For Cynthia Lee Fontaine, drag has never been simply about the wigs, costumes, makeup, or even that famous “’Cucu’.” It has always been about something much bigger: culture, community, history, and using her platform to make sure people feel seen.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race fan favorite, who competed on seasons 8 and 9 and later returned to the franchise, has built a career around an unmistakable personality. But behind the larger-than-life Cynthia is Carlos Díaz — known to those closest to him as Carlitos — a performer from Puerto Rico whose life has included psychology, dance, television, HIV outreach, and decades of LGBTQ+ advocacy.
When asked what audiences connect with most about her, Díaz said, “I truly believe, beside my personality and beside my personal life story, through all the challenges that I experienced myself, it is my Latinx identity.”
Background
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Díaz earned a bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology before moving to Texas in 2008. There, he found himself surrounded by a diverse Latinx community that included people from throughout Central and South America.
That experience broadened his understanding of latinidad (being Latinx), while reinforcing something that was already deeply rooted in his own family. His mother is Puerto Rican, his stepfather is from Panama, and he grew up surrounded by different histories, traditions, and foods. That cultural pride followed him straight into the Drag Race workroom.
“I always talk about latinidad,” Díaz said. “I speak in Spanish too. I represent.”
‘Cucu’
And then, of course, there is the ‘Cucu’.
What began as a playful expression became one of the most memorable catchphrases in Drag Race history. Díaz said the inspiration came from a song popular throughout Latin America, and he saw it as another opportunity to showcase the joy and humor of Latin culture.
“We are funny. We are extroverts. We are happy,” he said. “It’s a hardworking community, but also it’s a community that has fun.”
His solution was simple: “Let’s show the ‘Cucu’ to the world.” It worked — perhaps a little too well.
Díaz laughed while recalling that even RuPaul eventually stopped calling her Cynthia. “The only thing that he was calling me was ‘’Cucu’, come over here, ‘Cucu’,’” he remembered. “I’m not Cynthia Lee Fontaine anymore for the people, not even for RuPaul. I’m ‘Cucu’. And I’m happy with that.”
Celebrating Latinidad in Seattle
Fontaine will bring that unmistakable energy to Seattle as a headliner for Entre Hermanos’s Día de Muertos Gala, an event that carries special significance because of her long history of advocacy.
“For everybody that doesn’t know my résumé, I’ve been advocating for the Latinx community, LGBTQ+ community, cancer, and HIV for 26 years,” she said.
Before reality television brought her international recognition, Fontaine spent nine years working with HIV clients and also in outreach and peer support, with much of her time focused specifically on the Latinx community.
“So … the opportunity to celebrate, to work, to encourage, and to support our Latinx community — that’s my main goal,” she said.
For Fontaine, appearing at the gala is especially meaningful at a time when immigration and the treatment of Latino communities remain at the center of national political debate. “Every moment that we have the opportunity to show our culture, our latinidad, it’s a moment of winning every single aspect of who we are,” she said.
When her management told her about the invitation — and that previous headliners included fellow Drag Race stars such as Roxxxy Andrews — Fontaine said she immediately felt its importance. “This is the moment that we need to show up for our Latinx community,” she said.
And audiences should expect Cynthia Lee Fontaine to show up completely.
“Expect [Spanish] from me, in my performance and me speaking on my microphone,” she said, adding that she has also been a professional singer for decades. “We’re going to celebrate latinidad from head to toe that day.”
The Día de Muertos tradition also connects Fontaine to the LGBTQ+ trailblazers who came before her. She speaks with particular affection about members of her drag family, including Kathy LaFontaine and Antonio Fantojas, figures she credits with helping pave the way for generations that followed.
“They ran so we can walk today,” she said.
For Fontaine, honoring them is not about looking backward. Their stories are part of the reason LGBTQ+ and Latinx performers can stand on stages today and openly celebrate who they are.
“Imagine having this tradition and this continuity to celebrate those trailblazers from the past and celebrate the people who have been working hard to represent our Latinx community and our LGBTQ+ community,” she said. “It’s the moment that we need to do the biggest celebration ever.”
The Woman Behind the ‘Cucu’
For audiences who know Fontaine primarily through television, there are still a few surprises: She knows how to work on cars. She loves football and soccer. She cooks.
And despite one of the most energetic personalities ever to enter the Drag Race workroom, Fontaine treasures silence. “When I have the opportunity to be with myself alone, I don’t talk,” she said. “I just meditate. I read a good book.” It is a side of Fontaine that might surprise fans accustomed to seeing the exuberant entertainer on television and stages around the world.
She describes herself as spiritual and says meditation, prayer, and quiet time provide the balance she needs for a life that rarely slows down. Those moments of stillness, she explained, are what allow the public Cynthia to explode back into the world.
“My holistic model is in good balance,” she said, “so the ‘Cucu’ can go crazy and happy and instantaneous as always.”
