- Post date
- 20 Feb 2019
- Caption
- Alma Díaz, one of the Club Rock en Español (C.R.E.E.) co-founders and first manager of Los Olvidados before a concert at The House of Blues in West Hollywood, 1996.
As an immigrant, Diaz arrived in Los Angeles in the late 1980s. Diaz found out about C.R.E.E. when she picked up a flyer at an early Rock Angelino show in 1989 or so. Diaz was very acquainted with Rock en Español, as she migrated to Los Angeles from Mexico City at a time when the music genre was in buoyancy in Mexico’s capital. “Like many other immigrants, I had only planned to be in Los Angeles for a brief period. I came to help my mother with her amnesty process [through IRCA] and then I ended up staying.” Diaz’s unforeseen extended stay in Los Angeles produced in her a sense of alienation as she navigated a new language and a new city. “The first year was a fucking hell. I was pretty much crying every single day. It was really hard. [Because I had no plans to stay here.] I had my whole life in Mexico.” Yet Diaz said that she soothed her migration anxieties with music. “The only things that I brought with me for this supposed brief stay were my records and my cassettes from Mexican rock bands. It [The music] was a life-saver.” Diaz’s attachment to the music enabled her to create connections with other youth with similar music tastes.
Through this common music taste, she was able to create a network of friendships and experiences that helped her make better sense of the Southern California metropolis.
In time, the C.R.E.E. co-founders (Yvonne Gómez, Alma Díaz and Flora Tapía) began to act as managers and concert bookers for emerging Rock Angelino bands such as María Fatal, Juana La Loca (Pastilla), and Los Olvidados. Which is how Alma came to work with Los Olvidados, a band then composed of all male Latino immigrants.
Hence, the C.R.E.E. co-founders transtioned from Rock en Español fans and promoters to advocates and movers and shakers for the artistic labor of immigrant Los Angeles band members.
• ???? : @olvidadonorte archives
- Location
- House of Blues Los Angeles
- Type
- photograph
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