Ramiro Gomez’s inspiration for his latest installation titled Rose Gardens, is the Chicano sub-culture of cholos and cholas. Movies like Mi Vida Loca, cartoons like Dora the Explorer and the ‘paletero man’ (Mexican ice cream man) were all inspirations for his more than 70 piece collection now on exhibition at Pehrspace in Echo Park.

“My big inspiration was Mi Vida Loca and dealing with the idea of gentrification and where I came from and who I am,” Gomez says.

This all began two years ago when Gomez started “cholaing” up Urban Outfitter catalogs, combining the modern day hipster with the 90′s image of a chola. Gomez then moved on to cholaing up Dora the Explorer books and finally record covers.

“A chola has a very hard exterior, but the interior of the chola is so much more and who they are on the outside is a costume that says ‘back off you’re not getting to my core, my interior,’ and they guard themselves,” Gomez says. “They’re Mexican-American kids, Chicano’s who are tied between cultures; having Mexican parents, but being born in the U.S. trying to figure out where they belong.”

Rose Gardens is open until April 11, 2012

All photos were taken by me and are the property of Jasmine Duarte (TM)