Round 1, Sproul 2355:
Angry Femmes, Latinx Hardcore, and Posada: Punk in the Arts and Documentary Film
Reflections as Healing: Photographing Femme Punk Anger as Practice of Freedom and Justice
Arlene Mejorado, Magnum Photography & Social Justice Fellowship 2019
Presentation Abstract:
A presentation and conversation of a long term project in progress of intimate portraits and conversations with femme and nonbinary punk band members on the importance of validating anger and rage. Women and especially women of color are told to suppress their emotions while men and forms masculinities are rewarded for expressions of rage in the forms of violences. The project centers the experiences and voices of femme and nonbinary band members and punk aficionadxs who affirm and express their anger and rage as a practice of freedom and justice. I came to this project from my own experiences of silencing, gas lighting and alienation. Femme identity is currently being defined by radical softness in popular discourse yet this framework also deserves to be interrogated with righteous indignation in femme punk spaces. As a working photojournalist and Magnum fellow, I see my practice of documentation as both one of reflection and healing given that in the collaborative process I am also intentionally building community. I hope to use the presentation as both a space for feedback on my current project but also to open up conversation for femmes and nonbinary attendees to find reflection and hopeful collaboration.
Siempre Presente: Latinxs in Hardcore Music (Documentary Film)
Jessica Lopez, The University of Texas at Austin (Dept. of Radio-Television-Film and Mexican American and Latina/o Studies)
Presentation Abstract:
"Over the years, hardcore and punk music have been touted as being a product of “white culture.” This ignores the Latinx musical veterans that have been on the forefront of the genre since its inception and the loyal fan base of angry, brown, and working class youth that keep this scene alive. In examining the hardcore scene of South Texas, it is apparent that the Do-It-Yourself, pissed off, working class spirit of punk and hardcore music isn’t just a motto for these kids; it is a reality of life in the borderlands.
While documentaries like American Hardcore stick to Euro-centric origins of punk and hardcore, even going as far as to claim that hardcore is dead, Siempre Presente provides a counter-narrative that shows that Latinx have, in fact, been “Always Present” and continue to be an integral part of the scene. This documentary film will follow local bands in South Texas whose members identify as Latinx as well as frequent show goers that call the scene “home.” In doing so, we work to validate the Latinx influence in heavy music as well as show that hardcore and punk is an important aspect of identify that these youth share, not despite being Latinx, but BECAUSE they are Latinx."
Posada the Punk
Rod Hernandez, PhD, California State University, Dominguez HIlls
Presentation Abstract:
This presentation will explore the influence on punk iconography of Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913). Known mainly for his animated skeleton figures, or calaveras, and their role in annual Day of the Dead observances, Posada chronicled his society—often satirically—in broadsheets, song books, and games that were popular with a mass audience during the reign of dictator Porfirio Díaz. Posada’s legacy, established posthumously by the Mexican muralists and art critics of the 1930s, was an inspiration to the Chicana/o art movement during the 1970s, and it continues to be a touchstone for Latinx artists whose works address political and social issues in graphic arts, installation, performance, television, and film.
Skeleton figures became prevalent within punk aesthetics not long after Chicana/o artists began popularizing the work of Posada in the U.S. Bands like Social Distortion featured images similar to calaveras in their logos, record covers, and flyers. Suicidal Tendencies drew even more directly for its calavera-type depictions from the subcultural styles of Chicano gangs and skateboarders in the “Dogtown” region of Venice Beach, California. Much as it was for Posada and the Chicana/o artists influenced by his art, the appeal of the skeleton figures was satirical; however, like Posada’s work, punk iconography was very often ephemeral street art. To what extent is Posada’s influence on punk attributable to the lesser-known participation of Chicana/o artists and musicians in punk subcultures? After films like Coco, to what extent does the calavera figure retain its satirical appeal within Chicana/o art and punk?
The Brown Gaze: Photography and Queer Punks on the Eastside
Amina Cruz PhotographerRound 1, Life Science 1500:
Exhibition Room (all day)
Amina Cruz Photography
Amina Cruz was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and Tampa, FL. She hitchhiked around the country before deciding to move to New York City, where she earned her BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design. Her interests are based in queer culture, film/analog photography, and exploring the space between transformation and identity. Her current work explores the newly forming culture of brown queer punks, on the east side of Los Angeles. Amina is a mentor and teaching artist at Las Fotos Project. She has been an active panelist at MOLA and La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. Her work has appeared in multiple television shows and features. Amina Cruz is based out of Los Angeles and is available for behind the scenes, events, concerts, and various other commercial work.
