Monica Palacios was born on June 14, 1959, in San Jose, California, in a largely agricultural community. Her father was born in Chihuahua, Mexico but both of her parents grew up in New Mexico. They met in Albuquerque, fell in love, and eloped. Soon after, her father was drafted for WWII and her mother eventually moved to San Jose to be close to the Palacios family members in the Bay Area. Monica had a fun and happy childhood hanging out with her younger brother. Because of her short hair and playful clothing, strangers often asked if she was a boy or a girl. Monica dressed however she was feeling, and her parents allowed her to express herself. Her family was very musical and frequently sang and played instruments together.

Attending an all-girls Catholic high school, allowed Monica to engage as the class clown and a

jock. She played varsity basketball for 4 years and was very popular with the student body and teachers. She grew friendly with some openly butch lesbian teammates, though she didn’t question her sexuality at the time. Monica felt pressure to conform and get a boyfriend because her friends were boy crazy. She had a few high school boyfriends, but she felt something was missing during these hetero encounters.

Monica went to Chico State where she majored in Art and minored in Creative Writing. Though she had a boyfriend, on holiday breaks, she would go to gay clubs in San Jose with her older sister, Eleanor, who was an out lesbian. Halfway through college, she realized that she was a lesbian too and couldn’t stay in rural northern California any longer. She moved in with Eleanor in Oakland and transferred to San Francisco State to study film. The two grew close and embraced their identities as out Chicana lesbians together.

While living in Oakland, Monica started frequenting stand-up comedy clubs and was determined to give it a go. She did her first open mic in June 1982, which was a successful experience for her first time. As she got more gigs in straight spaces, she didn’t feel safe exploring queer themes in her material because the 80s were extremely homophobic times. That August, she participated in a gay comedy open mic at the Valencia Rose Cabaret in San Francisco, the first gay comedy club in the nation and she fell in love with the community. The feeling was mutual, and she was getting booked every Monday night for a show at Valencia Rose and began performing at AIDS fundraisers as well. Eleanor was a staunch supporter of her comedy career, and Monica credits Eleanor’s support to being foundational in her coming into her identity as a Chicana lesbian comic.

In 1986, Monica moved to New York City attempting to get into the Graduate Film Program at NYU. Eleanor had moved to NYC three years earlier for a new job so Monica figured she could live with her sister while being a graduate student. Unfortunately, Monica didn’t get into NYU, and she moved to Los Angeles to continue her comedy career. In LA, everyone around Monica advised her to stay in straight comedy clubs and to hide her queer identity. After experiencing a horrific homophobic night at the famous Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip, Monica realized she needed to create her own safe space and stay true to her story. She left the comedy clubs and became a queer solo theater performer. Monica also became involved with the group VIVA! Lesbian and Gay Latino Artists, producing art and performance shows throughout Los Angeles.

She was the Director of VIVA’s Teatro Viva!, a trio of men who performed sketches about AIDS and HIV prevention in queer public spaces. During this time, Monica wrote and performed her first solo show “Latin Lezbo Comic,” which became successful and toured venues across the country.

As she established herself as a prominent Los Angeles Chicana lesbian solo performer, Monica created more solo shows, wrote multi-character plays and her material started getting published in anthologies. Most notably: Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About, Fifty Key Figures in Queer U.S. Theatre, Scenes for Latinx Actors, and recently, JOTA: A Queer Latina y Latinx Anthology.

Monica has taught her personal classes at: UCLA, Smith College, UC Santa Barbara, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, UC Riverside; Loyola Marymount University; University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany; and California State University Long Beach. Now, Monica continues creating new work, getting published and mentoring an upcoming generation of LGBTQ artists.