Today we’d like to introduce you to Bianca López.
Bianca, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Ratas Rags started during a time of great uncertainty; our Founder, Bianca López, was not working then and wanted to help their family with their hoarding issue. Hoarding in their family started long before birth; when their abuelos came from Mexico, they didn’t have much, like other people who migrated over. It was a constant struggle for their abuelito, eager to bring things back to the rancho. A constant thought was, “Shall I fix it to use it or sell it at the local swap meet?” Hoarding was passed down to their mother, which led to them growing up surrounded by mountains of things.
During the pandemic, they saw an opportunity to relieve some of the piles stored around the house. They were helping their parents and focusing on their retained clothes over the years. Quality vintage items were becoming popular again; they thought they would make dough.
They began to try to sell on various resell apps but, unfortunately, were not making much progress, and the clothes were still sitting there. The Founder had been part of a local collective that introduced them to a local organization that provided showers for our houseless community. They realized that with these clothes, they could make use of them by giving directly to our neighbors in need. At the time of the pandemic, resources for unhoused folx were so limited that it took many grassroots organizations to step up in the ways the city lacked. Helping our community was familiar; however, using clothing to do so was new. Over many months of providing clothes in those community safe spaces, we began to sell the high-end street fashion items at markets around San Diego County to create money for emergency aid, workshop funds, or pay for gas and dry-cleaning services. In the first year of selling the clothes at markets, we made enough money to fund any projects we dreamt of and still on the smallest budget. The community was at the forefront regarding building relationships with our unhoused folx and creating that awareness for people who supported us during outreach.
In the spring of 2022, we prioritize funds for clothing swaps and workshops. Spring has always played an essential role in our human cycles, and we wanted to create sustainable experiences that served a new demographic. A clothing swap had been on our hearts for some time now, and we knew that a massive deficit of money was coming in for our struggling college student population. Buddy Toad Park was the perfect location to kick start our clothing swap initiative, with multiple access points and its youthful ambiance. The more clothing swaps we put on, the more we realized that this was not just providing clean, fresh clothing but creating access to self-expression and building self-autonomy.
The Inspire the Youth fundraiser allowed us to have our first workshops, one of poetry and the other of zines. It was evident from everyone who participated in these workshops that this was an integral part of building community through learning, awareness, creativity, and expression.
In June 2022, we were asked to co-create a live art piece during Pride by the beach. Our one requirement was to use a mannequin provided by the organizers. We used our artistic lens to bring awareness and share our experience as Queer Latinx in a predominantly white setting. Our favorite part was free-hand calligraphy with the old English font that read “No Pride In Policing” on the back shoulders.
Later, in 2022, we collaborated on a Sip n’ Puff Vision Board workshop. We wanted to create new, safe, intentional experiences around alcohol and marijuana use that portrayed communal ways of medicine and the power of manifestation.
As the new school year approached, we assembled our school drive that would eventually be distributed at our back-to-school clothing swap.
We had the opportunity to speak about our organization at Roosevelt Middle School with their Mana program and collect clothing donations for the upcoming winter months.
In May of 2023, we were asked by the CSUSM Ethnic Studies program to be a part of a Community Pop-up. This was the first time we had creative freedom to do what we wanted to bring forth during this community experience, so we fabricated together a printmaking workshop, clothing swap, DJ set, and live performance. We are so grateful for the amount of people who came out to support us and the collaborators who played such vital roles in making this come to life.
Summertime soon splashed upon us, with Pride month at the center of many festivities and corporate opportunities, inspiring us to co-curate our first Pride Within. It was centered around our Queer BIPOC community in hopes of creating an experience that would be healing, uplifting, and a place to be sober and curious.
Our last big event was in September of 2023, when we held our first-ever Raza Art Exhibit alongside two other local organizations. This was a day to celebrate nuestra tierra: a reminder to our ancestors who came before us and the path that led us forward. We highlighted Oceanside’s rich Chicanx and Indigenous community by collaborating to put on a Fundraiser rooted in Art, with a DJ set, live performances, and appearances by a local car club. Local artists could have their artwork displayed in the mid-valley for the entire month of September; proceeds would go to buying our youth new shoes this holiday season.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In many ways, we still have privilege compared to other folx in our communities and globally. However, that privilege is nowhere near that of our white cis hetero male members of society. We are blessed to proudly be a queer Latinx-led mutual aid. Mutual aid is such difficult work; there have been moments when our family, peers, or communities have not supported us for our beliefs. To provide humans with fundamental rights and necessities was and still is deemed taboo to many. In the first year, the most difficult challenge was creating trust with our unhoused folx. The second year was about building relationships with migrant families who typically come from cultures were asking for help is unheard of. This made it difficult to understand and meet their needs with the utmost respect for their cultural upbringing.
Minor challenges usually came on days of events, such as canopies breaking, cables not working, running out of aid too early in the month, and finding ways to maximize cleaning clothes. The needs of our people continued to grow, which pushed us to think out of the box to create resources from the smallest amount of monetary aid. True creativity and care for humanity helped and fueled us in these moments.
We have been looked down upon for not being “legit,” for not becoming a 501c3, or for profit, which has led to us being left out of rooms and conversations. Our dream is not that of the familiar; we believe in destroying the current systems of oppression, and we do not want to change our stance for anyone or anything. This has allowed us to be resilient and fight against the colonizers and their ideals. We will not surrender our ways of community; we will grow and become louder and collaborate with others to continue to be a beacon of light.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The most significant factor that sets us apart is the quality of care we put into the relationships we form with our community, from the clothing we provide to knowledge sharing. Additionally, we ensure that to have clothing distributions, swaps, or sell at markets, our clothes must be sorted, washed, and presented in a way that provides the most dignity for our community members.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risks are integral to progressing in our society and necessary in knowing our limits. We must always weigh the risks and rewards to understand why we do what we do and if what we do will make a difference. There have been so many moments when we wanted to stop what we were doing because funds were low. There were moments when we had no jobs to support us but so much work to be done. Every time we take a risk, whether it leads to our success or failure, we show our community how important it is to go after your dreams and be proud of who you are and where you come from. It has been a journey with Ratas Rags, and we are so grateful for all the opportunities we have had and will have for our community. Like many others, our journey is only possible with rest and knowing when you cannot give, support, or organize events for the community; this, we believe, can be the best risk we take in our hustle culture and capitalistic society.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Ratas_Rags
Image Credits
Juancho Soledawg Paloma
