Interview with Fernando Landeros by Romeo Guzman (2 of 2)

Interview with Fernando Landeros by Romeo Guzman (2 of 2)

Punk
Music
Youth culture
South El Monte
Cholos
Police violence

Born in San Gabriel, California on July 11, 1980, Fernando Landeros remembers his upbringing in the South El Monte, Ca. Although his parents were originally from Aguascalientes, Mexico, Landeros spent the majority of his lifetime living in South El Monte. Fernando found an outlet from the suburban South El Monte lifestyle by immersing himself in the growing punk rock culture that helped transform the Los Angeles basin into one of the most important hubs for American punk rock music. Through his life experiences while living in South El Monte, Fernando Landeros tells the story of how the punk rock scene grasped the youth not only in South El Monte but throughout the Southern California region. Landeros, who is currently in a grunge band, gives an insight into the punk rock scene in South El Monte, and how the community grasped and embraced the new found punk rock “lifestyle” that took over their beloved suburban community. Through his punk rock youth lifestyle, Landeros tells the story of how South El Monte and its city landmarks evolved during the early to late 90s because of the punk rock scene and how other bands such as Tanguish and YAPO (Young and Pissed Off) came out of South El Monte.

Guzman, Romeo (interviewer)
Landeros, Fernando (interviewee)

Oral history interview, MP3: East of East - Mapping Community Narratives in South El Monte and El Monte

Digital publisher: Claremont Graduate University

circa 2014

Stephanie Griswold

SEMAP holds all rights, title, and interest, including literary rights and copyright, to the oral histories collected and made available on this site by SEMAP oral historians. Oral history narrators retain the non-exclusive right to copy, use, and publish their oral histories during their lifetimes. South El Monte Arts Posse (SEMAP) provides access to the materials for the purposes of research and education (http://semapeastofeast.com/). See our note about using and citing oral histories on the homepage.

MP3

English

Sound

Guzman, Romeo

Landeros, Fernando

wav

Part 1: 58:39
Part 2: 54:04
Whole interview: 1:52:43

Time Log for Fernando Landeros Interview:

2:48-5:13
Fernando remembers how he would constantly travel from SEM to Mexico with his family. He shares intimate stories about his childhood and his family. Goes into the internal conflict within his parents, whether to raise him and his siblings in America or relocate to Mexico. Fernando and his two sisters are all American citizens, but their parents still obtained a Mexican birth certificate giving them dual citizenship with the belief that there would be perks of dual citizenship.

5:13- 9:49
Fernando shares information about his parents' employment status here in America. He shares that his mother helped his father obtain a job at the local Sears, it was here that his father learned that he was great at fixing small machines and became a service man at Sears. Although his father remained at Sears as a serviceman, his mother, who was fluent in both English and Spanish, obtained a job translating for the courts helping his family purchase their first permanent home in South El Monte, California. The home which they purchased is the same home where the interview is being conducted and was purchased sometime in 1986 somewhere between 60-70k. Fernando shares that the house was creepy and run down, but eventually it was fixed. He shared a room with his eldest sister, while the spare bedroom became a playroom and a place to store things.

9:50- 15:10
Fernando attended Epiphany Catholic School in South El Monte. The all boy school was originally taught by nuns who according to Fernando were mean and often relied on physical abuse to discipline students. Sometimes when he was in 6th or 7th grade, teachers took over the school and the nuns were removed. Although he was in a Catholic school, Fernando admits that he never grasped the concept of Catholicism and waited until after high school to leave the church. While in junior high, school for Fernando eased up when he became the class clown. Sports were difficult for him and searched for a way to be accepted. While in junior high school, Fernando began listening to K-Rock radio station and his love for music hit an all-time high when he was in the 8th grade. He expresses that music was something that he could relate to and he felt as though it helped increase his creativity.

15:11- 16:55
When Fernando went to the Montebello Mall, he would always go into Hot-Topic to pick up a shirt. His first two purchases from there were both a Nirvana and Pro-Jam t-shirt, which he still owns until this day. Growing up, his mother would only buy him x-large sized clothing with the pretext that he would eventually grow into the clothing, this was why Fernando constantly spent his money at Hot-Topic and admitting that at least 20% of his wardrobe is clothing from his childhood.

