- Post date
- 29 Apr 2018
- Caption
- So what about the Latina/o experience in the 1992 Los Ángeles Riots/Uprising?
During the riot/uprising Latina/os were hyper visible as looters or victims, in the aftermath Latinas/os have been invisible in collective memory of the L.A. Riots/Uprising. These as journalists and policy-makers have struggled to go beyond the focus on the binary (black/white, rich/poor Korean/Black) analysis what in essence was a multi-ethnic, multi-racial uprising, where it is almost impossible to classify the people and groups who participated in neat roles. We need to consider the following: Most of the initial victims of the crowd violence were Latinas/os —One third of the people who died during the riot/uprising were Latinas/os— While we know that Koreatown and Korean-owned business bore the brunt of the destruction, an estimated minimum of 20% of the business that were Latina/o owned.
So what do the LÁ riots have to do with music and South East L.A.? South East Los Angeles communities and adjacent neighborhoods were some of the hardest hits areas during the uprising. Dozens of businesses were looted and burned in Huntington Park, South Gate and Lynwood. The post-riot over policing of South East Los Angeles communities constrained the movement of youth to other parts of the city the following weeks and months. Hence, producing or attending shows in Hollywood or else in Southern California became a rather formidable task.
Therefore, staging music events in their own communities became among the few non-institutional activities in which SELA youth could take collective part in. For instance, Club Rock en Español founders and others began to stage and attend tocadas in any place that would be available within S.E.L.A. The immobility of SELA residents in 1992 also created the conditions to make a much more locally-rooted music scene in the area. [Foto de la portada de @laopinionla 2 de Mayo, 1992.]
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Type
- magazine
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