Understand Guadalupe Rosales motive and her passion to keep the Chicana youth scene alive
The Chicana youth scene of the ’80s and ’90s has not been forgotten by those that have lived it. Although social media did not exist, memories and photos have been uncovered by Guadalupe Rosales in 2015 when she created the Instagram feed @veteranas_and_rucas, dedicated to the Latina SoCal Fashion History. With more than 170,000 followers, Guadalupe wanted to create an outlet for Latina women raised in Southern California to be remembered.
Thanks to social media, many young girls today have a platform to become IG models and are thus glamorized. That was not the case for young Latinas of the 1990s. Finding that not a lot was covered regarding the culture because of gangs, Guadalupe felt that part of her youth was erased and gone.
Upon finding the death certificate of her cousin, while investigating his 1996 murder, she realized how important physical material is to have. This had inspired her to create a digital photo archive of the Latina SoCal culture.
Growing up in a Mexican-American community in Boyle Heights, Guadalupe Rosales had never been outside of Los Angeles until she booked a one-way ticket to New York, where she pursued her dream of being an artist. Veteranas and Rucas was later started while she was attending art school in Chicago.
For an installation project, she re-created a teenager’s bedroom wall using flyers of parties that she still had for more than 25 years. Those were the days when around 13 kids would all cram in a van without seats and go to parties hosted by local party crews.
Faded images of girls posing in front of low riders, wearing their favorite lip liner and classic 501 baggy jeans, brings back so many memories of the Latina SoCal Fashion scene. Guadalupe Rosales has created a separate Instagram feed in 2016, @map_pointz, which is dedicated solely to the ’90s party scene of East LA.
Guadalupe Rosales has managed to preserve the memory of the Latina SoCal Fashion History and of her cousin. Her art work, “Guadalupe Rosales: Legends Never Die, A Collective Memory,” has been on exhibit at Aperture Gallery in New York as well as at Vincent Price Art Museum. We thank you Guadalupe for keeping our memory alive.