At the end of her first summer camp, 11-year-old Naíma Arteaga was nervous about the last group activity she had to do: singing in a rock band and performing on stage in front of a large audience.
The assignment sounds ridiculous, but Arteaga wasn't at just any camp: she was at Chicxs Rockerxs South East Los Angeles (pronounced cheek-ecks roh-kerr-ecks), where girls and trans and gender-fluid youth learn to play instruments. , creating bands with each other, writing original songs, and performing live for a crowd during a performance, all in just the span of a week.
“Honestly, coming into that camp, I was a little more shy,” said Arteaga, who is now 18 and a camp volunteer. “I was nervous about singing, I just didn't feel comfortable with it, but at the end of the week it really helped boost my confidence and really helped me come out of my shell.”
A photographic exhibit of Chicano punk bands formed through the CRSELA program at the South Gate Museum.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)
Former campers like Arteaga are celebrating rock camp Saturday with an opening reception at the South Gate Museum and Art Gallery, where a special exhibit about CRSELA will be on display through Dec. 3. The exhibit highlights a decade of CRSELA's history, featuring editorial photographs of students over the years, DIY brochures, camp artwork, and archival objects depicting colorful moments in children's musical journeys.
“It's important to make sure we use this space to highlight and honor our communities,” said Jennifer Mejia, cultural arts coordinator at the South Gate Museum and Art Gallery. “What Chicxs Rockerxs SELA has been doing for 10 years should be celebrated and seen.”
CRSELA began as an idea in 2013 by a non-hierarchical collective of musicians who were inspired by Portland's pioneering Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls and the larger Girls Rock Camp organizations in the US. CRSELA became a official non-profit organization in 2014.
Museum coordinator Jennifer Mejía poses for a portrait with Chicxs Rockerxs memorabilia in the background at the South Gate Museum.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)
Like the other camps, CRSELA's mission was to empower young girls through musical self-expression; However, CRSELA sought to make the camp more accessible to low-income families, especially since other camps required high tuition. At CRSELA, donations from the public cover the costs of each student's program.
“Chicxs Rockerxs doesn't have tuition, and when you have these fees you deter people, so [rock camp] It was something they definitely wanted to bring to their communities,” said Priscilla Hernández, CRSELA organizer.
The camp also wanted to make the experience more inclusive for historically disenfranchised neighborhoods throughout South Los Angeles. This attracted Hernández, who as a teenager in 2013, received a scholarship to attend a Girls Rock Camp in another city. He had a positive experience, but says he was aware of the obvious fact that few campers shared his background.
“I definitely didn't see many people who looked like me there,” Hernandez said.
After reaching the age limit at Girls Rock Camp, Hernandez wondered what to do next. She heard about CRSELA and felt aligned with its values, so she decided to join in 2017 as a volunteer, teaching bass to students. She eventually became an official lead organizer, a “Comx” (pronounced cohm-ecks), as her group calls them, a gender-neutral version of the Spanish word “Comadre,” which translates to “godmother.” .
Miles Recio, from left, Priscilla Hernandez, Angie Barrera and Vikki Gutman pose at the South Gate Museum.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)
“The message really resonated with me as I was getting older. [Girls Rock] camp, [CRSELA] I wanted to incorporate a lot of things about Latinidad and pieces in Spanish, and that was something that was not part of the other fields,” Hernández said.
The Southeast Los Angeles camp's programming goes beyond music education. Children participate in a wide range of art workshops to express their creativity, such as zine-making and screen printing. During lunch, they are visited by local drag queens and bands who perform for the children to provide play and entertainment.
Students entering the program are divided into two groups: the Bidi Bidis and the Bom Boms. The nicknames of the two classifications pay tribute to the song “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” by Tejano legend Selena Quintanilla. The Bidi Bidis are made up of children ages 8 to 11, while the Bom Boms range in age from 12 to 17. When Arteaga joined CRSELA as a student in 2017 (the same year Hernández became a volunteer), she was part of the Bidi Bidis, and although children younger than her joined her, Arteaga said that did not diminish the experience. The band allowed her to discover her self-confidence and power.
“The moment my band and I walked on stage, I felt like a different person,” the CRSELA alumnus said. “My parents had even told me they were like, 'Wow,' they'd never seen me like that before. “I don’t know what happened, I was just doing my thing up there.”
Miles Recio poses for a portrait with Chicxs Rockerxs memorabilia at the South Gate Museum.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)
This was a defining moment for Arteaga, who felt compelled to enroll every subsequent summer. He even tried drums, which he ended up loving so much that he never stopped playing them. In 2023, he completed his last year as an eligible camper. Determined to make the most of it, she formed what she says is her “best” band: a punk act with her cousin, fellow Bom Bom, but her graduation from the program was bittersweet, and Arteaga admits she cried immediately after the showcase. .
“I loved camp so much that I didn't want that feeling to end. “I’m glad I still have the opportunity to come back as a volunteer, but it was very heartbreaking for me,” she said.
At the 10th annual camp held last July, Arteaga completed her first year as a volunteer band coach with Bidi Bidis, the same group she started with seven years ago. She hopes to recreate her camper experience for others and continue spreading CRSELA's work in Los Angeles.
“It changed my life and has had a huge impact on me. I feel that it is very important to maintain [CRSELA] because a lot of things happen in the world and you never know what is happening in someone's home or in their own community, it is a way to get away from all that and a way to escape from reality,” Arteaga said. “This is the perfect place for people who want to learn more about themselves, learn more about music and meet people. “It is an incredible place for anyone.”
