Takuaches, Hoochie Mamas and Ball: Let's Talk About Subcultures

Jun 4

By Daniela Saenz-Quintana

Punks, goths, pachucos, and teddy boys are all examples of how people have always craved community. For those who didn’t fit the standards of mainstream culture, subcultures have provided spaces for belonging and individuality.

We all have an idea of what subcultures look like, whether you envision the scene kids with their bold colors and teased hair or skaters in Thrasher hoodies and Old Skool Vans. But what exactly are subcultures? Where did they originate? Do they still exist?

Defining Subcultures

Merriam-Webster defines subculture as “an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society.”

In the 1920s, sociology professors of the Chicago School established subcultural theory to investigate delinquency or crime occurrences. They focused their research on immigrants, Black Americans, and the working class.

This coincided with the rise of the concept of teenagers and youth subcultures. Most sources cite the 1920s as the early origin of subcultures as a concept.

Subcultures are a form of resistance that rejects the mainstream.

Are Subcultures a Thing of the Past?

Recently, there have been articles and think pieces debating whether subcultures still exist.

Yomi Adegoke’s article “Has the Internet Killed Subcultures” for Teen Vogue argues that the internet has altered subcultures as they were known before, stating, “Subcultures are no longer the preserve of the counterculture – they are culture.”

Others believe that TikTok’s rapidly changing “aesthetics” and “-cores” have replaced established communities of the past.

Fashion communication lecturer Louisa Rogers wrote in her article "That's So Aesthetic": Subcultures That Stand for Nothing in the Connected Age, “And now we are at ‘Internet 4.0’ - subcultures are vastly decentralized and replaced by micro-cultures that span continents, all ages, races, and media forms.”

While the internet has certainly changed how subcultures form, interact and gather, I would disagree with the idea that subcultures have become totally obsolete.

The Evolution of Subcultures: From the Basement to TikTok

Subcultures are more than just a style of dress or shared taste in music; they offer a sense of belonging to those ostracized by society. While mainstream culture continues to marginalize people, individuals will continue to connect with others who allow them to be themselves.

Today, many of these communities interact and form online, having formerly been confined to physical spaces. Social media gives people who need the subculture access, no matter where they are.

Ballroom Culture: A Haven of Artistry

Take Ballroom culture, a community that began in New York in the early 1970s for Black and brown queer people to unapologetically express themselves and form families that offered unconditional support through dance, style, and art.

As this community has grown, it has extended beyond the bounds of the New York underground. Social media has brought this culture to people all over the globe.

“I mean, people from Asia, from Russia, from all over the world were watching these clips on YouTube of people in ballroom and finding solace in them. It opened it up to the world for people to discover it,” says Yusaf Miyake-Mugler for Vogue.

This exposure became a double-edged sword; while it introduced more people to the beauty of ballroom, it also brought in people who began co-opting elements of the culture and bringing it to the mainstream, from films like Paris Is Burning, How Do I Look?, and Kiki to television shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Pose, and My House, and to music like Madonna’s Vogue and Beyoncé’s Renaissance, among others – some of whom do not uphold the core ideology.

“We are in a moment where people will book jobs and do events when they know nothing about our community, and that is how we lose the core of who we are. So if people were going to know about us, we had to make sure you address it the correct way. If you are not doing it the right way, you will be told. It’s about authenticity,” says Dashaun Wesley Basquiat for Vogue.

While the mainstream can adopt elements from the culture, it will never replace or minimize the fact that it is a culture. If, in a few years, the mainstream decides they are no longer interested in ballroom culture, there will continue to be people at the core who embrace every piece of it and continue to grow and evolve with it.

“The doors are always open. I think people get really confused about why ballroom people are so protective, but it’s because [others] don’t understand that ballroom is built on a civil rights movement. The entire reason why it exists is because queer Black and brown people did not have a safe space to do their art,” expresses Aja 007 for Vogue.

Hoochie Culture: Reclaiming Identity and Empowerment

Social media has also played a role in the resurgence of different subcultures. On TikTok, you can find countless videos of different users participating in alternative communities from emo to goth. They share their ideas, outfits, makeup, and music. Some users share how they integrate their identities into different parts of their lives, such as the “Corporate Goth” look, where people share how they maintain their alternative style at their nine-to-five jobs.

The resurgence of the Hoochie Mama subculture is a notable example. Some Black women are reclaiming the term that, for a long time, villainized hoochies in the mainstream.

“Hoochies are multidimensional. Hoochies are the Black women of the past and future who have and continue to pioneer trends in fashion, beauty, music, sexuality, and feminism with deep roots in Hip-Hop and blues,” says self-certified hoochie historian and creator of HoochieCon Zorine Truly for Junior High Los Angeles.

