Party crews were organized groups of Latino teenagers that planned and hosted underground events, parties, and raves during the late-1990s and early-2000s in Los Angeles, California.
Background
The origins of party crews are believed to be in the 1960s — when "ditch parties," or parties planned for teenagers during school hours — first emerged in Los Angeles.[1] Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor, attended ditch parities when he was young.[1]
Party crews, which were defined by writer Janice Llamoca as "a group of friends (mostly teenagers) who are dedicated to going to and throwing underground parties," first emerged in Los Angeles in the late-1980s throwing backyard parities.[2] By the 1990s, party crews formed an organized party circuit, hosting weekend parties in backyards, parking lots, and warehouses in East and South Los Angeles, the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, Orange County, and the Inland Empire.[3] By 1995, it is estimated 500 party crews existed across Southern California.[3] Some parties were hosted on nearby reservations.[4] Party crews were named, and included groups such as a Lunatic Ladies, Get Low Productions, Profile Playaz and even larger partnerships between crews like 5N1 Kreations which included five party crews, Heartbreakers, Sweet N Krazy, Wisemen, LowLifes & Sykotic Females .[2]
Resistant cultural practice
According to the writer Virginia Arce, the prevalence of ditch parties and party crews of the 1990s can be attributed to the political climate of the era. According to Arce, the parties were a reaction against the criminalization of Latinos through the rise of the industrial-prison complex and the passage of Proposition 187, as well as the economic devastation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act.[5]
Guadalupe Rosales, the founder of an Instagram archive of party crews, writes, "At a time when Latino communities in Los Angeles were often disempowered and criminalized by the public school system, party crews and raves were our way of organizing for the sake of unity."[6] Party crew events have been described as a "resistant cultural practice," which allowed Latino youth to reject the criminalization and misrepresentation they experienced in the 1990s.[7][8]
Early-2000s
In the early 2000s, the party crew scene underwent changes, as hip-hop and reggaeton replaced house music; MySpace and Techno4Us became the primary mediums of advertisement; and the parties moved from backyards to mostly indoor venues.[9] In the early 2000s, noz also became an important part of party crew events.[9] Police raids were common, and the media covered party crew events as out-of-control.[10] This increased after the 2006 death of Emmery Muñoz.[10]
T-Parties
Infamous, a party crew in East Los Angeles, was known for throwing “T-parties,” which were events specifically for LGBT Latinos.[11] According to Cal Poly Pomona professor Anthony Christian Ocampo, T-parties occurred in the late-1990s and were mostly held in backyards, parking lots, as well as locations such as a laundromat and an auto repair shop.[11] According to Ocampo, T-parties were attended by between 100 and 200 people, with the majority Latino, and some Black and Asian teenagers as well.[11] In his book Brown and Gay in LA, Ocampo writes many of the young men dressed like cholos. Quoting one attendee, Ocampo writes, "You’d see these straight-up gangsters with tatted-out heads making out with other guys. I was like, ‘What the fuck? Like freakin’ cholos making out.'"[12]
References
- ^ a b Simón, Yara (25 April 2017). "This Instagram Is an Archive of SoCal's 90s Ditch Party Scene and the Latino Teens Behind It". Remezcla. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ a b Llamoca, Janice. "LA's Party Crew Scene Released the Pressures of Being Children of Immigrants". Refinery 29. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ a b Bahloul, Marla (17 January 2019). "These Photos Tell the Forgotten Story of LA's Latinx Rave Scene in the 90s". noisey. Vice. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Meraz, Gerard (2 August 2008). "Backyard Parties 1990s: Party out of Bounds". KCET. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Arce, Virginia. "Splendid Intensity, Splendid Subversion: Transgression on the Dance Floor". Western Humanities Review. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Rosales, Guadalupe (27 April 2017). "WHEN CHICANA PARTY CREWS RULED LOS ANGELES". Parts Unknown. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Estevez, Marjua (20 October 2016). "A Throwback Look At Chicana Culture In The '90s". Vibe. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ "SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHICANO PARTY CREWS AND RAVE SCENE IN THE 1990s". Chicano Studies Research Center. UCLA. 17 December 2015. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ a b Helou Hernandez, Samanta (11 April 2023). "For Members, The Party Crew Scene Defined LA In The '90s And '00s: Then And Now". LAist. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ a b "Party Crews: The Untold Story". LAist 89.3. NPR. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ a b c Ocampo, Anthony Christian (21 April 2022). "Infamous". LA Review of Books. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Christian Ocampo, Anthony (Sep 5, 2022). Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons. NYU Press. p. 107. ISBN 9781479898138. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
Further reading
- Ocampo, Anthony Christian, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (2022), ISBN 978-1479824250
- Rosales, Guadalupe, Map Pointz: A Collective Memory (2018), ISBN 978-1947346079
