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A Revisionist History of Chicana/Os and Latina/Os in Punk

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A Revisionist History of Chicana/Os and Latina/Os in Punk Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 3-11-2016 12:00 AM No hay Sólo un Idioma, No hay Sólo una Voz: A Revisionist History of Chicana/os and Latina/os in Punk Richard C. Davila The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Norma Coates The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Media Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Richard C. Davila 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Other Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Davila, Richard C., "No hay Sólo un Idioma, No hay Sólo una Voz: A Revisionist History of Chicana/os and Latina/os in Punk" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3532. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3532 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract( Through a media historical analysis of Chicana/o and Latina/o participation in punk scenes in cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, this dissertation decenters whiteness as the taken- for-granted subject position within punk and problematizes existing scholarship that assigns a unified and coherent political ideology to Latina/o punks. This work follows Fiona I.B. Ngô and Elizabeth A. Stinson’s imperative to excavate punk’s past and present in order to “rewrit[e] the idea of margin and center” within punk historiography and scholarship, and extends Mimi Thi Nguyen’s arguments against the periodization of women of color feminisms in punk as “timely but also temporary” interventions during moments of crises to include Chicana/o and Latina/o involvement in punk. By tracking the development and evolution of punk scenes in predominantly Latina/o and working-class areas of Los Angeles and Chicago over the span of approximately forty years, I insist upon the continuous co- presence of Latina/os (as well as other people of color) in punk, and the importance of critically engaging questions of race, class, nation, and power in punk’s past and present. I also argue against a singular notion of “Chicano Punk,” in which all participants in predominately Chicana/o and Latina/o punk scenes are assumed to hold similar motivations, objectives, ideologies, and aesthetic sensibilities. Examining multiple scenes across several decades reveals instead a complex and sometimes contradictory history of Latina/o participation in American punk scenes, with widely varying politics and aspirations across decades and even within individual scenes. Rather than attempt to make a grand argument about nearly forty years of “Chicano Punk,” it is more fruitful to look closely at several individual scenes in order to explore how discourses of race, as well as social, political, and economic factors shape Latina/os’ relationships to punk at particular times and in particular places. Though the conclusions I draw are largely specific to the particular scenes under examination, my study demonstrates the need to reexamine punk’s complicated relationship to race and points to several areas of inquiry through which a reexamination may be achieved. Keywords Critical Race Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Popular Culture, Popular Music, Punk Acknowledgments( First and foremost, I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr. Norma Coates for her wisdom and encouragement over the past six years. I’ve often felt out of place within academia, manifesting in a reluctance to be assertive in my writing, but Norma has continually pushed me to speak directly and to have confidence in my ideas. This project would look very different without her support. I also wish to thank my second reader, Dr. Matt Stahl, whose support enabled my travels to conduct archival and field research, and whose sharp eye strengthened this work immeasurably. Thanks as well to the members of my examining committee, Drs. Mimi Thi Nguyen, Susan Knabe, Joe Wlodarz, and Tom Carmichael, for their attentive reading and thoughtful feedback. I’m also grateful for the assistance of the FIMS administrative staff, especially Cindy Morrison, whose frequent assistance made navigating institutional bureaucracy so much smoother. Thanks are also due to all the faculty of the first Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Summer Institute on Diversity in Media and Culture at the University of Southern California for facilitating such a productive discussion. Additionally, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. Rob Drew, a mentor and friend, whose guidance and support throughout my academic career have been invaluable. Rob’s courses in mass media and popular culture, which I took as an undergraduate student, made me consider for the first time a college education as something other than simply a path to a job, and I likely