While your friends and neighbors are content to dress as slutty insects, slutty mammals or slutty household appliances this Halloween, you can stand apart from the candy-corn-fed masses by donning a chola costume. “But what’s a chola?” you might ask in your sugar-induced haze. Only the best subculture phenomena ever, ese! Cindy Mosqueda of Loteria Chicanashows you how:

1980s style chola

Pendleton shirt over a white t-shirt or ribbed tank Baggy Dickies (khaki colored) held up with a black letter belt
Nike Cortez or other old school sneakers
Long, permed hair; tease up your bangs (the higher, the better; use AquaNet liberally)
Dark makeup, heavy on the eyeliner and lipliner
Gold script name on a necklace or a small cross
The three dots or a tear drop
Bonus: a new name (e.g., la Sad Girl, Smiley or Shy One)

We’d like to point out that on the East Coast, you could opt to dress like a “chonga” instead. The costume is basically the same, only with less flannel and tear drop tattoos and more acrylic nails and shrines built to Pitbull and Daddy Yankee.

Halloween on a budget: old school chola [Loteria Chicana]