LA Latinx queer festival organizers say immigration operations ‘cannot rob us of our joy’
“Queer joy” is a form of resistance, organizers of a Latinx LGBTQ+ community festival this Sunday in Los Angeles say.
“Jotería,” an annual cultural celebration for members of the LGBTQ+ Latinx community, will be hosted at LA Plaza de Culturas y Artes (LAPCA) — a Smithsonian-affiliated museum located in downtown Los Angeles, near Olvera Street, in partnership with Salvies Who Lunch. The event is free with RSVP only.
Sunday’s all-ages event begins at 1 p.m., and will include food, arts and crafts, live performances, small business vendors, and HIV/AIDS resource booths for attendees. Queer performers, including drag artist Queen Angelina and trans DJ MizSkoden, will share messages of positivity, organizers said.
The event was initially scheduled for June 14, during Pride Month, but was postponed due to increased immigration enforcement activity in the L.A. area. Starting in June, federal officers conducted nearby raids targeting undocumented immigrants as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
“The safety and well-being of our community, artists, volunteers, partners and attendees remain our highest priority,” LAPCA organizers said on Instagram, days before the original event date in June.
Cynthia Gonzalez, founder of Salvies Who Lunch, said that officials are taking measures to protect attendees from ICE sweeps. They are holding the cultural event in a private outdoor space at LAPCA, and only letting people who RSVP enter.
Gonzalez added that she sees this upcoming gathering as a show of resistance against ICE, and proof that ongoing detentions or deportations “cannot rob us of our joy, of our identities, of our cultural heritage.”
The term “Jotería” has historically been used to describe “people of Mexican descent who do not fit heteronormative standards,” according to the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism and Scholarship, but has since become a term of empowerment and decolonization.
Gonzalez, a queer woman, said the word is being “reclaimed” by the LGBTQ+ community — similar to the word “queer” in English.
“We use it as a way to show power, to show strength and to inspire the next generation of queer youth that this is their home,” she said. “The word in itself is reclaiming it from a derogative — from a negative to a positive.”
For more information, and to RSVP for Jotería on Sunday, visit lapca.org.
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