Saturday night, I’m still bummed out and sad over the two kids that were shot down on the sometimes-mean streets of the Eastside a few days ago. Across the street from my house there is a memorial for a kid I knew since he was in diapers, shot to death a couple of years ago at 18 yrs old, over some bullshit. Sometimes I think about all the people I knew and grew up with who aren’t with us anymore due to violence, drugs, prisons, all useless bullshit. But then I see something like Art posted up this AM, positive action, good karma, pictures of his kids, I hope all our youngsters have a chance at enjoying the good things that life has to offer, family, friends, a creative and useful time here on earth.
When the blues start to rain down on me I can always count on the Les Blank film “Chulas Fronteras†to snap me out of it, Los Alegres de Teran, and the good life, no matter how humble, there’s no place like home.
And for a little more alegre here’s a little more of Los Alegres
Alegria y Amor para todos
I love this film too!
My favorite scene is with Lydia Mendoza making tamales in her kitchen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bib9U81OzQc
La Alondra de la Frontera
Surge in Highland Park violence terrifies students
Reading, writing, and diving to the floor when gunshots are heard are all part of the routine for second-graders.
Steve Lopez
March 22, 2009
Gina Amodeo shouted “Pancake!” and her second-grade students knew exactly what to do. They immediately dropped to the floor and flattened out, minimizing the chance of getting shot.
It was only a drill, but they’ve been doing the real thing far too often lately. With a recent surge of violence in the vicinity of Monte Vista Elementary School in Highland Park, the students are terrified.
“We don’t want to get hurt,” one of Amodeo’s students told me after the Friday morning drill, smiling innocently.
I wish I had known what to tell him and his buddy, who both looked at me as if an adult ought to have an answer for this kind of madness. I told them they were safe in their classroom, and they nodded but didn’t seem particularly reassured.
Amodeo had invited me to campus to see what these kids are up against, and I sat with her in the principal’s office for a while as we took turns saying how tragic and unacceptable it is. Principal Jose Posada, a Marine in the first Gulf War, said he didn’t see as much action in Iraq as there’s been in the neighborhood in recent weeks. “We’re caught in the middle of it,” he said of violence that may involve competing Highland Park gangs.