La Crisis: One Bad Solution

Okay, it can’t be that bad. Let me tell you what it reads:

1. Sevende ropa exclusiva interior para hombre.

2. Masaje de hombre para hombres y mujeres, que quieran salir de la rutina experimentar algo nuevo, llamadas serias por favor $ open

And if you read between the lines (literally) in english it reads:

Sale interior man ander weres different sizes & models.

Man to man masage women’s welcom IM BI

And if you read between the lines figuratively, it’s an ad for sex, complete with phone number and address. Sex for pay is nothing new but I thought it was a bit desparate to see it at a crosswalk, with so much information on where to get these services. And I thought knock-on-my-door-pupusas were brazen! Salir de la rutina indeed.

Sas!

PS. info blurred to protect the job seeker.

16 thoughts on “La Crisis: One Bad Solution

  1. Now what do you suppose this character Mario intends to massage one with? Ladies, have that old iron spatula ready to wack him on it should he cross the line. As for the pupusa lady of #204, I’ve found out that the tire guy lives next door in #205, and downstairs there’s supposedly a notary-public-slash-barber working out of his apartment too. That is all for now.
    Drinking with Tony

  2. Ha ha that’s funny shit. who wants to buy random underwear anyway thier prob used…and Al I don’t think you want that dude massaging ur pupusas lol jk

  3. Browne gets it. There’s big business in dirty underwear.

    Outside of the amazing linguistic gems, this is not all that remarkable in old Hollywood or anywhere on Craigslist in good economies or bad. It’s the location and style that’s newsworthy.

    As far as I know, the gay sex business is pretty unseen on the Eastside. That’s what downtown bath houses or the Whittier Narrows were for and they don’t advertise.

    Am I wrong here?

  4. Manitou, Garvey Ave. in El Monte is the paisa tranny hooker caital east of Santa Monica boulevard. There is also chico’s, which is a famous gay bar in montebello. I’m sure there’s more, can someone help me out on this one?

    Although homosexuality is demeaned in most of machismo chicano culture, it is fairly thriving amongst the community. Although Im straight, I was lucky enough to have a lesbian cousin who I was very close to as kids. I followed her thru her (hetero)slut stage, her druggie stage, her runaway stage, f*ghag stage (sorry i dont know a better term), and I was the first one she came out to. I remember she’d always tell me to take her to parties around the shittier/norwack area which had “a lot of chicks” but always ended up being teaparties. Luckily I would bring a lot of drugs to sell and had no prob with hanging around gay folks (which sadly is rare amongst many straight latino male teens who arent artsy, at least in my world at the time).

    I dunno, how about eastside catholic church choirs?

  5. I did NOT know about Garvey in El Monte. That makes me smile. I hope they put up a blue neighborhood sign.

    I’m pretty familiar with queer Latino culture. I did not grow up in the Eastside, but I’m a white ‘mo in Lincoln Heights who’s lived in LA in the spaces between Whittier and Silver Lake for 17 years– and 10 of those years I was involved with two radical fellows from Huntington Park and South Gate.

    I had worked for a year in pubic health polling and educating MSM (non-gay identified men who have sex with men). Queer Latino culture is proportionately much less “public” and more integrated within regular family and social networks than the stereotypical white dominated gay culture. And the sex business (hustling, masaje, and used underwear sales) seems even less public… ergo part of the “humor” in this post and my question to you folks with multi-generational experience on the Eastside.

    Because of higher levels of 1) non gay identified men (“pitchers” are often not gay identified), 2) private social networks that are less centered around clubs, and 3) queers largely staying within their family and social networks (as opposed to moving to the big city from their unfriendly small towns to make new gay communities in the city), much LGBT health outreach and educational programs are less effective in the private queer Eastside. There are significantly higher health risks including disease transmission and violence in the Eastside.

    You can probably make a Prop 8 theory along the same lines, if you want to beat that inflammatory dead horse.

    As much as the work was important and valuable, going to bath houses everyday for a job was not exactly my idea of chicken soup for the soul.

    And after all that mouthfull, there really isn’t much of a vocal Eastside queer perspective on this blog. There is a distinct queer culture on the Eastside (Redz, Chicos, church chiors (!) and the dominant private network set) which will change with new populations. Little Joy in Echo Park was an awesome middle aged working dudes gay bar and under new ownership it is now the mostly straight white twenty-something thrift store scene. Same of almost all of the leather bars and sex clubs in Silver Lake. Something to think about, considering the very noble spirit of LA Eastside.

  6. “shittier/norwack”

    Damn Art, you come up with some good names!

    Manitou,
    Those are some good points, especially about the “private queer” networks. And we are looking for new writers so if you have any recommendations or know somebody that might be interested, please send them our way. For the moment though, I think your comment above could be reworked into a whole new post as it has lots of good information that’s worth repeating. Do you want to give it a shot? If so, send it via the “contact us” page and I’ll make sure it gets posted.

  7. Al-

    I never once thought LAE was unwelcoming for gays.

    The topic just mainly came up cause of the prop 8 race debate, but primarily from the dynamics between racial minorities and the majority white gay community. I thought LAE was fighting the good fight, however, there wasn’t a gay, much less an Eastside gay perspective in the mix.

    Thanks El Chavo-

    I’ll see if I can carve out some time to rework that. Commenting is procrastination, a post is a project for which you procrastate. I’d like to see that conversation play out. In the mean time, brothers and sisters in the church choir can step up to the mic at any time.

    I’ve know a fair number of Eastside-native activist Latina lesbians and FTM friends who are articulate, down-to-earth writers that might love to contribute. The boys I know don’t get involved in this sort of thing- private network meets live-and-let-live and all.

  8. “Little Joy in Echo Park was an awesome middle aged working dudes gay bar and under new ownership it is now the mostly straight white twenty-something thrift store scene. Same of almost all of the leather bars and sex clubs in Silver Lake. Something to think about, considering the very noble spirit of LA Eastside.”

    Sandra de la Loza did some work around this history with her project Echoes in the Echo.
    http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=1959

  9. Manitou, I too would love to hear more of you on the ES gay scene. I agree that it is one aspect of ES culture that has not had the proper spotlight (no pun intended), boa and sache (pun intended).

    I took my kids to the anti- prop 8 protests when they first happened and noticed a small Latino presence, but not proportionate to their numbers. Homosexuality on the eastside is a complex and fascinating subject, and a subject that has not been covered here so some insight would be great!

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