Title of Poster Presentation: Outside of Society: A Critical Examination of the Intersection of Disability and Punk
Presenters: Angie Juárez, Ed.D., Krystal V. Carrillo, M.A.
Organization: Alhambra Unified School District/California State University, Los Angeles
Abstract: Individuals with disabilities have a long history of segregation and underrepresentation in society and popular culture. The disability and punk rock cultures intersect as they represent the marginalized and isolated and challenge social norms. Although issues of race, gender, sexuality, and class are common topics within punk culture, disability remains a neglected minority and literature on the topic is scarce. Still, within the sub-culture of punk and punk rock, a subgroup of individuals who have unique impairments and disabilities that impact their ability to participate in the scene exists, and efforts to openly express these limitations to create active participation in the scene are occurring. These movements seek to dismantle ableism as it exists even within the punk rock community and empower individuals with disabilities to self-advocate for their needs and participate without having to mask their impairments. This presentation seeks to examine a variety of themes found in literature. Among the themes are physical accessibility, the roles of social media and hashtags in creating identity, and DIY zines seeking to create an identity for punks with disabilities via open dialogue of impairments and the limitations that occur due to society’s misconceptions of disability. Despite limited discussion and literature, a movement to actively engage and contribute to the punk scene exists and is growing. This presentation seeks to highlight the work being done to promote and encourage individuals with disabilities to self-advocate and empower themselves while changing societal views of disability via punk rock.
GataSalvaje Merch @GataSalvajeMerch1
Merch for angry BIPOC feministas, femmes & queers. Recentering the conversation to value womxns labor and hold men accountable to mens actions, Gata highlights her experience as a queer femme navigating the white cis hetero patriarchy. Gata is an Afro Caribbean queer femme. She was inspired to create her shirts when she was banned on facebook (also known as being "thrown into facebook jail") over 10 times simply for stating, "Men are Trash" Social media, which is run mainly by straight white men accuse Gata of hate speech and inciting violence. Yet, femicide, sexual harassment, victim blaming, and other violence towards femmes and mujeres continues to be normalized. Gata facilitates a "Men Are Trash" presentation that breaks down toxic masculinity, what it means when we say "men are trash", centers femme/mujeres experiences and challenges norms. If you would like Gata to come vend or present at your event or campus, please email gatasalvajemerch@gmail.com Gata Salvaje Merch is based in Los Angeles, CA.
Exhibition Room (all day)
Merch for angry BIPOC feministas, femmes & queers. Recentering the conversation to value womxns labor and hold men accountable to mens actions, Gata highlights her experience as a queer femme navigating the white cis hetero patriarchy. Gata is an Afro Caribbean queer femme. She was inspired to create her shirts when she was banned on facebook (also known as being "thrown into facebook jail") over 10 times simply for stating, "Men are Trash" Social media, which is run mainly by straight white men accuse Gata of hate speech and inciting violence. Yet, femicide, sexual harassment, victim blaming, and other violence towards femmes and mujeres continues to be normalized. Gata facilitates a "Men Are Trash" presentation that breaks down toxic masculinity, what it means when we say "men are trash", centers femme/mujeres experiences and challenges norms. If you would like Gata to come vend or present at your event or campus, please email gatasalvajemerch@gmail.com Gata Salvaje Merch is based in Los Angeles, CA.
Chicas Rockeras https://www.facebook.com/chicasrockerassela
Based in South East Los Angeles, Chicas Rockeras promotes healing, growth, and confidence for girls through music education while building self-esteem and encouraging group collaboration.They are a collective of mujeres, educators, musicians, community members, and straight up music lovers!
Round 1, Watkins 1101:
We Don’t Need the English but do We Need the Spanish?
