The iron-on ironia of Chicano Style

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

Once you get past fact that Chicano Style is in the Lakewood Center mall—and not someplace funkier and less cookie-cutter, like, say, Retro Row—it’s easy to appreciate its mishmash of affordable Mexican-American apparel and Latin pop cult memorabilia.

The boutique’s best sellers are sarcastic Spanish language versions of the popular ironic slogan T-shirt. A large wall-mounted display of shirt logos reads like a random patch quilt of La Raza rally cries, Brown Pride and unabashed self-mockery. One minute you’re admiring an artist’s intricate Cuauhtémoc (the Aztec descending eagle) design, the next you’re wrinkling your nose at a goofy tee that reads, “Vitamina P-2” beneath a sketch of a steaming pot of frijoles.

A black tank top announcing “Mexican: Dignity, Honor, Respect and Pride” hangs near a shirt that says, “Aztec High Energy Drink, You’ll lose your head, 100% Sacrificial Blood.” Another declares “La Leche + Quick = Chicano Power” over a cartoon baby bottle. And it’s hard to miss the tongue-in-cheek social commentary on a shirt that shows men in straw hats crammed like sardines into the back of an old flatbed pickup with “Carpul” spelled out below.

If you can’t read between the lines, and especially the Chicano slang, Chicano Style’s preoccupation with ironia and double entendres might go over your head. I swallowed my pride and asked the employees to translate for me. They were friendly, professional and eager to clue me in. In other words, if they thought I was a giant gringa pendeja, they kept it to themselves.

Chicano Style has a T-shirt (or tank top or strappy tee) for everyone in la familia, including pastel “Chicanito” onesies for the littlest diablitos. I wanted to buy a “yo no fui” (“I didn’t do it”) T-shirt for my first-grader, but he was dead-set on a $25 Spiderman luchador wrestling mask. (Better start saving, kid.) There’s also a T-shirt that reads “I’m not afraid of el cucuy” (the monster that children are often told will “get them” if they misbehave) and another with “La Chancla: The Travesura Stopper” (“The Flip-flop: The Mischief Stopper”).

But there’s more to choose from at Chicano Style than sardonic T-shirts. Where else in Lakewood can you find a ceramic Cheech and Chong stash jar set ($48)? Other unique gifts for sale: yield sign stickers depicting a turkey in hot pursuit of border-crossing pilgrims; traditional embroidered guayabera shirts; bucket purses in glittered Day of the Dead and Frida Kahlo prints; jumbo-sized Loteria (Mexican bingo) playing cards; Scarface and Napoleon Dynamite (featuring the faintly moustached Pedro, of course) collectibles; framed Diego Rivera prints; and classic felt low-rider brim hats ($45).

Chicano Style’s musical offerings range from slain Mexican folk hero Chalino Sanchez to Linda Ronstadt and Carlos Santana. And if you’re not in the market for ranchera, corrido or cumbia, pick up a CD by Chicano hip-hop artists Kinto Sol, Lil Rob or DJ Payback Garcia. Fans of Mexican comedy legends Chespirito and María Antonieta de las Nieves, of Televisa’s sitcom El Chavo del Ocho, have half a dozen T-shirts bearing the characters’ trademark freckled faces to pick from. There’s also a few featuring Mario Moreno Reyes, the “Mexican Charlie Chaplin,” famous across Latin America for his campesino character, Cantinflas.

Danny Gamez founded Chicano Style in 1999 to “promote culture, unity and fill a void in the fashion market.” He opened his first store in Whittier. Three more Southern California stores followed, then one in Arizona. Not bad for a gig that began as a street cart at colleges and fairs throughout Califas.

With assistance from Daisy Verdugo.

CHICANO STYLE 500 LAKEWOOD CENTER MALL | LAKEWOOD 90712 | 562.531.7900 | CHICANOSTYLE.COM

Tags: CHICANO STYLE, Dept. of Commerce, IRONIA, lakewood mall