From being Charo's one-time choreographer (and cuchi-cuchi gofer) to a

gay sex symbol and activist, New York-based, San Antonio-raised Latin pop singer-dancer Jade Esteban Estrada has a story to tell.

     That is, when he's not singing and dancing or starring in one-man shows or doing comedy gigs in his adopted hometown. 

     "I'm such a New Yorker," he said. "I feel like since September 11th, this is my hometown. 

     Estrada headlines San Antonio PrideFest 2002 at Crockett Park on Saturday. Showtime is 8:30 p.m. The singer is promoting his album, "Angel," and will ride as grand marshal of the night parade at 9:30. The route begins at Main Avenue and Dew Place.

     What he really relishes about his busy life is representing the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities. 

     "I feel like I'm representing every Latino that's afraid to come out of the closet," said Estrada from New York. And they love him, too.

     Out Magazine called him "the first gay Latin star." The Advocate finds him "exquisite." Urban Latino TV dubbed him "a 21st century Oscar Wilde." Estrada seems to be a regular showbiz messiah.

     "My knowledge and skills as an activist, and as a speaker, come very much into play when I do prides," she says. "More focus is on me because I'm like the lone Latino out here in the world."

     When hard-pressed, Estrada acknowledged he only feels like he's the only gay Latino pop star. But let's not go there.

     "It's so very hard for Latinos to come out. And until they come out, it's just going to be this horrible, underground thing," he said.

     "The 26-year old San Antonio native is looking forward to coming home where before he was a singer, he took care of his grandmother "as young men do," Estrada said. But he won't stick around long. 

     He's taken his track act and dancers to Canada, South America, Japan, Ireland, Australia and England in the past three years. He owes it all to the Big Apple, he said.  

     "Going to New York was the only way I was going to be in a place where I was completely challenged," he said. "When you are faceless, you're forced to rise to the occasion."

     He had to get away from his old comfort zone, he said.

     "Please, tortillas and hanging out wand watching 'Cristina' can get very comfortable. All I did was watch novelas with my grandmother, and all we did was chisme out."

     Estrada prefers preaching to tolerance and understanding between straights and gays. 

     "I realize, 'Oh, my God! I'm the link between these two communities.' And somehow these two communities are really not coming together. At least not quick enough for me," he said. 

     He is indeed an energetic voice for the gay community willing to use his bully pulpit of pop. "I think it's vulgar when people have some sort of fame to their name and they don't do something good with it."

     "I have the opportunity to make people happy." Which is why he left home in the first place.

     "My sister always told me, 'People always stone their own prophets. You really have to go (and leave home.)" And how else could he have met Charo?

     He calls the Charo Las Vegas dance gig one of his biggest thrills. "She's great," he said. "She's like my stage mom."

©2002 San Antonio Express-News