Fashion photographers regularly seek out Onyx Mondragón.
The 38-year-old Gilbert resident of Mexican and Spanish American parentage told The Arizona Republic her "exotic" features have long elicited praise from her goth cohort. The attention prompts modeling work from publications catering to a subculture derived from dark, medieval aesthetics and accentuated by punk music, mourning attire and Victorian period elements.
Mondragón recalls being in her 20s and visiting Denver’s goth scene, realizing how white it was and just how fully appreciated she was while there.
"They were completely fascinated with me," Mondragón said, adding a common refrain she heard was, "You are so exotic. Where are you from?"
For many who are not goth, the subculture appears to leave Latinas and other women of color in the shadows. Who the goth movement regards as its foremothers is restricted to white women like silent film vamp Theda Bara and campy 1950s TV hostess Maila Nurmi, a.k.a. Vampira. Additionally, much of goth makeup centers around white foundation.
The goth lifestyle, which often demystifies death and sometimes even celebrates it, aligns well with some Latinas in the American Southwest where Day of the Dead proves a cheerful tribute to the departed.
Through the goth lens, Mondragón holds a certain kinship with actress Jenna Ortega. Vogue Australia declared the 21-year-old ingénue of Mexican American and Puerto Rican descent, “the ultimate new-age goth girl,” while Elle.com has a running tally of Ortega’s “most fabulous goth-glam looks.”
Ortega stars as Astrid, the rebellious daughter of Winona Ryder’s morose and clad-in-black Lydia Deetz character in Tim Burton’s upcoming "Beetlejuice" follow-up, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." With Michael Keaton reprising the title role from the 1988 original, an official trailer dropped Thursday. A budding actress, Ortega portrayed perennial goth Wednesday Addams on Burton’s Netflix series "Wednesday."
Mondragón is among Latina and Hispanic goth girls in Arizona spanning three generations opened up to The Republic about all the ways they thrive under a pale moonlight.
Racks of garb
Growing up in the '90s in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mondragón was entranced by goth art and music during what she said was the subculture’s "golden age."
Her artwork was "heavily influenced" by the Burton-directed "Edward Scissorhands" and the Burton-produced "The Nightmare Before Christmas," Mondragón said. She studied animation at the Art Center Design College in Albuquerque under the late Phil Young, who she learned had roomed with Burton when both worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
A graphic designer by trade, Mondragón clings to goth garb with racks of custom-made clothes at her home. A recent favorite is a red pleather dress based on the bare muscle-resembling armor that actor Gary Oldman sported in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film "Bram Stoker’s Dracula."
As a woman of color with "a penchant for odd things," Mondragón said she appreciates how the tribe of goths she found early on was so welcoming to "the misfits of society."
"Being an ethnically diverse person, I kind of see the beauty in that," she said. "And I think that's probably what drew me to it and kind of what endears me to it."
Drawing inspiration
For Giselle Torres, unburying her goth identity came about within the pages of her sketchbooks. Torres’ drawing style leaned on Swiss artist H.R. Giger and Japanese manga illustrator Kazuo Umezo. A book tied to her childhood as a Mexican American also became a basis for the 26-year-old Phoenix resident’s black ink drawings.
Influences from Alfred Avila’s illustrated "Mexican Ghost Tales of the Southwest" began to creep into her compositions. "La Llorona" is a work by Torres inspired by the book’s illustration featuring the notorious weeping Mexican boogeywoman as a ghostly female apparition replete with jagged teeth and hollowed eyes.
Aside from Mexican folk tales like la Llorona, Torres has also drawn inspiration from José Guadalupe Posada. The 19th-century Mexican political cartoonist satirized high society through black-and-white skeletal imagery and created the Day of the Dead’s la Calavera Catrina archetype.
"I thought being goth was strictly a white thing. But when I grew older, there was elements of the Mexican community that one, from the outside, could find it to be pretty goth," Torres said.
Torres foresees a bright — yet aptly dark — future for Latino and Hispanic representation in goth spaces through Ortega’s presence.
Ortega herself appears to have faced challenges in establishing a goth personality.
"I’ve always respected goth culture. I’ve always had a darker sense of humor, but I never felt like I was able to express that. Now I feel like I can embrace those qualities in myself," Ortega told Vogue in an article published April 12, 2023.
Torres remains conscious of possible pushback and limitations. She pointed to reactionary gripes online whenever a character or role previously deemed white is depicted as a person of color. Ortega has been part of moves toward inclusion by way of her casting in Burton’s productions and as one of the "Scream" franchise’s first Latina final girls, or slasher flick heroines.
And as welcomed as Ortega’s prominence as a "goth icon" may be, Torres said, she is concerned the actress might prove to be "the only Latina representation."
Fragile mortality
Kris Martinez may not have seen many other Hispanic girls in film or on TV as a young teen, but seeing Ryder as Lydia in "Beetlejuice" gave her someone to style herself after. Much like Ortega is celebrated now, Ryder was herself regarded as a goth starlet for her roles in "Beetlejuice" and "Bram Stoker’s Dracula."
Martinez, however, tossed out her goth look early on to avoid possibly transgressing her strict Catholic upbringing.
These past several years have led to a shift for the 50-year-old Casa Grande resident, where her wardrobe is now exclusively black and her head of hair is routinely dyed in atypical colors like green and purple. "I’ve decided at this age that I don't really care what anybody thinks anymore."
After the deaths of her brother in 2011 and her boyfriend of 26 years in 2022, Martinez said she fully accepts the fragileness of her own mortality. In her jewelry business, Slightly Twisted by Kris, Martinez regularly crafts wire-wrapped pendants, rings and earrings with coffin-shaped stones and skulls.
Even as Catholicism initially pushed her away from her calling as a goth, Martinez considers the Catholic burial rites are partly why she is comfortable using death motifs in her jewelry.
"I think goths tend to look at that and tend to romanticize it," she said. "It doesn't make it look scary."
Strutting at ease
The air had a thick coldness to it on the Saturday night of Feb. 10 as Martinez made her way to the Valley for the Arizona Goth Festival in south Phoenix. The annual event draws performers, vendors like Martinez and spectators, and is organized by the Arizona Goth Society. Martinez, Mondragón and Torres are part of the 4-year-old, nearly 8,000-member Facebook group dedicated to bringing goths across the state together.
Surrounded by hundreds of fellow goths, Mondragón was at ease as she strutted into the event in her "Bram Stoker’s Dracula" dress.
"I don't think I've ever met another kind of community that accepts all those walks of lives in one place, and it's not considered weird," she said. "It just means you’re allowed to be whoever you are, as you are."
Reach breaking news reporter Jose R. Gonzalez atjose.gonzalez@gannett.comor on X, formerly Twitter:@jrgzztx.