would have never even thought to consider graduate school had he not encouraged me to apply. I must also thank my many friends in the struggle: Laura Cayen, who has read numerous drafts of chapters and conference papers, and has been an enthusiastic and supportive audience to rehearsals of presentations. More importantly, I could not have made it through this process without her friendship. The same goes for Andrea Benoit and Tiara Sukhan, both of whom have been a constant source of comfort and encouragement for the past six years. Thanks are also due to Jen Chisholm, Kate Grantham, Marilla McCargar, Giles Whitaker, Trevor Almon, Robert Bertuzzi, Danielle Hamel, Matthew Thomson, Charles Blazevic, and Chris White. I’m also grateful to my fellow students at the Summer Institute on Diversity in Media and Culture for inspiration, engaging conversation, and especially affirmation. Thanks as well to all the members of my cohort in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory at McMaster ii University (plus pals from the English side). And much appreciation to Abby, Emily, Tif, Kevin, and T, all of whom I missed dearly during my time in Ontario. Special thanks are also due to all of the participants in my study for their generosity in sharing with me their time and knowledge. This project could not exist without their assistance, and I am forever grateful. Additional thanks to those who traveled distances at their own expense to meet with me, those who invited me into their homes or shared a meal with me, those who gave me driving tours of Los Angeles, and those who provided me with records, tapes, and flyers. I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with each of the participants in this study, and hope that the results of the project in some way repay the favor. Thanks also to those who didn’t participate in the study and didn’t know me before I arrived in Los Angeles, but who nevertheless kept me company while I was far from home. Additional thanks to the staff at Razorcake for furnishing me with back issues and copies of CDs from their archive, the music staff at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago who lugged around giant stacks of Maximum Rocknroll back issues on my behalf, and the staff of the Special Research Collections at the University of California Santa Barbara. Finally, thank you to my family, who don’t really know what I’ve been doing for the past six years (mostly because I don’t tell them; this is it), but support me anyway. My mom and dad, Sue and Joe; my brother and sister, José and Angela; and my nieces and nephews, weird little people who bring so much joy to my life. iii Table(of(Contents( Abstract i Acknowledgments ii Table of Contents iv List of Appendices vi Preface vii Chapter 1 1 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Definitions 6 1.2 A Brief History of Chicana/os and Latina/os in Los Angeles and Chicago 10 1.3 Literature Review 25 1.4 Theoretical Framework 42 1.5 Methodology 43 1.6 Overview of Chapters 47 Chapter 2 51 2 “Chicano Punk”: A History in Four Parts 51 2.1 Defining “Scene” 54 2.2 The East Los Angeles First Wave: 1978-1985 56 2.3 The East Los Angeles Backyard Scene: 1981-1990 72 2.4 Latina/o Hardcore in the 1990s 77 2.5 The South Los Angeles Scene: 2008-Present 87 2.6 Conclusion 95 Chapter 3 96 3 See No Color, Hear No Color, Speak No Color: Colorblindness in Los Angeles Punk Historiography 96 3.1 Colorblindness 99 3.2 Competing Histories 102 3.3 Vexing Fallout 107 iv 3.4 Historiography and Colorblindness 118 3.5 Conclusion 127 Chapter 4 129 4 The Racial Limits of Genre Discourse: Chicana/o Punks in the Recording Industry 129 4.1 Race, Genre, Marketing 130 4.2 The Limits of Independents: The Stains and Thee Undertakers 139 4.3 East L.A. Punks and the Majors: Los Illegals and The Brat 141 4.4 Conclusion 152 Chapter 5 155 5 “Making Do”: Chicana/o and Latina/o DIY Cultural Production 155 5.1 DIY vs. Making Do 156 5.2 DIY in 1980s East L.A. 163 5.3 DIY in the 1990s Latina/o Hardcore Scene 167 5.4 DIY in South L.A. 2008-Present 170 5.5 Making Do: Ideology and Practice in Chicana/o and Latina/o Punk Scenes 176 5.6 Conclusion 182 Chapter 6 185 6 Summary and Conclusions 185 6.1 New Directions 189 Works Cited 205 Appendices 222 Curriculum Vitae 558 v List(of(Appendices( Appendix A: Ethics Approval and Extensions ................................................................. 223! Appendix B: Interview Transcripts ................................................................................... 226! vi Preface( These are two reasons why I have been reluctant in my own work to take punk as an object of study: I don’t want to participate in its assimilation into something like capital (an “exotic” object traded in the academy), or a canon (not least because punk is such a sprawl), and I reject the idea that punk is not itself a scene for the rigorous production of knowledge.
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