Visual Materials
The Other Americans
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Portraits
Visual Materials
A diverse group of 20 portraits that include people Aguilar befriended in the East Los Angeles artists' community, such as painter Roberto Gil de Montes, photographer Ricardo Valverde and his wife Espie Valverde, and painter/muralist Barbara Carrasco. Also featured are Bell Gardens High School students, lesbian couples, and others in Aguilar's circle.
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Plush Pony series
Visual Materials
These six portraits are part of the Plush Pony series, taken in 1992. The Plush Pony was a Chicana working-class lesbian bar in El Sereno, in northeast Los Angeles. Aguilar set up a small studio space in the bar and offered to photograph the women and sell them prints for five dollars.
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Day of the Dead series
Visual Materials
These 21 photographs are part of a series documenting participants in Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos celebrations in Los Angeles. Several photographs were taken at the Los Angeles Photography Center's annual Dia de los Muertos event in 1989. Aguilar constructed a large coffin as a prop for portraits of attendees, many of whom included Chicanx artists. Other photographs include individuals and families in or around their homes in costume or makeup.
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Laura Aguilar collection
Visual Materials
A collection of 49 gelatin silver photographs (sizes vary; 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 Día 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.
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Photographs
Visual Materials
Collection of 49 gelatin silver prints of various sizes, chiefly 11 x 14 or 16 x 20 inches. Several are mounted on board.
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Latina Lesbians series
Visual Materials
Two photographs from Latina Lesbians, a portrait series documenting women from Los Angeles' Chicana lesbian community who reflect upon their sexual identities in handwritten texts beneath their portraits.
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