With a collection of posters, photos, magazines, oral histories, video footage and other materials, the exhibit highlights prominent Latina lesbians from the 1980s through the late 2000s, organizers said. It represents different LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor, and housing justice movements, among others, throughout history.<\/p>\n
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The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-LATINA-LESBIANS-0801-08.jpg\")
\nThe Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-LATINA-LESBIANS-0801-04.jpg\")
\nThe Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-LATINA-LESBIANS-0801-05.jpg\")
\nThe Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-LATINA-LESBIANS-0801-09.jpg\")
\nThe Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-LATINA-LESBIANS-0801-02.jpg\")
\nThe Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-LATINA-LESBIANS-0801-01.jpg\")
\nThe Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-LATINA-LESBIANS-0801-07.jpg\")
\nThe Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Carolina](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-LATINA-LESBIANS-0801-03-1.jpg\")
\nCarolina Hernandez, 22, left, and Georgiann Rodriguez, 24, use a computer to interact with a restored version of the Lesbian History Research Project website as it looked in 2005, which is on display at the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit at the Vincent Price Art Museum on the East Los Angeles College campus in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is hosting the \u201cOn the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism\u201d exhibit which features archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians through LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor and housing justice movements from the 1980s through late 2000s, shown here in Monterey Park on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
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The never-before-seen exhibit is a collaboration between the college and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center\u2019s \u201cLatina Futures 2050 Lab\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a $15 million state-funded initiative<\/a> pushing for equity and leadership opportunities for Latinas by 2050.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are incredibly proud of this exhibition because it features women who championed immigrant rights, safer working conditions, and broader acceptance of LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities \u2014 efforts that have paved the way for cross-movement solidarity in Los Angeles and beyond,\u201d said Veronica Terriquez, director of the research center and co-founder of Latina Futures, in a news release.<\/p>\n
Curatorial assistant Gloria Ortega said the\u00a0museum is dedicated to making stories and materials in the archive<\/a> \u201caccessible, especially since our student population is predominantly Latinx and Asian. Within this particular climate, we\u2019re going to continue to provide exhibitions that align with history we feel aligned with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Co-curator Jocelyne S\u00e1nchez said that organizers wanted to make this archival display \u201cdifferent,\u201d with decades of lesbian and Latina archival research and history being showcased, some for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a sense of duty because many of these women are still alive, and it\u2019s a history often not presented,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said.<\/p>\n
Many of the struggles fought for by Latinas featured in the exhibit were \u201coutside the realm of identity politics\u201d and \u201cjust LGBTQ+ issues,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said; instead focusing on the complex politics of discrimination, race and class.<\/p>\n
Policy and civil rights advocate Laura Esquivel collected much of the archive and is widely featured. Much of the exhibit features her work with the Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU), which in the 1980s was the first organization in the L.A. area to advocate for LGBTQ+ and Latino communities, according to exhibit curators.<\/p>\n
Esquivel later co-founded Lesbiana Unidas, a task force under the group serving Latina lesbian communities. In 1984, she became the first female president of GLLU and in 1987, co-founded the D.C.-based National Latino\/a Lesbian Gay Organization.<\/p>\n
The exhibit highlights different events and elements in lesbian and third-wave feminist culture and history, organizers said. One poster showcased features a 2008 lesbian revolution march in Mexico, with two women kissing and the words\u00a0\u201c4 Marcha Lesbica\u201d in Spanish.<\/p>\n
The exhibit\u2019s title pays homage to UCLA Chicano Studies librarian and archivist Yolanda Retter Vargas<\/a>, whose \u201cOn the Side of Angels\u201d dissertation was completed at the University of New Mexico in 1999. Vargas was known for her work as a \u201cher-storian,\u201d dedicated to preserving Latina history.<\/p>\n
The one-room exhibit has interactive elements, from oral history interviews with Vargas, to a QR code for visitors to connect to local housing, LGBTQ+, labor and immigration organizations.<\/p>\n
Organizers were excited to feature a fully recreated Lesbian History Research Project, a website \u2014 featured on a restored iMac computer at the exhibit \u2014 that documented local lesbian history from 1996 to 2006. It was an example of early digital archiving, curators said.<\/p>\n
Officials hope the exhibition is seen an example of hope, in a time where Latinx, immigrant<\/a> and LGBTQ+ communities are being targeted by federal policies.<\/p>\n
Co-curator Vanessa Esperanza Quintero thought it was important to \u201cpresent women as true as possible, in a climate where a lot of projects are being censored.\u201d<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez, a queer Latina, said the experience of putting the archive\u00a0together was \u201cgrounding.\u201d It helps her feel hopeful for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start to see that we\u2019re in the struggle together,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re connected and tapped into your history, especially organizing history, you start to see that our people have been in the trenches before and made it through together. There\u2019s always been people fighting for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carson resident Carolina Hernandez came to see the gallery with her partner. As a Latina lesbian, Hernandez felt \u201cso seen.\u201d She said it was important to learn more about the community\u2019s sociopolitical activist roots, and to fight the \u2018dehumanization\u2019 of marginalized groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis exhibition just shows that we\u2019re all people with our own struggles, trying to overcome,\u201d Hernandez said.<\/p>\n
Visit \u201cOn the Side of Angels\u201d this month at the Vincent Price Art Museum, 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez in Monterey Park. Hours for the free display are Tuesdays through Fridays, from noon to 4 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact: (323) 265-8841, vincentpriceartmuseum.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Portions of the archives are also available\u00a0by appointment only<\/a> at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 2, 2025 at 7:25 AM PDT<\/p>\n