16:56- 20:35
While listening to K-Rock radio station, his sister and him began to create “mixtapes” of songs dubbed from the radio. While staying up late listening to K-Rock, he quickly became a big fan of Creed, Smashing Pumpkins, and other big bands. He and his sister found that dubbing mixtapes from radio stations helped their sibling bond grow, eventually leading them to never purchasing a CD. Although dubbing mixtapes was a popular thing during the 80’s and 90’s, the internet launched Fernando into a new musical world he knew nothing about. While doing research on the internet, Fernando would often download wav files of different music that was not being heard on the radio.

21:18-25:03
Fernando got into punk music as soon as he was in high school following the death of Curt Cobaine. When Curt died, Fernando looked him up and read up on his history and music. This opened up Fernando’s desire to listen to punk music stating that punk rock is a combination of 3-4 strings being played. He picked up the guitar when he was 10 or 11 and he played on the church choir as a way to play. Fernando states that knew how to play the guitar, and that although making music is difficult—playing punk rock is often simpler because of the need to use only 3 or 4 strings. It was in his high school years that he started up his first band: Asinine. The name was chosen after looking through the dictionary. Fernando states that although asinine means stupid or dumb, he and his friends were neither of those; instead, they were positive kids who were simply looking to have a fun time.

25:04-29:09
While playing in his first band, Fernando quickly realized that he did not have the same experiences as other rockers. Instead of being able to write about emotional subjects, Fernando found that writing about suburbia was much more ideal for him. When picking a genre to play to, they chose punk because the lyrics in punk were often lyrics about having fun and being young. When asked about songs he wrote, he states that songs were often on simple and dumb subjects. In his song 50 Cents Short he sings about how they do not understand how computers work and how they are so dumb they touch the screen of the computer to have it work. By this time, he had a demo tape recorded and people would often request his tapes to play and listen to. Fernando states that his lyrics were always fun, similar to Blink 182 and Green Day. When describing the esthetic of punk rock, Fernando states that punk is racket with yelling and screaming, making it so that people turned it away.

29:10-32:22
His Asinine band lasted for about 1 year, and from then he would follow bands at gigs to watch them. While he was in high school, everyone had a band, and some were already touring. When Fernando listened to his first straight edge hardcore punk band, his perception of bands changed. Life’s Half was the first straight edge hardcore punk band that Fernando heard, teaching him that there are different forms of punk as a musical genre. Fernando refers to himself as a “jackass punk”, a punk the messes and makes jokes with people. Fernando stated that while in his all boys school, he would often try and make other students uncomfortable for his own amusement.

32:23- 40:50
When asked about his attire, Fernando states that he customized his first leather jacket. He painted his favorite bands on the back of the jacket with pins belonging to different bands on the jacket. According to Fernando, this was a way to learn about other bands. When looking at a jacket one could learn about new punk music that was being made and this led to the discovery of many different bands in SEM and the SGV. The jacket was a part of the “anti-uniform”, the uniform that all punks worse without it being considered a uniform. When Fernando first got a mohawk, it only lasted a month because he was so aggravated and rebellious because of the embodiment of what that hair said. His most memorable “shenanigan” was when he and his friends went to a Jehovah’s Witness Temple to speak to two girls. They were dressed completely in punk, and the elders of the temple told the girls to stop talking to them but not before calling the police. They called the police and said they spray painted the temple; when Fernando and his friends arrived back to his house the police stopped and frisked them and told them there was a report of a crime. Out of anger he and his friends went back to the temple and flooded the tool shed.

40:54- 44:06
Fernando’s parents hated that he was a punk. In fact, Fernando states that he waited until he was 30 to get his first tattoo and piercing. Punk was a way that Fernando could express himself, and Fernando only had control over his appearance. This caused him to change his hair and tear up his clothing so that he could blow off steam and show the subordination of how he felt towards authority. Although the majority of his teachers were strict, Fernando had one teacher that would recommend bands. He thought that teachers were straight edge and that they didn’t have a life outside of school, but this transformed the way he viewed punk music.

44:07- 58:39
Fernando’s first punk show was at the beach. He went with his sister and her boyfriend to see the concert put up by K-Rock Radio Station. After that he would often go to venues that were in warehouses or other places that did not look like a venue with a real stage. When he was in Asinine, Fernando would often play in suburban backyards. One of his first shows was on Halloween Night at his home. His mom made nachos and would ask attendees if they needed something to drink. When she realized people were smoking, she offered to light their cigarettes only if they were over 18 years old. Although he felt like there was a mess left behind, Fernando recalls that he has been to worse places.


