LA Eastside

IMIX Books has been open for about 6 years and has served the community extremely well. But times are very tough and we need your help. A fundraiser is being held on Friday February 19th.

I met the owner, Elisa, when she worked at Premiere Aztlan in the Montebello Town Center more than 10 years ago. We have been good friends ever since. This woman is dedicated to books and to the community. She worked at Sisterhood Books, Midnight Special Books, Premiere Aztlan, etc. Remember those places? She later had a space at Mercado La Paloma off 37th and S. Grand. She then opened IMIX Bookstore in Eagle Rock and has provided an invaluable community resource. Besides a fine selection of literature and progressive titles, how many artists has this bookstore helped?

In these desperate economic times, mom and pop stores are hit the hardest. IMIX is one of the last independent bookstores in the ELA/NELA area. In fact, all the bookstores where she was once employed are gone. We will not let IMIX Books suffer the same fate, will we? Our community helps our own, right? See you there.

Suggested Donation is 15$ (sliding scale). No one will be turned away at the door. Children free!!

*Note: you can also donate here*

**chimatli wrote about IMIX here.

***flyer borrowed from DJ Phatrick

Comments(1)

It’s a bit late, and other people have covered it but here’s a few pics I took of the recent LA Anarchist Bookfair at beautiful Barnsdall Park. Yes, when we’re not burning and looting, we do take some time to catch up on the latest theories and practices to be found in print, its ammo to fuel the anger. Haz click para la rabia!

(more…)

Comments(4)

Stop-Wake Up (Very awesome video filmed in Los Angeles and popular Hi-NRG song)

Over at my personal blog, I’ve been doing a series of posts based on a book I’ve been reading called Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco. I was fascinated to read the chapter on Hi-NRG or what I’ve come to call “Chicano Disco” (my nod to the moniker “Chicano Oldies”) and the music’s influence on a generation of Eastsiders.
(more…)

Comments(13)

I’ve been reading 2666 by Roberto Bolaño for many months now. I’m a slow reader but this book in particular has really been a challenge. The book is divided into three parts with different narratives that eventually come together. The second part of the book is a fictional retelling of the murders in Juarez, MX.

In case you’ve living under a rock somewhere, for the past 20 years or so young women in the border town of Juarez have been mysteriously murdered and raped by unknown assailants. Most of the murderers have never been caught nor has the cause of the murders been definitively determined, although there is much speculation as to the motives behind the killings.
Bolaño uses an alias for Ciudad Juarez in the book and I imagine many of the details are lifted verbatim from the city’s crime scene files. This second part of the book is description after description of murder scenes told in a clinical fashion. The narrative is so gruesome, so haunting,  it provoked thoughts of fear: what if these kind of murders begin to happen in Los Angeles? The idea troubled me so, I had to take a break from the book.

Awhile ago, I came across this news story and a sharp chill ran through me as I read it. The details are almost identical to passages in 2666. Juarez is not so faraway.

CALIFORNIA BRIEFING; WHITTIER; 3 men arrested in attack on woman
Robert J. Lopez. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.:Aug 5, 2009. p. A.8

Three El Monte men were arrested Tuesday after allegedly slashing a woman’s throat and dumping her on the side of a steep canyon in Whittier, authorities said.

The woman, a 20-year-old Bellflower resident, suffered a 4-inch slash across her throat and had cuts and bruises on her body, said Jason Zuhlke, spokesman for the Whittier Police Department.

The men — Vincent Mendoza, 21; Edward Meraz, 24; and Jose Ayala, 27 — were booked on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping, Zuhlke said.

He said the woman underwent surgery at County-USC Medical Center and was listed in critical condition.

The woman knew the three men and had planned to go to the beach with them Monday, Zuhlke said.

Instead, they got in their car, tied her up with rope, beat her, cut her throat and left her in Turnbull Canyon in Whittier, he said.

“They dumped her and took off,” Zuhlke said.

The woman, still bleeding, eventually climbed up the hill to the 6000 block of Altmark Avenue, he said.

Neighbors were awakened about 3:30 Tuesday morning by the woman’s screams. She gave police the suspects’ names and a description of their vehicle.

Zuhlke said the three men, still in the Whittier area, were pulled over by police a short time later.

