'A space for everyone': Toronto drag venue, nightclub celebrates 30th anniversary

An iconic Toronto nightclub providing a safe space for LGBTQ people, a destination for Latin music and a live drag and performance venue is celebrating 30 years in business this year.

Since 1992, El Convento Rico has been a fixture on College Street West. A typical night at the club starts and ends with dancing to a mix of Latin, Top 40, and techno, pausing only for a drag show between midnight and 1 a.m. 

The club is also known for its annual drag pageant, the Miss Convento Rico, which house drag queen Jezebel Bardot — known out of drag as Jason Pelletier— calls "the event of the season" in the city.

"When, you know, it's the Miss El Convento Rico pageant, the place here is packed," Pelletier said.

El Convento Rico's anniversary is significant because it's something of an endangered species in Toronto. LGBTQ spaces— particularly outside of the Village — have been slowly disappearing, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Pelletier said he had been coming to El Rico for years before he started doing drag. He entered the pageant in 2015 and placed second only a few months into his drag career.

He said his persona is inspired by strong women like the club's founder and owner Muritza Yumbla, who opened El Convento Rico when she was 27.

"What I know about her from working here since 2015 is that she's an incredibly smart and resilient woman who has a vision and makes it happen and executes it every single weekend," he said.

Yumbla, an immigrant from Ecuador, started the club in 1992 as a "safe space" for her gay friends and the gay and trans community, Pelletier said.

The club's name translates to "rich convent" or "tasty convent," inspired by Yumbla's desire to be a nun when she was younger. At El Convento Rico, she's known as the "Mother Superior."

Yumbla said 30 years ago, there were a lot of immigrants in the gay community, but it was also taboo. 

"It was very hard, but I believed in what I was doing," she said.

"We had a lot of gay bashing, we had the young Portuguese, Italian people that would basically come in and throw eggs [at] El Convento, they would throw tomatoes."

Yumbla said one day, she invited the detractors in to see what the club was actually like inside.