Category Archives: Identity

Random’s Rundown

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Feliz Año Nuevo de la Luna everyone. I’ve been busy with Taco Tech the last few days and haven’t had time to catch up. I have a long list of things to blog about and post. That’s why I came up with “Random’s Rundown.” Like any great idea, this happened while I was in the bathroom. Last night I was making notes on info that I need to post ASAP for y’all to read and I was thinking to myself if I should do single post or bunch everything together. Chimatli already has that covered with the Botanitas post, so I started thinking and then BAM !! It hit me. I’m basically giving everyone the run down on what’s going…. PRESTO “Random’s Rundown.” All the news that is not fit to print, but still hella important. In this installment, Metro meetings for planning on bikes, Mardi Gras with Ollin, Juarez Documentary screening and more from IMIX.

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Serving Notice: Learn to Decipher Maya Hieroglyphics

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BL FLier

The Mesoamerican Society at Cal State L.A and co-sponsor the Art History Society at CSULA are sponsoring a Maya Epigraphy Workshop on February 19-21. The three-day workshop will be taught by Dr. Bruce Love, one of the world’s main epigraphers and translator of The Paris Codex: Handbook for a Maya Priest (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994). These workshops generally cost hundreds of dollars but thanks to Prof. Love — who will be teaching this workshop for free — students can enroll for a minimum fee that will help defray the cost of workshop materials.

Hi-NRG aka Chicano Disco

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Stop-Wake Up (Very awesome video filmed in Los Angeles and popular Hi-NRG song)

Over at my personal blog, I’ve been doing a series of posts based on a book I’ve been reading called Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco. I was fascinated to read the chapter on Hi-NRG or what I’ve come to call “Chicano Disco” (my nod to the moniker “Chicano Oldies”) and the music’s influence on a generation of Eastsiders.
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Another regular day in the barrio

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I cannot make this stuff up folks. My girl, Xicanisma pointed me to this most random and ironic scene of what a regular day in Boyle Heights looks like. Think about it ? This is the google car that goes around mapping things with that camera on top of the car, incognito. Yet, it manages to catch something like this, police officers stopping to a person who may or may not be a cholo, you can make that up for yourself. Having him get into pat down position. The address on here is 2030 E. 1st Things like this make the barrio look bad and might scare off potential investors who wanna develop, but that’s just the way things are here in Boyle Heights.

Made outside the USA

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Mexico man hole cover

When I walk, I tend to look down at the ground. Not because I’m depressed or anything like that, mostly because sometimes it’s easy to over look things that you would normally wouldn’t see. Like multicultural man-hole covers.  I’ve found a few a these all over downtown, there are also a few out there that were made in India as well. What I like about these covers is that there is a rather simple explanation behind them, rather than some other implied meaning behind them, to be interpreted by individuals for their own accord.

Basically what’s going on here is that the city has two contracts with two steel manufacturing plants, one in Long Beach and one in Alhambra. These two plants have been making the cities covers for the past few decades and it turns out that they are the ones that outsource their work to either Mexico and India. Funny how things like that work. Still, it says a lot about our city, whether it’s implied or not. It says everything about me, guess that’s why I love it.

Comic books, beer and magic and realism in contemporary Chicano literature

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I’ve never seen an Andy Warhol up close and person. Eh, I’ve never been a fan of anything “pop,” except for the kind fizzy kind. I saw it at the L.A. Art show. It’s aight, I would do a post, but I’m kinda tired right now, so bear with me until I get to it later. Probably after the show ends. If you wanna check it out, go to goldstar and get $10 tickets like I did. However, there are some other great events happening this weekend that are worth mentioning besides the Anarchist book fair. You won’t be disappointed. And in the spirit of Art month, go out and get your art on.

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Trail of DREAMS

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trail of dreams

On January 1, 2010, we embarked on a 1,500-mile walk from our home in Miami, FL, to Washington, D.C. We walk to share our stories, so that everyday Americans understand what it’s like for the millions of immigrants, especially young people, unable to fully participate in society. It’s time that our country come together to fix a failed system that keeps millions in the shadows, with no pathway to a better life.

Our journey will be long and full of hardship, but for us, we see no other option. We are putting our futures in jeopardy because our present is unbearable.

We are four students from Florida – Felipe Matos, Gaby Pacheco, Carlos Roa, and Juan Rodriguez – who were brought to the United States by our families when we were young. This is the only country we have known as home. We have the same hopes and dreams as other young people, and have worked hard to excel in school and contribute to our communities. But because of our immigration status, we’ve spent our childhoods in fear and hiding, unable to achieve our full potential. We walk in order to share our stories and to call on our leaders to fix the system that forces people like us into the shadows, stripping us of the opportunity to participate meaningfully in society.

