[4] Her older sister also came out as a lesbian later in life, a subject that eventually became a bit of Palacios’ titled “Double Dyke Familia.”[5] She attended an all girls Catholic school where her love of comedy was already visible.
As she continued to dig into her sexual identity, she knew she needed to “get the hell out of dodge” and at age nineteen Palacios transferred to school in San Francisco, came out as a lesbian, and began performing stand-up.
But found herself on stage “almost immediately” and “she was hooked.”[12] She describes the venue as a “big love fest” where she felt fully comfortable to be herself[7][12] Palacios had first performed at a straight comedy club to a tepid audience response.
[15] The more time she spent in comedy clubs the more she realized it wasn’t her scene, they had an “aggressive atmosphere.” So she went away and wrote her first solo show, “Latin Lezbo Comic.” In the performance, she sought to put a positive example of a Queer woman on stage.
For example, Palacios noted that “sure I’ll go on Arsenio if I can talk about my girlfriend.”[15] She was known for subverting the white, heteronormative storytelling that is common in stand-up comedy.
[16] As her career continued to grow, she also became known for her one woman shows which bridged not only her identities, but also theatrical form as her performances lived in a world somewhere between theater and stand-up.
For example, she ends her show Queer Chicano Soul: Thirty Years of Fierce Performance, My Quinceañera Times Two, with a series of song snippets titled the "Vagina Medley."
This format is reminiscent of traditional carpas that traveled to working-class Latinx people to engage them in theatre and political discourse (like Luis Valdez's El Teatro Campesino).
[18] Thus, the backdrop of Los Angeles, a city claimed to be of "Chicanos and Mexicanos" that Palacios has called "complex and brilliant inspiration" for her art, provides a place where she can teach and perform for diverse audiences.
[19] Like Queer Chicano Soul, the majority of her shows are grounded in her identity as a Chicana woman, as they switch between English and Spanish and have cultural references throughout.
[14] Palacios also draws inspiration from Latinx writers Jorge Huerta, Irene Fornes, Migdalia Cruz, Marga Gomez, and several others.
But as queer and Latina audience began to thank her for being herself on stage, she realized she wanted to present the most “authentic version” of herself which became how she approached activism.
She is a co-founding member of Culture Clash, whose satirical sketches, plays, and screenplays all feature race-based, political, and social commentary.
That same year, she did a presentation about her career titled "Queer Chicana Lesbian Activism Through Theatre & Comedy" at the University of New Mexico.
Palacios helped develop and has her own blog on epochalips.com,[24] an online platform where lesbians and allies can discuss similar experiences and find community in these shared moments.