Visual Materials

The Other Americans

Description: Five boys at Bell Gardens High School.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1987
Call number: photCL 658
Creator: Aguilar, Laura (1959-2018)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift and purchase from The Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016, April 2022 and January 2024.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
Rights: The copyright of materials by Laura Aguilar is held by the Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. Anyone wishing to publish material by Laura Aguilar must use the following credit: © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016.

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.

photCL 658

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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.

photCL 658

The Other Americans

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Portraits

Plush Pony series

Day of the Dead series

Laura Aguilar collection

Photographs

Latina Lesbians series