woc femmes MUCHACHAMINI INPUNK &
WELCOME!
Growing up, I was obsessed with punk music and culture. However, I did not see myself represented in the punk world at all. It wasn’t until down the road that I began to discover BIPOC in punk which is what ultimately gave me the courage to start my own zine, band, & scene.
BIPOC in punk, especially WOC in punk, have not been given credit, opportunity, and the same attention that white people & men in punk get. To discover the following women & femmes of color was a lifeline for me & I want to pay them some homage through this zine.
– Daisy Salinas
5.TERESA COVARRUBIAS
Born and raised in the Boyle Heights section of East L.A., Teresa Covarrubias was a Chicana singer and musician who was heavily influenced by alternative rock music and D.I.Y punk fanzines. So in 1978, she jumped at the chance to become the frontwoman of Chicanx punk band The Brat.
As a lyricist of the band, she explored themes of racism, classism, and cultural identity. The band became regulars at the punk venue The Vex and became known for their five song EP Attitudes, released in 1980. After The Brat broke up in 1985, Covarrubias joined Chicana feminist bands Las Tres & Goddess 13.
4.VAGINAL CREMEDAVIS
Vaginal Davis is an intersex-born genderqueer femme drag performer, musician, zinester, & filmmaker who played a role in the inception of the DIY queercore music scene.
Paying homage to Black revolutionary Angela Davis with her name, Davis was a member of the concept bands Afro Sisters, Black Fag, & Cholita! The Female Menudo w/ Alice Bag.
Dubbing her aesthetic "terrorist drag," Davis' performances challenge both the homophobia & transphobia in punk and the cultural assimilation of mainstream gay culture. Through her art, she continues to push back against the erasure of Blackness, transness, & queerness in both the art world and society at large.
3.MICHELLE GONZALES
In the 1980s and 90s, Michelle Gonzales was a Xicana drummer and lyricist for three all women punk bands: Bitch Fight, Kamala and the Karivores, and Spitboy. In 2016, Gonzales published her memoir The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band about her experiences touring the world as the only POC in her hardcore anarcho-punk band Spitboy as well as navigating the predominately white Bay Area punk scene. Though Gonzales did not affiliate herself with the riot grrrl movement, she helped pave the road for women in punk today. In 2021, Spitboy released their complete discography as a new compilation, Body of Work (19901995) through Don Giovanni Records.
2.POLY STYRENE
Poly Styrene, (19572011) was a mixed-race Black punk rock pioneer whose raw, intense vocals and colorful, subversive wardrobe inspired a generation of women in rock. In 1976 she formed the band XRay Spex, for which she served as songwriter and vocalist with short tight songs that used humor as well as anger to challenge sexism, racism, & consumerism.
Styrene is revered as an inspiration to both the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements. Though she died from breast cancer in 2011, Styrene’s legacy lives on and is celebrated in the documentary Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché co-directed by her daughter Celeste Bell.
1.ALICE BAG
In the mid 70s, Chicana feminist punk icon Alice Bag helped birth the East L.A. punk scene with her band The Bags, before punk was even called punk. She was known for her confrontational stage persona & piercing vocals. A daughter of Mexican migrants, Bag drew upon the vocal stylings & performance gestures of women Mexican ranchera singers she heard growing up to craft her own style.
Though The Bags disbanded in 1981, Bag still remains active in the scene and is also an author, outspoken activist, educator, feminist & a selfproclaimed troublemaker. In 2011, she published her memoir Violence Girl: East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story. Reading her book was the spark that ignited my courage to hit the stage, cultivate DIY punk community, & start
