Radio QGLLU Podcast

Radio QGLLU - Amado Munoz: Ethical Punk and Trans Identity in Latino Culture

• Film Bliss Studios • Season 2 • Episode 8

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Amado Munoz shares his journey as a trans Chicano indigenous individual, blending artistry, culture, and activism through his platform, Ethical Punk. The episode explores the importance of community, identity reclamation, and the power of adornment in creating visibility for marginalized voices.
• Discussion on how personal background shapes identity
• Amado’s experience growing up in South Central Los Angeles
• Ethical Punk as a fusion of culture and activism
• The role of adornment and jewelry in expressing identity
• Importance of community support for young trans individuals
• Advice on safety, connection, and resilience in tough times

https://www.instagram.com/ethicalpunk_/
https://ethicalpunk.com/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-16/queer-mercado-east-los-angeles-latino-lgbtq-community
https://queermercado.buzzsprout.com/1937768/episodes/10394532-adorning-the-spirit

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Rita Gonzales:

Welcome to the Out Agenda. Coming to you on archivekpfkorg, I'm Rita Gonzalez. Well, in this month's segment of Radio Q Glue, Amado Munoz of Ethical Punk. But before we introduce our guests, we want to start this show by saying that all of us at Radio Q Glue are devastated and concerned about the recent fires in Los Angeles. Each of us loves this city and are deeply affected by the destruction and lives impacted by these fires. Our thoughts are with those facing loss, danger and uncertainty. We stand in solidarity, as we've been since Radio Q Glue was Radio Glue when it started in 1986. With our resilient communities who have a long history of coming together to support one another during difficult times. Well, we have another segment of Radio Q Glue podcast, a show that takes a deep dive into what the queer, gay and lesbian Latina community is talking about. I'm Rita Gonzalez, I'm Lydia Otero and I'm Eduardo Archuleta.

Eduardo Archuleta:

In today's episode, we're talking with Amado Munoz. Amado is a trans Chicano indigenous individual from South Central Los Angeles with roots planted in the Fashion District by his family who migrated from Mexico. One of his life goals is to create visual impact and spark conversation by challenging the gender binary and toxic culture of masculinity, all while celebrating and adorning his spirit as a creator and curator of ethical punk. Amado brings attention wherever he goes, never shying away from a stare down and walking through the world with purpose. He has resolved that his very presence is his biggest weapon in fighting against the injustices in the world that often disregard his identity.

Lydia Otero:

Hi Amado. This is Lydia, and one of the things that popped up in your biography was about being from South Central, los Angeles.

Amado Muñoz:

Yes, so share a little bit with our listeners and tell us why your personal background and why being from South Central is so important to you, yes, you know, I think first of all I'm just going to say it and start it with the word culture, right, tradition, and you know those things that were rooted in my family when they migrated from Mexico to South Central right and they planted their roots in the fashion district. And my grandfather is because he's still alive, you know retired stitcher and so he did like Nike stitching for the tennis shoes, and my grandmother was a seamstress. So they came here, planted their roots. 11 children Fast forward, I'm the oldest of 11.

Amado Muñoz:

So that is a big household right to grow up in, and so what we learned was a lot of the traditional values that were from Mexico, but obviously navigating our own world, in this new world, from our perspective. So I think, a lot of things during that time that I grew up and my grandfather and my grandparents arriving here, I learned how to navigate this place that I found so beautiful, in different neighborhoods, in different neighborhoods, in the style, in the individuality, and I think, as a young trans kid, that really spoke to me right, because I still felt I didn't feel seen, but it wasn't at that point about my transhood, it was really about my culture. So I think that that kind of laid roots to me, figuring out how to navigate my transhood, my neighborhood. So I think that that's why South Central means so much to me, because I was able to kind of figure out how I can survive before I really needed to survive.

Lydia Otero:

And for our listeners that aren't from Los Angeles what is South Central in relation to Los Angeles, Like how far is it far? I'm sure sometimes it seems far, but or is it close?