Colonial Marital Violence and Xicana Punk Uprisings
Alejandrx Martinez, Department of Critical Culture Gender and Race Studies
Cerebros Destruidos: Basque Punk Rock and Negotiating Spanish Identity Post Dictatorship Theresa Goldbach, PhD Candidate in Critical Dance Studies, the University of California, Riverside
In this paper I will trace the rise of Spanish Basque punk bands like Eskorbuto and Negu Gorriak in the post-Franco era and transition to democracy in Spain in the eighties and nineties. Punk/Basque identity and the label of “terrorist” applied to all dissidents. These groups, with noted ties to the Basque separatist movement, gave voice to the regional pull against the centralized nation-state in the wake of the fall of the dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco (1939-1975). Their lyrics criticized both sides of the political spectrum, from the conservative neo-franquistas to some of the socialist helmed governments of the 1980s. They influenced other Spanish music genres, including the Andalusian genre of flamenco. Eskorbuto
and Negu Gorriak built not only on the historic regional Basque resistance to the Spanish state and monarchy but also on the Spanish radical political traditions of anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism to provide alternatives to the conciliatory trend of the Pact of Forgetting and the push towards democracy after the death of the dictator.
Punk en Español: A Street Level Narrative 1985-1995
Kirby Pringle, PhD in History from Loyola University Chicago, Independent Scholar
This presentation is a history and comparison of three different scenes: Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Madrid, from 1985 to 1995. Using a mix of storytelling and historical analysis, I will tell tales of my experiences in what I argue were the most vibrant and exciting punk rock Spanish-speaking scenes in the world. I lived in all three of these cities as a musician and political activist. I will examine how the three international underground punk scenes manifested ethics and political aspirations with individuals creating fanzines and bands. Much of this comes from a narrative history I am writing called Punk Versus: The Ideology and Power of Negativity in Punk Rock.
For this particular presentation— and given the conference name—the focus will be on Spanish-language punk as I played in a band that was America’s first Spanish-language punk group. This is essentially a behind-the-scenes narrative from someone who was heavily involved in this movement.
Round 2, Sproul 2355:
Outside of Society: Disability, Digital Technologies, and DIY Zines “Black Feminisms in the Punk Zine Scene: An Infestation of Female Cyborgs”, Lauren Hammond, University of California, Riverside
My objective is to explore newer incarnations of the feminist punk movement. I move
beyond the medium in order to: (1.) reveal how the resurgence of Do- It-Yourself (DIY) feminist punk ethic offers an imagined community for participants across temporal, spatial, and cultural boundaries a sense of belonging and (2.) illustrate the complexity of the relationship between punk ideologies and black feminist practices of today and the ways that digital spaces offer new opportunities for autonomy in a more radical political sense. This project indicates the potentials for digital networking and archiving practices in essence of taking the non-commodified or less-appropriated practices of black feminist punk and zine production as a network model of both digital cultural production as well as the production of anti-racist feminist digital publics. I examine the digital manifestations of what it means to be a woman of color existing in the hegemonic spaces of digital technologies. Throughout the project, I examine how DIY feminist ethic resonates today in the continued ideal of simultaneously creating within the private sphere of the bedroom and the shared space of the digital network. As I argue, these processes present spectacle where democracy is anticipated. It is also an imperative for each atomized female subject to create her own life world where digital collaboration and consumption serves as an extreme competition for space, voice, and cultural power. This makes it all the more important to highlight the noise within anti-racist feminist DIY cultures and consider what happens when these are massively and digitally networked.
Tracing Exclusion in the History of Hardcore Punk, 1980-1990, Alan Parkes, California State University, Long Beach
In the wake of a tumultuous decade, Special Counsel to Nixon Charles Colson declared in 1971, “young people believe that we have rejected their generation.”1 As deindustrialization and urban economic downturn loomed and solution-seeking through privatization drove prevailing economic and political thought through the rest of the 1970s, young people’s dissatisfaction sustained. By the 1980s, hardcore punk become punk’s more aggressive successor and, in urban settings, attempted to construct a space detached from the influence of ineffectual city officials and inner-city violence. However, hardcore punk’s aims in creating an inclusive youth subculture fell short. The ways in which policy making in response to economic decline fortified racial polarization became mirrored in the hardcore punk scene, unveiling the influence of prevailing conservative principles on youth cultures. Hardcore punk’s purported opposition to larger social structures alternatively turned to a subcultural representation of structures members sought to defy. The failures of laissez-faire-minded policies to address systemic disparities in race as well as gender, alongside the same failures in a purportedly inclusive and egalitarian subculture, prompts an investigation into the ways in which conditions created by the former influenced the latter. In spite of hardcore punk’s political ambiguity, if not embrace of leftism, emphasis on freedom, and nonconformist ideals, conservativism’s inveterate influence created a hardcore scene that embraced the exclusivity characteristic of larger social structures. This paper exposes how hardcore punk embraced deep-seated features of conservatism in the 1970s and 1980s through its exclusion and adoption of white masculine homogeneity.
