{"id":490,"date":"2018-09-21T14:12:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T21:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=999919523"},"modified":"2019-11-12T11:15:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T19:15:47","slug":"latino-art-zine-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/latino-art-zine-makers","title":{"rendered":"Latino artists and zine makers are taking representation into their own hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Long Beach Zine Fest 2018: A celebration of independent publishing and print\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Us_3FIQdoFI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When Allancito, a Guatemalan-American Long Beach resident, first started going to punk shows, he often found that he was the only queer person of color in the room.<\/p>\n<p>In his feminist theory classes at Cal State Long Beach, he learned more about the injustices faced by those who share his identity and experiences. Depressed and upset, he launched <a href=\"https:\/\/lbzinefest.com\/darcy-crash-distro\/\">Darcy Crash Distro<\/a> and began independently publishing poems expressing the emotions of feeling like an outsider in a punk rock world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf no one is going to notice me, then I am going to make myself be noticed,\u201d he told the <i>Post.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>When making a zine (pronounced \u201czeen\u201d), the typical rules of publishing get pushed aside. No topic is off limits, no editor is around to tell you no, and no matter what critics have to say, it will still get printed.<\/p>\n<p>At self-publishing celebrations like<a href=\"https:\/\/lbzinefest.com\"> Long Beach Zine Fest<\/a>, wild fantasies, under-represented identities and messages deemed controversial or unmarketable by the mainstream all have value and voice. Zinesters from all backgrounds have the freedom to express a diverse range of experiences and concerns through print. Within the same aisle, you could go from reading newspaper clippings on the Zodiac serial killer to browsing pictures of rainbow sloths.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_999919427\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-999919427\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-999919427\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/0915-LBZINE-23-970x646.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-999919427\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Long Beach Zine Fest in Long Beach September 15, 2018. Photo by Samanta Helou.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But for Latinos living in Long Beach and beyond, this year\u2019s LBZF was a chance to showcase identities beyond the typical Mexican and Chicano narratives. It was also significant that the event landed on Sept. 15, which is Independence Day for most Central American countries and the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month.<\/p>\n<p>Hispanics make up more than 40 percent of the Long Beach population, a nearly 10 percent increase since 2000. Though no statistics for country of origin exist for Long Beach specifically, the Pew Research Center found that about 80 percent of Hispanics in L.A. County are Mexican, while less than 15 percent are from Central American countries like El Salvador and Guatemala.<\/p>\n<p>Allancito\u2019s Darcy Crash Distro was among those tabling at Long Beach Zine Fest last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see our brown parents telling us to fit in instead of standing out because this is how they survived a white supremacist world,\u201d read an excerpt called \u201cIvory Towers.\u201d \u201cI see our golden brown skin permeating through the literal ivory towers of punk. I see us thriving in our perpetual alienation and re-birth as bodies made of clay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Allancito, zines are an important way to connect his queer identity and Guatemalan heritage with the greater struggles facing Latinos of all backgrounds. Since most of the people in his community are Mexican-American, he says that he\u2019s become more comfortable identifying as \u201cbrown.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_999919404\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-999919404\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-999919404\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/0915-LBZINE-01-970x646.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-999919404\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Long Beach Zine Fest in Long Beach September 15, 2018. Photo by Samanta Helou.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cEverything I\u2019m experiencing is inherently brown and queer,\u201d Allancito said.<\/p>\n<p>While some of his passages are as sweet as the baby blue and pink paper they\u2019re printed on, others express the harsh realities of heartbreak, loneliness and marginalization as a queer person of Central-American descent. Allancito is also the organizer of his own Long Beach zine fest called Zine Queens, specifically for members of the queer and trans community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think when you\u2019re queer or trans, you\u2019re more likely to face discrimination when you\u2019re trying to publish something,\u201d he added. \u201cSo if you could just do it for yourself, and give it to friends, or sell it at shows, and sell it at a zine fest, I think that\u2019s empowering, and that can help queer and trans people. That\u2019s what helped me because I wasn\u2019t seeing that represented, so I did it. And being able to do that is what empowers people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Latino artists and curators have always had a difficult time gaining access to mainstream art and publishing worlds. Art galleries and major institutions do not usually give Latino artists their own shows, according to Sarah Wilson, education curator at the Autry Museum of the American West. Rarely are they seen as curators or gallery owners and, thus, their experiences are not accurately represented, if given a platform at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you turned on [the nightly news] and there were stories about people in Chicano communities, they were bad stories of gangs of violence, of communities and buildings being vandalized, that sort of thing,\u201d said Wilson, who was tabling at LBZF to promote Citizen Journalism Project LA:LA, a zine composed of local contributors who shared the community\u2019s challenges, successes, issues and stories.