Happy Latine Heritage Month to all the Latine Goths and Punks
I understand that I'll never understand, but I will STAN.✊🏼
Mi Gente Latino!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is finally OUR time. September 15th marks the beginning of Latino/a/x/e Heritage Month in the United States. Over the next few weeks, everyone should be thinking about and celebrating the contributions Latine folks have made to the U.S. cultural landscape. While there are plenty of figures to celebrate, today, I want to take some time to honor an often underappreciated and misunderstood faction of the Latine community: goths.
Here’s a little something not many people know unless you are Latine: there is a robust community of Latine goths and punks. Like, it’s huge. There are zillions of Latines running around dressed in all black, listening to Morrissey and reading Edgar Allen Poe and getting Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos. They are devoted moviegoers who never miss a horror release. They are loosely interested in the occult, but also they are culturally catholic and, in some cases, religiously catholic. And, they are serious about being goth and punk and don’t think that makes their Latininidad any less legitimate or authentic.
As someone who grew up in East LA, a center for punk and goth music and a predominantly Latine neighborhood, I have always been exposed to and fascinated by this sub-cultural group. I’ve heard people describe Latine goths as “weird,” “scary,” and various shades of “lazy” or “unproductive.” Their all dark clothing, use of heavy black make-up, and interest in anarchy – it doesn’t sit well with more traditional squares and older generations. It’s like that tweet I have never been able to find again that says something along the lines of “Your parents didn’t come to the US so you could write poetry about mangos.” There is a cohort of older Latines who look at goths and say, “We did not come here to have you wear eyeliner and cry about feeling empty inside.” Personally, I think Latine goths and punks are dope. They have a legitimately tight community (and those who know me know that I love community above all else). And it seems that they genuinely don’t care what other people think. Or at least Goths know that other people are thinking about them and understand that their gripes only underscore the point of rejecting the establishment. Goths have always seemed so liberated and brave to me, a person who, for most of her life, felt compelled to abide by respectability politics.
Unfortunately, though, I am not a goth or a punk. Despite my best attempts to make it my truth, I have not succeeded. However, I think that what attracts me to goths and punks is a certain base politics around belonging and what it means to be an outsider.
In his book A Kiss Across the Ocean: Transatlantic Initmacies of British Post-Punk US Latinidad, scholar Richard Rodríguez argues that part of the exchange between US Latines and British Punk Bands is a shared outlier status against the dominant culture. For British Goths and Punks, the main dividing lines were along class, which connects to gender performance and respectability. In the case of U.S. Latines, ethnic differences, in addition to class and gendered expectations, are what mark us as outside of “normal” or white, heterosexual, and middle-class society. While both groups might share in financial and, thus social outsider status, race undoubtedly distinguishes Goths of Color from their white counterparts.
Since the time of colonization, the use of words like “savage” or “uncivilized” to describe Black, Indigenous, and other non-white folks, has functioned to dehumanize us. In the worst-case scenarios, we are made out to be monstrous, dangerous, and threatening. We are seen as “banditos,” “(illegal) aliens,” and “ruthless criminals,” not unlike the many figures in gothic and horror films and literature. There is a kinship between Latines and figures who want to belong or who are human and made to be otherwise. We are Frankenstein’s Monster, animated by forces beyond our control and left wondering why people run from us in terror. Considered this way, it makes perfect sense why so many Latines are drawn to punk and goth culture; it’s a space that is sympathetic to the difficulty of being different and critical of the social conditions that produce difference to begin with.
In recent years, we’ve seen a slight rise in mainstream representation of Latine Goth culture. There was the delightful HBO show Los Espookys, about a group of young friends who stage paranormal and horror experiences for businesses and individuals. And, of course, there was Netflix’s Wednesday, a spin-off series based on The Adam’s Family, starring Jenny Ortega. Just a few weeks ago, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was released, and it also stars Jenny Ortega. The Latine goths are getting their flowers, and I hope they continue to do so. I do not believe that representation is everything, but I do think it is the first step toward broader acceptance and belonging. I’m always happy to see Latine Goths. I hope they have a great Latine Heritage Month.
I understand that I will never understand but stan is RIGHT. I was just thinking about how much i grew up with emo-punk Latines in West and South LA. The solidarity, the eyeliner, the grunge, and sideswept bangs (that were the most I could do lol), were a TIME. Thank you for giving Latine goths and punks their flowers.