Blaxican

Whether it’s blasting Etta James, War and Malo while cruising the city or attending oldies celebrations like Night of the Blaxican, paying tribute to the sounds and fashions of the past lives on.

Traveling to different venues every month, Night of the Blaxican is a party where L.A.’s younger generations can pay homage to some of their parents’ favorite tunes.

At times, he cites their work to elucidate the fact that many Latinos, from the Afro-Puerto Rican to the Blaxican or part-Asian, feel they don’t fully belong anywhere.

In a 2015 essay for BuzzFeed, he wrote, “I first learned I was a Blaxican from a DJ on Power 106 FM, a Los Angeles hip-hop station. ... It changed the way I, the son of an African-American man from Oakland and a first-generation American from Jalisco, Mexico, self-identified forever.”

Smallwood-Cuevas is married to a Mexican American from Boyle Heights, and her kids identify as Blaxican.