “blend in with the norms.”  “Having been taught that homoseuxality/transsexuality is a sin and is bad, I was scared, naive, not knowledgeable of the truth.  And when people teased me as bakla, I always just cried, picking fights with anyone and everyone to deny the fact that this is me.”

Her living differently from the stereotypic normative did not make it easy for others, too, so much so that “at first, I had to be discreet about it, about being me because while I know they knew (my being different, just about everyone was) against it.”  In fact, when she reached college, she had to somewhat live two lives – “Every time I was out of the house, away from the eyes of my family or neighbours, I’d come out from my shell,” she recalls.

Eventually, though – and fortunately – “they came to accepted me (for being me.”

Life being difficult particularly for TGs hasn’t changed much – at least if Queen Raquela the movie is to be used as basis.

Queen Raquela the movie follows the life story of, yes, Raquela, a sex worker Filipino MTF transgender (dubbed, a la TGs in Thailand, a “ladyboy”) who wanted to escape the streets of Cebu City for a (assumed, at least) better life in Paris, France.  Stopping working the streets, Raquela instead started working in the Internet porn industry – which was how she met an Icelandic “ladyboy”, Valerie, as well as one Michael, the owner of the Web site she worked for.  Valerie is the one to help Raquela go to Iceland; Michael, eventually, offers her access to Paris.
With a character named after her, the first question that comes to mind is exactly how much of the character Raquela’s story is based on the life of the person playing her.

“I don’t know how much of the story can be said to be completely mine,” Raquela says, smiling.  Then turning serious: “But then looking at the film – how it was done and how the story line flow – it really talks about the reality of most TGs living in the Philippines, on how they live their life, et cetera, even though it doesn’t talk about sex change and transformation and the likes.  It is more about penetrating the lives and their daily encounters.”

Like Raquela in the movie, Raquela, too, met Icelandic Olaf de Fleur Johannesson “via social network online – I (have forgotten) what site that was – but I thought he was looking for a date or girlfriend or something, so we (chatted).  At that time, I was looking for an online date or a relationship.”  However, “I didn’t see any future with him since all he did was talk about his job in the film industry, et cetera.  I felt like I had to ditch him because he was not coming over to the Philippines anyway.”

After a few months, however, the filmmaker sent Raquela an SMS, telling her he was coming over to shoot a film.  Even then, he was interested in her as the subject of the film even if “I wasn’t interested to be an actress since I never dreamt of becoming one.  But I told him I would be happy to help him find his subject until the time we met for real.”

Raquela was persuaded to do some test shots, at which point, “I already grew to like the (developments),” she says, eventually making her accept the role of Queen Raquela.

Not that, from then on, things already went smoothly.

“At first, it was all awkward,” says Raquela.  “I was not being positive (with the experience).  I’m a type of person who prefers to live a life in private.”

But then a realization dawned on Raquela.  “I realized I could serve as an inspiration to many; not just to the transgenders or transsexuals, but to everyone in the society – as a Filipino, as a transgender and transsexual, and as a citizen of a Third World country,” she says.

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