Drag performer Bianca Castro-Arabejo, who was referred to as actuality tv star Jiggly Caliente on RuPaul’s Drag Race, died Sunday at age 44, days after her household reported hospitalization for a critical an infection.
Castro-Arabejo, who turned a choose on Drag Race Philippines in 2022, scrapped plans to seem on the upcoming season after a latest hospitalization for a “extreme an infection” and a leg amputation surgical procedure, her household mentioned in a press release on her Instagram web page.
She died early Sunday, her household mentioned in one other assertion.
“A luminous presence within the worlds of leisure and advocacy, Jiggly Caliente was celebrated for her infectious vitality, fierce wit, and unwavering authenticity,” her household mentioned Sunday. “She touched numerous lives by means of her artistry, activism, and the real connection she fostered with followers world wide.”
Castro-Arabejo competed on the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and afterward RuPaul’s Drag Race Allstars.
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“Her expertise, reality, and affect won’t ever be forgotten, and her legacy will proceed to slay — at all times,” mentioned a press release from RuPaul’s Drag Race posted on X. “We’re holding her household, mates, and followers shut in our hearts throughout this tough time.”
Born within the Philippines, Castro-Arabejo immigrated to New York. She began working in drag about 20 years in the past, showing in competitions and pageants. She famous the affect of her upbringing in her work and its significance for illustration within the business. In 2018, she launched a hip-hop album referred to as T.H.O.T. Course of, together with a observe the place she raps in Tagalog.
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Throughout a 2023 episode of actuality present Deliver Again My Women, which reunites completely different performers from the Drag Race franchise, Castro-Arabejo mentioned her work as a choose was essential due to her heritage.
“In the case of my tradition, I reside and breathe that I’m Filipina,” she mentioned. “I’m a proud immigrant lady.”
She publicly got here out as transgender in 2016 on a podcast, partly as a result of she mentioned she acquired letters from followers who had been scuffling with their very own gender identities.
“I wished to return out as a result of I used to be prepared to return out. I’ve been dwelling as a trans lady for therefore lengthy, however I simply by no means instructed the viewers and the followers that,” she mentioned in a 2018 Billboard interview. “I used to be truly transitioning whereas I used to be on the present, I simply by no means talked about it. I didn’t need it to be my storyline, as a result of being a trans lady just isn’t what defines me.”
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