Reading Love and Rockets

Marc Sobel

GROWING UP IN OXNARD

“[Oxnard] is a city where the streets have names like Citrus Grove and Vineyard not because they sound quaint but because they describe what’s there.”

—Robert Lloyd, L.A. Style

5

AURORA HERNANDEZ (NÉE REYES) was born in 1929 in Ysleta, a small town outside of El Paso, Texas, where her family had lived since “before the Alamo” 6 when the territory was still part of Mexico. She came from a large family with six sisters and, according to Jaime, “One was raised apart from them, the oldest one, and her other little sister died when she was very young.” 7 Growing up during the Great Depression, her family was very poor, and Mario, her eldest son, remembered hearing stories “about how they had a dirt floor in their house…” 8

In 1945, when she was 15, Aurora left Texas and moved to California with her mother and her sisters, while her dad stayed in Texas. “When her sisters were older and on their own,” Jaime recalled, “one of them moved to LA. I don’t know why [Mom] ended up in Oxnard, but... I remember [her sister] was telling her, ‘C’mon, the money is flowing’ that old myth and so they moved.” 9

Santos Hernandez was born in 1920, and grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico, a Northwestern state just south of the Texas and New Mexico border. He came from a huge family with 10 kids, and Jaime remembered that “apparently he was restless [because] he was always running away from home. I don’t know why he ended up in Oxnard either, but... I think for the same reason [as Mom], to find work.” 10

In 1941, Santos crossed the border into

Southern California. A couple of his brothers were in the US already, Mario recalled, “and they brought him up. I guess... they told him, ‘Come on, there’s a lot of money in the United States.’” 11 When he arrived, he got a job picking fruit. “Oxnard was a big agricultural place, and that’s when everyone was picking fruit.” 12

5 Lloyd 1990.

6 Cooke and Royal 2017.

7 Hernandez 2023.

8 Cooke and Royal 2017.

9–10 Hernandez 2023. 11–12 Cooke and Royal 2017. 13 Hignite 2010, 41.

OPPOSITE: The Hernandez siblings, c. 1967. Back row, left to right: Mario, Gilbert, Ricardo. Front row, left to right: Jaime, Ismael, Lucinda.

LEFT : Aurora and Santos Hernandez “holding Mario in Mexico, captured by a street photographer, 1953.” 13

Four years later, Santos was introduced to Aurora by a friend at a movie theater in Oxnard. Jaime recalled that “it was a Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell movie called His Kind of Woman!, which is a favorite of mine.” 14 In 1952, because of his undocumented status, Santos’s brothers coerced Aurora into getting married by a judge. According to Mario, “My dad’s brothers [said,] ‘Oh, just get married right now in the City Hall.’ They were filling out papers, the license and stuff. And they said, ‘Oh, the judge has some

time right now. Get married right now.’ ‘No, we were going to get married in the church.’ ‘No, no, just get married right now. Do it right now!’ So they got married there. My mom said her hair was in curlers, she was embarrassed, she was in blue jeans.” 15

Mario, the first of the six Hernandez children, was born on April 18, 1953; however, shortly after that, Santos was deported and “had to go back to Mexico because they didn’t allow him to stay here until he got his paperwork fixed.”

16 Almost four years later, he returned to Oxnard and Gilbert was born soon thereafter (February 1, 1957). Over the next decade, the Hernandez family would expand by four more as Ricardo, Jaime (October 10, 1959), Ismael, and finally, the only daughter, Lucinda, all followed.

Upon his return to the US, Santos got a job working the night shift “at General Motors, on the line, assembling cars,” 17 but with a family of eight and only one source of income, Mario recalled feeling “pretty dirt-poor.” 18 Gilbert described the family’s financial situation as “just on the high end of poor. Poor enough to know it, and poor enough not to have things, but not enough for it to ruin our future selves.” 19

The family of eight lived in a small three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Oxnard, an ethnically diverse town 90 minutes from Los Angeles comprised of several immigrant communities. 20 Asked about the diversity at their school, Mario recalled that “we were right near a Naval base, so there were a lot of kids from all over, many with weird accents. There were a lot of Asians, too Oxnard has a big Japanese and Chinese population...” 21 Gilbert recalled that “the street we lived on probably had more Mexicans because the houses were inexpensive. Just a street away the kids were Black or Japanese. It was a well-mixed area.” 22 According to Jaime, “[Oxnard] is like every town from San Francisco to San Diego. There’s a big, big Hispanic population here, and every place

14 Hernandez 2023.

15 Cooke and Royal 2017.

16–18 Cooke 2001, 34.

19 Timberg 2007, F-8.

20

“Locas

21 Cooke 2001, 34.

22 Groth, Fiore, and Powers 1989, 62.

Oxnard is located in Ventura County on the coast of Southern California about 60 miles northwest of LA. Jeff Chang, author of

Rules,” described it as “an aggie town of Chicanos, Latinos, Filipinos, and whites in the vast nowhere between elite Santa Barbara and authentic Los Angeles” (Chang 2002, 39).

