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CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — Tejano music legend Shelly Lares joined Domingo Live this week to discuss Pride Month and how she embraces life as both a Tejano musician and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Little Miss Dynamite” opened up about living as LGBTQ+ during her 40-year music career in the Tejano music industry during an interview with Domingo Live hosts Rudy Trevino and Barbi Leo.
“I would say, you know, it was harder back in the day when you couldn’t be a gusto (at ease). When you couldn’t be comfortable and be with the one that you love,” said Lares. “Not just in the eye of the public but with family too. I lived a life of privacy and secrecy for a long time.”
In 2008, Lares decided to come out to her parents when she planned to move to West Texas with the woman she was dating at the time. The singer shared that her parents were more upset she was leaving San Antonio not that she was leaving to be with a woman.
“With my fans, I really didn’t have a come-out moment, if you will,” added Lares. “I just started sharing my life with my fans on social media and they were all accepting. I had very few negative people, who obviously think that I’m gonna take and follow what they want me to do which will never happen.”
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Five years ago, Lares met the love of her life, her girlfriend, Mia Gutierrez, who she considers her “ride or die.”
“She has my back and loves me like I’ve never been loved before,” said Lares. “But I will say this, we have to have self-love first before we can really know what that is about. I mean now I have a lot of the young generation reaching out to me, even artists that want to be in Tejano that are gay or however they wish to identify. They come to me for advice and some of them can’t go to family and it’s hard when you don’t have that.”
Lares wrote and released “Break Through” last year, a Pride song that expresses her outlook on life with Tejano singer Eric Lee and rapper Squishy, which features Anjelique and ISXK.
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