Round 2, Sproul 2356:
Transnational Punk Practices of Memory, Presence, and Resistance.
Jorge N. Leal, Kristen Martinez, and Audrey Silvestre
Jorge N. Leal, Kristen Martinez, and Audrey Silvestre
Presentation Abstract: In this roundtable, presenters reflect and contest the historical erasure of punk marginalized communities in Los Angeles, the U.S. Southwest, and the borderlands. The presenters engage with archives, social media, and the importance of space formations to center the enduring participation of punks of color that have been overlooked by the existing narratives. Jorge Leal engages with the inventiveness of the use of social media to address and counter these silences of the predominant archive and narratives through digital archiving that locate and expand the connections among the vast transnational youth cultures of punk rock between Southern California and Latin America. Kristen Martinez traces the influences of indigenous music onto rock n roll and contemporary punk indigenous bands that draw from their culture to produce music that is relevant to their communities. Incorporating traditional elements, and speaking on issues of women empowerment, suicide prevention, anti-racism, and denouncing settler colonialism, many of the bands have such a powerful and diverse scene very much important to punk rock.
The work of Audrey Silvestre focuses on the queer and feminist Chicana/o/x Latina/o/x punks in South East Los Angeles. In particular, through the formations of formations of queer and feminist communities through Chicas Rockeras, South East Los Angeles (CRSELA) a summer youth rock camp held in Huntington Park and Club Scum, a monthly queer party hosted at club Chico in Montebello. Together this conversation merges multiple histories and generations of punk music that at times overlap but importantly each contributes to disrupting canonical punk histories.
Jorge N. Leal, Ph.D.
USC
Postdoctoral Scholar and Teaching Fellow
Topic: Late Twentieth Century and Contemporary Transnational Youth Cultures, Digital Archiving and Sharing between Southern California, Latin America and beyond.
The documentation punk rock youth cultures in the global north has been extensive since the early 1980s, creating a cottage field of punk rock publications. However, most publications have neglected to fully include and chronicle the participation and vitality of punk rock in people of color communities, such as the expansive, transnational, and multi-generational punk rock scenes in Southern California. Even when Latina/o/x punk rock cultures are referenced, these tend to be fragmentary and isolated in the past.
As an inventive form to address and counter the silence of the predominant archive and narrative, 2010s organic archivists —many of them former and current Punkeras/os/xs— have turned to social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr) to create participatory, inclusive, and community based online archives. Jorge Leal will discuss how efforts such as @rockarchivoLA, @nosnappers.sgv among others efforts that counter the static representations that are often included in the academic and media of Southern California Latina/o/x youth cultures. Furthermore, it will invite participants to consider how these grassroots digital sharing practices can be vital for POC Youth Cultures as these create transnational archives where collective memories are reclaimed, historicized, shared, contested, and reconstructed on a participatory global scale.
Kristen Martinez
UCLA
Topic: Southwest, Pacific Northwest, LA Indigenous punk, Diné and Pueblo Punk, Borderlands
Los Angeles (Tongva Gabrielino territory) has a very Indigenous rock ‘n’ roll history as early as migration of Indigenous families to parts of Downtown Los Angeles, the Valley, and Hollywood. Los Angeles was and still is home to many Indigenous musicians. Later in the 1980’s, there was a very heavy presence and contribution of Indigenous and Latinx rock musicians in heavy metal, thrash punk, and hair glam metal. Los Angeles’ quintessential band the Germs with powerhouse guitarist Pat Smear, also in Nirvana and Foo Fighters is of Afro-Indigenous ancestry. Later, in the 1990’s, with bands like Aztlan Underground, (Mazahua, Opata, Comanche), many bands were connecting to other communities over the Southwest. Looking at the contribution of Indigenous punk and hard rock bands, there is a very diverse scene in the Southwest ranging from punk, ska, metal, doom, sludge, blues, and black metal. Punk itself is in the shadow of immense metal bands-Diné, Apache, Tohono O'odham bands are creating punk and metal music. There are also desert festivals and house shows thrown by bands and promoters in the DIY fashion. Spaces such as Indigenous Pride LA organization showcase bands from New Mexico and fundraise for Native LGBTQ youth. Incorporating traditional elements, and speaking on issues of empowering women, gender, missing indigenous women, settler colonialism, mental health, suicide prevention, land, anger, anti racism, cultural appropriation and community, many of the bands have such a powerful and diverse scene very much important to punk rock.
