Bonus: Eddie Ruvalcaba on Capturing Party Crew Life
Photographer Eddie Ruvalcaba started his professional career capturing snapshots of party crews for Street Beat Magazine, an indie magazine for party crew teens of the ‘90s. His photographs have become part of an archive of ‘90s LA Latinx teen life. Thirty years later, Eddie reflects on his beginnings with Street Beat and how photography became a staple in his life. *A note that Eddie was the staff photographer at Homeboy Industries from 2016-2021, and this interview was recorded in 2021 when he was still on staff. You’ll hear him mention it in the interview. He continues to work as an independent contractor for Homeboy Industries.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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23:55
Bonus: Carribean Fragoza on Writing “The Vicious Ladies”
Carribean Fragoza is a writer, artist and co-founder of the South El Monte Arts Posse. She writes about Latinx women and girls whose narratives aren’t always portrayed in the mainstream. In 2014, she wrote a short story for Bomb Magazine titled “The Vicious Ladies'' — inspired by the news coverage surrounding Emmery Muñoz’s real-life party crew following her murder. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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25:31
Ep. 8 Safe Space
What does the party crew scene ultimately tell us about what it means to have a safe space - and how might that shape the way Emmery is remembered? Janice looks back and learns that the rosy memories are not the only ones worth remembering.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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35:36
Ep. 7 Desahogar
In 2022 – more than sixteen years later – we hear from Emmery’s entire family who gather and re-hash more than a decade’s worth of information when an investigator joins the case.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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30:24
Ep. 6 Searching for Digital Traces
Before TikTok, Instagram and even – MySpace, party crew teens found ways to create communities online. One of these early social media sites was called Techno4.us — where Janice and Emmery both had profiles once upon a time. In T4’s heyday, party crew kids all over LA and beyond would connect through colorful and chaotic digital profiles where teens were showing their lives uncensored and on their own terms. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
For many Latinx kids in the ‘00s, the party crew scene was a safe space to express themselves as they came of age in the grit and glitter of Los Angeles. A space to make friends, forget about your problems and dance the night away. But the scene wasn’t always physically safe. There were shootings and police raids. Many adults saw the scene as gang-adjacent and the media fueled negative stereotypes of kids who were out of control. One of the teens who got caught in that easy narrative was Emmery Muñoz, after she was murdered in 2006.
Host Janice Llamoca goes on a Y2K-filled journey back in time to her own party crew days to find out what this scene meant for teens like her and Emmery, and why – to this day – Emmery’s case remains unsolved. From iHeart, VICE, and LAist Studios in partnership with My Cultura Podcast Network
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