New music exhibit ‘A Great Day in East L.A.' explores the Eastside's cultural impact

Los Angeles Times

17-07-2025

Piero F. Giunti had been describing his striking black-and-white portraits of some of East L.A.'s most prominent musicians — such as Alice Bag, Aztlan Underground and Los Lobos — when suddenly, he stepped away to receive an update about heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descending on MacArthur Park.
Upon reading the news, the San Fernando Valley native and photographer-filmmaker shook his head and redirected his focus. In that moment, surrounded by historic photographs of political agitators and artists he had taken over the years, he was reminded of just how critical their voices remain today.
'This is exactly what this project is: Aquí estamos, y no nos vamos,' Giunti said, evoking the a phrase that is commonly used by Chicano activists to assert their place in the U.S.
The entirety of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes' newest exhibition, 'A Great Day in East L.A.,' where Giunti's portraits are on display, lives at the intersection of art, Latinx identity and political revolution.
Walking through the heart of the exhibit, visitors can see photos of Linda Ronstadt, the Black Eyed Peas, Little Willie G, Trini Lopez, Maya Jupiter, Danilo Lozano, Yolanda Ferrer of Fatima Recordz and many more.
The exhibit debuted on June 28 at the Downtown L.A. museum and cultural center, where it will remain until Aug. 23, 2026. The venue's Main Street location places it across the street from La Placita Olvera and indelibly ties it toward the shared project of uplifting stories from the Latinx community in the city.
'A Great Day in East L.A.' is co-curated by Giunti, as well as musician and historian Mark Guerrero, UC Riverside professor Jorge N. Leal and the LA Plaza curatorial team, which is headed by the organization's director of exhibitions Karen Crews Hendon.
'Giunti and Guerrero have been working together on this project, which is to find East L.A. musicians, photograph them and record their stories,' Hendon told The Times as she stood in front of the entrance to the exhibit, which features a collage of all 170 of Giunti's portraits. 'Aside from just photography, it's an oral history project.'
The duo worked on the project for over 10 years, with Guerrero leveraging his access to East L.A. music icons made available through his music career. It's also worth noting the legacy of his father, Lalo Guerrero, the pioneering Mexican American singer who is locally recognized as the father of Chicano music.
'Guerrero's website is where he has all of those oral histories. You can literally just go to markguerrero.com and pick your poison,' Hendon said. 'He interviews all these musicians. No one does that. So that's why we were super attracted to this project.'
The idea for the exhibit came to Giunti after he dreamed about Art Kane's renowned photograph in a 1958 issue of Esquire, titled 'A Great Day in Harlem.' The photo shows 57 jazz musicians — including Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Mary Lou Williams — posing on the steps of a Harlem brownstone while dressed in their finest attire.
'For two weeks straight I saw [the photo] everywhere,' Giunti said — and that's when he cold called Guerrero to gauge his interest in hosting an exhibit. Guerrero agreed.
But 'A Great Day in East L.A.' is more than photographs and stories; it's an homage to the artists' staunchly DIY spirit. Elaborate onstage outfits, hand-drawn fliers, homemade recording machines, used instruments, local zines and eccentric band merchandise are also on display.
'It was a lot of community calls, broadcasting out to the community,' Hendon explained. 'We wanted to show what people have and to get to know those stories. Piero, Jorge and Mark made a million phone calls, went to people's houses, went to people's garages. I joined them and we were digging out of people's garages, asking, for example: 'What do you think tells the story of your late husband's band?' And so it took about two years to get [all that.]'
Leal was consulted on the project due to his work specializing in Southern California culture in the 20th century — particularly his knowledge of Chicano rock and the East L.A. sound. His expertise lead him to create the Rock Archivo LA, an online public history treasure trove that collects, examines and shares youth culture memorabilia and other assorted curios.
'One of the things for me as a historian is to highlight and honor people that are no longer alive and that for some reason in their time were not as written about, as celebrated, but that were instrumental for the East L.A. sound,' Leal said. 'Being able to share this subject in conversation with Piero's photos in such a dignified way that honors and highlights for visitors that, if this is the first time they come across this music and this history, that they learn more from this — it's something we think we accomplished well.'
