Confessions of a Radical Chicano Doo-Wop Singer

“I relate to Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara not because he spent his early youth in Santa Monica like me, not because we went through the ’60s side by side on the Sunset Strip, but because he is obsessed with the creative process. It’s in his blood. He gets sidetracked by constantly, impulsively, being caught under the spell of the Goddess, but art is his lifeline as it is mine. Respect.”—John Densmore, author of Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors
 
“Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara, LA’s irrepressible impresario and ‘culture sculptor,’ is a generous mentor and consummate collaborator. In these pages, he takes us on a candid tour of the steps and missteps that have shaped his outlook, creativity, and public productions. Part confessional, part manifesto, these writings map his evolution, through family migrations, rock ‘n’ roll highs, personal lows, and collaborations with diverse activists and artists. With a keen sense of history, and mining his compulsions and desires with candor, Guevara has penned a powerful love letter to his greatest muse of all, his ‘beloved, unpredictable city of multihued angels.’”—Sojin Kim, Curator, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

“Hilarious and heartbreaking, Guevara’s memoir chronicles decades of artistic and spiritual fire. I cannot recommend this work highly enough as a wonderful and wonder-filled resource for students of multicultural Los Angeles, Chicano masculinities and identities, the music industry, performance art, and spiritual seekers in the Southwest. Since it is a treat to read and a joy to teach, I urge my colleagues to share Confessions of a Radical Chicano Doo-Wop Singer with their students.”—Jacqueline M. Hidalgo, author of Revelation in Aztlán: Scriptures, Utopias, and the Chicano Movement

“With provocative observations and original insights, this illuminating musical history also incorporates poetry, performance, and education. Guevara engagingly chronicles a lifetime of financial and emotional ups and downs with honesty and vulnerability. As a meditative ‘funk monk,’ Guevara treats art as a political-spiritual calling.”—Anthony Macías, author of Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968

“A man sings and in his singing he carries the grace, pains, missteps, and triumphs of his life. Guevara’s memoir is such a song—de aquellas y beyond. A con safos defiance against systemic injustices and erasures of Chicanos and all oppressed people, Guevara’s book is also flesh and bone, blood and brains, beauty and truth. Sing on, brother, sing on.”—Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca—Gang Days in L.A.

“Guevara utilizes intimate vignettes and inspiring poetry to chart his personal and artistic evolution into an ‘artivist,’ a socially committed artist. His memoir is also an invaluable academic resource, documenting an extensive yet long-ignored history of LA’s cross-cultural artistic hybridity and the sociopolitical contributions exemplified by Guevara’s fifty-year career.”—Terezita Romo, author of Malaquias Montoya
 
“Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara, polymath Azteca warrior and Chicano superhero—it is difficult to imagine that there was ever a Los Angeles without him. It was as if he rose with the first East Los Aztlán sun that gave creative light to the barrio. In this book, Guevara gives us the opportunity to grab hold of his belt loop and walk with him through his sometimes glad and sometimes sad but always-inspiring life. Hang on tight.”—Louie Pérez, musician, songwriter with Los Lobos

 

"Rock’s greatest untold story is Chicano rock, and doo-wop is its bedrock. Guevara, with his long experience and deep commitment to both the sound and the Chicano community, is the perfect writer to tell the tale. He’s one hell of a storyteller, too, and this is one hell of a story."—Dave Marsh, veteran of Creem Magazine and Rolling Stone and biographer of Bruce Springsteen

 

