Diane Felix

Diane Francis Christine Felix (born March 15, 1953), also known as Chili D, is an American disc jockey and LGBT activist. She is a third-generation Chicana from Stockton, California.

Felix was born in Stockton, California on March 15, 1953. Her mother was from Fresno, California and her father was from Texas. Her parents were second-generation Chicanos from farm-working families. She attended San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, where she learned to DJ. She worked at Intel while at San Jose University in San Jose. She later started her own business, Felix Computers, building computers at home while in San Francisco.

Diane Felix attributes her passion for activism to the various events that she experienced including the murder of the Chicano journalist, Ruben Salazar, by police during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War.

Felix became involved with the United Farm Workers (UFW) after Cesar Chavez gave a talk at her high school. She helped organize the grape boycott in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In 1975, the Gay Latina/Latino Alliance (GALA) was officially formed. The organization meant to tackle the racism present in the LGBT community, demand political change, and provide a community for gay Latinos. They partook in and coordinated an assortment of events, including a march against Anastasio Somoza García, the 73rd and 76th Nicaraguan president as well as various dance parties.

Felix first became interested in the group that was to become the Gay Latina/Latino Alliance after reading an ad in the Bay Area Reporter. The ad called for a meeting between gay Latinos who were interested in political organizing. Her trip to San Francisco to attend the second general meeting of the group resulted in her permanent relocation to San Francisco from San Jose. She became one of the three lesbians in the group, alongside Alí Marerro and Matú Feliciano, and played a large role in the development of the group. She formed a Women's Caucus and proposed the official name change from Gay Latino Alliance to Gay Latina/Latino Alliance.

However, despite her efforts to address the misogyny in the group, the sexism only escalated when two GALA members, Anthony Lopez and Manuel Quijano, sold their house to buy a bar. The bar, Esta Noche, served to further marginalize queer women in queer spaces. In an interview with Horacio Roque Ramírez, Diane Felix revealed,

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