Published by Rocket Science Studios, Moretón, the Spanish word for ‘bruise’, is the first publication by LA based photographer, Darren Vargas. Spurred by the death of his beloved grandfather, Esmael, in 2020, Vargas documented the Lee Espinoza Coachella Valley Boxing Club, a community led non-profit boxing club whose owner, Lee Espinoza, celebrated locally as the “godfather of boxing”, reminded Vargas of Esmael. A place where action replaces words to guide and support a largely immigrant community in a struggling area of Southern California. Yet Moretón is not a story of boxing. Rather the story of finding a sense of place and self and ultimately forgiveness and of a life’s work with no expectation of anything in return. A percentage of the sales from Moretón will go back to the Lee Espinoza Coachella Valley Boxing Club as a donation.
The Lee Espinoza Coachella Valley Boxing Club was founded by Espinoza in the 1980s in order for his son to pursue the sport of boxing and is open to the public at no cost. When it relocated next to Coachella City Hall, the program flourished despite confined quarters and little financial support. Lee’s guidance and overall commitment to his community is demonstrated by the generations who have boxed there and who continue to succeed in business, in the neighbourhood, and in the boxing ring.
As Vargas says of Moretón, “This project is not only a personal reflection on what legacy means and how that translates to my own experience with my grandfather but is a documentative view on what it is to be an immigrant and build something. It is a response to struggle and hardship but finding ways to still give back. Lee has sacrificed to make something for the youth in Coachella valley. For a place that struggles with drugs, violence, exile and the heat. A haven in a special place.”
Vargas’ work stems from revisiting his personal life as a teenager and the experience of growing up in a non-traditional Mexican immigrant home. With his parents divorcing before he was born, Vargas draws from this experience of living split lives and moving around as a child from Los Angeles, Riverside, Visalia, Orange County, Fresno and Sanger, continually having to restart life in every new city while learning to be responsible at a very young age.
As a child during the summers, Vargas and his brother would be taken by their grandfather, Esmael and their grandmother, Jessie, to Indio and the Coachella Valley. Jessie and Esmael were born in that desert to immigrant families and where a number of their relatives still lived. Exploring the desert area, with its deafening wind and his lips getting chapped while he played on the iconic towering roadside dinosaurs, Dinny and Mr Rex, caused Vargas to realise that the desert was a much bigger part of his life than he had previously realised.
“This place does not just hold meaning for me; it holds legacy. One of the immigrants is building something for themselves, for their community, and their families. To me, Coachella Valley is a representation of what it is to make it from nothing and still build everything around you.”
Esmael’s death in 2020 made Vargas confront all that his grandfather had meant to him and all that he had felt unable to tell him, through fear of not being understood and ultimately of disappointing him. In the summer of 2025, Vargas met Lee Espinoza through a boxer, Jocelyn Camarillo, who trained at Lee’s gym in Coachella. Immediately drawn to this older man, Vargas couldn’t help but recall his deceased grandfather through his wrinkles, his coarse hands, tanned skin and similar sense of purpose. Lee walked Vargas through his boxing gym telling him the many stories and memories that the club was responsible for and of the many legendary boxers who had trained and stayed there. In his office banners of past champions cover the walls alongside photographs of Lee with now famous boxers. Belts covered in glass casings, and awards, trophies and statues hang from the walls and pillars of the gym with older posters and boxing cards stapled to the walls.
As Vargas explains, “Walking into that place for the first time… I couldn’t help but notice this overwhelming feeling of home. It is the best way I can describe it. Similar to when you walk into an old relative’s house, you know, the one you get along with the most but haven’t seen in years, who listens to you. The smell, the textures, the feeling. You just sense something comforting. The more I visited, the more I felt this was true.
Kids from all over the desert go to that gym. To train, to participate, to examine, to meet the pros that train in that ring alongside them. To build themselves up. To stay out of trouble. To reconcile and sometimes with themselves.
The parents who bring their kids now were the same people Lee opened the club to all those years ago. Lee has had an impact. An impact that isn’t reflected on social media or platforms. His influence is beyond that. You can see it in the gym, in the pros that are now retired and give their time to the place he built. An immigrant from Mexico who came to the country at 8 years old and made something. Something that cannot be replicated. A place for young people to congregate. A facility that is there for its own communities and neighbourhood. It is a place to sober you up about the choices you make and how you spend your time.
Lee did the same for me. He allowed me into his house, to spectate and document, and asked for nothing in return. I am grateful and I hope this book can help remind Lee that he is appreciated for his life’s work.”
Darren Vargas is a photographer and director based in Los Angeles, California who works around the globe. He is a first generation Mexican American with roots from Tepic Nayarit Mexico. Vargas has been working in commercial and editorial photography with organisations including Capsule Magazine; Champion; Nike; HYPEBEAST; Stella Artois; NOTION; BornXRaised; and ATMOS. Moreton is his first book and will be his first solo exhibition.
www.darrenvargas.com
Darren Vargas : Moretón
Essay Darren Vargas
Publisher Rocket Science Studios
Design Friend Editions
First edition 200
Format Softback with casebound linen texture cover with a tipped in image on the front and foil stamp on the back cover
Pages 98
Dimensions 8” x 10”
Price $60 (A percentage of the sales from Moretón will go back to the Lee Espinoza Coachella Valley Boxing Club as a donation)
https://rocketsciencestudio.co/