In solidarity with my brothers and sisters making this trek for not just themselves, but for everyone else who can’t. The current immigration reform that needs to take place is the current reincarnation of the civil rights movement that has been going on longer than I have been on this earth. We continue the work that has been laid out before us from the streets of East L.A. to China. No matter what your race, gender or sex this is a fight that knows no borders.  

L.A. Gang Tour ~ Empowerment through story

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“We started these problems and it’s going to take us to fix them.” Alfred Lomas of L.A. Gang Tours

Due to some technical difficulties with technology, I’m writing this post through my iPhone, so be patient of minor flaws. More than usual anyway. Thanks to Wendy Carrillo, I was able to attend the L.A. Gang Tour media presentation today to get a better feel for it, which is starting next week. For most of the day I’ve been chewing on the fat of the tour over all and what I want to write and say about it and what is being questioned back and forth. Is this ok? Is it poor people watching? Does the tour suck? Etc.

Before I get into any of that, I wanna share where I’m coming from. I’m an adoptive son of Boyle Heights, but like a promiscuous lover, I’ve been around. A lot of the spots that are in the tour, I spent time there as a kid. Looking out the window crossing Alameda into South Central and Compton took me back to days of future past when I saw those same sights in the back seat of my parents car. I was back in the hood after being gone for so long.

All those memories came back in a rush and I was all smiles. I know what’s up here. I know the tour guide knows his stuff and he’s not selling any bullshit to sensationalize it. This allowed me the opportunity to really listen to what he’s saying. What he wants to accomplish with the tour, what the future may bring and how this is the first step in more monumental actions. Everyone is hung up with the safari/fish bowl aspect of the tour and not listening to his hopes, ideals, vision and most importantly his motivation, which he does through Jesus and the Dream Center. If you want details about how this happened, read DJ’s post or the Times article.

“It’s never about strategies or building funds. It’s always about the people. It’s always about the lives that are being touched. It’s about the individuals who are willing to stand up in these communities.” Lomas

The way I see it, this tour is no different than this very blog that is a tool, a device that allows us to tell our own stories the way we see fit from our individual perspectives. To empower ourselves through our stories, using them and sharing them with others. Fostering ideas and dialogue amongst ourselves, rather than letting others tell our stories in ways that don’t even come close to how it really is. This is what I see this tour doing. They’re former bangers and they know how fucked up the system is, but not only that, they decided to take action.

They want to create sustainability within their own city, not relying on outside help. Creating jobs for kids and most importantly a path to end the cycles that keep snatching others into the La Vida Loca. This is the conclusion I made half way through the tour when we stopped at a church to hear a pastor describe the challenges presented to our communities. The changes in people and him personally learning Spanish and adapting his parish to help folks from the Latino/a community. To bring them in rather than exclude them.

If you wanna know what the tour is about, go and find out for yourself. Because I was part of the media preview, some of the things I saw and heard were catered for media. The tour will be unique to itself. You can call it fucked up and a safari all you want, but that’s not what this tour is about. And if you’re nesio, then fuck off. This tour is about people sharing their stories, history and personal narrative to create positive change in their communities because it takes our own to fix our own.

Pour One for Joe Reyes Nevarez

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Joe Reyes Nevarez, 98, died Monday, December 28, 2009.

Beloved father and groundbreaker, Joe Nevarez was an important figure in the Latino media community of Los Angeles.  He was the first Chicano reporter for the Los Angeles Times newspaper.  Joe’s career began at eastside’s Lincoln High School, where he was the Sports Editor of the school’s daily paper. His career at the L.A. Times began as a copy boy, when a student friend/co-writer and head copy boy at the Times, offered him a job. Joe’s official job was to paste up New York Stock Exchange quotations, but his love of the news process and hard working ethics, often found him volunteering in the financial section of the paper during his free time. He was paid $12 for a six-day week, yet felt so blessed to be working during the darkest part of the Depression.

Throughout his career Nevarez always urged the LA Times to hire Latino reporters, but his editors always told him there wasn’t anyone who was trained.

Nevarez came to the United States as a three-month-old when his mother crossed the Mexican border into El Paso in 1912. When he was older, he attended a Spanish Catholic school in Texas.  Joe didn’t speak English until he moved to Los Angeles and was enrolled into an English grammar school.  He became a U.S. citizen in 1925.  In 1942 Joe served as a typist and clerk for 3 years in the Army Air Corp, and naturally one of his duties was representing his squadron by reporting for the army base newsletter.

He and his wife, Theresa Juarez Nevarez, had three children: Margaret, Daniel and Cecilia.  Though Joe Nevarez never attended college, he made sure all three of his children went. Upon graduation his daughters entered the education field (one as a high-school counselor and the other as a teacher), his son worked at the Internal Revenue Service.

