By Brian Dunlap

The Chicanx residents of the Eastside (Boyle Heights and East L.A.) have done more than make it a vibrant neighborhood. Mexican Independence Day celebrations and parade, Dia de Los Muertos, Mariachi Plaza, tamales at Christmas, the theatre Casa 0101, street venders, Chicano murals, the Chicano Blow Outs in the late 1960s—they’ve played a significant role in shaping the culture and personality of Los Ángeles.

Along with the murals, some painted by the foundational figures of Chicanx art—John Valdez and Barbara Carrasco—expressing their history, frustrations, dreams, hopes and grievances against a society they viewed as largely oppressive, and by current artists depicting their reality, Eastside musicians have blended their experiences of Mexican musical traditions like Son Jarocho and Mariachi with other Latin American and American musical traditions. Los Lobos, La Santa Cecilia, Chicano Batman, Three Midniters, and Quetzal. Many of them infusing their music with the social justice issues of the Eastside (immigration, criminal and urban environmental justice reform, etc.) and with their own social justice actions that spring from these Eastside issues.

Out of this fusion of community activist and musician comes Martha Gonzalez, Claremont college professor and lead singer, percussionist and songwriter of the Grammy Award winning band Quetzal. As a self-proclaimed chicana artivista (artist/activist), she joined the group shortly after it was formed by Quetzal Flores, a man who fell in love with the fusion of these musical styles and saw how it was used at rallies and marches as an expression of mexicanidad-Mexican roots by Mexican Americans.

Though Gonzalez calls Quetzal an “East L.A. Chican@ rock group,” based on its rootedness in the cultural complexities of Barrio life, social activism, strong feminist stance and rock and roll musical beginnings, the band and herself engage in a much larger web of musical, cultural and political engagement. Part of this stems from her work as a feminist music theorist as she’s remained active in the community implementing the collective songwriting method in correctional facilities, schools, prisons, detention centers and college classrooms in California, Arizona and Seattle, that’s influenced her scholarship.

Now, Gonzalez’s first book Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community, and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles has just been released by the University of Texas Press. This book explores how Chican@ aritvistas in East Los Ángeles, from 1995 to the present, have created a unique community of processed-based political engagement influenced by the Zapatistas and fandango movements through the ways creative expression can serve the dual roles of political commentary and community building. She uses examples such as the mobilizing music, poetry, dance and art that emerged in pre-gentrification corners of Downtown L.A. and throughout the Eastside, to illustrate the impact of the Artivistas. To illustrate how the arts are an integral part of building and sustaining a healthy and vibrant community.

Check out Martha Gonzalez’s book from the University of Texas Press.