MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – JUNE 08: Héctor “Apio” Quijano performs on stage during a press conference at the Pepsi Center WTC on June 8, 2021 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Adrian Monroy/Medios y Media/Getty Images)
For André “Apio” Quijano, learning to defend himself against life was difficult. At 46 years old, 7 successful albums with Kabah, countless appearances on the 90s pop tour, hundreds of rumors about his personal life, an enviable participation in “La Casa de los Famosos México” and his growing career as a therapist “Celery “, aura healer and psyche teacher, has focused on further development.
The singer smiles, appears enthusiastic and expresses himself lovingly. He has grown and matured, as he said himself. More than three decades have passed since he experienced the worst years of his life. He has many words to describe his childhood: “complicated,” “terrible,” “smelly.” It’s clear that he doesn’t have good memories of his first years of life.
Few would have thought that the young man with green eyes and curly hair who sang “Road of the Mermaids” had suffered bullying during his school years. Up on the stage, everyone seemed to be singing, dancing, smiling, wearing colorful costumes and applauding. Nothing could be further from the truth: “I was not a happy child,” he said in a 2022 interview.
When the interpreter was born, his parents separated; and then his life became a back and forth about who he would stay with. In the end he stayed with his father and the nightmare began, “because the truth is that few men knew how to be a father, I think. And mine didn’t make it,” he explained in the same lecture.
His broken relationship with his parents was compounded by his interactions with other children.
At school they bullied him so much that he hid under Federica’s car because he didn’t want to leave. The reason? She was bullied a lot because of her “feminine energy.”
The singer recalled his childhood and said he was always “very feminine.” Although it was initially difficult for him to embrace it due to the sexist environment in which he grew up and the masculine culture in which he was raised, he eventually came to the conclusion: “Well, what do you think? That’s how I’ve been since I was born. From day one I was like that,” he said in an interview with Yordi Rosado.
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The singer explained that until he was 15 years old, he received bad vibes from his classmates until, in middle and high school, he felt like he finally belonged and started his circle of friends: “At the end of middle and high school.” This helped me a lot: having a good group.”
It’s not the first time that “Apio” has spoken about his “terrible” childhood. In a conversation with Gustavo Adolfo Infante in July 2022, the singer had already pointed out that the attacks he suffered as a child were due to his vulnerability, shyness and childlike sensitivity. “I suffered for many years and really said, ‘I don’t want to live anymore because people don’t love me,'” he confessed.
His classmates bullied him because he was “the weird one” who didn’t live with the other kids and also because he was “the faggot.”
In July 2022, he celebrated that bullying in schools was seen from a different perspective, “because in my day it was: ‘It bothers you, beat him like that.'”
Despite the progress, he regretted that the insults he suffered in his childhood were the same “that they keep telling me (now).” What is certain is that thanks to his personal development, all these offenses no longer have any real meaning: “It is a love for myself,” he said.
“Apio” is a person who has learned over time to get to know himself, to find out who he is and to face all circumstances. After all, all that matters to him now are the words of the people who love him and who like his work.