Visual Materials
A collection of 49 gelatin silver photographs (5 x 7 to 16 x 20 inches) and several exhibition invitations, gallery advertisements, and other printed ephemera related to Aguilar's work. The collection includes 21 photographs from the Day of the Dead series, documenting participants in Day of the Dead celebrations in East Los Angeles. Most were taken at the Los Angeles Photography Center's annual ̕Dia de los Muertos event in 1989, where Aguilar constructed a large coffin as a background prop for attendees, many of whom were part of the Chicana/Chicano/Chicanx art community, including Harry Gamboa, Jr., Ricardo Valverde, and Barbara Carrasco. Also included are six photographs from the Plush Pony series, named for a Chicana lesbian bar in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles. These portraits feature working-class lesbians posing in front of a cloth backdrop that Aguilar set up in the bar. There are also two photographs from Aguilar's Latina Lesbians series, which combine portraits of women with their own handwritten text below the image. An additional 20 photographs are portraits taken between 1983 and 1996 of Latinx and Chicanx artists, writers, and others in Aguilar's circle, including Paul Arevalo, Monica Almeida, and Roberto Gil de Montes. Throughout the collection, many photographic subjects are identified by first name only or first and last names. Additional information about some subjects is on file in the Huntington Library; see Reader Services for more information.
photCL 658