HEARTBREAK SOUP (SOPA DE GRAN PENA)

“I wanted the original ‘Heartbreak Soup’ story to be a complete story. I wanted it to have life, death, birth, coming of age, sexy girls, the whole kit and kaboodle. I wanted it all in this first story, funny kids, funny teenagers, funny adults, and death.”

—Gilbert Hernandez 239

OF ALL THE STORIES that appeared in Love and Rockets Volume 1, “Sopa de Gran Pena” was the most important in defining the direction the series eventually took. Spanish for “Heartbreak Soup,” this two-part landmark story introduced readers to the fictional Latin American village of Palomar 240 and laid the foundation for Gilbert’s half of the series.

After the first two issues, which featured a riotous pop culture mash-up (“BEM”), a pair of schlocky science-fiction tales (“Music for Monsters”), and a surrealistic political satire (“Radio Zero”), Gilbert abruptly shifted focus with “Heartbreak Soup.” His fateful decision to eschew the genre material represented a sea

change in the course of the young series and would prove a pivotal first step in both his and Jaime’s maturation as artists.

His decision was partly motivated by the reaction Jaime’s early “Mechanics” stories received. “The response from Jaime’s work was so quick, as soon as the first [Fantagraphics] issue of Love and Rockets came out. First people were raving about his drawing, and then they’re raving about the characters in there. And I thought, ‘Well, what am I doing this shit for? I’ve got my own realistic characters I want to do.’” 241 “My work around the beginning was similar to Jaime’s: a science-fiction, two-girlshanging-out type thing (Bang and Inez). Once

239 Groth, Fiore, and Powers 1989, 91.

240 The name Palomar was inspired by the Palomar Observatory, an astronomical research center owned by the California

Institute of Technology which sits atop Palomar Mountain in Southern California.

241 Knowles 2001a, 46–47.

Jaime’s came out, the response to it was immediate. I could see how much more defined it was [than mine] and how much potential it had. Jaime had already grabbed it and was working that side of it just fine, so I abandoned my stuff and thought, ‘What is it I really want to say that’s different?’ I just kept going back to the idea of this imaginary Latin-American village. The more I thought about it and the more I felt it out, the more it seemed right. It was completely different from what Jaime was doing.” 242

According to Gilbert, “I was originally doing ‘Heartbreak Soup’ as a sort of roundabout way of doing a ‘BEM’ sequel… At the end of ‘BEM’ you’ll remember that Luba starts a revolution. I thought ‘Heartbreak Soup’ would be the story of Luba after she’s ousted from the revolutionary party, and she’s hiding out in this little town. Then I’d reintroduce ‘BEM’ towards the end of the story. [But] as I was planning this, I thought, ‘I’ve got enough here to tell a real story…’ [so] I took a chance on getting rid of the science-fiction elements because I knew that would be a problem with a lot of readers that were reading Love and Rockets for a different reason. There actually is one panel in ‘Heartbreak Soup’ that is from the old ‘BEM’ (ABOVE) that I didn’t take out because it still works, where Ofelia is telling Luba, ‘I told you not to talk to the locals.’ And

Luba says, ‘Oh, we’ll be OK here.’ And that’s because they were hiding out originally. But I threw out all the ‘BEM’ stuff except that panel.” 243

Jaime recalled that Gilbert had always intended to do the Palomar stories, but had hesitated in the first two issues because of concerns over whether those types of stories were salable. “Gilbert one time said he asked himself in his mind, ‘Why is Jaime writing like that? Are they going to like it? Are they going to allow him to do it like that?’ That’s why he did ‘BEM’ and ‘Radio Zero’ first, because he didn’t think people were ready for ‘Heartbreak Soup.’ ‘Heartbreak Soup’ had been planned since the first issue, or before. [But] he didn’t think anyone would buy it, or allow it until I started getting good reviews and he realized, ‘Oh, they like this

242 Collins 2007.

243 Groth, Fiore, and Powers 1989, 88–89.

LOCAS — “THE MID-TEEN ISSUES”

“My mom’s family were pretty Americanized and my dad’s family was the old country so it was a weird world to go back and forth in.”

