When Ms. Colombia, née Oswaldo Gomez, arrived in New York City in 1975, she had just completed her law degree in Spain. Originally from Colombia, she came to New York seeking a more open society.
She got her nickname because she often went to airports in her spare time, offering free legal services to fellow Colombian immigrants. But after being diagnosed with AIDS, and later colon cancer, she took that desire for freedom to a new level: devoting the rest of her life to being joyfully, unabashedly herself.
She was known throughout NYC for her green beard, her brightly colored, traditional Colombian skirts, and her exuberance. She marched in every parade, always accompanied by her rainbow-colored miniature poodle, Cariño, and her foul-mouthed parrot, Rosita. And she spent as much time as possible at the beach at Jacob Riis Park, which has been a haven for the queer community since the 1940s. There, she and her friends talked, swam, and dug up clams.
In 2018, she died at Riis Beach. Victoria Cruz and Carlos Villacres, two of her close friends, came to StoryCorps to remember her.
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Originally aired August 23, 2024, on NPR’s Morning Edition.