One of Leal's favorite aspects of the exhibit is that does away with the notion that history is strictly linear and stuffy. The 'kinetic' nature of the showcase presents history through six themed galleries that together weave a holistic portrait of East L.A.
The first emulates a show venue, with ornate blue velvet curtains draping the walls and framing the personality-laden stage outfits and instruments of East L.A. musicians including Brenton Wood's zoot suit, Lupita Infante's traje de charro, a bass guitar and drum from the punk-folk collective Ollin and Chicano rock band Quetzal's lead singer Martha Gonzalez's Grammy dress — to name a few.
The second gallery is modeled after a rockero store and is filled with posters, records, merchandise and other assorted ephemera. A key aspect of the installation is its interactive component. Patrons are invited to play songs from a jukebox that has a bank of 40 records to chose from and projects each disc's album art. Visitors can also watch archived videos of East L.A. bands' live performances in the rockero section.
The interactivity and tactility of the exhibit reaches its zenith in the garage-themed section of the museum that attempts to recreate the aura of many people's first rehearsal place. Residing in the center of the gallery are an acoustic guitar, an acoustic bass, a ukelele, a mandolin, a cajón and a keyboard — all of which guests are encouraged to pick up and play.
'We are aware that music is cut in schools. People don't have access to instruments,' Hendon noted. 'We really want people to jam out.'
The subsequent gallery explores the political activism of East L.A., an aspect Giunti fervently connects to. His personal Rage Against the Machine shirt, graced with signatures from all the band's members, is framed in this section alongside benefit concert posters, May Day March fliers and photos of artists who embraced and displayed their Indigenous heritage. As he grew more political throughout the years, Giunti found inspiration from the political movements in East L.A., such as the Chicano Moratorium and the East L.A. walkouts.
'I was always a rebel. Then when I found RATM, I was a rebel with a cause. And I found Ozomatli, and I found all these bands one night after another, and those floodgates of questions opened,' Giunti explained. 'Having that political mindset behind everything, I said, 'East L.A. is an act of rebellion, just for it existing.''
The transition from the bright and colorful radically political section of the exhibit to the centerpiece gallery filled with Giunti's portraits is perhaps the most visually shocking jump in the showcase, but there remains a thematic throughline.
'I wanted to make sure that everybody was represented as best as we could,' Giunti said. 'With gentrification and all these things happening, we're losing everything. ... We've seen this in the past, that we lost everything because of destruction and conquering. If we're seeing gentrification as being conquered again, we have to tell our stories and make sure that these people are remembered.'
Giunti is especially proud of the women and LGBTQ+ representation that his work was able to capture — a unique and necessary component of fully capturing the essence of East L.A.
'We didn't do it because it was the cool thing to do at the time. We did it because it was the right thing to do,' Giunti said. 'So not only are we rewriting history, we're correcting it as well. So I made it a point that I wanted to find the women and LGBTQ+ people of East L.A.'
The last portion of the showcase is a room dedicated to East L.A. legends Los Lobos, one of the first acts to agree to be a part of and approve of Giunti's vision for the exhibit. Included in the space is one of the group's Grammys, an MTV Video Music Award, handwritten lyrics, a script for the 1987 film 'La Bamba,' concert ticket stubs and some of the band members' outfits and instruments. Giunti got so in the weeds with collecting Los Lobos ephemera and the band's history that he has a documentary about the group scheduled to come out in 2026.
Looking at the entirety of the showcase, Giunti smiled as special guests of the museum, including members of Ozomatli, got a tour of his work and marveled at it. Seeing Black and brown people feel represented and entertained by their history is exactly what Giunti wanted.
'The project is called 'A Great Day in East L.A.' because also when Black and brown people weren't allowed to play the Sunset Strip or the clubs in L.A., East L.A. had its open doors,' he said. 'East L.A. not only embraced the artists of all generations and genres — it also embraces people like me.'