According to Zorine, Hoochie Culture began in the South as early as the 1950s, following the Black is Beautiful movement of the 1960s. In the 1980s and 1990s, it had its largest social impact and achievements, with the biggest trailblazers being unnamed everyday women and musicians like Millie Jackson, Betty Wright, Gangsta Boo, and Lil Kim.

Today, Hoochies embrace long nails, intricate hairstyles, iconic makeup, and bold colors that once labeled them as promiscuous offenders while simultaneously starting trends that influenced mainstream culture.

This shift has led to large-scale celebrations like HoochieCon, a weekend-long celebration that took place in June 2023. This exhibition focused on mixed-media art, vendors, and music honoring Hoochie Feminism.

“Hood Feminism and Hoochie Feminism share similarities in their focus on non-traditional feminism. Rather than solely improving the lives of white women, these ideologies aim to uplift all women. I think the difference is that Hoochie Feminism leans more toward the extremes of sexual expression and is more geared toward the empowerment of Black women,” says Truly for Junior High Los Angeles.

Trokiando: A Representation of a Mixed Identity

While many modern-day subcultures have a history that dates back decades, we are in an era where we can watch subcultures be born via social media.

Trokiando culture is a newer culture born within the past ten years, with its roots in Chicano lowrider culture and Mexican ranch culture. The Mexican-American community has had a rich car culture since the 1940s, when families in Southern California, purchasing cars to adapt to the post-war urban landscape. Mexican-Americans began spending hundreds to thousands of hours modifying their cars, lowriders, into rolling pieces of art that went “low and slow.’’

Lowrider culture originated in Chicano communities, whose Mexican-American families have resided in the United States for generations, particularly in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, and Albuquerque.

Trokiando culture, on the other hand, embraces slammed trucks and has its roots in the new generation of Mexican-Americans who are only one or two generations removed from arriving in the United States.

People who are part of Trokiando culture are called Takuaches and Takuachitas, a word that derives from the Spanish word tlacuache, the literal translation being opossum. They embrace elements of Mexican ranch culture like square-toe cowboy boots, and bootcut jeans, with more American styles such as fitted caps, American Fighter, and Ariat.

Trokiando comes with a lifestyle and community that embraces dual identity and authenticity. This is a new mentality for Mexican-American youth that encourages them to embrace both Mexican and American cultures instead of trying to fit into one cultural box. Takuaches have created their own culture that allows them to freely express their multi-cultural identity.

This subculture has given rise to a new style, corridos, a new genre of Mexican music that fuses the lyrical structure of traditional corridos with influences of trap, urban beats, and the style of hip-hop. Takuaches freely speak in Spanglish and many enjoy dancing norteñas, cumbias, and huapangos.

The Trokiando movement has crossed state lines, with Takuaches in different cities posting videos of their trucks cruising, doing donuts, or burnouts. It has even extended to include other Latinos who aren’t Mexican-American being active participants in the culture.

With the Mexican-American community historically facing discrimination for not assimilating to American culture, the Trokiando movement stands for embracing your heritage while experiencing a different reality from your ancestors.

Why Subcultures Matter

Subcultures have been instrumental in promoting innovations, creativity, and artistic expression, influencing their communities and the mainstream. They serve as a space of community for individuals to explore unique parts of their identities.

The notion that subcultures are now mainstream overlooks the struggles and marginalization of those who were part of those communities before their ideas were co-opted. Mainstream culture adopts pieces of different subcultures, but it often fails to understand the ideology that subcultures have to offer, diluting the original message subcultures were built on.

While modern-day mainstream culture may not be as monolithic as it once was, our society still has systems of oppression in place that ostracize people who deviate from societal norms.

Acknowledging the existence and influence of subcultures on larger mainstream culture, honors the activism within many subcultures that have acted as the catalyst for social change. By embracing the diversity of subcultural movements, we strive for an inclusive society that values the voices of all of its members.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnBb0ckUepc

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/hoochie-mamas-villainized-in-pop-culture-black-women-reclaiming

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-06-23/hoochiecon-is-a-celebration-of-black-creativity-and-sexual-agency

https://www.louisarogers.net/blog/2020/8/22/the-currency-of-dreams

https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/what-is-a-subculture/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuR0kTR5lEI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ej86oHMJ8o

https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultures-and-scenes/underground-ball-culture/

https://www.vogue.com/article/oral-history-ballroom-pride-2023

http://juniorhighlosangeles.com/featured/hoochiehistory

https://remezcla.com/features/culture/tejasmade-trokiando-takuaches/