Founded in 1982, the House of Xtravaganza is one of the most publicly recognized "houses" to emerge from the New York City underground ballroom scene and among the longest continuously active. House of Xtravaganza members and the collective group is recognized for their cultural influence in the areas of dance, music, visual arts, nightlife, fashion, and community activism. House of Xtravaganza members continue to be featured in popular media and travel the world as ambassadors of voguing and the ballroom scene.
Ballroom Scene
Composed primarily of African American and Latino LGBTQ people, members of the ballroom community traditionally form "houses" which serve the dual purpose of providing a surrogate family structure and competing for trophies and prestige in community-organized balls. Houses are traditionally formed in a family-like structure, with a house "mother" and/or "father" who oversee and direct the group. In keeping with ballroom community tradition, members take the house name as their surname (e.g. “Jose Xtravaganza”). House members compete or “walk" in balls in various categories including representations of dance, fashion, costume design, runway modeling, and gender representation.
1982 to 1988: Founding and Formative Years
The House of Extravaganza (original spelling) was founded in 1982 by Hector Valle (1960–1985), a gay man of Puerto Rican descent, recognized for his elegant and athletic style of voguing. While Hector Valle was familiar with the ballroom scene, he himself did not belong to a ball house. In the summer of 1982 he made a bold decision for the time to create an all-Latino ballroom house, in response to what was a nearly exclusive African American gay subculture. Hector undertook the task of building up the House membership among friends he socialized with in the West Village of NYC and at popular nightclubs of the era, such as the Paradise Garage. One of the earlier people to join Hector in the new venture was a transgender teen of Puerto Rican descent who came to be known as Angie Xtravaganza and who assumed the role of “house mother”. Mother Angie quickly emerged as the dominant leader and driver of the House.
In early 1983, the House of Xtravaganza made its first ballroom appearances. Although young and not widely experienced in ballroom competition, the desire to succeed captured the group numerous grand prize trophies in their first outings. Over the next few years, the House of Xtravaganza recruited talented young members, often drawn from the downtown gay discos and nightclubs of NYC. The outsider status as a Latino house within a primarily African American scene fostered a fierce family bond among the Xtravaganzas, and that closeness emerged a recognizable distinction from many of the other houses.
During this formative period, house mother Angie Xtravaganza felt that they had made their stand as an exclusively Latino group, and not wanting to exclude based solely on ethnicity, made the decision to open the house to all potential members regardless of ethnic background. The House of Xtravaganza ultimately included African American, Asian, and Caucasian members, although it remained true to its roots as a primarily Latino ball house.
In 1985 founder and house father Hector Valle died of complications from AIDS. Later that year Angie Xtravaganza recruited a young up and coming star of the ballroom scene named David Padilla to leave the rival House of Ebony and become the father of the House of Xtravaganza. David Padilla had admired what the House of Xtravaganza had accomplished in a relatively short period of time and being of Puerto Rican heritage felt a kinship to the primarily Latino house.
To celebrate the House's fifth anniversary, Father David and Mother Angie organized the 1987 Xtravaganza ball, held at the popular New York City nightclub Latin Quarter. It was one of the first balls to be held in a proper nightclub, as opposed to the social halls of Harlem which were the traditional venue for ballroom events. The House continued to promote balls for the community throughout the years, including many at the most popular and famous NYC nightclubs of the era, including Tracks, Sound Factory, Red Zone, Roxy, and XL.