Hispanics as a group make up roughly 32% of Austin's metro population and 35% of Austin proper. Some crowds can't help but expose the collective's fortitude. They never know what will pop with who, and where – what crowds are going to dance and which are "seat-destined," as notes Zavaleta, a former KVRX deejay. CVC gets around: club sets, women-centric events, labor union conferences. "Going to a store and finding this tune that Sara was playing from Peru in the Sixties, you're like, 'Oh my God, I found this!' Then you're super eager to play it." "We learn to become better collectors, which isn't the same as buying a record on Amazon," offers Calle. The group chuckles in unison at a question about whether they still crate dig at record stores, a practice eclipsed by online record marts such as. "I'll walk by a mechanic shop in my neighborhood and someone's blasting some Tejano, or you go to the store and you hear what people are blasting from their phones," explains Giron. An "ear to the ground" aesthetic unites them. Jessenia Giron drove up from San Antonio. Ana Calle (La PhDj) is native to Bogotá, Colombia. Natalia Rocafuerte (DJ Dada) arrived from Puebla, Mexico. Austin chapter leader Xochi Solis (DJ Mira Mira) descends from an Austin lineage going back centuries. To wit, Torres-Castro is from Guadalajara. ![]() Almost all of the women of CVC originate from different cities if not countries. Society tends to bunch up all of Latin America into a single brown amalgamation where there are numerous and critically significant differences. They weren't girls."Īside from being an all-woman, all-POC group, the Chulita Vinyl Club only spins vinyl, which not only lends to the enterprise's authenticity but feeds individual histories. "The majority of DJs up there didn't look like me. I, myself, always wanted to DJ and collected records, but never saw that platform out there. I knew girls out there that collected records and mentioned they wanted to DJ. ![]() "We're underappreciated and underestimated, whether as a performer, working in the industry, or a DJ. "I often found that women, in the music conversation overall, we're shut out," she says. She doesn't portend a technical prowess – "skill-sharing" is one of the unwritten tenets of the group – but when she arrived in Austin following college in San Antonio, Saenz started the group as a means to bond over music with other women.īeyond a collective that spins its heritage as enjoyment, CVC doesn’t shy away from its curating as a politically tinged protection mechanism. Born and raised in Edinburg, club founder Claudia Saenz grew up listening to Norteño and conjunto, and gravitated toward cumbias. ![]() Support group and think tank as much a DJ crew, the hive-minded endeavor began in Austin three years ago next month. Torres-Castro belongs to the founding Austin chapter of the Chulita Vinyl Club, self-described as an "all-girl, all-vinyl club for self-identifying womxn of color in the context of providing a space for empowerment and togetherness." The collective has spawned chapters in San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley, and northern and southern California, spinning yé-yé pop, oi! and other various punk subgenres, indie-pop, numerous black and brown soul movements, New Wave, twee, Tejano/Chicano oldies, and even lowrider "souldies." Inside that one song, there's a whole history of things, whether it's the musical stylings or the story the singer's telling." "It means playing music that hasn't made the digital jump and sharing private moments in a performance space. "The vinyl could be a record belonging to a family member that maybe passed away and we get to share with folks," explains Camila Torres-Castro, also known as DJ Cienfuegos. Vinyl six-pack: (l-r) Si Mon Cecilia Emmett, Jess Giron, Natalia Rocafuerte, Jennifer Rother, Sara Zavaleta, Shavone Otero (Photos by Shelley Hiam)
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