In Memory of Jose: Perla Meraz Returns to Nocturnal Wonderland 19 Years After Losing Her Boyfriend

You could say it was love at first sight, teenage raver style.

Perla Meraz met Jose Robles at Huntington Park High School in 1995. As soon as he saw the rave flyers on her folder, they both knew they had a connection.

A week after meeting, Jose asked Perla to be his girlfriend.

“Whenever he would walk in a room, he would light it up with his smile,” says Perla, now 37. “Everybody loved him.” Perhaps the best testament to Jose’s character came via Perla’s parents. Only 17 at the time, the Merazes let their daughter stay out with her boyfriend, two years her senior, until 2 or 3 in the morning, because they trusted him.

The couple’s shared passion for the electronic underground saw them packing nine people in a Volkswagen Bug to get to shows, calling various rave lines in search of the next party, and eventually, falling in love with the scene and with each other. Their adventures took them to warehouses and underground parties throughout Southern California, including the first and second Nocturnal Wonderlands, in 1995 and ‘96.

Perla still has the flyer from the second show. “It was two floors, and they had props everywhere. Now, they look like they were made by kindergarteners, but back then it was like, ‘Wow! Those are so cool.’”

That Nocturnal Wonderland would be the couple’s last. Jose was shot and killed on November 27, 1996, just three weeks shy of his 20th birthday. Perla remembers their last meeting vividly. After spending Thanksgiving with her family, she dropped Jose off at work later that night.

“Sometimes, I think this is the way it was meant to be—our last goodbye. We gave each other a kiss, and as he was walking away, he turns around and smiles at me, and then I smile back,” Perla recalls. “It’s really hard to talk about, but it’s also the most beautiful memory that I have.”

Then next day, Perla hit the Black Friday sales at 4am. Jose paged her throughout the day, but unable to get to a payphone, she called him when she reached home later that evening. That was when Jose’s aunt told Perla that he was dead.

Wanting to keep Jose’s memory alive, Perla attended the Seventh Heaven New Year’s Eve party later than year. But despite her best intentions, returning to the environment where she had spent so many nights with Jose proved too difficult. “I swore I would never go to a rave again,” she says.

It’s a promise she has kept, until now.

This September, almost two decades after her first Nocturnal Wonderland, Perla will attend the party’s 20th anniversary celebration. “It’s been a little difficult, because every time I hear music or anything that has to do with raves, it just brings back all these memories of Jose.”

“It’s really bittersweet,” she continues, “but I’m taking him home.”

Perla’s nieces, Liani and Deezy Gomez, played a big role in convincing their aunt to attend. Four years ago, the two sisters discovered Perla’s old flyers, including the one from Nocturnal Wonderland 1996. Unbeknownst to Perla, the party had continued. In fact, Liani and Deezy were attending the exact raves she and Jose used to go to.

“She didn’t want to go at first; it’s hard for her to look back on those times, because Jose isn’t with us anymore,” Liani, 21, says of her aunt. “In a way, by being together that night, we’re celebrating him because it’s something he liked to do with her.”

Deezy, 23, agrees. “I’m looking forward to Nocturnal more for my aunt, because it’s been such a long time,” she says. “I don’t want her to be sad anymore over Jose. I know that this is what he would want if he was still here.”

Many of the same DJs that Perla and Jose used to see together will be back this year, including DJ Fester, DJ Trance, R.A.W. and Oscar da Grouch. She’s also been listening to newer acts, like DJ Snake and Yellow Claw, in preparation for the show.

To commemorate their return to the scene, Perla will be bringing a totem of Jose to the show. She’s also taking his old rave backpack and jacket, along with replica kandi bracelets like the ones they used to wear (she’s keep the originals safe at home). “I would have never thought—being a 16- or 17-year-old kid at a small warehouse—that it would be this huge now. Sometimes I can’t even sleep, because I’m thinking about it and how it’s going to be amazing.”

While Jose may not be with Perla physically at the event, he will certainly be there in other ways. Despite having relationships after Jose, Perla maintains that he was the love of her life. “He wrote me poems; he was just the most romantic guy I’ve ever met,” she says. “It just hasn’t been the same, but who knows, maybe he’ll send me some raver.”

Check out part two of the story.

For a look into the history of Nocturnal Wonderland, watch ‘Dancing in the Dark: 20 Years of Nocturnal Wonderland’ on the next page.

Dancing in the Dark: 20 Years of Nocturnal Wonderland

To commemorate the 20th anniversary and capture the event’s incredible history and cultural impact, Insomniac has produced Dancing in the Dark: 20 Years of Nocturnal Wonderland. We interviewed members of the dance music community who were there at the inception of Nocturnal and who have witnessed the growth of the festival and the dance music scene at large throughout the past two decades. The documentary also features artists including Moby, 12th Planet, DJ Tatiana, Jason Bentley, Kennedy Jones, Bunny from Rabbit in the Moon, and many other seminal figures from the SoCal rave world.

Follow Insomniac.com on Facebook | Twitter