El Paso Matters – ¿Quieres bailar esta noche? Photos of iconic ‘Noa Noa’ Juárez nightclub on display at El Paso Museum of History

¿Quieres bailar esta noche? Vamos al Noa Noa, Noa Noa, Noa Noa, Noa vamos a bailar!

The lyrics by legendary singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel pose a simple question: “Would you like to dance tonight?” 

It responds with a highly repetitive chorus that for more than four decades has embodied the Borderland’s energy and sense of place: “Let’s go over to the Noa Noa, let’s go dance!”

“El Noa Noa,” released in the 1980 album “Recuerdos,” was penned by Juan Gabriel in honor of the similarly iconic Ciudad Juárez nightclub where his career began. El Noa Noa opened in 1964 – drawing slews of patrons from Mexico as well as Texas and other U.S. border states where open saloon laws prohibited the sale of mixed drinks in bars and restaurants.

Although it was a mainstream nightclub, the Noa Noa was regarded as a space where people could feel free, accepted and joyful – attracting a following by the LGBTQ+ community. The nightclub burned down in an electrical fire in 2004.

This summer, the El Paso Museum of History is hosting a Pride Month pop-up exhibition, “El Noa Noa: A Memory of Queer Spaces in Chihuahua, México,” featuring photographs of patrons and other queer spots by Don Ward from the private collection of David Wilton.

“Something that has really impacted me is seeing a lot of individuals living their truths in the ’50s and ’60s,” museum curator Quetzaly Segovia said. “We’ve lost a generation of our elders in the queer community, so to be able to see these people captured within these photos has been really moving. Their memories should live on, we should help carry that legacy for them and continue the fight for equality.”

The exhibit will include photos, memorabilia and stills taken from 16mm film reels of El Noa Noa and Juan Gabriel performing there in the 1960s. A nearly two-hour performance from Juan Gabriel captured on the reels will play on a TV screen in the display room. The exhibit will be on display starting Saturday, June 6, and run through Sunday, Aug. 2, at the Juan and Linda Uribe Community Gallery at the museum, 510 N. Santa Fe St. in Downtown. The  7th Annual Family Day: Pride at the museum featuring a queer-owned vendor market, resource fair, family activities, karaoke and a Juan Gabriel impersonator kick off the opening.

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“If you look at the broader gay liberation period, like maybe from the early ’50s all the way to like the ’80s, there’s tons of documentation in books and oral histories, photographs, and whatnot in places like New York, San Francisco, L.A., even places like Austin and Houston,” said Wilton, a retired attorney who now splits his time between El Paso and Mexico. 

“We don’t have that on the border,” he said. “So, to be able to collect a few things from that period is pretty amazing.” Ward gifted him many photographs and memorabilia over the years, Wilton said.

Observed in June, Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City, sparked by a police raid on a popular underground gay bar.

Ward, whose personal photos make up the majority of the exhibit, is himself a trailblazer.

A few years after El Noa Noa opened, Ward founded the Diamond Lil Club, one of El Paso’s first gay bars. 

The club operated from 1967 to the 1980s in various locations, including along San Antonio Avenue in Downtown, and often partnered with renowned local radio personality Steve Crosno for promotions and special events. The history museum last year featured the Diamond Lil Club in a Pride Month pop-up.

Now in his late 80s, Ward was unavailable for comment. He’s expected to attend the exhibit’s opening Saturday, Wilton said.

When looking through photos to pick which to exhibit, El Paso Museum of History staff noticed that a lot of the individuals dancing at El Noa Noa were also at the Diamond Lil Club, Segovia said.

“People would cross back and forth and celebrate their queer identity,” she said.

El Noa Noa, founded by Don David Bencomo, was located just steps from the Santa Fe International Bridge on Avenida Juárez – an avenue dotted with neon signs, sorted entertainment and a storied nightlife. The strip is also home to the historic Kentucky Club – a bar that opened in the early 1900s during the U.S. prohibition era.

Other hot spots along the strip that attracted the LGBTQ+ community were Boom Boom and La Cucaracha; while El Malibu in the area known as La Curva de San Lorenzo became a popular venue that featured popular local bands such as Los Silver, Night Twisters and Starlighters, as well as nationally known singers José José and Rigo Tovar. Juan Gabriel was also a regular there in his early years.

At the time performing under the name Adán Luna, Juan Gabriel began singing at El Noa Noa in 1966 when he was just 16 years old and quickly became a local sought-after singer. He soon left for Mexico City, cementing his career in the early 1970s with hits such as “No Tengo Dinero” and “Se Me Olvido Otra Vez.”

“El Noa Noa,” an autobiographical movie starring Juan Gabriel as himself, was released in 1981 following the success of the song and nightclub where much of the movie was filmed.

“The history here is that these clubs, these venues were major centers of social change at that time,” Wilton said, noting that they weren’t necessarily “gay bars,” but nightspots that attracted the gay community because they were considered safe spaces.

“Cuándo quieras tu, divertirte más 

y bailar sin fin, yo sé de un lugar, 

que te llevaré, (vamos al Noa) 

y disfrutarás, (vamos al Noa), 

de una noche que nunca olvidarás” 

 (“When you’d like to have some fun and dance without end, I know of a place I can take you to enjoy a night you’ll never forget.”)

For many, the attraction was great music, often live, and uninhibited dancing while meeting new people over a few drinks, Wilton said. For some patrons from the United States, the clubs also provided them “a gay weekend” in a foreign country just steps away from the international bridge, he added.

“Este es un lugar de ambiente, 

donde todo es diferente, 

donde siempre alegremente 

bailarás toda la noche ahí”

(“This is a place of ambiance, where everything is different, 

where you’ll always happily dance all night.”)

Though he was born in the Mexican state of Michoacan, Juan Gabriel was brought to Juárez in the state of Chihuahua by his mother when he was just a few months old. He regarded the border city as his beloved hometown, honoring it with songs such as “Juárez Es No. 1” and “La Frontera.”

Juan Gabriel, whose real name was Alberto Aguilera Valadez, died Aug. 28, 2016, in his California home – just hours before he was to perform at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso. He was 66.

Bencomo, the nightclub’s founder, died in 2020.

Today, an eight-story mural of Juan Gabriel by artist Arturo Demasco is featured on the exterior of Hotel Morán in Downtown Juárez near the site of the former nightclub. A small concrete platform with a star and the singer’s handprints sits nearby.

The club’s stories – and the infectious anthem in tribute to that special place – remain, Wilton said. 

“They’re part of our history and I’m happy they’re being celebrated.”

“Esta noche te invito a bailar esta noche mi amor

¿Quieres bailar esta noche? 

Vamos al noa, noa, noa

Noa, noa, noa, noa, noa

Noa, noa, noa vamos a bailar!”

(“Tonight I invite you to dance this night my love, would you like to dance tonight?

 Let’s go over to the Noa Noa.”)

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