Gay Mayor of Del Rio, Texas Stuns and Stunts in HBO’s ‘We’re Here’

After taking care of unfinished business in Spartanburg and weathering the worst of the pandemic in Temecula, the We’re Here crew arrived in the quiet border town of Del Rio, Texas for a week of onstage stunts and emotional reveals. It delivered plenty of both via two coming out stories—something We’re Here was initially opposed to—and the involvement of Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano.

Del Rio may have been a comparatively unknown city back when We’re Here paid a visit, but the Texas town made headlines last month when a number of images of border patrol agents attempting to stop Haitian migrants at Del Rio’s border went viral. “Yeah, this was definitely before [Del Rio’s] issues with their border,” series producer and talent Bob the Drag Queen told Decider. “And you know, big, big props to Mayor Bruno for handling the situation. It’s probably a really tough job to have right now. I do not envy Mayor Bruno.”

That juxtaposition, the recent headlines against the drag show from this past summer, makes the third episode of We’re Here’s second season even more resonant than anyone could have thought while filming. True to the show’s mission statement, “Del Rio, Texas” shined a spotlight on the unsung queer community in and around this border town—and it gave all of them something to unite around. Prior to the episode’s airing, Decider caught up with the queens and crew of We’re Here to learn how the episode came together.

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This trip to Texas was important to the entire We’re Here team, especially Shangela.

Shangela (talent, series producer): Del Rio is one of my favorite episodes because, first of all, it’s Texas and I’m a Texan, so I have a special place in my heart for Texans. Being a queer person growing up in Texas has many, many layers. And a lot of times, especially in small conservative spaces, you feel very isolated and alone.

Stephen Warren (co-creator, executive producer): We wanted a border city. [Lead casting producer] Jeffrey [Marx] and casting were looking for a border city and they found Del Rio.

Johnnie Ingram (co-creator, executive producer): There were a couple of other towns, but then [Mayor] Bruno [Lozano]—how wonderful to have a queer mayor in such a small town. To have some representation there on the border was was really unique.

Jeffrey Marx (lead casting producer): Bruno, he was a home run.

Shangela: You have a mayor, an elected official, who won as an out loud and proud gay person, and I think that showed another layer of Del Rio. When Bruno was running for mayor, competitors used a picture of him from Pride that was not a hidden picture. They didn’t find it, you know? It was on his Instagram! And it was a picture of him in a rainbow tutu with heels on like, “Woo!”

Queer people, we celebrate Pride in a very loud and out proud way. We would see nothing wrong with that, but knowing some of the traditional values of this particular community, tried to use it against him—and he still won. And that says something about Del Rio. Although they’re using the terms “like that” and it’s not fully inclusive, you have the gay mayor. Bruno represented a leader, a queer person in leadership who works hard at unifying the people that supported and voted for him and those who did not. He’s everybody’s mayor.

Del Rio posed a unique challenge to the casting team, one that made them rethink one of their rules from Season 1.

Marx: The cornerstone of any good candidate is a theme of change. There’s something in their life that they either want to change, they need to change, maybe there’s someone close to them in their life that needs to also change. In Season 1, I remember as all thinking, “Let’s not ever put someone that’s going to come out on the show, because that could potentially put them in danger and we want to be responsible about doing that.” So for Season 1, we sort of ruled out any coming out story.

Shangela: Del Rio, Texas is like this melting pot of cultures, the Tejano culture, the Mexican culture, [it’s] a melting pot of languages, and a very diverse community in that way—especially with regard to its support and presence of the queer community. Because a lot of times in a lot of the places we go in Del Rio, they couldn’t say gay. They wouldn’t. It wasn’t in their genetic, DNA makeup to say “gay.” They’d be like, “Oh, yeah, I have a friend who’s like that.” And everything was “like that.”

Marx: In Del Rio, there were so many queer people in the 50 mile radius of this city that were out to themselves, they were out to maybe a handful of friends, and in some cases, even more distant family members, but nobody was out to their parents or whoever their main person was in life. We were like, “Should we open up the idea to one of them potentially coming out on the show?” And I think in order to do that responsibly, you have to really get a good temperature check from the people who surround them—to talk to their friends, talk to their sisters, talk to their cousins to kind of know like, “Hey, if this person comes out on the show, is it going to be at least a not terrible, dangerous reaction? Is there love there? Is there support there? Is there safety there?”

