LA Eastside

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A special van.

Every year I go to the Brewery. It’s an automatic pilot type thing. I have very few traditions. In fact I have only two traditions. I go to the Hollywood Christmas Parade every year (if I’m in Los Angeles) and I go the Brewery Art Walk. I’ve been going to both of these events longer than I can remember. I’m so obsessed with them that I will actually go by myself. I remember two years ago I couldn’t trick anyone to come with me to the crappy Hollywood Christmas Parade, even my boyfriend refused to do it, “It’s lame why do you do this every year.”
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Regular commenter Urbanista submits the following pics and text about another DDLM event that took place tonight, enjoy! (Oh yeah, if you ever want to send in your own pics and text, get in touch with us via the contact us page.)

Good Evening LA Eastside,

I wanted to forward some pictures (cell phone pictures) from the event that took place over at El Gallo Cafe. There was artwork displayed as well as altars. There were some vendors selling some of their crafts with the theme of dia de los muertos. They also had a live band - Upground which got a mini mosh pit going and revived the crowd (no pun intended lol). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvy3FBHBhWc) <=== (Dia de los muertos song). I also got a signed “Viva Obama” print from Lalo Alcaraz.

More pics ahead.

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I suppose it shouldn’t be unexpected that there might be a traffic jam at an LA cemetery, but it was still kinda surprising to run into this long line of cars trying to make their way to some loved ones grave. Crazy.

Click ahead for some more pics of Resurrection and a human traffic jam at SHG.

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~ Alter from Teocintlis Dia de los Muertos celebration ~

I love Dia de los Muertos. The beautiful art work, the food and of course the unity of family and friends remembering loved ones. It’s a celebration of life because your not really dead until people forget about you. As long as family and friends honor their loved ones, they’ll never be gone. Doña Junta knows exactly what I’m talking about because she built one of her own and it looks awesome. Whether it’s personal or communal,big or small as long as your heart is in it it’ll be a wondrous sight to behold. Ofelia Esparza and her family have been gaining recognition since 1980 for their beautiful alters at Self Help Graphics and all over the world. I never really knew the full meaning behind the celebration until I saw her give a presentation at ELAC last year. The following is excerpts edited together from the story I wrote for the school paper last year. 

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The week had been tough relationship-wise. Everyone I was close to was pissing me off. My roommate set a bug bomb off while I was sleeping (mistake, of course). My mom wasn’t calling me back. And el Venado, the boyfriend, kept screwing up.

He called Friday night. The first ten minutes of the conversation were tense. He was trying, but I insisted on answering his open-ended questions with yeses, nos, okays, and fines. Of course I wasn’t fine or okay, and he could pick up on it. Ten minutes into the conversation he finally received my telepathic clues and said what I wanted to hear.

“I want to see you.”
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I saw Ruben “Funkahuatl”Guevara read this at an event at Teocintli. I caught up with him afterward to introduce myself because never in my life have I heard my home be described with such love and respect. I told him him how much admiration I had for his writing and he encouraged me to do it myself. I have yet to get around to it but reading his writing always makes me wanna start writing something. Even if it’s just for me. The following is from a piece he did for the L.A. Times magazine in ‘06. it was about the different heights in L.A. I remember when he was explaining this to me that Lincon Heights was left out for some reason.  

                        ~ Funkahuatl doing his thing at Eastside Love ~

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October 23rd 2008 Posted to East Los, Eastside, history

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Pan de Muerto from El Pavo Bakery, $2.50

It’s that time of year, Pan de Muerto is now available at your local panaderia. Every panaderia seems to have different kinds, although the bone symbolism tends be the most prevalent. Sometimes you can find some with names of the departed - a few years ago I spotted a piece at the King Taco bakery in Lincoln Heights with the name “Bush” on it. A baker with sense of humor, nice!

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I had written this serious post about crap you already know. Coupons, going back to school, roommates, moving back in with your parents and then I thought of something. We’re in La La Land.

Image is EVERYTHING!!!

This is why so many of us get in a hole in the first place, so I decided to give you advice on how to survive economic harsh times, yet keep your rep firmly in place. Being eccentric and bat-shit crazy always sounds better on paper than just poor.

If you are going down the economic ladder, do it with insane style!!!

One thing you can do is join a cult. Cults are always accepting new members. And many cults have a crash pad. When you have no money you isolate yourself from your friends and family anyway, so you’re ripe for a cult. Yeah you might have to do animal sacrifices, but if you aren’t a vegetarian this won’t be a problem and also there are animal friendly cults that just sacrifice people, though those kinds of cults are (more…)

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   ~ Nico ~

Los Poets Del Norte is a musical group born, raised and based in Boyle Heights, just like its two founding members, Nico and Xavier Moreno.

Immigration, poverty, gentrification and everyday life are just some of the topics Nico and Moreno incorporate into their poetry.

“We’re serious about the issues that we talk about because it’s our reality,” said Nico.

Both Moreno and Nico have their own personal war stories about what it was like growing up with gang violence in their neighborhood.

Getting hit up by different neighborhood gangs on his way to school or seeing drug paraphernalia on the streets was a daily part of life said Moreno, “I got to see that and it showed me that’s the direction I can go if I abuse it.

“I saw my friends that go through that and fall in that trap, losing friends and being shot at affected me.”

By retelling the stories inside of them, both Moreno and Nico are also giving an oral history of the community they grew up in.

They don’t want others to make some of the same mistakes they made in their youth.

“Growing up you experience all that stuff, you become surrounded by your environment and in turn you become your environment.

“We’re at a point in our lives where we have become reflective of that.

“We’ve become observant of that and survivors because getting shot at and burying your friends is not something everyone goes through.

“Growing up in a community like ours, most of our friends did experience that,” said Nico.

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