Frutas is an indie magazine project created in 2021 by Bibs Moreno. It was inspired by FRUiTS, the iconic Japanese street fashion magazine created by Japanese photographer Shoichi Aoki. The way FRUiTS captured the raw energy of Harajuku’s youth in the 1990s and early 2000s, Frutas was born out of a desire to document similarly - but not exactly - the unique subcultures in Los Angeles. The focus being on mainly Latinos and Chicanos but not exclusively as LA is a melting pot of people. The original intention was to only publish one issue as a fun, light hearted homage to FRUiTS. However, that was not in the cards. Upon release, the first issue exploded with popularity and excitement from our community that we genuinely were not expecting.

This forced us to question why this project would feel so significant to our fellow Latinos in Los Angeles? We realized that Latinos, and more broadly speaking Angelenos, love Japanese and alt cultures. It was something we had overlooked as important to publish because it was so the “norm” growing up in Southern California, but had yet to be properly documented. Frutas evolved into a more complex and ongoing project. 

We realized mainstream media has failed to depict us Latinos justly. Over and over again we see the same archetypes being reused that have become stale and redundant. And in some cases even worse, we see the depiction of us vilifying and outright racist. Reflecting on this realization we understood how important this project is in archiving, documenting, and celebrating the beauty that is being Latino in America particularly in Los Angeles. So much of our contribution to music, art, fashion, and culture has been overlooked and made invisible. 

Frutas is a joyous celebration of our community for our community. 

We are a loose organization of artists who volunteer out of our own passion and love to make this project happen. We have expanded into multimedia with our sister project Aemnio, that covers local music in Los Angeles with some Frutas fashion and culture programming sprinkled in. 

With much love and gratitude we thank you for your interest and support.

Frutas Forever <3