Two of Del Rio’s stories involved coming out: during filming, Joey came out as non-binary to her parents and Esael came out as gay to his parents.

Eureka! (talent, series producer): It was really important to me because I know what it’s like to have to come out several times. I think that Joey, when you’re going through a gender journey, there are a lot of coming outs. You don’t get the leisure of just coming out as gay, but they come out as gay, and then all of a sudden you’re coming out as a femme boy, then next thing you know you’re coming out as non-binary. And then at the end of the episode, she’s coming out as a trans woman. So there’s a lot of stages to it.

It was uncomfortable to watch these parents try to save face. But as people, we could see it all over their face—the confusion, the discomfort. And then you saw Joey immediately go to an aggressive place, because it’s frustrating it’s annoying that you’re having to sit there and feel the judgment and the energy. Even when they’re trying to pretend like it’s not happening, you can feel it. So it was uncomfortable to watch, but it was very necessary. And I think that it really helped them grow, which is really important.

Marx: I could tell from the second I talked to Esael, he just wanted to meet more gay people. He wanted to do gay stuff. He wanted to go to a gay club. He wanted to live louder, live brighter. And but after talking to his friends and his sister and people that he lived with, everyone was basically like, “He hasn’t told his parents but I know when he decides to, they’ll be okay.” As a casting producer, you want to hear that because you really don’t want to put anyone in danger. You want to be responsible about that, so you really have to vet everyone in their lives on top of just that.

The queens realized that the town actually has a sizable queer community—they’re just kept apart due to a lack of a designated space. Bob the Drag Queen fixed that by declaring Aguas De Los Cielos the official gay bar of Del Rio.

Bob the Drag Queen (talent, series producer): I have not been back [to Aguas De Los Cielos]. I actually have the the key to the town. I have the key to Del Rio. It’s in my living room. So, you know, I think as a person with a key, I can just go back and reclaim it when I want.

With Del Rio being a border town, Bob took the opportunity to cross into Mexico and see what his drag kid Esael’s life is like in Acuña. Navigating this process was surprisingly simple.

Bob: It was really great. The image between Del Rio and Acuña did not feel like complete opposites. It didn’t feel like I’m in a whole new world. because there’s a lot of Mexican culture in Del Rio and I think there’s some American culture in Acuña.

Peter LoGreco (director): [Del Rio] really is a place that’s so wired to cross the border, and so many people exist in both cities at the same time. I mean, we just had to let people know ahead of time. And because film production gets a lot of, I think, special allowances, there wasn’t a whole lot that was any more difficult than shooting in the US. I wish I could say it was more dramatic and cloak and dagger, but it was pretty straightforward.

As with every We’re Here episode, the week in Del Rio culminated in a big drag show that drew a lot of attention—both good and bad.

LoGreco: We hit our stride in a way that felt really great in Del Rio, and part of that was because stuff started to open up a bit and we were able to get a bigger audience, the energy of which just changes things.

Warren: We did [the drag show] in Brown [Plaza], which is a central area right outside of town, and 600 people showed up. There was a group of six pastors that got together and published stuff online saying that they were going to block the entrance to Brown [Plaza] so that we would not be able to have this drag performance there. I was talking to someone who was there who said, “I’m a news reporter for Austin. Can you talk about the protest?” I go, “Really? Is it that they thought it was going to be shut down by these pastors and their followers?” Turns out it’s all—

Ingram: All bark and no bite.

LoGreco: What we did with the lighting, what the teams were able to do with the staging and the costumes, [I] felt like we really nailed it.

The big show also delivered the happy ending to one coming out narrative that viewers wanted and Joey needed.

Eureka!: I love [that Joey’s parents] came to the show. I think all of it was really huge for them. And then in the end, it’s nice to see [Joey] coming out as trans and them being closer than ever.

We’re Here airs on HBO on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET

Stream We're Here on HBO Max