As of April 3rd, Veteranas and Rucas (VaR), an Instagram-based photographic digital archive of the Chicano underground scene from the ‘90s, had 59.9K followers and over a 1.730 publications. Each post gets over 700 likes and a lot of them go over 1000. Beyond those numbers, what makes the Instagram account really interesting and, let’s say, relevant, are the comments and people’s reactions. Followers are not just liking and commenting on the pictures but are establishing personal relationships with them by tagging their friends and asking them to share their own pictures to the account, by inviting relatives to follow the feed, by remembering those they had lost, and by wanting to recreate those old moments—among others.
The Chicano underground scene from the ‘90s in LA has been for years an underrepresented community in the pop culture depictions of urban Latino culture. It has been mainly represented by its gang affiliations and, because of that, linked to violence and transgression. But it is more than that as it includes other subcultures, such as the party crew scene that began during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s as an alternative to gangs. Party crews found unity within its members and, through the listening of house and techno music, were able to create a sense of belonging that last until today.