Updates:
Three El Monte men face trial for Whittier attempted murder
3 plead not guilty in slashing of Bellflower woman

I have been unable to find any further information on this case.

Comments(5)

Day 1 recap right here

Let the words of Helena María Viramontes serve as an introduction.

After months of exasperated apprehension, Day 2 of the 12th Annual Los Angeles Latino and Family Festival is here. Mission Accomplished. You see, Virginia, there is a Satan. Like Santa, I received thousands of letters asking me to give them a little something something. Day 1 was not enough, the masses clamored for more. I heard you, my peeps. Now, will you shut the… Of course, there were some scrooges who wrote/commented that my Day 1 report was not polite enough. Bah! Those scattered patrons of the mainstream like their artists untouchable. Here, like in The House of Usher, everybody gets touched. On with the show.
(more…)

Comments(4)

Name three works of fiction about Los Angeles by three different authors.
or
How many spots do you see?

Comments(16)

Promo video for the Guadalajara Bookfair

As some of you might know, The City of Los Angeles is the invited guest at this year’s La Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara appropriately taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico this weekend. There will be quite a few Eastside and other Los Angeles writers and artists heading down to participate in the various musical offerings, panel discussions and lectures. In particular, the Vexing exhibition will be making an appearance and artists Sandra de la Loza and Shizu Saldamando will be presenting Eighteen With a Bullet.

I recently returned from a trip to Guadalajara and have a warning for those heading down for the events. The GDL airport does not have x-ray equipment to search your checked-in luggage on your way back. Passenger luggage is picked through and examined by young, tough women with immaculate eye make-up who dig and pull your items from the suitcase in full view of everyone in the airport lobby. Be prepared and don’t end up like the poor ranchero who made a whole line of people gasp when a large homegrown camote was discovered and pulled out from the recesses of his bursting suitcase.

In case you are wondering what Guadalajara and Los Angeles have in common (that is, besides the hundreds of thousands of people that consider both of these cities home) you can buy Suavitel in both places. The guy who tried to bring his camote to Los Angeles obviously didn’t know this because the luggage examiner also pulled out a large bottle of the laundry detergent from his suitcase only to have the line of Tapatio-Angeleno passengers tsk tsk his ignorance. Hey, these things are good to know, right?

Just came across this blog following some of the LA folks in Guadalajara: Blogalajara, Vexico.

Comments(7)

photo from "Cholo Writing"

“Cholo Writing: Latino Gang Graffiti in Los Angeles”

by Francois Chastanet with forward by Chaz Bojorquez.

This book gives Mexican-American ‘cholo’ writing its proper recognition and respect as “the oldest form of name graffiti of the 20th century.” Focusing on L.A. ‘cholo” writing styles from an aesthetic point of view, evident long before the explosion of tags and pieces of the early 1970’s.

Cover of "Cholo Writing"

Cholo writing is the oldest form of graffiti in the 20th century, evident in Los Angeles long before the appearance of tags and pieces in the early 1970s New York.  It is a Mexican American phenomenom with a unique aesthetic based on blackletter typography, used for street bombing by the latino gangs. In the 1970s, Californian citizen Howard Gribble photographed examples of Latino gang graffiti over a wide geographic area in order to encompass a larger variety of styles, with the simultaneous idea of portraying Los Angeles. More than 30 years later, French typographer Francois Chastanet travelled to the same neighborhoods to photograph the inscriptions of today. (English text in this edition, also available in Swedish)

go to www.dokument.org for more info and to order

Comments(15)

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. My home in City Terrace is but a twenty minute walk to CSULA. Grab my headphones, a notebook and we off. Gotta take some notes because I won’t remember all things literary at such an event.
Got there and I’m handed a program guide (how organized, no?)

(more…)

Comments(14)

Some stupid company once put West Hollywood on an eastside map, which was a laugh riot. But after a ritual burning and casting of spells, they saw the error of their fake eastside ways and have now given West Hollywood their own map. Good for them. It’s not often I find myself in this community but how can anyone resist a bookfair? Pa’ los libros!

Even though this post is about a bookfair, there is a fair amount of pictures up ahead. You’ve been warned.

(more…)

Comments(5)