Audrey Silvestre
UCLA
Topic: Queer Punk Communities in South East Los Angeles
Contemporary Chicana/o and Latina/o cultural studies scholars have begun to historicize the contributions of the East Los Angeles punk scene of the 1970s filling a gap that has excluded punk communities of color. While the contributions of East L.A. punk are important, punk communities in South East Los Angeles have not yet been studied. Drawing from the cultural histories of Chicana/o and Latina/o punk including that of East L.A. The focus will be on punk communities formed by queers and/or feminists of color in South East Los Angeles (SELA), California. South East Los Angeles (SELA), California is part of Los Angeles County between the 110, 105 and the 710 and 5 freeways where most of the area is composed of working-class neighborhoods. Resulting in a different histories, sensibilities, and geographic location from the wider Los Angeles County and East L.A. In particular, I will examine the formations of queer and feminist communities through Chicas Rockeras, South East Los Angeles (CRSELA) a summer youth rock camp held in Huntington Park CA. and Club Scum, a monthly queer party organized Hex-Ray and Rudy Bleu hosted at club Chico in Montebello, CA.
Punk Transnational Connections of Struggle, Resistance, and Disidentifications
Death in the Noise: Filipino American Punk Responses to Authoritarianism and
the “War on Drugs” in the Philippines
Russell Skelchy, University of Nottingham (UK)
Presentation Abstract:
Connections between punk rock and Filipino people reach back to the early 1980s. Around the time US bands such as the Dead Kennedys and Avengers played their first shows at the Filipino-owned club Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, the first punk concerts took place in the Philippines in 1981. As writers have observed, Filipino punks were among the first in Southeast Asia to develop their own hardcore sound, and the Philippines continues to have one of the largest scenes in the region today. This phenomenon has continued for Filipino Americans (FilAm)—for instance, the San Francisco Bay Area is still home to active community of Filipino punk musicians and listeners today. This paper focuses on how some FilAm hardcore punk musicians have addressed the extrajudicial killings in the ongoing “war on drugs” in the Philippines initiated by current president Rodrigo Duterte. In addition to discussing recent recordings that have addressed this topic, I explore how a benefit concert organized in San Francisco in October 2018 for the families of two Manila punks killed in the “war” became a dialogical (and activist) space to engage with wider issues of authoritarianism, policing, wealth inequality, and the legacies of colonialism in the Philippines. The objectives of this benefit concert suggest ways that punk’s global underground network continues to be a conduit linking Filipino Americans to current political struggles of their homeland, and furthermore, as I argue, implicates punk in the afterlife of US imperialism in its former colony.
-Canciones Para Liberar Fronteras: Poetics of Resistance in Transnational Latinx Punk
Sarah Dowman, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Maryland
Presentation Abstract: The dissonant sounds, irreverent performances, and raucous young people crowded into a dimly-lit, poorly-maintained basement of a punk show may not be the first images that come to mind when contemplating mainstream political debates and global discussions. For many marginalized and disenfranchised youths throughout the world, however, the transnational subculture of punk is a familiar space, one of tremendous transformative potential, a means to stimulate the exchange of ideas, empowerment, creativity, and modes of resistance. In this paper, I explore the relationships among art, resistance, and contemporary activism in the context of queer Latinx punk rock in the hemispheric Américas through the work of Martín “Crudo” Sorrondeguy, an iconic figure in the queer Latinx punk community and the broader global history of punk from the 1990s to today. Martín has documented queer Latinx punk narratives in the U.S. and beyond as the vocalist of numerous bands, including Latinx hardcore punk band Los Crudos and queercore band Limp Wrist, owner of the DIY record label Lengua Armada Discos, photographer, graphic artist, and director of Beyond the Screams/Más Allá de los Gritos: A Latino Hardcore Punk Documentary (1998). Through an intermedial analysis of his music, documentary, and visual artwork, I explore the potentiality of transnational punk ethics, discourses, and collectivism in the creation of resistant and activist practices that cross borders to examine how resistance is being defined and constructed in the present. By highlighting punk’s transnational connections throughout the Américas, I demonstrate how Martín’s work disrupts mainstream narratives of punk that exclude and erase diversity and promotes hemispheric solidarity and critical consciousness.
