From acclaimed artist and Instagram star Guadalupe Rosales comes a moonlit memoir of growing up in ’90s Los Angeles, told in stories, snapshots and social media posts.
Guadalupe Rosales’s East L.A. is full of delight and danger: backyard raves and boulevards made for cruising laced with the threat of violence from gangs, crushes and cops. With evocative, intimate prose, Rosales captures the freedom and the current of fear pulsing through the night.
After losing a cousin to violence in 1996, Rosales moved across the country to New York City. Away for the first time, she noticed how her Mexican American community was overlooked and misconstrued by mainstream media.
A stack of starshots from her youth became a lifeline and eventually inspired her to create two digital archives while she was away from home: magnetic counternarratives to the stereotypes.
Today, Rosales has 325,000 engaged followers across two IG accounts: Veteranas and Rucas celebrates 90s L.A. women, while Map Pointz focuses on the party crew scene of that era. Thanks to her curation, they’re thriving online communities where people contribute photos, memories and cariño (Spanish for affection).
Now, this beloved artist extends her project of collective memory by sharing her own story of adolescence in a treacherous time, finding herself as an artist far from home, coming to terms with her own queerness, and coming home transformed.
Elegantly designed, the text is interspersed with photography, flyers and social media conversations. While the book is rooted in Rosales’s own experience, it also includes the voices of friends and family.
Online, Rosales has built a vibrant, life-giving space; with this memoir, she tells her own story of the loss and healing that motivated her to build a living temple to women like her younger self. East of the River is a beautiful offering from one of the most compelling voices of her generation.
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