Alice Bag
The proximity of the East L.A. barrio to Hollywood is as close as a short drive on the 101 freeway, but the cultural divide is enormous. Born to Mexican-born and American-naturalized parents, Alicia Armendariz migrated a few miles west to participate in the free-range birth of the 1970s punk movement. Alicia adopted the punk name Alice Bag, and became lead singer for The Bags, early punk visionaries who starred in Penelope Spheeris’ documentary The Decline of Western Civilization.
Here is a life of many crossed boundaries, from East L.A.’s musica ranchera to Hollywood’s punk rock; from a violent male-dominated family to female-dominated transgressive rock bands. Alice’s feminist sympathies can be understood by the name of her satiric all-girl early Goth band Castration Squad.
Alice Bag‘s work and influence can be seen this year in the traveling Smithsonian exhibition “American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music.”
“Life is most exciting when we are put in the uncomfortable position of having to evaluate our beliefs.”
“I took big, hungry bites out of life, and I'm still not full.”
“If anyone hits me, they can expect to be hit back, and harder. I never turn the other cheek because in my experience that doesn’t work.”
“If Jesus himself, or Mohammed, or Buddha spoke to me personally and said that women are inferior to men, I would still reject that as false dogma because I know with every ounce of my being that this is not true.”
“I don’t want to accidentally end up looking back on my life to find that I’m ashamed of myself, I want to live a life I can be proud of.”
“My sexuality is not an inferior trait that needs to be chaperoned by emotionalism or morality.”
“Truthfully, if you want to remember me, do it now. I won’t give a shit when I’m dead.”
“I am not a perfectionist…if you believe that your best is good enough, you will find happiness. The unknown can be exciting and full of opportunity but you have to be involved and you have to be able to evolve.”
“What a waste my life would be without all the beautiful mistakes I've made.”
“Sifting through long forgotten stories of my childhood and writing on a daily basis, I became obsessed with following the threads of my memories, one leading to another. I start pulling on a single, seemingly trivial strand, only to discover it is attached to a longer strand; that one in turn is attached to an even bigger one. Sometimes, I find have tugged a whole, hidden tapestry of my past into view, one thread at a time.”