LA Eastside

Zoning out at Mariachi Plaza, I look around the newly built Eastside Gold Line Extension while waiting patiently for Tejano turned Angelino, Vincent Valdez, who last year exhibited in LACMA’s “Chicano Visions”, a collection of Cheech Marin’s amassed Chicano artwork. Behind me, the sun collides with downtown skyline, and in front me, appears the modest Valdez, in plaid with portfolio walking up First Street. We meet at the venue for his latest solo show “An Evening with Vincent Valdez”, hosted by Boyle Height’s own Eastside Luv. Shaking hands for the first time, two things strike me: the artist is incredibly friendly, having a warm and welcoming disposition (I had always heard myths of San Antonian hospitality, now I know them to be true), and that he vaguely resembles a Chicano Edward Norton.

Pre-show Valdez

We step into the space; the red of overhead lights bleed onto the bar, stage, and cinémex posters. Valdez moved to Los Angeles in 2005 and has since been integrating LA themes and lifestyles into his artwork. He sits ready to talk about developing projects, and his new city muse. “Right now, I am really excited about making this LA series,” Valdez explains enthusiastically. He is currently working on a new show entitled Burn, where the artist sets city landmarks a blaze, from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica Pier.

G: You have been in LA for quite sometime, would you consider yourself an Angelino?

V: You know, I think that I sort of claim myself as both a San Antonio native always and as an Angelino. I think I have put in a major amount of time and work here in Los Angeles, and most importantly, than anything else, I really sort of seen a significant influence in my work as far as the city and the neighborhoods have in my work. I have seen it start to enrich a lot of the imagery I have been working with in my most recent work while being here.

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Beat It like you never heard it before.

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The smoke cloud from the Station Fire as seen from Lincoln Heights.

I watched the fire dance over the mountains last night, every minute it leapt higher and moved at an amazing speed. When I woke up it felt as if there was a BBQ grill going inside my house. So is this what it feels like to smoke two packs a cigarettes a day? I can barely breathe. How about you all? How have you been coping with the smoke and heat?

Amazing photo taken from Highland Park can be seen here.

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From the great blog Mex Files the question is asked “Where are the Mexican or Mexican American Chefs on the Food Channel Network cooking or explaining or visiting Mexican Restaurants and kitchens?” Always a sous-chef, never a chef

Paul Campos (Lawyers, Guns and Money) on U.S. television celebrity chef, Rick Bayless.

“… it struck me that in a country where the actual cooking in high-end restaurants is dominated by Latin Americans in general, and Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in particular, the “celebrity chef” doing the Mexican cooking against his French and Italian-American competitors was a very WASPy-seeming fellow. Nothing wrong with that of course — it’s not like you have to be a member of an ethnic group to be a great cook in that genre — but it also reminded me of the point Anthony Bourdain makes in Kitchen Confidential that almost none of the thousands of superbly skilled Mexican and Ecuadorian and Peruvian etc, cooks manning the lines ever seem to end up as head chefs or sous chefs at the fancy places they work, let alone with TV shows on the Food Network.”

Rick Bayless is a good Mexican cook and very respectful of the cuisine but he’s not a Mexican.

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COLORADO

Agency retracts Latino warning

An advocate for Latino rights says she was appalled to learn that the U.S. Forest Service is warning the public that campers who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music could be armed marijuana growers

-Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2009

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It’s been awhile since I did one of these, and I’ve bet you’ve all just been sitting around waiting to be told where to go next, eh? Well the wait is over! Warm up your engines, or pedals, or sandals, or whatever, cuz there’s a new day trip excursion around Los Angeles for you to consider. And to which exciting and fascinating spot are we headed today? To the library! Wait a minute…what?

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She’s Here.

Back in late June, I learned through the LACMA blog that they had acquired a gorgeous painting of La Virgen De Guadalupe from 1691.  It was installed a few weeks ago so I went over to check it out.  I had the luxury of visiting the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe earlier this year so I was excited to see this one.  I didn’t feel like forking over 12 bucks for regular admission so I waited til the clock struck 5pm.  I gave my donation, got my ticket, and took the outside elevator right across from the Welcome Center/ Hammer Building up to the Art of the Americans Building.  I opened the door and there she was at the far end, immediately tugging at my heart and drawing me inward.

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Sometimes something as simple as a way of preparing what everyone eats can lead to a moment of otherness.  Surely this can happen to most everyone: but it specifically happened to me in Emeryville (near Berkeley, CA) while working at a Trader Joe’s.

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By next summer there will be a cumbia show at Hollywod Bowl. Mark my words.

With the popularity of Very Be Careful, Santa Cecilia and Buyepongo among MANY other groups, LA is shaping up for cumbia to be the next flavor to blow up.

I know cumbia clubs have existed for a while, so have their artists, but the above mentioned are not playing in exclusive cumbia spaces. They are playing to billingual Chicano/a crowds at local hip spots as well as Grand Performances. On the radio Jeremy Sole on KCRW drops a cumbia like he does at his weekly party, deep in the westside, Afro Funke. The beat is easy to catch, most anyone can dance to it and its plain fun.

Some Cumbia has an electronic element to it which is being played in tracks such as this one by Zizek

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So this is what it looks like when the Eastside becomes a demographic. I first spotted this campaign in a men’s magazine and I was like “Whoa, finally representing the kind of people who actually wear Dickies!” Thanks to LA Eastside reader Perry who passed on the video link, much appreciated!
When I was a teen, I was into the hardcore punk scene and interestingly our fashion wasn’t all that much different from the vatos in the neighborhood. We’d wear Dickies, those canvas shoes you could buy at Woolworth’s or Thrifty’s (both stores now defunct) and plain black cotton jackets. The difference was, we were all a lot scruffier looking and had colored hair. I’ve shopped many a dime store aisle with a vato/vata next to me.
Nowadays, my friends will head to Cesar Chavez, North Broadway, Figueroa, Huntington Park or swapmeets for their Dickies wear. You can cut them off at the knee for the classic vato look, wear them to work a la your favorite mechanic or even pass them off as dress slacks. I remember once Dickies even had a “Working Class Hero” contest which I thought was hilarious! As for me, I’ve since moved on to girlier clothes.

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