L.A Latinas by Stefan Ruiz

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Stefan Ruiz studied painting and sculpture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice, before turning to photography. In addition, he has taught art at San Quentin State Prison and was the creative director for Colors magazine from 2003 to 2004.

 Salina Zazueta-Beltrán, Isabella Ferrada, and Victoria Valenzuela in East Hollywood.

"My style is a tribute to my culture and the originals who came before me,” says Gabriela Medina, photographed here with her daughter, Aubrey at the Barrio Dandy showroom in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

Isabella Ferrada is an artist, model and aspiring cinematographer. Her makeup and style is a mix of inspiration from drag culture, her mother and aunts in the 1980s and 90s, and her friends who she describes as "a group of young, queer, woke brown artists.” She wears a top from Mujerista Market designed by her friend, Salina Zazueta-Beltrán. Photographed in Westlake, Los Angeles.

View from Ascot Hills Park in East Los Angeles.

Amber Rose Comacho poses in front of a shrine for La Virgen de Guadalupe in the parking lot of El Mercado de Los Angeles in Boyle Heights.

The Westlake, Los Angeles workspace of 20 year old Chicanx fashion designer Salina Zazueta-Beltrán, who makes each piece of clothing that she sells in her online store, Mujerista Market, by hand.

Maritza Amezcua and Sailor Gonzales have known each other since middle school.

From left to right: Maya Martinez, Dorys “Dee” Araniva, Dora Araniva, and Dianna Araniva. Dorys grew up in South Central L.A.; a mother of three (her eldest serves in the US Army), she founded a clothing company called DXCollective two years ago as an artistic outlet: the designs incorporate her love for graffiti, tattoo art and Los Angeles/Chicano culture.

Melissa Hurtado, a model, artist, and zine curator identifies as Chicanx, and gender non-binary. Their work often deals with intersectional feminism, coping mechanisms, and femme safety.

A view of Downtown Los Angeles from Ascot Hills Park in East Los Angeles. Right Aubrey Camila gravitated naturally to her mother’s pachuca style of dressing, and hopes to encourage other girls to be themselves without fear. Photographed at the Barrio Dandy showroom in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

Ofelia Esparza and her daughter Rosanna Esparza Ahrens in front of their home in East Los Angeles. Rosanna, the fifth of nine children, is an artist and graphic designer who runs Tonalli Studio with her mother. Ofelia has lived in this neighborhood all of her life: her mother originally lived in this house, and it is four blocks from where Ofelia was born, and across the street from where she attended middle school.

Angeles Zeron was named after Los Angeles. She writes poetry, takes inspiration from Alice Bag, and is proud of her family and their history. “I don’t want my culture to be exploited or to be a fashion trend,” she says. She was photographed in Crenshaw.

Ofelia Esparza, 85, is a master altar maker and lifelong resident of East Los Angeles. As an artist and educator, she has dedicated her life to her community and to continuing traditions she learned from her mother. She is well-known for the public ofrendas she creates each year in celebration of El Día de Los Muertos. She was photographed at Tonalli Studio, an art space she runs with her daughter, Rosanna, in Old Town Maravilla, in East L.A. 

An altar to María Felix by Dorys “Dee” Araniva in Westchester, Los Angeles. 

Via : www.vogue.com