Amado Muñoz:

Well, we know, california is so big, right, like I know, when I talk to folks in the Midwest, it's like everything's like hours, 30 minutes away and we can go from one tip to the other tip and it's like, you know, we're navigating for 14 hours or so or more. But LA, so South Central, I'm going to say, it's, you know, a mile, two miles away from the center of downtown LA. So I grew up near USC, near the old Coliseum, you know, near Exposition Park, right Near Olvera Street. So you know what I mean. So everything is miles away from where I grew up. You know we were barely building, creating or coming from those.

Amado Muñoz:

La Placita, olvera is so known, right, about starting settling there, right. So all of that, as you know, coming as a growing up, as a child. So I'm seeing it through two perspectives the ones that are migrating and the ones that are flourishing it, right, the ones that are coming over and planting the seeds, and the ones that we are, the ones that are watering it right. So those two kind of, you know, interpretations that I saw about my city, I'm like, oh, my God, I'm like in this and it's happening.

Amado Muñoz:

So I don't know, for me, los Angeles has so much story. We are that place that when you come so I don't know, for me Los Angeles has so much story we are that place that when you come, you do have someone that can tell you about that corner, that can tell you about that little town, that little city, that little restaurant. And I feel that for my grandparents and for us it was a beautiful fusion. It was a beautiful moment that we could definitely share stuff because I'm learning from them. So again, it wasn't about my transhood, it was about my neighborhood, it was about Los Angeles.

Rita Gonzales:

Oh, spoken like a true Angeleno. I love it, I love it, I feel it in my heart.

Amado Muñoz:

It's part of who I am, it's part of my soul. So thank you for acknowledging that.

Rita Gonzales:

Oh yeah, I'm a true Angeleno too.

Amado Muñoz:

All right.

Rita Gonzales:

Yeah, so I have a question. This is Rita. Talk about your curator of ethical punk, ethical punk.

Amado Muñoz:

What is that? Oh, it's my baby. Ethical Punk. Ethical Punk, that's my baby. What is that? Oh, it's my baby. Ethical Punk has. So it emerged right. It kind of transitioned as well as I did.

Amado Muñoz:

So Ethical Punk was my name as an artist when I would get on stage, ethical Punk to the stage. I used to perform throughout the US and you know musicals that would never go anywhere, but you know, I performed, you know, when I was 26 and young and vibrant, and so that was my stage name Ethical Punk and it kind of resonated with me. It was something that was created by me always feeling like the outsider right, but meeting people, lovers specifically who would always say, but you're a good one, like you're a good punk, and then you know that one love that comes to you and it's like you know you're ethical, you know, and I'm just like ethical punk. So, again in my 20s, that was the name that I kind of ran with. Then it evolved to my creative passion because I always felt that my visual impact in people was kind of startling right, that my visual impact in people was kind of startling right when I was growing up, kind of masculine in what people would think it's a little girl but I'm masculine, presenting right. So it's like what do you do with this human right? So I always felt kind of the outsider, so that's why that name really resonated.

Amado Muñoz:

So as I transitioned in my life, I transitioned in what I wanted ethical to punk. I still wanted to stimulate people and to call your attention, but I also wanted to bring my culture who am I? My Los Angeles culture, right. My Chicano culture, my culture from grandparents who migrated. You know, I'm a first generation, I'm the oldest grandchild from 11 brothers and sisters, right, so it's a lot of power.

Amado Muñoz:

So when I started feeling like I wanted to claim a little bit more and ethical punk as an artist wasn't working for me, this is when I started noticing a lot of the TikTok trends about brown lipstick, like white girls wearing brown lipsticks or white girls wearing hoops, or Versace selling huaraches. Ooh-wee, my blood was boiling and you know, through that passion and that I created Ethical Punk and what that was is style, is jewelry, is our hoops, it's those nameplates that we crave so much, as kids Remember when of jewelry, right, and what happens with this one piece of jewelry if we're lucky enough, we're able to give it to someone, right. And so that made it more of a story for me. Like I sell chingona hoops, I sell cabrona. But these words, what I'm trying to do is claim them. As a first generation person, those words had a lot of power and it weren't the best, but now I want to reclaim them.

