Engaging the audience in multiple facets of the immigration debate, playwright and attorney Evangeline Ordaz has crafted an amazingly powerful story in “Visitors Guide to Arivaca.†This powerful, emotional and thought provoking play highlights the numerous viewpoints that are intertwined with one another when people cross the border, protect it and when it lands at their front door as Ordaz ingeniously shows how one simple act, can cause a butterfly affect.
I attended an intro to sociology course called “American Social Problems†during the second week of school at ELAC and left questioning my academic, sociocultural, and career intentions with a shed of liberal light from an episode of Michael Moore’s “Awful Truth.†Why do I really want to go to school? Am I making a bad investment with hopes of an unreasonably better return that I probably don’t deserve? If I succumb to the system, will I turn into a capitalist-driven bloodsucker whose bottom line is money?
I think America is inflicted with an at-large social cancer that is slowly (or quickly, depending on how one interprets time and space) detiriorating the human spirit and his/her pursuit of true happiness. This cancer is so detectable, it’s undetectable. I cringe when I see my neighbor’s toddler children eating corporate-made candies with their silver capped teeth. My heart aches when I see jobless, injured, disabled people loitering around Downtown LA, in front of LA County Hospital, at Hollebeck Park.
Will I change in a semester? Where is the hope in a deteriorating society?
More American social problems:
– Prescription drug addiction
– Overprescribing people
– Overdiagnosing people
– Inhumane conditions in American city/county jails and state prisons
– Close-minded Americanism
– American greed
– American obesity
– Corporate takeover on food
– Lazy, apathetic government employees
– American apathy
– Under-representation of day laborers who live month-to-month
– Corporate education
The Vex, Willie Herron III and Punk Rock. Three interesting subjects. All are respected (by me) but sometimes maligned (by others). It’s a Saturday afternoon, why not entertain the three? Continue reading
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 Visionsâ€, 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 Valdezâ€, 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.