<\/p>\n<p>[easy-image-collage id=999919530]<\/p>\n<p>The publication was created as an educational component to The Autry\u2019s LA RAZA exhibition, a documentation of the community newspaper of the late 1960s and 1970s that recorded L.A.\u2019s Chicano rights movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<i>La Raza<\/i> set out to say that\u2019s not who we are,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThis is actually who we are. Our language is more diverse than that. We are mothers; we are teachers; we are musicians; we are doctors; we are cousins\u2026We are a diverse community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Monica Leal Cueva, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, was reminded of her hometown while creating \u201cSearching for Our Lady de Guadalupe,\u201d an independently published photo essay of Virgin Mary visages publicly displayed throughout Los Angeles. Though she doesn\u2019t have any religious affiliation to the Virgin Mary, she still appreciates seeing the iconic figure throughout the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time I saw the Virgin, I felt this connection,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just so happens that in very Hispanic neighborhoods, that\u2019s where you\u2019re going to find them. So, I started driving around through those, and I started to feel way more connected to the city, to the people. So what does it mean? It means there are so many of us. We are so different. [&#8230;]There\u2019s still a lot of distance from one another, but through this project, I\u2019ve started to feel closer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leal Cueva tabled at LBZF as<a href=\"https:\/\/lbzinefest.com\/tacosdeluna\/\"> Tacos de Luna<\/a>. She also presented her other mixed-media projects such as her twisted loteria cards that add the head of el diablito (the devil) to the body of la sirena (the mermaid) and replace el mundo (the world) with a man holding la rosa (the rose).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis whole series happened by accident when I got into a fight with who I was with at the time,\u201d she said. \u201cI was so angry, and I had those cards in my house. And I just thought, either I break a window, or I make a collage.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_999919416\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-999919416\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-999919416\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/0915-LBZINE-13-970x646.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-999919416\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kimberly Maga\u00f1a tabling under the name La Colocha. Long Beach Zine Fest in Long Beach September 15, 2018. Photo by Samanta Helou.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kimberly Maga\u00f1a, a Salvadoran-American from San Fernando Valley tabling under the name <a href=\"https:\/\/lbzinefest.com\/la-colocha\/\">La Colocha<\/a>, shared hand-drawn, hand-stapled booklets filled with drawings of nude brown girls, women like her who are proud of their curly hair, thick thighs and stretch-marked bellies.<\/p>\n<p>Most Latino cultural events Maga\u00f1a has attended were generally dominated by Mexican-American and Chicano representation, she said. In response to the lack of Central American presence, she created her own platform through zines.<\/p>\n<p>With a space like LBZF, the diverse subcultures within the Latino community have a safe space where they have the freedom to express their identities and concerns. Those who have never been exposed to these identities have the opportunity to meet the author face-to-face, understand and appreciate their work and establish new connections. As more of these personalities develop a platform, they can aid in eliminating the consequences caused by internalized racism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMexican American, Central American, South American, we have Afro-Latinas as well who are even more underrepresented\u2026 It\u2019s about allowing us to take up space,\u201d Maga\u00f1a told the <i>Post<\/i>. \u201cIt\u2019s really about just making sure people are giving us that space to allow us to grow our platform. Let us breathe to build.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Editor\u2019s note: Long Beach Post Editor-at-Large Sarah Bennett is a founding organizer of the Long Beach Zine Fest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIf no one is going to notice me, then I am going to make myself be noticed,\u201d said Allancito, a Guatemalan-American Long Beach resident and zine maker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":66014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[295,296],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[11069],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-hispanic-heritage-month","tag-long-beach-zine-fest","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}