Amado Muñoz:

So I wanted to switch this mentality of selling my culture for profit and really selling my culture to the people that would value it, understand it, adorn their spirit with that. We would go out of our house with tracksuits, with t-shirts, with shorts, with chanclas, but we had our little earrings, our little necklace, our rings, you know, and that to me, it's like it's beautiful. It's beautiful, it's being able to step out in any way you want, but having some type of armor, some type of armor which was, oh, your ring is nice, oh, thank you, that's like you know. And then you talk about it, right, some type of you know, where you can feel safe, walking out because there'll be a conversation stirred. And even now, as people are wearing my pieces, you don't see a they them pronoun. You know. They them in our culture. They them, what's that? Que es eso? They them, oh, that's how I prefer you to. You know, address me, you open conversation.

Amado Muñoz:

So with Ethical Punk, what I'm trying to do is that thing that ethical we are of good people, we come of good people. That is what I was taught. We come of good people. That is what I was taught. So now I want to share those stories through Ethical Punk, by adorning your spirit and shining. And it's not about masculinity and it's not about femininity, it's about how does your spirit feel right now and I would hope it's the essence of your neighborhood, of your traditions, of your culture, and with me it also happens to be with queerness. That was all a mix of who I was growing up and that's what ethical punk really is. You know a statement.

Eduardo Archuleta:

This is Eduardo. In addition to designing and making jewelry, you're also an advocate for trans and queer rights. Yes, tell us a little bit more about that.

Amado Muñoz:

Absolutely. Just for the record, I'm an emotional person so it might be a little pausing, so that is an emotion creeping out. But my story is of an immigrant mother who fell in love with my father. My father was immigrant. They fell in love here in Los Angeles and my mom was the first of 11 kids and she started taking her brothers and sisters to the Head Start program. I was married to my dad when she was 16, had my sister and I, so I grew up with my. It's a typical kind of growing up with your primas, I mean your aunts, who are your age. So we're all going to Head Start and my mom is the only one that can speak English and Spanish. Choppy, growing up in South Central, this was very much a black you know neighborhood and my mom and our whole family was embraced, and so they were like, hey, you know you speak Spanish to my mom and she's like, yeah, so she would help them translate. So then I started learning that there's workshops and support groups, right, and my mom's just being part of that as a young mom. And then they tell her hey, if you take this class at USC, you can get your certificate. We need someone that's bilingual.

Amado Muñoz:

Fast forward, my mom retired after 37 years of being a Head Start preschool teacher because of love of the neighborhood. So that's just another example of why my love is so deep. We were taken care of. They helped my mom feed us, take care of us, because she became a single mom. So then I'm learning about advocacy and I'm learning about stuff through my mom, just seeing her. My mom becomes a social worker.

Amado Muñoz:

Then I'm navigating, something in me that's happening and I don't know what it is and I think that it's. You know, I'm queer and I think that I'm gay, but I don't like the word lesbian, and so I'm going through this and so I'm learning through my mom and I'm like you know what I've been hearing stuff, let me do this. So I open the yellow pages and I find organizations because I'm hearing her say you know, you need a support group, you need resources, and I'm hearing all these words. So then I'm like I'm a child or something's happening to me that needs resources and I couldn't tell anyone. So I started navigating, finding gay centers, organizations. Then I found gay and lesbian and at that time it was the Yellow Pages and you saw the word Gay and Lesbian.

Amado Muñoz:

So at 19, I started attending Bienestar Human Services and it wasn't enough for me. I wanted to do more, so in that I became a volunteer and in that I started working for Bienestar, a staff of human services, and that's where my nonprofit of of and passion being an activist and educating was fueled. But but I feel it was fueled by my mother and my grandmother. But then I found something right that really meant a lot, that resonated, which was queer youth, which was I haven't told my mom, but I seem to be okay. I look like this person, you know to be okay. I look like this person, you know.

Amado Muñoz:

And when I say look like this person to me, back then big masculine presenting little girls weren't cool, right, we were just like so, you know. So that's why it's like interesting, because it's it's really a cultural thing. Then it transitions into your identity, right, like how do you become you as you're learning and navigating all these things that are coming from you, from your culture, which is, you know, weight loss, you know all those things that we, you know, looking whiter, you know, oh, you're not that dark, you're not that white, you're a flat nose. You know those things. Man, you're growing up in a Latino culture in a Mexican-American culture. I'm going to learn tough skin right.

Amado Muñoz:

So I think you know the individual love and attacks for my family and the desire to just kind of flourish a little bit more, because I've already learned all this.