Joe Nevarez worked for The Los Angeles Times for a total of 52 years, during which time he also was a founding member of the California Chicano News Media Association. He said he was   happiest in the newsroom. “There’s nothing better than being a reporter,” Nevarez said. “There’s something new everyday.”

On January 6, 2010, a Memorial Service will be held at the St. Stephen Catholic Church for Joe Reyes Nevarez. http://www.archdiocese.la/directories/parishes/info.php?parish_id=277, followed by a burial at Resurrection Cemetery.

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap

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If I remember correctly, my very first post on this here blog was about a police sobriety check in the heart of Boyle Heights in June of last year. Hmm more than a year later, the economy in Califas is tanking, the city is looking left and right and underneath every couch cushion to save money and bring in more revenue, like raising sales taxes to 9.75 percent and other various  measures. It’s getting tight in this city, real tight. The kind of tight that when I was growing up, frijoles, huevos and tortillas were what’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with maybe some queso de piez sprinkled on the beans to add a little variety.

Needless to say, it’s not hard to connect the dots on the current situation out on the streets of L.A. right now, with all these holiday sobriety check points to keep drunk drivers off the streets. This is an invaluable service by the police, however we all know that’s not the case right ? I mean come on !! This is way over the line, even for the L.A.P.D We all expect and know these holiday sobriety checkpoints are around, but as of late, the amount of cars getting pulled over and of these check points is bordering on abuse. Nah, you know what, it is abuse.  “Ohh but you’re just exaggerating because you blah, blah, blah” hell no I’m not exaggerating. Sunday of last week me and VD were kicking old school on our way to the barrio when we see a car pulled over on Sheridan. Then we see another car pulled over two blocks further down and then another car pulled over on Chavez and Soto. Not to mention that I average out one text per day informing me of where there are check points taking place. This isn’t the police checking for drunk drivers and keeping the streets safe, this is the police being abused by the shot callers who need to come up with more feria to cover the cost of their business expenses and trips to Mexico to represent L.A. in a book fair. Really !? A book fair !?

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One more thing to do this weekend:Maravilla handball tournament

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~ Courtesy of Tommy Nishiyama, Sr. ~

“Handball is a pride sport. It’s not about winning money, it’s about pride. It takes the skills of a boxer and the mind of a chess player to win.” In the barrio, sometimes pride is just as important as money. ~ United States Handball Association national champion Elias Barajas

Pride is more important than money, other wise we wouldn’t be here, but that’s just me. I was sent this info to pass along and post via Chuy 90023 and a friend of his who sent me the info. Thanks guys 🙂 This weekend, as if there wasn’t enough things to do already, the Maravilla Handball Court will be holding a co-ed youth tournament this Saturday and Sunday. Here’s the info: The first-ever co-ed handball tournament for youth at the historic Maravilla Handball Court, the oldest handball court in East Los Angeles. The court was built brick-by-brick by East L.A. residents in 1923 and reflects the rich layers of history common in Los Angeles. The Old Timers—former members and veteranos of the Maravilla Handball Club, which was once open to men only—will attend the tournament to mentor and train a new generation of handball players. The junior singles tournament has four divisions: ages 17 and under, 15 and under, 13 and under, and 11 and under.

Maravilla Handball Court Sat & Sun December 19 and 20, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
501 N. Mednik Avenue (between Hammel and Dozier)
East Los Angeles, CA 90022

COST:
Free for spectators, $4 entry fee for participants with proceeds going to the Maravilla Historical Society

For more info and some of the history of the handball courts, click here.

Here Comes the Cavalry to the Rescue disguised as Cafe con Leche!

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This morning I see a blog on Grub Street LA, extolling a subsidiary of the Coffee Table called “Cafe con Leche” as the savior of Self Help Graphics and Art in East LA.  Franchisers of some LA Coffee Table branches are also owners of the ‘formerly known as” the Self Help Graphics building at the corner of Gage & Cesar Chavez—AND entrepreneurs of Cafe con Leche du ELA.  Hmmm–this blog which is called “Cafe con Leche Could Keep Self Help Graphics in the Chips” smells like the spin that these hipster-franchise amalgamators have been shoving down our throats since last year.  Fellas, what happen to that part in the lease contract about not using  SHG’s 37 years of community involvement to promote yourselves?    Eastsiders, can you say “Coffee Table” or does it really have to be interpreted in El Castellano?  As a hardworking volunteer in the team of many artists and activists who toil every week to keep Self Help Graphics and Art vibrant and open, I look forward to those residual checks coming in to keep ELA art in ‘the chips”.  Damn, call me and save yourself a stamp, I will personally pick that check up.  By the way—brrrring, brrring, we’ve been calling you to come and fix the lights and leaky roof for a few weeks now.  Hope we don’t have to wait until the chips roll in to get that fixed.

To read the whole preposterous blog and some insightful comments click here