As Flores sifted through fragments of the songs that would eventually find their way onto It Hurts to Be Your Girl, piecing them back together, she was astonished to find...

Sitting with the brokenness and handling the sharp edges of these memories was painful. Dealing with the shame of experiences that she’d kept concealed from most of her family

As Flores sifted through fragments of the songs that would eventually find their way onto It Hurts to Be Your Girl, piecing them back together, she was astonished to find...

Sitting with the brokenness and handling the sharp edges of these memories was painful. Dealing with the shame of experiences that she’d kept concealed from most of her family and friends was almost unbearable. Yet she continued with the records, determined to bring them both back to life. Though abuse is a significant underlying theme in It Hurts to Be Your Girl, Flores refuses to define herself or her work by it. She's releasing It Hurts alongside the more playful Immigrant Daughter, an album that weaves together stories of love and immigration and cleverly tampers with the sanctity of Chicano icons Emiliano Zapata and Frida Kahlo.

Through it all, she has insisted on making music that is true to herself. “Being authentic has always been really important to me,” she says. And though she has never been one to buy into militant or nationalistic identity politics, she does see the importance of supporting Chicano voices. “Society is more polarized than ever, but we also need Chicano voices more than ever.”

Flores most clearly manifests her new artistic nuances during her live performances, simultaneously delivering vulnerability, smoking rage and unshakeable power. On stage, her voice builds as her strumming quickens; she is running down all her life paths, those marked by destruction and pain, as well as those illuminated with accomplishment and community. She keeps going until she is fully alight, once again the flame many of us love and that many more will soon discover. -- C. Fragoza LA WEEKLY