“¿Soy Punkera,Y Que?”: Sexuality,Translocality, and Punk in Los Angeles and Beyond

Abstract

The xeroxed flyer advertising Pretty Vacant, Jim Mendiola’s 1996 independent short film (figure 12.1), depicts the much loved figure of the Mexican La Virgen de Guadalupe strutting, of all things, an upside down electric guitar a la Jimi Hendrix.¹ As a U.S. born Chicana who, in the 1980s, was rescued from the suburbs of Los Angeles by the Ramones, X, and Dead Kennedys, I must admit that I was captivated by this image and intrigued by the film’s title, an obvious reference to the British Sex Pistols. A guitar jets out from La Guadalupe at a right angle, transforming the familiar oval shape of La Virgen’s image into the shape of cross, or an intersection of sorts. What was this flyer suggesting by juxtaposing these deeply symbolic, yet seemingly unrelated, cultural icons? How did the title relate? And why did this deliciously irreverent image prompt me to think of the critically acclaimed photonovela/comic series Love and Rockets by Los Bros. Hernandez? And the title? Pretty Vacant is one of the “hit” songs of the infamous 1970s British punk band, the Sex Pistols. Again, what is this flyer suggesting? With all due respect, what and who lies at the intersection of Guadalupe and punk?

My theory had precedence. Stay with me on this.The Clash, for instance jazzed up their music with this reggae influence—a direct reflection of their exposure to the Caribbean diaspora and its musical expression there in London. Nothing new—the usual white man appropriation of an exotic other story—anyway, the Sex Pistols, my theory went, were going to do the same with Norteno, el Tex Mex. I was going on the assumption that the Pistols probably heard the conjunto on KCOR or Radio Jalapeno on the bus ride down from Austin. But the point is, it worked. Talk about your revisionist histories! Griel Marcus is gonna flip!

—Molly Vasquez from Jim Mendiola’s 1996 film, PrettyVacant.

When Alice, lead singer for the Bags rock group, takes the stage in torn fishnet hose and micro-mini leopard-skin tunic, she explodes into convulsive, unintelligible vocals.The effect is a raw sexuality not for the fainthearted.

—Los Angeles Times, 1978.