LA festival unites LGBTQ+ Latinx community

A pride-filled event on Sunday in downtown L.A. brought together Latinx and LGBTQ+ community members to celebrate “joy, resilience, and creativity,” organizers said.

“Jotería!,” an annual cultural celebration, was held Sunday, July 13 at LA Plaza de Culturas y Artes, a Smithsonian-affiliated Latinx museum near Olvera Street. The festival, co-hosted with Salvies Who Lunch, was initially postponed from June due to increased immigration enforcement activity in the area.

Sunday’s all-ages, RSVP-only festivities included lively performances from LGBTQ+ artists and drag queens, diverse local vendors and community resources. Organizers said they took extra safety measures, including security screenings, to protect immigrant attendees.

“One of the things that we love to do is make sure that we’re keeping our eyes, ears and heart on the beat of the community,” said Salvies Who Lunch founder Cynthia Gonzalez. “We did not want to put anyone in harm’s way — not our community, not our patrons, not our vendors.”

Several women-owned, Black-owned and LGBTQ-owned businesses — including Xuc Clothing, an apparel company; I-Wear sunglasses shop by Raqui; and merchandise brand Xonaxi — were featured at the Jotería festival.

Gonzalez said she was excited to allow these small businesses to showcase their products, adding that many vendors have recently been “attacked” and “devastated” by federal operations targeting undocumented immigrants. Some small businesses in downtown L.A. have lost sales since ICE raids began in June, with more immigrant customers staying home due to widespread fears.

The term “Jotería” has historically been used to describe “people of Mexican descent who do not fit heteronormative standards,” according to the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism and Scholarship, but has since become a term of empowerment and decolonization. Gonzalez said the word is being “reclaimed” by the queer community, “a way to show power and strength.”

LA Plaza de Culturas y Artes also recently opened its newest, free multimedia exhibition, “A Great Day in East LA: Celebrando the Eastside Sound,” highlighting the contributions of local East L.A. artists, and will run through August 23, 2026. Its permanent exhibition, “L.A. Starts Here!“, presents a personal view of Mexican and Mexican Americans’ diversity, a “legacy of resilience, and community-led change,” organizers said.

“Our entire community has been devastated, emotionally, physically, mentally… there’s so much going on,” said Gonzalez. “(I’m) just excited to see everyone come together and share their art.”