It’s not just a Pride event. These Black and Latino artisans gather monthly for The Queer Mercado in East Los Angeles.
Diana Diaz went from selling her hand-crafted leather handbags, jewelry and jackets on the street, then through her own brick-and-mortar store and more recently, and then in couture shops in Pasadena.
The flavor is queer and Latino, with most participants coming from their neck of the woods — East Los Angeles — a Latino-majority unincorporated community where Diaz says she’s seen a fair number of high school teens rejected by their families for being gay, bisexual or transgender. Some have been the victim of hate crimes, homophobic slurs and discrimination, she said.
Gaudencio Marquez, a co-founder of the market and a gay man, brings his crochet products for sale. He learned how to crochet from the women in his family, his mother and grandmother. While societal norms may see Marquez as an anomaly, he says that puts people in a box. Annay Serrano, 26, who keeps bees and sells honey at her booth, A’s Bees & Honey, was one of the first merchants to join the Queer Mercado. Serrano, who is lesbian, will marry her fiancé Abbie Robles in November.
She credits Diaz with encouraging her to pursue her business, passed down from the women in her family. “I am a fifth generation beekeeper,” she said. “Beekeeping comes from my mom’s side of the family and dates back to her grandma’s grandma.”“She was my counselor and was a close friend to me after I graduated,” she said. “She always believed in me.”
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