Last year I was lucky enough to be in Mexico around this time and got to see many of the Dia de Muertos festivities AND their incorporation of Hallowin (jaja!) into the season. If Frankenstein’s Monster can get into the spirit by sharing a big ass Pan de Muerto with his ghouly friends, then surely we can do a little cross cultural pollination of our own, que no? Have fun mixing it up this weekend!
Launderland Disfraces, Lincoln Heights, 2008
Botanitas is an ongoing feature bringing you stories and news from various sources, upcoming events and other bits of ephemera that might be of interest to LA Eastside readers. Suggestions welcome!
Halloween and Dia de los Muertos events after the jump!
I read about this new veggie spot called Doomie’s recently at To Live and Eat in LA and was quite surprised to find out about some veggie/vegan options in Chinatown, that’s a pretty close by. On the way back from the LA Archives Bazaar we took a detour to check out this new veggie spot, and I’m glad we did because this is going on my short list of regular joints to visit!
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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.Â
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’ve been battling a demonic cold. It’s half my fault. My status as a smoker has come back to haunt me in all kinds of way. I tried to quit, but it’s hard. I suppose though that dying would be harder. Anyways when I get a cold it becomes this thing where my body tries to drown itself. I have to think about breathing.
It used to be called the Westside – my grandmother at Echo Park Lake, 1957.
This Saturday the 3rd annual LA as Subject Archives Bazaar will be taking place at the USC Davidson-Conference Center. I’m sure you can find an old-timer there that will corroborate my statement above, as well as inform you of thousands of other historic facts about this great city of ours. I’ve attended every year and often discover new sources for research and different perspectives on our city’s history.
More on the bazaar:
What Is L.A. as Subject?
Hosted by the USC Libraries, L.A. as Subject is an alliance of research archives, libraries, and collections dedicated to preserving the rich history of the Los Angeles region. L.A. as Subject is working to increase the visibility of local archives and improve access to them for students, researchers, K-12 educators, and everyone else with a stake in Southern California history. L.A. as Subject promotes tools and mentoring to help its members with everything from preserving and cataloging materials in their collections to fundraising and public outreach.
To support this mission, L.A. as Subject organizes an annual Archives Bazaar and bimonthly Archives Forum. These events raise public interest in local history while providing opportunities for educators, community archivists, librarians, and historians to share ideas and help one another preserve the L.A. region’s diverse cultural heritage. The research alliance publishes an online directory of 288 local archives–organized by topic–guiding students, researchers, and the public to resources that can help them explore the complex subject that is Los Angeles.
Building on the USC Libraries’ commitment to preserving Southern California and Los Angeles history, L.A. as Subject is developing a variety of new resources to support L.A.-area historical collections and strengthen the involvement of local communities.
Book signings by Jonathan Gold, Jervey Tervalon, William Estrada, J. Michael Walker, Carina Monica Montoya and Icy Smith.
Film Screenings: Chicano Rock!, Chinatown Remembered, The Eastsiders and The New Los Angeles.
See you there!
Just added: Schedule—->>>
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The time for a vato loco to cruise 360 miles to his sanchas apartment is 3 hours more than the time for his vieja to travel 300 miles to go catch him.Â
If the rate of his vieja driving is 15 miles per hour faster then the vato loco, find the rate of the rate of speed in which the vato loco is traveling to go see his sancha.
That there are a lot of peeps running around with scarves, thick hats, Uggs boots and other “winter” wear???
WTF?!!?!?
Just because it is October and ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Ugly Betty’ (East coast shows) are experiencing cooler weather don’t mean we need to dress the part here on the West coast!!!
It is 90 something degrees and these peeps make me feel hotter just by looking at them in their winter wear.
Which reminds me how I want to kick people who put fake snow around Christmas time when its 90 degrees!!!
Mother Nature doesn’t follow our calendars, we should follow her cues.
So Cal. embrace our weather, which yes doesn’t change much. Don’t like it? Please leave and go freeze.
Us children of the Sun and lizard people like it just fine.
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. Â
             ~ Funkahuatl doing his thing at Eastside Love ~
I took the Purple Line to the 720 to an art event on Sunday.
And this happened:
I was pouring myself some wine and a woman said, “That’s a beautiful dress you have on.â€Â I said thanks. She went on to say it was the first time she had been at this particular establishment on Wilshire Blvd. I told her I went to this particular establishment all of them time, well rather used to.
I said the place had lots of events. Art talks, poetry, jazz…she then stopped me.
“Oh I like jazz, but I don’t like rap music, sorry. I don’t like it.â€
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