MONTEREY PARK, Calif. — “EN CADA BESO UNA REVOLUCIÓN.” “LESBIANAS. UNIDAS. ¡FELICES!” Such battle cries embody the poetic optimism of Latina lesbian activism across borders at the Vincent Price Art Museum’s On the Side of Angels. Captured by posters for marches in Mexico City and Washington, DC, respectively, and made nearly 20 years apart, they chart an ongoing struggle for liberation. Importantly, these activists rallied not around a single issue but against intersectional forms of oppression: sexism, racism, homophobia, and classism.
Presented in partnership with the Latina Futures 2050 Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, the exhibition diligently utilizes the archives of its Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) to extend a legacy of Latina lesbian activism in Los Angeles, spanning the 1980s to 2000s. It also illuminates the hemispheric nature of the movement — efforts from the privileged economic position of the United States, for instance, expanded care for peers in Mexico, as seen in a 1989 interview published in the women’s quarterly Connexions. It shows that Latina lesbians sat at the heart of a swirl of sociopolitical issues that continue to affect millions of people today — unjust labor practices, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, and housing insecurity — and that these oppressions are linked worldwide.
As just one example of the exhibition’s emphasis on collectivity, it sources its name from archivist and former CSRC librarian Yolanda Retter Vargas’s 1999 dissertation. In it, she in turn nods to the gargantuan effort of those before her: The first generation of activists had to unearth, piece by piece, a continual lesbian presence in 400 years of documented United States history. The show includes a video interview between Retter Vargas and Civil Rights advocate Laura Esquivel — whose archive is also prominently featured — in which the former speaks candidly about her experience within activist circles, emphasizing the importance of their intersectional activism and relationships to one another.
This feeling of communality reverberates throughout the varied sections of the show, including one focused on Gay & Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU), the first organization to advocate for both LGBTQ+ and Latina/o/x communities. (Esquivel became the organization’s first female president in 1984). Copies of GLLU’s newsletter, Unidad, are seen alongside a flyer in which a sultry Betty Boop beckons the public to an event at Kitty’s bar in Montebello, hosted by the Lesbianas Unidas (LU), a task force that separated from the organization in 1994. Members of LU, in turn, went on to lead Connexxus, a women’s center that provided professional development workshops, counseling, and support groups. It also partially funded Chicana lesbian photographer Laura Aguilar’s prodigious Latina Lesbians (1986–90) series, which continues to reshape contemporary perceptions of this community. On view is an invitation to an exhibition Aguilar staged at the organization’s West Hollywood location, drawn from tenant rights attorney Elena Popp’s papers.
Co-curators Vanessa Esparza Quintero and Jocelyne Sanchez’s careful handling of these remarkable archives weaves intricate narratives that both sprout from and culminate in Retter Vargas’s ardent compassion for her kin. A restoration of the herstorian’s Lesbian History Project, a community bibliographic research repository, for instance, is browsable on an antiquated iMac. And if her words, voice, and technological archive were somehow not enough to convey the depth of her compassion, there is also an altar to her consisting of a bandana, pins, and tool belt that she regularly wore during her shifts as a librarian. Such presence and visibility cannot be overstated in a time of persistent crisis. As the curators and activists in the exhibition make clear, only we have the power to advocate and organize for ourselves, especially in the face of those who refuse to accept our existence.
On the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism continues at the Vincent Price Art Museum (1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, California) through August 30. The exhibition was organized by the Latina Futures 2050 Lab, an initiative of the University of California, Los Angeles Chicano Studies Research Center, in collaboration with Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College. It was curated by Vanessa Esperanza Quintero and Jocelyne Sanchez.