58:40- 66:04
Fernando shares how he was friends with a friend that played in YAPO, Young and Pissed off. This band was known throughout El Monte, and if you claimed to be punk then you had to have known who YAPO was. When attending shows in El Monte he would either catch a ride or ride his bike. When the concerts were out of town, he would beg people for rides or often used his dad as a taxi service. When the internet began to be used widely, that soon became the way that he found out about concerts and how he found rides to shows. The El Monte scene of punk was small, but it was extremely big in the SGV. There were not many places that there could be a show at so if they weren’t in the backyard of someone then there would be no place to do the gig. At this time, he would show up with a band and ask to play with them. Fernando also states that the cover charge was often between $1-$3 but the majority of gigs were free of charge.


66:05- 74:39
While growing up in SEM, Monte Flores (local gang) tried to jump Fernando into the gang. When Fernando started dressing like a punk, he was left alone because there was a mutual respect between the cholos and punks, often making it seem as though the cholos were protectors over the punks. There were cholos that attended the gigs to just party and make mayhem. Cholos often hosted gigs and collected money, nobody would call the cops on the cholos because of the fear that was had over them. The cholo punk scene often was noticible because of the heavy meth use and drug use that was occurring. The bands that were formed by cholos were obvious because of the baggy pants, white t-shirt, and Cortez Nike sneakers they worse. Suicidal Tendencies was a band that played with bandanas on their forehead, the bandana would often fall right above their eyes and was soon linked to the cholo lifestyle.

Seeing girls and black people in the punk scene was strange. Although they weren’t seen much, they were accepted by all because it was just another ill-fitting person of society coming to join them. The only all girl punk group came out of Silver Lake and they were known as F-Minus.

74:40- 76:59
Parties that were had were rarely broken up. Cops would be called to homes and were often confronted with angry homeowners stating that it is private property. If a cop did go into the backyard, he would just take a look and leave. The parties that weren’t broken up were those that where hosted inside of houses. Nobody would ever bother the homeowner, and parents allowed their children to host these gigs because it was a way to watch your kids without watching your kids.
Rarely would parties get

77:00- 83:37
Fernando would find shows because of the flyers that were handed out and left at record stores. The flyers would be posted around the cities or they would be left at counters and any place that punks hang out near. Eventually this was replaced by the internet and forums dedicated to telling others where a gig is. When Fernando and his friends went to Whittier they would often hang out at Green Leafe where they would get flyers to gigs. Fernando states that he met fellow punk people when going to Montebello Mall just to walk around and find people who dressed and acted similar to him. For him it was a form of collecting punks, you meet a punk get their information, you find out about them, and you become their friends.

83:38- 86:19
Fernando’s sisters were not into punk. They were more into music that was mainstream and would often show him their musical preferences. Instead of shunning their musical tastes out, he would listen to the music and embraced it. His sisters often gave him new musical influences, and this became a way for them to bond. He would show his sisters and their friends his music while they showed him their music

86:20- 89:59
Fernando currently plays in a band called Fantasitca. It plays “spacey grunge” which means that the sound is more warped and digitally inclined. Fernando believes that grunge is coming back stating that times change and the interest in music does as well. In his new band, Fernando does not sing in it. The band is on and off, sometimes not playing together for years but when they reunite it gets the creative juices flowing.

90:00- 95:44
In ’94 Fernando went to see Total Chaos. They were a band that made it huge and would appear throughout the LA basin in coincidental ways. When Total Chaos made a documentary, Fernando saw his old friend in the field and realized how his friend shifted from straight edge punk to hardcore punk. Growing up, Fernando didn’t hang out with older people, so he knows little about the punk from the 80s.

95:45- 104:59
Fernando states that punk rock in SEM was like loose change, it was found everywhere. Although the music was not cohesive, it was what everyone was listening to and embracing. People would often venture out of SEM to embrace the punk culture out there. His parents warned him about EM and how different it is from SEM. SEM is a suburban city while EM is ghetto and nothing like SEM. His favorite locations were the Valley Mall and Gold Land. His parents often forced him to go to Cielito Lindo Restaurant to check out the mariachis and eat. Fernando states that he hated the community center because it didn’t feel like a community to him. He wanted to be behind closed doors like a normal kid.

105:00-112:00
His grandparents from his moms side lived in Chicago, so his mother has citizenship in America and Mexico. His father is from Aguascalientes, Mexico and it is here where his parents met. Fernando recalls going to Aguascalientes and just being a kid. His aunts and uncles from his mother’s side all became fluent in English.