Focus of ‘We’re Here’ in NM is on Native people
The land around Shiprock creates a majestic image — almost otherworldly.
And it serves as an incredible backdrop for the fourth episode of the HBO series “We’re Here,” which airs at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“We came into these communities and were treated like family,” said Peter LoGreco, the showrunner for the series, which recruits small-town residents across America to participate in a onenight-only drag show.
In each episode, renowned drag queens Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara and Shangela Laquifa Wadley travel to a small
town to inspire and teach their own “drag daughters” to step outside their comfort zone.
In the fourth episode, their journey takes them to Farmington and Shiprock.
In the process, the trio enlists Nate, a gay, indigenous photographer eager to make a deeper connection with his Navajo people; Nicole, a proud lesbian, public defender and local LGBTQ activist who’s constantly misgendered because she wears men’s clothes; and Stacey and Jasmine, a mother-daughter duo processing the traumatic suicide of their beloved daughter and sister DJ, who struggled with not feeling accepted as a lesbian in her community.
In conjunction with the airing Thursday of the episode, HBO is encouraging support of protectthesacred.net and the #NavajoStrong movement. Protect the Sacred is a grassroots initiative to educate and empower Navajo youths and young people throughout Indian Country to rise up as the next generation of leaders in protecting the culture.
LeGreco learned about New Mexico while he was filming another series years ago.
While he was here, it was northern New Mexico that captured his attention.
“When we were looking at locations for the series, we wanted to have representation that showed beyond queer people,” LeGreco said. “One of those had to be indigenous people.”
LeGreco and the crew were in Farmington for nearly two weeks in February.
In that short time, Bob the Drag Queen was also affected by the area.
“When I got there, you can’t ignore the presence of indigenous people,” Bob the Drag Queen said. “With the episode, I hope there will be more focus on the Navajo Nation. The area is suffering, and it’s happened so quickly. We need to have general human compassion for what’s going on out there.”
There are 175,000 living on the reservation, a mere 13 grocery stores, 12 health facilities and only 170 hospital beds.
Today, the Navajo Nation is dealing with a bigger problem — a surge in COVID-19 cases.
“What is happening over there is devastating,” LeGreco said. “… It’s heartbreaking to see.”