Trust Me

Laura Aguilar’s Plush Pony series features portraits of regulars at the eponymous lesbian bar in the Eastside section of Los Angeles. The artist made these photographs in 1992 in the wake of widespread unrest after four LAPD officers were acquitted for the brutal beating of Rodney King. In letters to her friends, Aguilar decried the skewed images of a violent and racialized working class she saw in the news, and the palpable feeling of despair in the city at that time—especially for people of color. The Plush Pony photographs offer another perspective, depicting working-class women as members of a loving and caring community. Aguilar did not always feel a sense of belonging in this scene, however, and the more reserved images in the series hint at her fear of exclusion.