Episode 20: How to Represent Your Indigenous Heritage While Doing Drag with India Taco

India Taco—drag performer and fashion designer—started life as a little kid bouncing between family members on the Choctaw reservation after her biological mother didn't want to care for her.

When her adoptive parents took her in, they showed her the love, but her teenage years brought new challenges as they struggled to accept her queerness. She found escape doing classmates' hair and makeup in high school, becoming the only openly gay student who earned respect for being two-spirit instead of bullying. After working jobs at reservation casinos and water parks, a Wizard of Oz-themed concert in Memphis opened her eyes to city possibilities. What started as Ariella da Vinci in Starkville drag shows transformed into India Taco—a rebrand connecting her to indigenous heritage through the playful pun of "Indian taco," the beloved frybread dish. Now she's Memphis's brightest indigenous artist, working costume design at Playhouse while building her drag empire and fighting for Native representation.

We talk about her name change from Ariella da Vinci to India Taco and why indigenous representation matters, growing up adopted on the Choctaw reservation and finding chosen family, learning to sew plus-size drag looks through YouTube tutorials, getting hired at Playhouse to sew costumes, the traditional Choctaw story of how the possum lost its tail, being a two-spirit person and loving both masculine and feminine energy, working multiple reservation jobs before realizing she deserved city life, fighting an ex in public, staying connected to Choctaw culture through language and storytelling, and her dream of building a fashion and makeup brand that shows her people succeeding.