Amado Muñoz:

You know, you're making me stand really strong in my neighborhood and then I'm learning about activism and I'm learning about and I'm learning about Rita Gonzalez and I'm and I'm learning about Lydia Otero. You know and I'm living and I'm learning about. You know even the Chicano movement. You know and I'm learning about all these things and I'm like, no, that like there's no stories or rent documentation of us. So it keeps on sparking me as a person to be in front and not to be silent. I am a trans man. I have an experience as a man, but my experience in my life is as a trans individual, an immigrant from immigrant families, first generations, right. So I think that all of that just fueled the fact that I needed to be in the front lines. You know that I needed to speak my story, that anything that came from me whether it be business, whether it be performance, whether it be engaging with folks it needed to be allowing for change, conversations of change that was super important to me.

Lydia Otero:

I'm a little misty-eyed here because you feel like our child, because Rita Eduardo and I were there, there when we were launching Bienestar, and so you know you bringing it up is just very, very touching to see like future generation I mean younger- generations To see your fruit and your labors.

Amado Muñoz:

and what an honor.

Lydia Otero:

Yeah, gracias, gracias. I appreciate that. So you've made a nameplate for me, right? I feel like when I wear it. I feel, like I'm making a statement. I never thought of it as armor, but I'm going to think about it. We calibrate what my thinking next time I wear it. But it's really I am making a statement when I wear it. So my question to you is and you touched a little bit upon it Is there a brown, the merging of a brown and queer aesthetic? Do you see it?

Amado Muñoz:

Do I see it in my creations? Yes, a queer and brown aesthetic, absolutely. I mean, I feel that first of all in my brand, yes, but I feel that that aesthetic was again, I'm a procreation of y'all, right. So the brown, queer aesthetics has been of those that I've seen, march, and what are they wearing, what are they showing? How did they protect themselves in?

Amado Muñoz:

You know, as brown individuals, it's different as we navigate, like I said I'm bringing, I'm telling you that I'm a trans individual who first had to navigate my brownness to stand up for my queerness. I was there first, before the queerness even happened, yeah, right. So then, in developing my business, absolutely, it was a fusion Because, again, I was not going to allow Versace, kylie Jenner, all of those folks claiming that this is a new trend, to stand on that. This was a brown trend and so this in the queerness, for me it's like man, those traditions with the nameplates, those traditions with putting those pieces of statement, nameplates, those traditions would putting those pieces of statement, like I think it's especially as a trans man. I've never saw my name in a nameplate because I didn't have that right, because that wasn't my chosen name. So now that I can create a model. You know I'm saying like what, what, how queer and how brown could this be? Because it comes from my brown culture and I am a queer trans man that was never able to be loud and proud about a name that I chose or that a name that I. My full name is Amado Presley Munoz Presley, and I do not mind sharing my old name because I think in education it doesn't stir any emotions. Actually, because if it wasn't for Priscilla a beautiful name with a beautiful soul, with a beautiful individual, I would not be here. She protected this, him, my essence, protected this Him, my essence and it leads me to femininity Is what protects our culture Las mamas, las tias, the gay uncles, the feminine energy that embraces us, that still allows us to cry, be cry, to be hugged and to also stand up for your children, your familia. My grandma was straight up in the hood standing in front of the cops, as the cops are trying to wrangle my uncles and hurt them. You know, before we knew they were getting hit on public because we saw it on TV, this was happening already. How can I not have my brownness stand up first before my queerness, right? Because queerness we're developing, we're figuring it out, we'll probably suppress it.

Amado Muñoz:

My brownness was so loud, you know, I needed to learn how to protect myself and then, when I figured my company, I'm just like those are the two things that I want to cater to my queer community. You know I had a Haas. You're familiar with a Haas right, the convention for educators. I was able to do a pop-up there to see doctors of education wanting to use my queer hoops. It's a hexagon type of earring and in the center it says queer.

Amado Muñoz:

It's a level of class, you know, also regal. It's very simple. But to see the professors and then one coming from Virginia saying I need my students to see me because she's a counselor Right, because we're trying to figure out how do we navigate telling these kids without you know what I mean, but we can do it by presenting who we really are authentically in our jewelry and our wear, really triggers those conversations, challenging conversations for community browns and queer, those things that we don't want to call, because queerness is not easy to be talked out in brown communities. It has to be a fusion. For me it has to be. I have to collide them.

