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Decked out in their finest Dodger blue outfits, Las Mil Amores prepped to shoot the music video for their song “I Just Like to Party” — a recently released bouncy, electronic homage to house music that hits on the signature themes of their work: repping L.A. and defying their haters.
The sister duo of East Los Angeles natives Elsa and Maggie Guzman walked into the upper level of a Long Beach pizza shop one mid-April afternoon hauling luggage prominently featuring Stitch (the lovable and not quite Dodger blue Disney character), and with both of their parents in tow.
The track’s lyrics — “Oh yes, I’m a hottie, Mexican Barbie / I ain’t no thottie / I’m a brat hood rat with tats” — rang throughout the nearly empty parlor as the two set the ground rules for their taping session with their cinematographer: two takes of the full song in each of their three outfits and call it a day.
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Once rejected and disillusioned by the music industry, the fraternal twin sisters found their way to online virality thanks to a series of social media videos, many of them songs, that highlight their genuine love for the Dodgers.
Their musical journey dates back to 2006, when Elsa leaned into her sonic ambitions as a way to help her process and move through some of her childhood trauma stemming from physical abuse from outside her immediate family. Soon after, Elsa persuaded her sister to join her in the venture.
“We first started singing banda, norteños [and other variation of música Mexicana],” Maggie said. “We had sang in nightclubs like El Rodeo and El Parral. We were still in high school, we were probably like 17 years old when we started singing.”
During those early years, their parents were functionally working as their managers, chaperoning them at the various 21-plus performance spaces.
“From a young age they’ve always loved to sing,” said Maria Guzman, the sisters’ mother. “They’re just like their dad in that way.”
After spending half a decade trying to carve out their place in the L.A. música Mexicana scene, the sisters went through an experience in 2012 that turned them off from the music world.
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According to the Guzmans, they approached a locally revered radio programmer with the idea of doing a full banda cover of Beyoncé’s “Si yo fuera un chico.”
“He stole our idea. He gave it to another singer,” Maggie said. “My sister and I went into a depression. We just couldn’t trust no one anymore.”
Elsa and Maggie decided to step away from music, choosing to focus on their studies instead. After graduating from Cal State L.A., the duo got their master’s degrees in sociology from Cal State Northridge. They now run a quinceañera business, teaching people dances for the festivities and helping decorate the venues. They also work in real estate on the side.
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Las Mil Amores talk about how they first got started in the music industry and how social.media helped them revive their music career.
It was the COVID-19 pandemic that rekindled Elsa and Maggie’s desire to start making music again.
“One day we were like, ‘Hey, why don’t we kinda act like we did in high school, fool around, represent East L.A. and do all these videos,’” Maggie said. “And they just started popping off and going viral.”
Elsa recalled the video that she believes started the duo’s rap career.
“We had a music video wearing blue jackets and we did a little rap about the Dodgers,” Elsa said. “I remember that some page called ‘Foos Gone Wild’ picked it up and put it on their site.”
While watching her daughters record several takes of their latest single, Maria noted that it’s a “really beautiful thing” to see her children work together. She then quickly zoomed to her daughters’ side as they prepped for a wardrobe change into matching pink satin numbers with golden heels.
Their signature love for the Dodgers is also a family affair.
“The reason the Dodgers are such a big deal in our lives is because of our dad,” Elsa said of the patriarch, who religiously watches the team. “I remember my mom would make papitas con chile and we’d be watching the Dodgers. It was a moment of happiness, a moment of escape.”
In their videos, Las Mil Amores are often donning Dodgers merch and are always finding ways to integrate their beloved baseball team into their raps.
“So boys in blue do your magic,” the duo sings about the Dodgers in a recent post. “For the opps, it’s about to get tragic.”
Las Mil Amores’ appeal stems in part from the familiarity that their online personas radiate. The sisters don fully done-up faces that harks back to an unmistakable mid-2000s L.A. Chicana look; many Angelenos no doubt have a cousin or sibling whose wardrobe rotates between comfy track suits, scantily clad dresses and all-Dodgers-everything fits.
The sisters’ videos emanate an aura that would make David Lynch blush with its misty-lensed surrealist touches and a dead-staring commitment to staying in character. They toe the line between being too silly to take seriously and too serious to take jokingly. Their synchronous rapping is reminiscent of a slightly less menacing version of twin girls from “The Shining.”
If their work appears DIY, it’s because it truly is. The sisters write and edit all of their own work.
“I don’t think I would be able to do something different that wouldn’t be with her,” Elsa said of collaborating with her sister. “All of our lives we’ve worked together. ... Ever since I was little I was able to have my best friend there and I wouldn’t have it no other way.”
The sisters are funny and self-effacing in their delivery.
“Name five Dodger players,” Las Mil Amores ebulliently yell in unison at the top of a video from April before going on to name four non-Dodgers and one almost Dodger. “Jimmy Humilde! Mookie Beats! Julio César Chávez Jr! Oscar De La Hoya! And LeBron James. ... So the next time you foos say we don’t know Dodgers players, checale.”
Not everyone is a fan. The comments section of their videos is replete with people making fun of their looks— it’s the greatest hits of online misogynistic remarks. Other common refrains on their content include Dodger fans disowning them.
On their most popular TikTok, people wrote, “Nope don’t embarrass us like that” and “This is embarrassing and I’m from LA and this brings embarrassment to Cali.”
But the sisters aren’t afraid to joke around and dish it back to the haters in the comments.
“Do u girls work on a circus? what time is ur shows?” wrote one person, to which the Guzmans replied, “After you.”
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But for all the hate directed their way, Las Mil Amores certainly have their defenders, who point out that the sisters are simply doing what they love and having a good time in the process.
“The comments have always been about 75% negative, but I do see a switch probably because [people] have gotten to know us through interviews or just probably because we’ve been persistent,” Maggie said.
“We learned not to care about what people say because in the past we took it too much to heart and we actually stopped doing what we [loved] for like four years due to other people,” Maggie added of the sisters’ new mentality to dealing with online negativity. “You cannot always please other people. You just have to do what you want to do and pursue your dreams.”
While Las Mil Amores have yet to do any official videos or collaborations with the team, it means a lot to them that they have become recognized in the Dodger community and, most importantly, by the team itself.
“I know that some of the players have [heard us] — they’ve asked them — and they laugh,” Elsa said. “They know who we are, and we’re like, ‘Oh, my God, they know who we are!’”
And to all the haters online who continue to bog down the Guzmans’ comments, they have a clear message.
“Don’t hate me cuz I’m cute, if you wanna hate me I will put you on mute,” the duo rapped repeatedly on the intro for the video they were shooting. “Take your negativity out of my sight or I will block you and win this fight.”
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