L.A. InterchangesL.A. Interchanges

"Histories of brown queers who organized to fight injustices in LA during the 1980's should be commonplace in the city's portrayals of its past. That they are rare, adds poignancy to Lydia R. Otero's account of their own blossoming political transformation as they floated across dancefloors and crisscrossed the city seeking spaces of brown and queer belonging. Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona in 1955, Otero spent their childhood summers in LA with family and moved to the City of Angels in 1978. After finding a place to call their own, the author joined the newly formed group, Lesbians of Color. A few years later, Otero became active in Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU), and found themselves in the midst of organizing fundraisers, protests, retreats, marches and celebrations that may go down in history as the apex of LA brown queer activism. Otero portrays fellow organizers as strategists who explored previously unimaged avenues to address the needs of brown queers including establishing Bienestar: A Gay Latino AIDS Project in 1989. Rooted in Otero's lived experiences and grounded in the philosophy that the personal is political, the inclusion of footnotes and archival documents such as photographs and flyers adds depth to L.A. Interchanges. That the author worked as electrician to support their activism also offers a different vantage point of a city in the midst of restructuring as Otero's labor contributed to building some of the most iconic structures in Los Angeles, such as the U.S. Bank Tower, Universal Studios' City Walk and the Metro Rail"--