Story

Growing up in East Los Angeles, we get our nutrients from the corners. East Los Angeles is where my unnamed neighbors sit next to me on the public buses and crowded mercados. It’s where artisan hand painted eyebrows became a fad and rosaries dangle from our throats. Where frightening gunshots get mistaken for fluorescent firecrackers, and add warmth to our atmosphere. Where we spill our teeth over our subhuman occupations during the heat of the summer. The concrete is meticulously  tattooed with graffiti, so pure, however its expression is often misunderstood. Our blood; it gets misplaced with a type of sticky tar. Our skin sizzles in the summer as we congregate under the sun in fields or in manufacturing factories scattered across this country. Our sweat drips and pools around our ankles, as our labor becomes someone else's commodity. The community I was raised in, it places me under its tongue, and I’m absorbed into its gums. It’s dangerous.

  Being born and raised in East Los Angeles, I come to realize how my Chicano identity and Latino background has become the originating genes to my body of art work and craft. The working class struggling family and community I was born into, aided in my drive for innovation and lust for “honest art” which to me, is realistic, relatable commentary on underprivileged lives. I come from a culture of people you never see featured in popular magazines, or media. Our lifestyle is evident and purely valid, however I continue to find our narratives of our existence to be misconstrued. I want to showcase truth, and honesty. This is the significance and integrity I wish to provide through destacarse. and through my apparel.

With immense curiosity, I hand pattern, construct, and produce each abstract garment and artwork with both integrity and curiosity. Through my theoretical work, my designs and art making is where I am able to show my practices and provide my social commentary. 

 

With great curiosity,

Rene Camarillo