Violence Girl is what Alice Bag calls a "Chicana Punk Story" For those of you who are unfamiliar with Alice Bag (Alicia Armandariz) she is a singer/musician that in her teens was part of the early punk scene in Los Angeles. She along with Patricia Morrison formed The Bags, who are not only a seminal L.A. punk band but in my opinion paved the way for many people who would have never thought of becoming musicians themselves.
 
Violence Girl covers her years growing up in East Los Angeles, a daughter of Mexican immigrants. It is in her youth that she starts to become aware of the disparagement of growing up poor and Mexican, from having to live in sub-quality housing to being ridiculed for not speaking English by unsympathetic schoolteachers. Alice grew up in a house full of love and was told by her father that she could become anything she wanted to be. Yet all the positive energy was for not as she had to witness years of abusive of her mother by the hand of her father.

In her teens, Alice love of music and education carries her through tough times. She discovers Glam Rock and starts venturing into Hollywood, where she would meet other like-minded youth. They would eventually not just become the pioneers of the L.A. punk scene, but of punk music in general. For a punk historian and a L.A. honk like myself, Alice’s stories of punk’s inception in Los Angeles are a real treat. Alice shows that it was misfit kids like her that created the origins of L.A. punk. It was a community that despite the differences in class, race, gender or sexuality that found a bond with each other. To me, that is what makes L.A. punk so influential worldwide. If you look at the origins of punk in other U.S. cities such as Chicago or D.C., you’ll see very little diversity.

THE EASTSIDE

People are weird about Los Angeles' Eastside. On the one hand you've got people throwing up "w" signs yelling "west-siyeeeed!" On the other, you've got people from Midtown to Silver Lake and Echo Park claiming (pretending?) Eastside… All this points to the fact that "The Eastside" means different things to different groups and individuals. To many black Angelenos, the traditional division between the Eastside and Westside is the 110 freeway (which is why gangs like the East Side Compton Crips represent the east side). To many, possibly most Latinos, the LA River is the dividing line between the east and west sides (which is why a Latino gang like West Side Silver Lake 13 represents the west side). To many newer Angelenos and white (and maybe Asian) people, the east side begins much further west (remember "East Side Mondays" in Westlake's (keyword: west) Wilshire Royale?) None of the definitions are inherently more correct than the other but when people talk about The Eastside, let's get it straight -- they're talking about the region east of the LA River that includes Boyle Heights, East Los, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno… and the smaller neighborhoods within them.
 

Pendersleigh & Sons' Official Map of East Los Angeles

East Los Angeles is a neighborhood on (as its name suggests) Los Angeles' Eastside -- indeed, I'd say it's the most famous neighborhood on the Eastside. Please click here to vote for other Los Angeles Neighborhoods to be the subjects of future blog entries. Please also click here to vote for Los Angeles County communities. And lastly, please vote for Orange County neighborhoods by clicking here. 

Pendersleigh & Sons' Official Map of The Eastside

East LA is neighbored by El Sereno to the north, Alhambra to the northeast, Monterey Park to the east, Montebello to the southeast, Commerce to the south, Vernon to the southwest, and Boyle Heights to the west. It includes the smaller districts of City Terrace, Belvedere, Whittier (not to be confused with the city), Eastmont and Wellington Heights. 

Most of the images shown were the same as a show that I was fortunate to catch at the original Tia Chucha’s Café about a year and a half ago. There were also many interesting new displays that caught my eye. One was a piece that took an entire wall that was a blown up Thomas Guide map of Los Angeles from West L.A. to East L.A. On the map were key points of interests from that era, such as the rehearsal space where the East Los punk bands used to practice, and the location of the backyard party where the members of the band X first saw all the East L.A. bands. It showed all the punk rock hangouts and all the clubs from that era that are now long gone. I also enjoyed looking at the original Fatima Records promotional and gig posters. The other day at Amoeba I saw someone about to buy The Plugz Better Luck for $3.99!  What a steal! Coincidently, you can still buy the original Fatima Records issue of The Brat E.P. Attitudes from the band whenever they play a show, which has been more frequent over the last couple of years.

Reading about East L.A. punk while in high school was inspiration. I had known about Los Lobos and knew about the 60’s Chicano bands like El Chicano and Tierra. However, these punk bands were Chicanos and around my age, playing music that I was into. It made me feel less like a freak to know there were others just like me somewhere in the barrios of East Los Angeles. Hippies wanted to move to San Francisco, rockers to the Sunset Strip and I wanted to move to East L.A.

On Saturday, The Claremont Museum of Art will present Vexing: Female Voices from East LA Punk, which will run from May 18 to August 31, 2008. There will be live performances by Vexing artists Teresa Covarrubias (Lead Singer from The Brat) Angela Vogel, Lysa Flores and Alice Bag. I have been looking forward to this exhibit since I heard about it a few months back. The women that are featured in this exhibit were the pioneers of a thriving women's art movement that is happening now in East L.A.

2008 has been turning out to be the year for Retro-Chicano art. LACMA’s Phantom Sightings: Art After The Chicano Movement is currently showing and starting June 15th, LACMA will also feature Los Angelenos/Chicano Painters of L.A.: Selections from the Cheech Marin Collection.

I found some great articles on East L.A. Punk, Vex era and Beyond. The first one is written by Josh Kun and is the story of the Vex. The second one comes from Jimmy Alvarado, who wrote about the history of all the EAST L.A. punk bands that not many have heard about. In this article originally written for Razorcake Magazine. Jimmy covers the minions of pre and post Vex bands as well as all the backyard party giants that were huge in the East Los backyard scene.