A time and place for unity

Midnight Hour Records a haven for immigrants

- By Itzel Luna

GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times THE MIDNIGHT HOUR in San Fernando has long been a community hub.

The soft hum of Chicano soul music bled onto the darkened street as a steady stream of people made their way into a record store in San Fernando, passing a sign in the window: "ICE, BIGOTS, MAGA' are not welcome.

Vendor booths replaced vinyl racks, some selling miniature lowrider replicas and Chicano-inspired artwork. Attendees crowded the center of the shop, dancing to live soul music. One vendor cut and styled hair into slicked-back pompadours and high bouffants.

It was a night inspired by pachucos, the 1930s-40s Mexican American subculture of zoot suits and ducktails, caló slang and jazz, that rebelled against discrimination as a form of self-empowerment and felt especially relevant since immigration agents began mass roundups of Latinos in Los Angeles.

On its surface, the Midnight Hour is a record store, its rows lined with hundreds of vinyls collected from around the world. But to the north San Fernando Valley, it has been a community lifeline and gathering spot since it first opened during the pandemic. When wildfires devastated Los Angeles County early last year, the store transformed into a donation center.

And since the ICE crackdown began last summer, it has become a haven for the city’s immigrant population and the go-to headquarters for the resistance.

“It's times like these that make you realize, this is community,” said Sergio Amalfitano, who owns the store with his wife, Alyssa Castro Amalfitano. “You know, this is having each other’s back when we are all struggling.”

He reflected on the parallels of today and 1943, when thousands of white servicemen and civilians assaulted pachucos and other young people of color in what came to be known as the Zoot Suit Riots.