Round 3, Life Sciences 1500:
The Sound of Broken Borders: A Panel on Latino Punk and Resistant Music Across the Divide
Michelle Cruz Gonzales, Michelle Villegas Threadgould, Juanita E. Mantz
Presentation Abstract: What does the sound of resistance sound like across borders? This panel will look at Latino resistant movements and music throughout history. We’ll trace these movements and how they’ve influenced and informed punk in the U.S. and Latin America. The roundtable will feature the voices of Latinx musicians, music journalists, historians, authors, and poets. Our roundtable will also critique, deconstruct, and respond to broken borders and how the concept has informed our music, art, and writing, as well as feature live performances of music and Latino punk stories.
Featured Panelists:
- Michelle Cruz Gonzales — Michelle Cruz Gonzales played drums and wrote lyrics for several bands, including Spitboy and Bitchfight during the 1980s and 1990s. Her book, The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana In a Female Punk Band has been described as a “highly recommended read” by Razorcake and has become a Gender Studies classic. Her writing has also been published in anthologies, literary journals, including the LA Review of Books and Hip Mama magazine. Michelle teaches English and creative writing at Las Positas College. She lives in Oakland, California.
- Members of Generacion Suicida — The Latino post-punk band Generacion Suicida make “musica del barrio para el barrio.” With songs in Spanish about disappearances, femicide, and the inescapability of fascism, the South LA band is as punk as it’s politics. Touring with legends like Alice Bag and one of Mexico’s most well known hardcore bands, Descartes A Kant, and with 4 albums that have received rave reviews from MMR, Razorcake, and LA Weekly, the band has cemented its place in LA Latino punk history.
- Michelle Villegas Threadgould — Michelle Threadgould is a biracial, Chicana journalist and poet. Her work has been featured in CNN, Pacific Standard, KQED, New York Observer, Remezcla, and Latino USA. Michelle covers Latinx punk, experimental and political music. Seven of her essays were featured in the seminal music writing anthology Women Who Rock, released in October 2018, and her debut book Why Rage Against the Machine Matters is slated to be released in 2020 by University of Texas Press. Her latest collection of poems, Broken Borders features the words of women trapped between borders and explores living as a bilingual, biracial, bicultural woman who does not fit within the margins.
- Juanita E. Mantz — Juanita E. Mantz grew up in Ontario, California and became obsessed with punk and post punk music in high school. Juanita is a writer and lawyer and works as a deputy public defender specializing in mental health law in Riverside. Juanita’s stories have been published in numerous literary journals including The Acentos Review, The James Franco Review, As/Us, Muse, and Inlandia. In 2018, Juanita became a Macondista (Sandra Cisneros’ group of socially conscious writers) and is a four-time participant in VONA. She is hard at work on her YA memoir “My Inland Empire: Hometown Stories” about a Latinx punk rock girl growing up in the Inland Empire.
- *More Latino punk and experimental musicians to come!*
Round 3, Sproul 2356:
-Latina Punks in Higher Education
Jessica Delgado, Claremont Graduate University- Latinx Graduate Student Union, Student Council of Arts and Humanities, Queer Graduate Student Union
Presentation Abstract: Taking the spirit of punk into the classroom, this presentation is designed to observe how to incorporate the underground into higher education. Adapting the grungy attitudes of activism and strive for social justice, punks have been more and more inclined to delve within the system to alter eurocentric sentiments. Focusing specifically on Latina punks in higher education, my presentation will stream on a timeline of change from the beginning of punks where Latinas, queer and nonbinary folks, and other marginalized peoples contributed immensely to the present day in which Latina punks who are a product of these contributions are striving to give back these histories, sentiments and anti-establishment ideologies to their students. Incorporating research from journals on punk studies/ punk in academia/ punk pedagogies, personal interviews with Latina punks integrating their experiences into their classrooms, and literature written by these muxeres in the punk communities and academia circles, I will share my findings of how these Latinas of the underground have decided to pursue educating others. My presentation will incorporate those DIY practices such as zines, community organizing- from activism in the backyard to flyering to promote shows including Latina punkeras. In the end, my presentation strives to shed light on the realities that marginalized folks like punks face when they decide to pursue higher education, and educating others, and to inspire audiences to consider their own positions within their institutions and society.
