Ajua! Someone has correctly answered all of the questions on the ARE YOU SMARTER THAN AN EASTSIDER? Quiz!
One very EastsideCulture savvy contestant has demonstrated a profound
knowledge of all things Eastside, and has proven to be truly deserving of the Grand Prize! A certificate good for Dinner for Two from: EL CONQUISTADOR RESTAURANT in Silver Lake!
(I wanted the prize to be a trip far away from THE EASTSIDE so I picked the very self-proclaimed hip Westside town of Silver Lake!) Que Gácho! Anyway, here are the answers to the quiz: Continue reading →
In these hard economic times we all need ways to make money, though I read in Editor and Publisher that newspapers that were neighborhood or ethnic based were doing surprisingly well. I hope both of you are in the doing well group. As you know the LA Times got lots of mileage out of the deaths of readers who looked pretty similar to your readership though their Homicide Report Blog.
I personally didn’t care for it that much owing to their lacking of coverage areas of Latino and African-American life. I felt that it was a sort of one sided type coverage that just perpetrated stereotypes. Many people of color did not agree with me. They feel that living on your knees is better than being dead. Even though we all agreed that the coverage was going to do absolutely nothing in regards to stopping crime. Continue reading →
“No tienen valor” are the words that an older gentleman muttered to Ernesto de la Loza as he was working on restoring his mural on Cesar Chavez Ave. and Breed. For the last few months, idiots tagged up the mural pretty bad and Loza was called up by the store to come and fix it up. I was on my way home from school and I saw him painting.
For these kids, he was an older man with a sombrero who bought them dinner. To their parents, he was Leo Carrillo, famed vaudevillian and actor of the era.
Nom nom nom. Delicious food, you must eat it. If you have the money, of course. And you fit the “desired” clientele.
This picture is not about that. It’s about a community helping its members.
It was La Golondrina restaurant. The year was 1937.
Don Tosti on “Latin Eyes” a San Francisco news show, 2002.
Video courtesy of the excellent Proyecto Pachuco collecting oral histories of Pachuco culture for a future book and documentary.
Even before Julio’s excellent post on the value of urban language, I’d been thinking about the ephemeral variations of Los Angeles accents. When I was growing up, the typical (or stereotypical) Eastside Chicano accent was similar to the dialog you’d find in a Cheech and Chong movie. The words themselves are a mixture of Caló (derived from Gitano Caló and indigenous words), English, archaic Spanish and dashes of African-American vernacular. The accenting comes from Northern Mexico and their version of Spanish with it’s high and low, somewhat sing song tonal variations – regularly sounding as if a question is always being asked.
Don Tosti is a good example of this early way of speaking Chicano Caló. Born In El Paso, Texas and then moving to the Eastside when he was fifteen, he brought this unique argot with him. At Roosevelt High School I’m sure he found numerous others from El Paso who were also conversing in this cool, “Pachuco” slang. This patois has lived on in the Eastside until now, although the accents and the vernacular are quickly changing. Maybe it’s due to increased immigration from the central and southern parts of Mexico and from Central America. Or it could be the ever present influence of the global media and their official representations of urban lifestyles. It’s important though to capture this language before it’s gone, a project I’m currently working on.
I’m grateful to Don Tosti for recording his delightful dialect in-between the verses of his songs. It’s obvious that his Pachuco culture was integral to his music. The excellent documentary above explains more.
Many members of my family and many of my neighbors still speak a version of Chicano Caló. Even many of the college educated folks will slip back into it after awhile. One of my favorite speakers is Shorty, a 94 year old Chicano who is now living in South San Gabriel. You can listen to him speak in this clip.
It makes me feel kind of Nostalgic to see stores like Sears, WalMart & Kmart starting to offer their customers the choice of LAY AWAY plans again. Can’t say I blame them, with all the credit related uncertainties these days. Back when I was a kid…. Continue reading →
It’s that time of the year again, grab your blankets, put on your schools colors and make your way to East Los Angeles College this Friday for the 74th Annual East Los Angeles Classic. 74 freaking years !!!!! It astounds me that Roosevelt and Garfield have been going at it on the football field for that long. For seniors at both schools, this is THE GAME to win. Last year Garfield lost after beating the Rough Riders two years in a row. You can almost literally feel the electricity in the air from both the players and the fans.
74 th Annual East Los Angeles Classic
Friday, November 14, 2008 East Los Angeles College
Frosh/Soph Game: 4:00 PM – Varsity Game: 7:30 PM
There’s no question this presidential election was historic, and it looks like many people want a memento to mark the date. The picture above shows the end of the line this morning for those wanting a reprint of the Wednesday LA Times paper, click ahead to see the rest.
I’m upset that it did pass. Gay rights is a civil rights issue. I am not surprised that it passed, but that doesn’t stop me from being pissed about it.
I’m also angry about how the LA Times focus in regards to this seems to be just on black people. Just in this wide swath. Why aren’t we divided into different demographics like educated or Christian or blue collar? Why are we not individuals like how white people are viewed as individuals in the LA Times?
Kevin Roderick LA Observed (a long time comrade of people at the LA Times) makes a point to say 70% of the black population voted for Yes on 8 (over and over and over again), but fails to point out that we are six percent of California.
But on the other hand he doesn’t link one blog by an African-American writer (I’m pretty sure that was on purpose), though he does link blogs that talk about African-Americans celebrating, in African-American sections of LA after the Obama win.
If the black issue was such a concern to him then why not at least do that.
Today is the first of two days that staff and operations at General Hospital move to their new digs, on the right in the above picture. I know many of our readers have personal connections to this hospital, some even born there! Continue reading →
~ 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