List of contents

Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Fire and Flames of Funkahuatl, by Josh Kun and George Lipsitz 1
Prologue 16
La Veinte: A Santa Monica Barrio 17
Rubén Ladrón de Guevara Sr., 1914–2006 21
Superman in Ese Eme 26
Music and Movie Moments 32
Miss Las Vegas 36
La Gatita 38
Las Vegas and the Breakup of Our Family 43
Sue Dean 49
Miss Hollywood 52
Shindig! with Tina Turner and Bo Diddley 56
The Sunset Strip Riots and My Second Marriage 62
The Southern Belle 64
LACC and the New Revelations Gospel Choir 68
Miss Santa Barbara and the Summer of 1971 75
Frank Zappa and Ruben and the Jets, 1972–1974 80
Miss Pamela and the GTOs 85
Miss Claremont 87
Miss Chino 89
The Mutiny 91
The Movie Star and Miss Blue Eyes 94
Opening for Zappa at San Francisco’s Winterland 97
Con Safos: The Album 99
Pilgrimage to Mexico 105
La Gypsy 114
From “The Star Spangled Banner” to Punk 116
The Whisky and a New Band: Con Safos 120
Miss Aztlán 124
Gotcha! 126
Zyanya Records 128
Cristina, Día de Los Muertos, and Chicano Heaven 130
Born in East L.A.: The Movie 138
Caliente y Picante 147
Performance Art 152
To France with Aztlán, Babylon, Rhythm & Blues 154
Validation Crisis 170
Jammin’ with John Valadez 174
Arts 4 City Youth and Trying Again 180
UCLA 182
Journey to New Aztlán 187
The Enchantress 196
América Tropical 200
Miss Mongolia 203
Teaching Poetry 207
Inner City Lessons 212
Teaching at UCLA 217
The Neo-Chicano Tantrik Funk Monk 220
Lust to Art: Mexamérica and Performing at the Getty 223
The Eastside Revue: 1932–2002, A Musical Homage to Boyle Heights 228
L.A. Times Profile of Boyle Heights 231
Funkahuatl’s Absurd Chronicles 234
The Iraq War 236
Cross-cultural Friendships and Protests 238
Manzanar Pilgrimage 246
Yellow Pearl Remix 253
Saving the Toypurina Monument 257
Rock ’n’ Rights for the Mentally Disabled 260
Resistance and Respect: Los Angeles Muralism and Graff Art 262
Miss Bogotá and the X Festival Ibéroamericano del Teatro 264
Word Up! A Word, Performance, and Theater Summit 267
Meeting My Brothers from the Westbank First Nation, British Columbia 270
Epiphany at Joshua Tree 274
Miss Altar in the Sky 276
Rubén Guevara & The Eastside Luvers 289
The Tao of Funkahuatl 292
Release of the Tao of Funkahuatl CD in L.A. and Japan 294
MEX/LA 296
Rockin’ the House of Dues and Grand Performances 299
Fifty Years in Show Biz 303
Miss Beijing 306
Miss Monterey Park 309
End of the Ten-Year Sex Drought 313
Seventy and Still Running 315
Platonic Homegirls 317
Joseph Trotter 318
A Boyle Heights Cultural Treasure 320
Boyle Heights Por Vida 322
¡Angelin@s Presente! 325
Sara Casillas-Gutiérrez Guevara, 1923–2015 327
Staged Confessions 329
The Fall 332
Take Me Higher, Mi Reina 334

About the author

Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara is a native Angelino Chicano musician, singer, and songwriter with Ruben And The Jets (cofounded with Frank Zappa), Con Safos, and the Eastside Luvers; a record producer of Chicano rock and rock en español compilations; and a performance artist, poet, short story writer, historian, journalist, and activist.

Summary

A pioneer of Chicano rock, Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara performed with Frank Zappa, Johnny Otis, Bo Diddley, Tina Turner, and Celia Cruz, though he is best known as the front man of the 1970s experimental rock band Ruben And The Jets. Here he recounts how his youthful experiences in the barrio La Veinte of Santa Monica in the 1940s prepared him for early success in music and how his triumphs and seductive brushes with stardom were met with tragedy and crushing disappointments. Brutally honest and open, Confessions of a Radical Chicano Doo-Wop Singer is an often hilarious and self-critical look inside the struggle of becoming an artist and a man. Recognizing racial identity as composite, contested, and complex, Guevara—an American artist of Mexican descent—embraces a Chicano identity of his own design, calling himself a Chicano “culture sculptor” who has worked to transform the aspirations, alienations, and indignities of the Mexican American people into an aesthetic experience that could point the way to liberation.
 

Additional text

"...a fresh and intriguing, heartfelt and insightful cruise through the main thoroughfares, side streets, and alleyways of Chicano rock ’n’ roll, performance art, and Los Angeles cultures, past, present, and beyond, seamlessly written by this first-time author."

Product details

• Authors: Ruben Guevara, Ruben Funkahuatl Guevara, Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara
• Assisted by: Josh Kun (Introduction), Kun Josh (Introduction), George Lipsitz (Introduction), Lipsitz George (Introduction)
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.06.2018
• EAN: 9780520297234
• ISBN: 978-0-520-29723-4
• No. of pages: 376
• Series: American Crossroads; American Crossroads
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; Rock, Rock & Pop music, Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Rock, Autobiography: arts & entertainment, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Autobiography: arts and entertainment, Relating to Latin / Hispanic American people, Hispanic & Latino Studies, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs