Melina Cruz Bautista, Vida con Mel Photography
In our opening interview for K-Town Is OK, photographer and community organizer Melina Cruz Bautista discusses the importance of preserving one’s culture and language in the inner city, and how doing so allows people to reach their ultimate potential.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Photos by Jimmy Recinos.
Jimmy: So you were actually first exposed to photography while you were at Belmont High School?
Melina: Yeah, I transferred over my sophomore year and their Multimedia Academy caught my eye. I was able to join a lot of the classes and I started taking portraits, just sharing what my day-to-day looked like through an image. I captured a lot of my family members which helped me tell their stories but also how I was viewing the world at that time.
I graduated high school in 2016. The summer before—even the year before—everything was going on with the Trump administration coming in. A lot of politics came into play, and that helped my storytelling take a huge shift to documenting what was going on in our communities and how community members were feeling. I was able to get out of my own shell and communicate with the people around me. And I love it to this day, even the ups and downs. I think we all are willing to come together and share how we feel, at least within the Oaxacan community. I can only speak for myself and my family but now we're more exposed to having actual understanding and knowledge of what mental health is, how we can support each other, and the resources that the city can provide for us. So that's helped a lot. But there's also a lot of community members that still need the tools to educate themselves, and it helps when the younger folks are willing to do that work and bring it home.
Jimmy: Of course, of course. Now you're in such a transformative position. You just came home from substitute teaching for the day, but you're also going to school and also doing your own documentation—your own art and storytelling. You're very much in a position to show others that it's not just talk but something that you walk, something that you live by. It's really great to know that you're so connected to the next generation because you're thinking about what's ahead.
Melina: I’m not stuck just in the moment but I’m very much interested in how we empower ourselves, get more resources, support one another's businesses, support one another's crafts, take this city to the next level not on anyone else's terms, not on gentrification's, but through our communities and the potential that we have which will continue to grow and expand. It takes people to find that courage but also that power within themselves to open up space for the younger generation.
And our elders at times might feel like they've lost a lot of their identity because they've been in this city or in the States for so long and haven't been able to go back home in years, right? That’s why we have to share the importance of why we can't give up our culture, our language, and, more than anything, our resilience. And we have to let our elders know that the generation that's coming up cares. We're willing to do the work.
Jimmy: That’s right. Now, tell me about your connection to K-Town.
And my uncle, Tani Marqueos, runs Maqueos Music Academy on Pico Boulevard. He provides his tools, knowledge, and passion for music to empower the youth. They learn traditional pieces from Oaxaca and then make up their own music. They perform and do some really cool collaborations.
During the pandemic, we had City of Ghosts on Netflix. That contributed to shifting community conversations within Gen Z. I feel like a lot of us in our 20s wish we would’ve had this when we were growing up. But now that it's available, we have to make sure that the youth is watching it. I even make sure our primos and friends watch it. I'm like, “You can make your inner child happy because if you didn't have it back then, you can watch it now.” The stories are beautiful, right? And it so happened that it closed out with the Koreatown episode and that happened to be Tani and Yulissa Maqueos. I was so proud of them and I was like, this is why culture is so important and why these conversations are so needed. And now we're having that space to share and uplift each other. I also always encourage folks to ask questions, not really rely on others to figure it out for you. I think we're very curious and I love that about us. That's our little super power.
Jimmy: I'm so happy to know that you can recognize yourself, to know that you can see and claim your place in this timeline, in the storyline, because the next gen needs that. There were people before us who spent quite a bit of time trying to create space for us to thrive in, for us to grow through. Now we’re reenacting that exact same process with the various creative projects that we're up to out here, right? You've got these very particular experiences on the Pico-Union side, from going to Belmont High School, and having come of age during the Trump administration. All of that informs your view of the world and your view as an Oaxacan American. And that matters.
That matters now more than ever, as communities are at risk of being displaced—that is, displaced further because they've already been displaced. You more than ever have a reason to tell your story, right? You need to tell these stories, and the youth needs to hear them. The youth can describe things from their perspectives as well, but first we need to model how it gets done. City of Ghosts is one example. Here goes just another one, K-Town Is OK.
Melina: I love that because, you’re right, if we give them that vision, they have the understanding and willpower to do it themselves. It takes us sharing through our own crafts but I think a lot of us just get intimidated, or we hold on to our creative dreams without ever doing anything with them. So now, even a t-shirt, an article, it really gets people going. I love it. They’re conversation starters.
Jimmy: Yeah. I'm waiting on the next Oaxacan American filmmaker right out of L.A. telling stories about K-Town. Like, you, in your youth, have already seen a lifetime's worth of cuentos, as one would say. Things that have moved you, things that have shaken you, things that have inspired you. And the world needs to see that we're doing it, we're up to it.
Melina: And in respect to the community, I think of my mom también because she is a business owner. She owns Royalty Cleaners right there on Pico.
Jimmy: That's right, an entrepreneur.
Photo by Melina Cruz Bautista
Melina: YES! And she's always down to like have the conversations that make change happen. As Oaxaqueños, we still have a lot of unlearning to do. It helps that the younger generations are now entering higher education with a lot of institutions providing either free or more affordable resources. But it does go back to having those conversations with people at home. For example, my mom really opened up about the machismo that plays into politics back home while a lot of the times the women always hold it down. Oaxaqueñas, they show up through meals, providing a warm home. They show up and do so much of the emotional labor, but then the men are the ones that approve all of the ins and outs that go into the politics of every pueblo. Now the women are like, “Hey, I'm down to do the work, bring me on to the board,” but the men are like, “No, that's not a woman's role.” And it's like, why not? Why is this mentality so ingrained in us? The women have shown that we can do the work, so why can't y'all just give us the title?
So, again, there's a lot of unlearning to do, but also more of the uplifting and being proud of where we come from. The comments that were shared in the leaked City Hall recording really brought up conversations. There are a ton of scholars doing the work in higher education, but we have to also have the conversations in our communities.
Jimmy: This makes me reflect on how, among other things, something that’s so special about the city is the opportunity for mujeres to start anew, to claim this but not let go of that. I think when mujeres from places like Oaxaca start their own business, they're taking a major risk but they're unafraid. Or if they are afraid, they put it to the side and they just make things happen. So the fact that your mom is out there doing her own business, surviving, pushing through—that's what this city thrives on. The city thrives on Oaxaqueños and Oaxaqueñas, pooling their resources together and saying, “Let's make it work, let's make it function, let's make it colorful.”
That's exactly the place you and I have come up from, and that's why it's so important to defend it, because when we have to disarm all this—including the colonialism, the misogyny, all of these things that have been accumulated—step by step. We have to speak with one another. We have to offer information to those who are seeking it, and even to those who aren't. And what we’re doing here is exactly that. We are two creative folks out here, and we're just trying to engage in more dialogue with our communities and turn a new page and write new chapters for our gente. Oh, yeah.
Connect with Melina:
Website | @mellyyt_ on IG | @vida.conmel on IG