—Jaime Hernandez” 332

WHILE THE FOUR “LOCAS” VIGNETTES in the midteen issues 333 were integral in fleshing out the personalities, relationships, and backgrounds of the main characters, Jaime expressed ambivalence about these stories.334 “#13–16 were really slow issues,” he recalled. “It was ‘Locas’ living life. I’m not sorry for those stories, but if I would have kept that up, I wouldn’t have gotten very far… the story there became only characters, no stories. After ‘The Lost Women,’ when I went into the ‘Locas’ stuff more, I was so into the characters that they were writing the stories, so there was no room for a plot…” 335 Concrete creator Paul Chadwick described the heart of the issue. “The reason that ‘Locas’ and his other minute examinations of this one scene, this East LA punk scene, lack a driving plot is because they’re being true to their subject matter. These are young people without a lot of direction in their lives. Naturally, they’re not going to struggle purposefully and resolve issues satisfyingly.” 336

“I didn’t know it at the time that I wasn’t doing good material,” Jaime admitted. “I thought I was doing great. But I just had the characters talking to each other and going nowhere.” 337

But while these stories may have been “going

332 Hernandez 2023.

333 “Young Locas” and “Locas” in issue #13 (Sept. 1985), “Locas en las Cabezas” in #14 (Nov. 1985), and “Locas at the Beach” in #15 (Jan. 1986).

334 In addition to the “Locas” main features, the mid-teen issues also included four related tales focused on Rena Titañon, Jaime’s other favorite protagonist from the early days of the series. These stories delved into Rena’s family, personality, and background, establishing her as a larger-than-life, yet psychologically complex character.

nowhere,” Hignite noted they were “at the heart of who the characters came to be Maggie struggling with her weight and menial jobs, Hopey’s on-off participation in band life, and the telling details that define the rest of the ethnically-diverse cast…” 338 The first of these stories, “Young Locas,” explained how Maggie became a mechanic in the first place and, in tying her occupational background to the barrio rather than another exotic fictional locale, Jaime began the process of re-contextualizing his past tales. Faithful to his roots, he would never fully excise Maggie’s early “prosolar mechanic” adventures out of continuity, but in “Young Locas,” those science-fiction elements receded into the background. Instead, as Joanna DavisMcElligatt, author of “Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories” notes, when Maggie returns to Hoppers, “Hernandez begins to deal with the intersections of race, gender, and identity, most overtly through the lens of punk rock culture.” 339

In “Locas” (#13), a core aspect of Maggie’s identity her “physical, linguistic, and cultural mobility” 340 was established. Having returned to the barrio, she found herself caught between two vastly different worlds: the Spanish-speaking

335 Groth, Fiore, and Powers 1989, 78.

336 Baisden and Crain 1989, 100.

337 Duncan 1989, 14.

338 Hignite 2010, 121–123.

339 Davis-McElligatt 2007, 268.

340 Geist, et al. 1997, 190.

OPPOSITE: The headshot of Rena on the cover of Love and Rockets #15 showcased Jaime’s increasingly refined approach, as his artwork continued to develop into a cleaner, more simplified style. Unlike the early issues, Jaime eschewed the excessive hatching and textures in favor of smooth, geometric shapes and clean, bold lines. This striking Marilyn Monroe-esque portrait was inspired by Matt Baker’s cover for Canteen Kate #2 (St. John, 1952).

According to Jaime, this lavishly detailed panel from “Locas” (#13) was “kinda based on my uncle’s barbershop when I was growing up. He had a barbershop in the neighborhood... I didn’t copy it, but I thought about how it used to look... Plus, I wanted to beat everyone to the punch and have girls getting boy haircuts because that was such an odd thing, especially then.”341

traditional world of her Chicana heritage, represented by the family and friends she grew up with, and the English-speaking pop culture worlds of punk and wrestling, represented by her new friends, especially Hopey. Maggie’s ongoing efforts to co-exist within these two contradictory worlds, and how she navigated the social and cultural expectations of each, would form the basis of the series for years. According to Davis-McElligatt, “The central core of ‘Locas’ focuses on the difficulties Maggie has in being Mexican-American and participating in her culture.” 342 Jaime explained that “it’s her Mexican upbringing that she just can’t shake. She’s learned to be a good Mexican. When she’s a Mexican-American, she’s kind of caught between being a good Mexican and being a good American. I take that from my upbringing: You’re caught in the middle, and you can’t please either side.” 343

For Maggie, “all of this cultural versatility is summed up and emblematized in her sexuality.” 344 Throughout the series, she is constantly bouncing back and forth between Hopey and several boyfriends. This bisexuality was, in part, a manifestation of these conflicting value systems, and which was more important to her at the moment. In that sense, Maggie’s attraction to Hopey could be viewed as an expression of her powerful emotional connection to punk and its rebellious, anti-conformist values, while her rotating cast of boyfriends represents her attempts to conform to the traditional cultural expectations of her Mexican heritage.

This dual identity was front and center in “Locas at the Beach.” While Maggie and Daffy were fantasizing about marriage, Hopey and Izzy ruined it when Izzy told a horrific story about her cousin who used to torture cats. This

341 Hernandez 2023. 342 Davis-McElligatt 2007, 269.

343 Benfer 2001, 6. 344 Geist, et al. 1997, 190–191.