So I made it out to the Fiesta Shalom in Boyle Heights early this morning. There’s still about 2 hours to go if you want to check it out, or just click ahead for some pics!
Fiesta Shalom Pics
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Category Archives: Musica
Legends Of The Eastside Sound- An Interview With Mark Guerrero, Part 1
[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/get-your-baby.mp3]
Once upon a time, during the late 50’s to the 60’s, weekend nights at Eastside gyms, halls, and youth centers were taken over by dances featuring a young breed of musicians who got on stage and beat out the rhythms of Soul, Blues and Rock & Roll to frenzied crowds of teens making the scene.
That era and that music that became known as “The Eastside Sound†is woven into the historical and cultural fabric of Eastsiders. It has an identity, and a flavor that comes through in a rich shade of brown better heard while cruising in a Ranfla, or by spinning some scratchy 45s and dancing with your Háina.
There have been recent noteworthy chronicles about this Eastside musical heritage such as the book “Land of a Thousand Dances†and the recent video documentary “Chicano Rock! The Sounds of East Los Angelesâ€. Nevertheless, I have always felt that the Eastside scene was worthy and deserving of something much more in depth. There were overlooked people, places and details that I wanted to help discover, chronicle and preserve for posterity. And, since it doesn’t look like Ken Burns will be undertaking that project anytime soon, I decided to take some steps in that direction all on my own.
I sought someone from that era who could tell me more about it from a front lines, first-hand perspective. “Who could paint a mental picture for me of what those times were like?” I asked myself. Then, I came in contact with Mr. Mark Guerrero.
Continue reading
More Videos from the Eastside Luv event
Is it tomorrow yet? Yeah, I was hoping to post these earlier pero que se le va hacer, I’m not racing against some clock. We try to get posts up here regularly but you know, people gotta do stuff. Besides, even if its a week late, where else would you find these fine videos (and a few pics) from East of the river? I thought so.
Click ahead to see que paso!
Music is universal
Thanks to the help of Volunteers of East Los Angeles, Wenceslao Quiroz and members from the community got permission and some funding to paint a beautiful mural on the side of Belvedere Middle school. The majority of the mural was painted on a Saturday a few weeks ago, which I knew about, but was unable to attend because I was at work. Quiroz said that they had a great turn out and residents are loving the art. Quiroz, who is an East L.A. native said that he loved the energy people brought and the enthusiasm for wanting to get their hands dirty and paint, specially kids coming to help out after school.
Los Angeles Riots: 17th Anniversary
Image from Understanding the Riots: Los Angeles Before and After the Rodney King Case, Los Angeles Times.
The events of April 1992 still remain fresh in my mind and it’s during the last few days of April that I pause and reflect on the state of our city. What’s changed? What remains the same? Being a fourth generation Angelena, this city is in my blood and my history is rooted in the streets, the asphalt and palm trees. I am part of this place for better or worse.
Last year’s post.
[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/12-ode-to-la.mp3]Los Angeles Times readers share their experiences here.
La Bamba as universal truth
Edward R. Roybal – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ed Roybal (February 10, 1916 – October 24, 2005) was an American politician.
Inspired by El Chavo’s post, on the resistance to the Gold Line route on the Eastside being called the Edward Roybal “Linea de Oro†. I just shake my head a have another drink of wine. Here you have a route named after the great Edward Roybal who was one of the founders of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), who was the first Mexican American LA City Councilman since 1870 or something, first Chicano US Congressman, the first Congressman to get bilingual education into the schools as law, a spokesman for all minority people and probably the greatest Mexican American political leader of the 20th century, from the LA Eastside, (and Roosevelt High), the Honorable Edward Roybal.
But no sir, wait just a minute, we don’t want to piss off Lou Dobbs, Walter (my car radio is speaking to me in Spanish), Moore, The Minutemen, English only nabobs, and the fearful of Latino power, lying sanganabeetches, who oppose any Spanish language in public. Because in reality they fear to their bone marrow the rise of Latino Americans and see the name “Linea de Oro†as a threat.
What bullshit! Even though they live in a city called Los Angeles, in a state called California, have next door neighbors (Mexico), who speak the Spanish language, they piss their pants if anyone dare propose any further Spanish language inroads into the holy grail of Anglo America. Funny, because if you go to the ancestral mountain pueblo, high in the Sangre de Cristo Mtns.  of that great American, Edward Roybal, in Pecos, New Mexico, (where I was last week btw), and where his and other familia’s go back literally hundreds of years, you will still be greeted in the Spanish language, Hola! Que Tal Señor? Bienvenidos Señor, de donde viene? Ah Los Angeles? Oh, tengo mucha familia en el este de de Los Angeles, no quieres una helada Mano? Como se llama Primo? Gee how dangerous the Spanish language is!
And on the subject of the Spanish language here’s an ambassador of Español that instead of fear and loathing, as in some parts of Los Angeles, brings happiness and brotherhood all around the world.
La Bamba!
Swapmeetero Music
On the way into the venerable Rosemead swapmeet, we get soothed by the melancholy sounds of a man and his accordion, singing for us to “let him cry, because he’s wounded”. Actually, he’s just singing an old favorite “Dejenme Llorar” by Los Freddy’s, a popular hit in the 70’s but which resonates just a bit more since this musico appears to be blind.
Entrance line, accordion, crying, wounds, tips, 75¢ entrance fees, tickets, ticket takers: it all happens so fast that you can only get a snippet. Probably the musico doesn’t care, it’s the way he makes his money. But still, I could have waited a bit to catch some more. Oh well, la vida sigue pasando, en chinga y de aprisa.
Tiempo de Acción
Just yesterday, around 4pm I attended an event at Lincoln High School commemerating the 40th Anniversary of MEChA. A close friend told me that they’re be some bands playing for free so I decided to show (even with my problems with Identity-Politiks groups).
The 80s. Debora Iyall. Romeo Void.
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- Romeo Void
As a fan of cheesy 80s music (when are we going to Karaoke again Chimatli?) and an avid listener of KROQ2 I often wonder what happened to certain bands when I hear their songs–as I write flame bait comments on blogs or finishing up reports. Continue reading
Coachella. Layaway. YES YOU CAN!
I’m listening to cheesy 80s music streaming via yahoo and I hear this commercial for Coachella and not that I’m a big Coachella person or get in a car and go to the desert to listen to crappy music kind of person, even in my 20s that was not me. I have always been a read a book, drink a bottle of vodka, go to sleep, wake up at 9pm and go to a dive bar and argue with you kind of person.
But what caught my ear was apparently this year’s Coachella is offering a layaway option.
Layaway to go to sit in the desert where there are all kinds of rules like:
No chairs
No food or beverages (you have to buy the overpriced food and alcohol there, though I didn’t see anything about alcohol and I’m really not seeing the point of an alcohol free festival unless it is a Mormon Music Festival.)
No stuffed animals (what the hell is that “no” for…)
No drugs or drug paraphernalia (to me there is no point in going to the desert without taking drug, if god didn’t want us to use drugs in the desert then why did he make meth grow there?)
No parking overnight. No overnight parking…??!!! Nearest bus stop is three miles away, nearest train station three miles away…so I guess you spend 100 bucks on a hotel to sleep at for five hours. I wonder do the hotels also have layaway? Continue reading
A Boyle Heights Sunset
Boyle Heights  by Los Poets Del Norte. Check out their myspace for their music and their new B-sides mix.
There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home
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.