Fontaine also spent years as a professional dancer, including work with Univision and Telemundo in Puerto Rico and Miami. Away from performing, she continues to devote time to advocacy, sponsorships, and community organizations.
From the Dance Studio to Lady Gaga
Drag Race also brought Fontaine into the orbit of celebrities she once could never have imagined knowing personally. Among them are Neil Patrick Harris and Sarah Michelle Gellar, whom Fontaine described as supportive of both her entertainment career and her advocacy.
But there is one celebrity encounter that carries a particularly special history: Lady Gaga. Long before Gaga became one of the biggest stars in the world, Fontaine remembers Stephanie Germanotta from New York. In 2004, while Fontaine was in New York for a Broadway internship connected to Wicked and taking classes at Broadway Dance Center, Germanotta was part of that same creative world. Fontaine remembers seeing the future superstar in hiphop class, years before the world knew her as Lady Gaga.
“She was with her brunette hair, with her bangs, very down to earth,” Fontaine recalled.
Years later, Fontaine returned for Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The premiere’s surprise guest was Lady Gaga. The production team told Fontaine that Gaga remembered Carlos — Carlitos — from New York.
“I’m like, ‘Wait, wait, wait — from New York?’” The answer was yes.
Before filming, Fontaine was invited backstage, where she spent time with Gaga, RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and members of Gaga’s team.
“I spent two hours with them,” she said. “I had so much love, so much advice from all of them.”
For Fontaine, seeing Gaga again after both had traveled such extraordinary paths was surreal. “What a beautiful full-circle moment,” she said. “After so many years, you are doing your super amazing career. Me too. I’m on TV for a second time.” The memory remains one of the experiences she says she will carry forever.
Queer Means Freedom
When asked what the word queer means to her today, Díaz took a moment before answering.
For him, it represents people choosing to live outside traditional expectations imposed by society. But there is another word he believes captures it even better: “Freedom.”
“I adapt those concepts and this special definition of queer to myself, because I live my truth,” he said. “I’m very happy. I’m grateful to be the person that I am today.”
Díaz also sees queer media as an important part of that freedom. Telling LGBTQ+ stories, he said, gives people outside the community an opportunity to understand lives they may otherwise never encounter.
“We need to continue to spread these amazing stories,” he said. “So people out there in the community and out there in society that still have questions about who we are, they have the chance to connect and learn.”
His ultimate vision is less complicated than politics often makes it sound: respect, acceptance, allyship — and perhaps food.
“Maybe probably going to a barbacoa, all of us together, celebrating without any differences,” he joked.
Drag with a History
Díaz’s Latin heritage influences nearly every element of Cynthia Lee Fontaine, from the music and humor to the personalities who inspired her. He cited figures from Latin television, journalism, entertainment, and LGBTQ+ history, including Caso Cerrado personality Ana María Polo.
But one of the people who left the greatest impression was Puerto Rican transgender journalist and activist Christina Hayworth. Díaz had the opportunity to spend time with Hayworth and hear firsthand stories about the early LGBTQ+ rights movement, including Stonewall and the discrimination transgender people faced.
“I’m a huge fan of history,” Díaz said. “I’m a huge fan of the history of the queer community everywhere, not just only on my island, Puerto Rico.”
Sitting with someone who had witnessed that history made an enormous impression on him. “I met an important person that was part of the history of that movement, of all the human rights that we have today,” he said. “It was fascinating to me.”
Díaz also credits Hayworth with helping launch Puerto Rico’s Pride tradition, further connecting his own Puerto Rican identity with the history of LGBTQ+ activism.
Those stories continue to influence Díaz — not only as a drag queen, singer, and television personality but as an advocate. “The commitment that I have to continue advocating for the rights of our community, especially for our Latinx LGBTQ+ community, is for me a priority,” he said.
That commitment extends to the transgender activists Díaz affectionately calls “our transgender angels.”
“Because of them, today we have the opportunity to walk on the street and grab hands with your partner, with your lover, with your amante,” he said, “and wear crop tops and be flamboyant as the rainbow and glitter and sequins.”
Twenty years into her drag career, Fontaine still knows how to get a laugh, command a stage and unleash the ‘Cucu’. But behind the catchphrase is someone deeply aware of the generations who made her visibility possible — and determined to make the road wider for whoever comes next.
That may be the clearest definition of Cynthia Lee Fontaine today: proudly Puerto Rican, unapologetically queer, joyfully ‘Cucu’ and committed to making sure latinidad is never pushed quietly into the background.
For Cynthia, representation is not simply about being invited into the room. It is about showing up, remembering those who came before, speaking Spanish into the microphone, and making enough noise that the next generation knows they belong there too.
Entre Hermanos 35th Anniversary and Día de Muertos Gala is on October 24, 2026 @ Sheraton Seattle Hotel | Seattle, WA. Click HERE to get Tix.
