Eduardo Enrique Gustavo Francisco (1925 – 2026)

Their Story

Eduardo Enrique Gustavo Francisco, better known as Gilda Love, was a Spanish drag queen and transformist who became the oldest drag queen in the country. He was born in Cádiz on 21 August 1925, into a large and turbulent family. He was supposed to have a twin sister who died with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck at birth, and he grew up with six brothers and nine sisters. His brothers subjected him to systematic mistreatment and violence from an early age. Despite childhood hardships, Gilda Love found solace in performance and art. After completing compulsory military service, he emigrated and began performing in emblematic venues of the transvestite world such as the Madame Arthur cabaret in Paris. He became a symbol of the scene in the Catalan capital, a city where he arrived in 1967, in the midst of late Francoism. He worked in the Bodega Apolo during 17 years, where he shared the stage with legendary performers. His stage name Gilda Love was chosen in honor of the film of the same name starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Throughout his decades-long career, Gilda Love became a cultural icon of Barcelona's underground art scene and a living witness to the transformation of Spanish society. In 2022 he starred in the documentary film Cantando en las azoteas, directed by Enric Ribes, based on a short film of the same name that Gilda Love produced in 2017. He remained a beloved performer well into his final years, embodying the spirit of artistic resilience and authenticity that defined his century-long life.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilda_Love