Chicano Community Store, La Gente Trying to Reopen
La Gente is a Chicano wear store located on Prater. They were open only for a short time early this year before the City of Sparks closed them down. It was heartbreaking for Monica and Fernando who are retired and had poured all of their savings into reconstructing the old building. The shutdown was due to a licensing issue, this was because the side of the street where the fashion store is located, specifically that building has never sold clothes from that location. They were food stores before. “The funny thing is I can go across the street and sell there, but I don’t want to, I put all my work here,” said Fernando. The couple hopes to reopen as soon as the licensing issue is resolved. “We’re working closely with the City of Sparks and they’re working with us,” said Monica.
Monica and Fernando the owners of La Gente have been through a lot and now have finally settled in Sparks to open their business. Monica and Fernando were actually divorced for many years and then got back together. Fernando pulled himself together and made steps to really be there for his family. They both describe the violence they would face back home in California due to gangs. Including one time when they were relaxing in front of their house and were shot at while Monica was pregnant. “Here in Reno no one bothers you,” explains Fernando. “Back home they would pull you over for no reason just simply because you were dressed a certain way or you were driving a lowrider,” said Fernando.
The store is covered in all sorts of Chicano cultural memorabilia such as Teen Angel magazines and others that dedicated themselves to publishing the Chicano culture in the late ’90s to the early 2000s. Fernando has collected many himself but most were passed down from his family. These magazines have poetry, photos, and letters that readers submitted. “There wasn’t really a way for people to communicate or share these things back then, that’s why they sent them to the magazines,” said Monica.
What most stands out however are the murals that cover the outside and inside of the store. These murals are drawings by Monica’s father. He was a famous Chicano artist across California who drew inspiration from his wife and other aspects of Hispanic culture. “I have some of the original photos of my mom posing for these drawings,” said Monica. “Everyone in the ’90s had some of the posters with these drawings on them. You could get them at the gas stations and he was so well known,” said Fernando. Monica has asked her family for some of the drawings in order to copy them and place them on products such as candles. “If we had to leave this store for any reason we’re taking the murals with us. We’d paint over them, they’re ours” said Monica.
The store itself is like visiting a museum. Everything on the walls even some of the merchandise has a rich and interesting history. One could spend hours learning about each item and its history. Fernando has two beautiful paintings on handkerchiefs painted by inmates. Those handkerchiefs have symbols that are representative of the Hispanic community such as the Mexican eagle.
Even some of the merchandise is unique and hard to come by. Fernando pointed out that La Gente sells Teen Angle t-shirts. “They only have one vendor per state,” said Fernando in reference to the brand Pocho. “They decided to name it that in the irony of what Pocho means,” said Monica. Pocho is a derogatory term to refer to a Hispanic American. Monica and Fernando feel very honored that the company has chosen their store to be the one in Nevada to sell this merchandise.
Fernando decided to name the store La Gente for the community. “This is their space, their store, it’s for the gente,” said Fernando. He represents the Chicano community in every aspect of his business including putting photos and t-shirts from local lowriders clubs on the store walls. Fernando says the Chicano community has been extremely supportive of the business and loves to visit and hang out like family. “They protect this place,” said Fernando. Monica and Fernando have many plans for the store and many of them include turning the shop into a place for the community to be able to hang out.
“We used to have an art gallery in the shop,” said Fernando. Monica wants to add a little library inside the store eventually and has other ideas to engage customers to say a little while longer. The store has chairs and a table or two that certainly invite the shopper to sit down for a while and just hang out in the store. No one is excluded, Monica and Fernando told of a time when they let a homeless man inside the shop to hang out. “I remember someone was walking by and they told me, that’s what separates you from everyone else,” said Fernando. They don’t turn anyone away because they know how that feels, they have been through it all including homelessness.
For now, however, Monica and Fernando can’t sell anything in their store or they could get in trouble with the City of Sparks. “We have boxes of merchandise just sitting there,” said Fernando. However, they both know and have faith that the community will make up for the time lost when they reopen. Fernando and Monica are hoping the store will be open early next year and back in full swing.