-Violence Girls: Punk Rock as Vehicle Toward Identity Formation and New Social Imaginaries
Shane Ochoa, El Camino College
Presentation Abstract: Although not normally studied as revolutionary aesthetic, the punk rock movement, music and subculture deserves proper placement as a vehicle in creating new social possibilities and imaginaries. Borrowing from Jose Esteban’s Muñoz’s assertion that central to the punk rock aesthetic is the coexistence of annihilation and innovation, this project works to unravel the cultural value produced when the punk aesthetic meets a Chicana activism that embraces this same act of forceful evolution. Alice Bag’s Violence Girl and Myriam Gurba’s “White Girl”, a short story written in a collection of short stories and novella, Dahlia Season, are deviant works of literature that are not yet part of the Chicana literary canon. Through punk rock filter and resulting opportunity for identity construction, both works attempt to unsettle confining gender power dynamics within the culture and offer new possibilities for the Chicana self.
-Marisela Norte: Evolving the Chicana Narrative
Cecilia Gamino, Graduate Student in the English Department at California State University, Dominguez Hills
Presentation Abstract: Los Angeles in the 1980s saw the rise of the Spoken Word movement, which brought together diverse people from all over the city to create artistic happenings that challenged what was considered art, music, and poetry. A key figure of this time period is Marisela Norte. As a member of ASCO during the East LA Renaissance, Norte’s participation within this scene expanded what was accepted as Chicana/o art. According to Colin Gunckel, the art coming out of East LA during this time contributed to an aesthetic and cultural shift within the city. Norte's work in particular created a new feminist narrative that moves beyond ethnic identity and geographic location—two factors considered inseparable in a city so defined by borders like LA; it was during the post-ASCO Spoken Word movement that Norte’s work truly thrived as the cultural landscape embraced creative experimentation and collaboration.
Through new historicist methodologies and Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s theoretical concept of the “Alter-Native,” this presentation focuses on Marisela Norte as a cultural figure and analyzes how her spoken word performances contribute to the multi-dimensional art scenes coming out of East LA during the punk movement while expanding notions of Chicana identity. Norte herself rejects all labels and her work defies categorization. Simply put, she is the artist’s poet. Thus, I argue that Norte's spoken word is the alternative to the Alter Native as she challenges through her artistic and punk sensibilities the boundaries of subcultural scenes, ethnic identity, gender, and social class.
Round 3, Watkins 1101:
Pocha Punks Archive
Nidia Bautista, Vanessa Fernandez, and Eliana Buenrostro
Presentation Abstract: Pocha Punks is an archival, testimonial and collective project to celebrate punk all over: in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Chicago, New York, Lima and beyond. We think in terms of transbarrio. We’re all pochas, we transgress borders and we want to draw connections with all the hoods we love and their punk scenes. From celebrating the people of color in the first wave punk scenes to helping center POC punks today. Pocha Punks is a constantly evolving testimonial archive. Having started this collective last December, our principal medium at the moment is our Instagram @pochapunks. We’re made up of an interesting and eclectic mix of punk experts in our own right. We’re journalists, housing rights organizers, graduate students, film archivists, writers and poets. We want to bring the interdisciplinary nature of Pocha Punks, reflected in our skills and perspectives, to the UCR Punk Conference for a roundtable about the power of pocha archiving. One driving concept is lo transbarrio: as once residents of Mexico City and Xicanas, we’ve all explored the power and salience of making connections at the local level, the barrio, rather than lo nacional. We hope to have a conversation about transbarrio punk, share our testimonial archive and offer a space for conference participants to engage in these frameworks and share their personal experiences with punk. https://www.instagram.com/
Nidia Bautista is a journalist from Los Angeles, California. She’s a graduate of UC Santa Cruz (Politics and Latin American and Latina/o Studies, BA 2012) and New York University (Global Journalism and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, MA 2018).
Vanessa Fernandez is a community organizer and archivist/conservator based in LA. Vanessa received her bachelor’s from UC Santa Barbara, a double major in Film and Media Studies and Latin American and Iberian Studies with an emphasis in social movements in Mexican and Bolivian Cinema. She also participated in community radio station, where she co-hosted a program called Radio Xicana.
Eliana Buenrostro is a writer and current master’s student in Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her BA from UCLA in Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies.
Vanessa Fernandez is a community organizer and archivist/conservator based in LA. Vanessa received her bachelor’s from UC Santa Barbara, a double major in Film and Media Studies and Latin American and Iberian Studies with an emphasis in social movements in Mexican and Bolivian Cinema. She also participated in community radio station, where she co-hosted a program called Radio Xicana.
Eliana Buenrostro is a writer and current master’s student in Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her BA from UCLA in Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies.
END OF PROGRAM
