Visual Materials

Day of the Dead series

Description: 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.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1984, 1989-1991
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.

Angie and Son

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

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