The punk subculture, in its idealized form, brought people from all walks of life — mostly outcasts and weirdos — together to make music and art. But nowadays, if you ask most people to picture a generic 1970s punk, they’ll likely imagine a sneering white guy with a mohawk and a cartoonish British accent.
But punk was far from only being a white British phenomenon; the genre has its roots in the United States. The original punks had a strong undercurrent of social justice, and the punk scene would be drastically different without the Latino queer community. So here are three queer and Hispanic punk legends who shaped punk, music history, and, ultimately, the world.
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Arturo Vega, the iconic artist who became “the fifth Ramone”
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While not a musician, Arturo Vega was a key member of the punk scene. Vega was a graphic designer who created the Ramones’ iconic “Presidential Seal” logo, but that downplays how important he was to the band. He was called “the fifth Ramone,” was their artistic director, lighting designer, and, according to one-time roommate Jonah Bayer, only ever missed two concerts, one of which was because Vega’d been arrested.
Vega was born in Mexico but moved to the United States in the late 1960s after finding initial fame with a Spanish-language version of The Who’s Tommy. He first landed in San Francisco. During this time, he hung out with two of the original Cockettes, Gorilla Rose and Tomata de Plenty.
“I saw the Cockettes, and I thought they were unbelievable. They were not like your typical drag queen act [of the time], that wants to look feminine, and act feminine, and does lip-sync to Diana Ross,” Vega told rock journalist Legs McNeil (who coined the word “punk”). “This was absolutely the beginning of everything, the beginning of all glitter, the beginning of all glamour, the beginning of all those precious whore costumes, it was the beginning of everything.”
Soon, Vega moved to New York City and joined what would become the NYC punk scene. He unsuccessfully pitched an album cover to the New York Dolls, which led to a friendship with the band’s lead singer David Johansen. But Vega would soon meet Dee Dee Ramone, and the two immediately hit it off.
“[Dee Dee] thought that I was a really cool person, a really cool dude, and that I should design things for them,” Vega told McNeil. “I thought he was sweet, and I thought he was cute. I wasn’t really attracted to him, but I thought he was a sweet kid.
“So I went to see The Ramones at one of those parties in Soho… the first time I saw The Ramones, I didn’t know what to think… It was beyond your reason, I mean your senses told you that something was happening there, but then it would just be this big ‘MMMMMMMMMM,’ ya know?”
Vega worked with the Ramones until the band came to an end in 1996 and Ramones-related projects until the end of his own life in 2013. By then, of course, Vega was a legend in his own right, and was exhibited at MoMa, the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery and Howl! Arts, which has done a number of exhibitions of his work.
Alice Bag, an inspiration for women punk rockers
While the Ramones and New York Dolls were kickstarting the NYC punk scene, Alice Bag was doing the same in Los Angeles with her band The Bags. Founded in 1976 by Bag and Patricia Morrison (then going as Pat Bag), The Bags were hardcore pioneers whose music incorporated Chicano influences from Bag’s childhood. The Bags had a definite impact on the sound of fellow L.A. bands like Black Flag and X.
Bag has also performed in the punk supergroup Castration Squad alongside lesbian punk icon Phranc from Nervous Gender, Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave, Elissa Bello from the Go-Gos, Tracy Lea from Redd Kross, and Bag’s partner at the time Shannon Wilhelm on vocals.
Though they never released an album, Bag described them as having “anticipated the styles of death punk, goth and riot grrrl.” There isn’t much that survives of Castration Squad’s music; only four songs appear to be available online, which include “The X Girlfriend.” She later had a side project with intersex and genderqueer performance artist Vaginal Davis called ¡Cholita! the Female Menudo. (More on Davis in a bit.)
Past the punk era, Bag continued her music career as well as found success as a writer. She remains a major influence on Latina queer artists too, with Kat Arrunategui of Los Cochinas crediting her as “representing for all women in punk.”
“Her music helped me to not be afraid to speak up about things that really mattered, whether it was feminism or domestic violence. I took a lot of strength from listening to them. It really shaped me into the person I am. I don’t think I would be the same if I never listened to the Bags,” Arruntegui told Dazed. “She’s still playing shows and with a lot of bands that are non-binary or have women in them to give them the chance to play with someone they’ve always looked up to or give them great advice.”
Vaginal Davis, “too gay for the punks and too punk for the gays”
Vaginal Davis was reportedly conceived at a Ray Charles concert to a Black Creole mother and Mexican-Jewish father. She was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. Her mom was a community leader and activist, planting food gardens in her neighborhood. Davis honors her mom’s activism with her performance name, a play on the name of Black Panther activist Angela Davis.
She formed a band, Afro Sisters, which released its first EP in 1978, though little material can be found online. With the Afro Sisters, Davis was a founder of the homo-core punk movement. She used drag as her weapon of choice, calling her style “terrorist drag” and herself as a “sexual repulsive.”
In addition to music, she was also a founder, with Bruce LaBruce and G.B. Jones, of the Queercore zine movement. Her most famous zine, Fertile La Toyah Jackson ran for nine years. The zine featured “SoCal punk scene gossip, photos of hot Huntington Beach surfers and wistful musings by Miss Davis,” according to LaBruce.
Though a punk since the early days, Davis grew beyond its forms and started exploring different types of music and different art forms. She formed bands like ¡Cholita! The Female Menudo, thrash band Pedro, Muriel and Esther, and the alternative rock parody Black Fag.
Davis’ bands were satirical, but that didn’t keep her from snagging big-name collaborators. Black Fag’s first album was produced by Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth, while their second was produced by Beck. Pedro, Muriel and Esther cut an album with Steve Albini, the famous rock engineer and punk musician from Big Black and Shellac.
“I was always too gay for the punks and too punk for the gays,” she told the New Yorker in 2015. “I am a societal threat.”
Davis currently lives in Berlin and continues to put on shows and more; you can find out what she’s up to on her (delightfully old-skool) website.
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