Rita Gonzales:

So how do we get your jewelry? I mean yes.

Amado Muñoz:

I have my website, wwwethicalpunkcom. You can read a little bit more of my story and who I am. It's all LA, you know. It really represents my city. It really talks about my queerness. All my models are queer or trans, non-binary. You know, I highlight that I'm about undocumented folks and it says that I'm about Black Lives Matter and I'm about that. I'm about undocumented folks and it says that I'm about Black Lives Matter and I'm about that. So you know there's a lot of education when you go into my site. So I would ask folks, before they look at the jewelry, to really look at who I am right, because I really pride myself in being vulnerable. And also you can look me up on ethicalpunk underscore, which is my IG account, and right now I'm also on TikTok. I just started my TikTok, which is ethical underscore punk. So I'm trying. You know I just turned 50. So navigating social media it's not my strong suit, but I'm trying. I'm trying to figure it out. But those are the three platforms right now that you can find me at.

Rita Gonzales:

Well, you've answered a lot of our questions and I just went on your website. It's really really awesome.

Amado Muñoz:

Oh, awesome, thank you. Look at doing work and interviewing.

Rita Gonzales:

Yeah, I just went right on it. It's something that I may want. You never know. Oh, awesome. So we're in a different era right now. This is 2025 and it seems like this is going forward. A lot's going to be happening to all of us. It's going to impact every one of us, but what advice do you have if you have any for young trans folks right now?

Amado Muñoz:

What I'm finding helpful for me as a very out trans person that knows that I can be hurt you know, in any given moment, any visible queer person, gay person, lesbian, non-binary person to give yourself the space to feel, but also community. We've thrived this hard because we've had communities. All three of you that I have the honor to be in front of started this by coming together, by fighting together, by navigating your life knowing that you weren't alone, and so what I feel that the time is is to really count on each other, right, and I feel sometimes we as humble people brown people, latino people, people of color we're very humble, and so it's hard for us to be like, hey, you know, how are you doing, or I don't want to impose, or you know, be here and be like no one's called me. But what should we do? We should be proactive as well. Pick up the phone, because we know that we have people in our community that have shown us love. We just are.

Amado Muñoz:

We don't know how to receive sometimes, and maybe I'm speaking for myself, but all I'm asking right now for people to be safe is to really count on each other, right, really counting it. Really check in on each other have plans of you know safety? I never look. I'm a brown boy from South Central, trans first generation. People talking to me about safety plans was like what you talking about safety plans?

Amado Muñoz:

But to be honest with you, when I don't hear from a friend in a week or something, I start getting worried and I think just knowing that someone is okay, that they need their time, that you know those things we need to honor. So just knowing to honor yourself as well as to honor others with emotions and feelings, have community and really protect yourself. And what does that mean? Really have conversations and sit with. How do we protect each other? And visit and visit and visit venues and support your community and celebrate with them whenever they're going to have it. Do not be alone. Find your people, find your people. Find your people Because it really feels good. That would be the only advice I can give right now in a state where we're all suffering for various reasons. We're all looking on. You know how to survive these next four years.

Lydia Otero:

That's beautiful advice, Amado.

Rita Gonzales:

Thank you Very touching I do want to thank you very much for joining us here.

Lydia Otero:

For sure, for sure yeah. It was very, very, very, very touching and emotional.

Rita Gonzales:

Thank you so much for joining us.

Lydia Otero:

Nos vemos, amado, nos vemos. Thank you so much. Thank you much for joining us. Nos vemos, amado, nos vemos. Thank you so much, love you too.

Rita Gonzales:

We'd like to thank our guest, amado Munoz from Ethical Punk. Thanks for listening to Radio Q Glue. I'm Rita Gonzalez, I'm Lidia Otero and I'm Eduardo.

Eduardo Archuleta:

Archuleta.

Rita Gonzales:

Like us on our Facebook page or email us at theoutagenda at gmailcom and have a wonderful week, and remember that being out is the first step to being equal. Now stay tuned for this Way Out.