Reader of the Week: Kerry Cardoza

An American Apparel factory worker who does your zine - making dirty work

By Kirsten Kilponen
Published: May 4th, 2009 | 9:55am

Getting a sweet discount on some Deep V’s at American Apparel in LA is only this gal’s day job. When it comes to copying, pasting, and stapling together your zine, photo book, or art whatever, 24-year-old Kerry Cardoza is the woman for the job. This sweet, smart, and motivated gal’s publishing company, Amigos, will gladly do your grunt work for cheap. Listen up as Kerry talks about her own feminist zine “Girl Talk,” helping kids with their reading homework, Mexican food, and what she would do to save herself from alien laser beams if they just so happened to land right now and attack.

What is Amigos Publishing?

Amigos Publishing is a small publishing company that my boyfriend and I recently started. We are trying to be really open about our work process and make our publications as affordable and accessible to as many people as possible. It can be hard as an emerging artist to take the time to put out work, so we wanted to basically take some of that pressure off and just do all the technical stuff. I find that the art world can be very clique-y and hard to break into, so we definitely want to take Amigos into the opposite direction.

What are some examples of the work that you publish?

Well, Amigos has just put out our first book by Vinny Martin, a photographer based in Massachusetts. Vinny's book, "Post Teenage Wasteland," focuses on his friends as they explore life after high school. The book is a mix of intimate portraits of his friends mixed with photo collages and contact sheets that depict some pretty raw scenes. Our next book is most likely going to be by our friend Dylan Goettlich, who is currently based in Santa Cruz. Dylan works with drawings, photographs, video, and painting, so I think his book will be a mix of different mediums. I'm excited to see what he submits to us.

What's your favorite part of putting a zine together?

I basically love every aspect of putting together zines. With Amigos, as well as with my feminist zine "Girl Talk," getting submissions and interviewing awesome people is one of my favorite parts. It's really inspiring to see cultural and/or political work that people are doing and getting to talk to them about. It makes putting out a zine feel more like a community-based thing and is more of a learning experience. Basically with "Girl Talk," I solicit submissions for the upcoming issue; sometimes it’s theme-based and sometimes just general. When it's all done I try to scam free copies any way I can and then post them up for sale on our blog: girltalkzine.blogspot.com.

Do you ever come across work that stinks, but you just have to suck it up and put it together anyway?

[Laughs] I have definitely got some awful submissions for "Girl Talk." Sometimes people will just submit to things when they have no idea what the publication is about or who the audience is. Like, I've gotten stuff that is really not supportive towards women at all and just reinforces tired stereotypes. I'm the editor and I am not afraid to veto bad submissions.

Are there any other talents you’re hiding from us?

I make a mean friendship bracelet.

Do you have a day job?

Right now, I'm working at the American Apparel factory during the week. It's a pretty standard customer service type job, but I get an awesome employee discount. I have also been volunteering at 826LA. Basically, I help kids with their homework and then spend time reading with them and helping them with creative writing. It's pretty sweet to spend time working with kids. It's easy to forget how creative and complex they can be.

If aliens landed right now, and you had to tell them in three words why they should spare your life from their laser beams, what would you tell them?

"Girl Talk" zine!

Where do you like to eat, play, and people watch in LA?

I like to go on bike rides or go running on the weekends. The weather is always beautiful in LA, so I try to take advantage of it as much as possible. I love eating Mexican food out here — Machos Tacos and El Coyote are both delicious. People watching in LA can be done almost anywhere. You could sit in Sunset Junction all day and watch the hipsters who take themselves too seriously walk by. Of course, there are also a lot of freaks in Venice Beach to be seen (sometimes celebrities). Mostly I like to hang out with my cat, Squanto, and read books on feminist theory.

Any last words for our readers?

Remember, in the words of "Bikini Kill" zine #2, "...girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can and will change the world for real."

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Check out Amigos’ Website .

Check out Girl Talk’s blog.