All photos by Sean Maung.
Club Tempo has lived in the corner of an East Hollywood strip mall since 1991, blasting the beat of banda long after its neighbors close for the night. The laughter and music float out into the parking lot until they reach a group of taqueros awaiting the club’s drunk and hungry patrons.
Tempo’s weekly “Vaquero Nights” solidified the club’s reputation as a safe, lively space for L.A.’s queer Latino community to meet new people, dance to songs not played in other clubs, and express all facets of themselves without judgment.
“You go to a straight club, you can be welcomed there, too, but it’s not like you are being surrounded by the people of your own community,” Miguel Vallejo, who has worked at Club Tempo for over 20 years, tells L.A. TACO. “Because we have vaqueros here, you can be yourself because there are some vaqueros that like to use makeup, nail polish—they cannot really go out to a straight club like that because they’re gonna get looked [at].”