Category Archives: Photos

Back to the Future: Boyle Heights

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1st & Cummings Circa 1958

1st & Cummings Circa March 30, 2010

Paco of Corazon del Pueblo wanted me share these two pictures and write a up a post after he saw the vintage picture on the facebook fan page “Who remembers in East L.A.” In the last 58 years so much has changed in Boyle Heights. I’m 25 and already the barrio is changing once again. In the picture you see all the old businesses and the trolly that ran through 1st. Nowadays we have the goldline running under ground, a few different shops and a bigger police station. I can only imagine what will change and how things will look another 58 years from now.

Break Out Reporter for The El Paso Times in Boyle Heights Saturday

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Last weekend of art activism– A Prayer for Juarez closes.  This Friday and Saturday doors open at 7:15pm for final viewing of the protest art exhibit. Casa 0101 Annex, 2102 1st Street, Boyle Heights.  All events are FREE!

Friday, March 26, Film  Screening of El Traspatio/Backyard from Mexico. Not yet released in the US.  Stars Jimmy Smits & Ana de la Reguera. [Mexico, 2009 – 122 mins].  Screening starts at 8pm

Saturday, March 27, Award Winning Reporter Diana Washington Valdez updates us on the latest from Ciudad Juarez, from an insider’s point of view. Starts at 8pm.

Diana Washington Valdez, an investigative reporter for the El Paso Times, has covered the murders in Ciudad Juarez since 2001. In her book The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, Washington Valdez contends the killings are part of a circuit of parties hosted by prominent Juarez citizens. Former FBI official Frank Evans said, “Diana Washington Valdez is a witness to the truth.” Ms. Washington Valdez has taken the message about the femicides in Ciudad Juarez to 30 cities in the United States and other countries. She is featured in the documentary Border Echoes, produced by Lorena Mendez Quiroga of Los Angeles and in Bajo Juarez by Alejandra Sanchez and Jose Cordero. Both films feature author Washington Valdez’ examinations of the Texas-Mexico border atrocities. Diana Washington Valdez has been interviewed for features on CNN, the New York Times, Aljazeera, Televisa, Channel 4 (London, England), and other news media.
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Butoh of East LA

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Pictured is a Butoh dance entitled Cihuatl 15 performed by endy, at a Prayer for Juarez on Saturday, March 20.  Her endurance piece on Saturday offered time and opportunities for inquiry, contemplation and processing in response to the femicides in Juarez.  In preparation for this dance movement, she laid still on the sidewalk in front of Casa 0101, as sand was poured over her body, representing the women who had died in Ciudad Juarez and buried in shallow graves.

Butoh’s source is the Japanese avant-garde of the 1960s, a period when Japan struggled with the lingering effects of the atomic bomb detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II. Originally called “ankoku butoh,” or “dance of darkness,” the medium created a space for the intensely grotesque and perverse on the stage. In Japan endy studied  “Sankai Juku” which means “studio by the mountain and the sea,” and implies the serenity and calm which is characteristic of the work.  She also studied and has performed with Guillermo Gomez-Peña.

Random’s Rundown: Chicano/a socialites unite

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It gets harder and harder each week to keep up with everything that’s going on sometimes you know. I gotta deal with student life at taco tech, activism work with the team I’m a part of and of course keeping up with my community reporting. Then some how in between all that I gotta make time to earn some cash here and there moonlighting.  Such is the life and I am forever thankful for it. Idle hands are the devils play things you know. In fact, a friend commented to me that I was dropping the ball on my reporting, which is kinda true. So, with that being said, here’s a list of things to do with weekend East of the river. I’ll catch up on here when I’m on spring break next week. In fact, I should be studying rather than blogging. Fuck it.

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Movie Screenings–All Weekend in Boyle Heights!

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“A Prayer for Juarez” has been a month long of international events raising awareness on the Femicides in Juarez, Mexico. After the slaying of three embassy workers this past weekend in Ciudad Juarez this tragic situation intensifies.  Filmmaker/Producer Dianna Perez is hosting two evenings of FREE film screenings  March 19 & March 20 at Casa 0101 Annex, 2102 1st Street, Boyle Heights. These films are rare and hard to get a hold of, and really amazing.  We invite you to join us!

Friday, March 19th, 8:00 pm
Senorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo
Missing Young Woman tells the story of the hundreds of kidnapped, raped and murdered young women of Juárez, Mexico. The murders first came to light in 1993 and young women continue to “disappear” to this day. The evening begins with a short film Sangre y Arena by Rigo Maldonado & Shakina Nayfack, followed by Q&A. This art film shot on location in Lote Bravo (a cotton field irrigation ditch) where 8 women were found at one time in 2001.

Saturday, March 20th, 8:00 pm
Border Echoes by Lorena Mendez Quiroga
Border Echoes-Ecos De Una Frontera, is a documentary that tells the story of the slayings of girls and women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, through the eyes of investigative reporter Diana Washington Valdez. [Save the date! Award winning El Paso Times reporter Diana Washington Valdez will present in person at Casa 0101 Annex on March 27, 8pm) The evening begins with a short performance called Cihuatl 15 by endy and a screening of Sangre y Arena.
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Stupid America

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~A message I read on my way to work on the bus ~

A poem by Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado

stupid america, see that chicano
with a big knife
on his steady hand
he doesn’t want to knife you
he wants to sit on a bench
and carve christfigures
but you won’t let him.
stupid america, hear that chicano
shouting curses on the street
he is a poet
without paper and pencil
and since he cannot write
he will explode.
stupid america, remember that chicanito
flunking math and english
he is a picasso
of your western states
but he will die
with one thousand masterpieces
hanging only from his mind.

Uncle ray

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My uncle ray was a true veterano, a varrio legend. He escaped the oppressive climate that mexican indians endured in New Mexico in the 1930’s, as a young boy literally clinging to my grandma’s back. My abuela was his older sis, and she has  many a tale involving him being a baby tied to her back as they worked the fields in Nueva Mexico, then the central valle, then around the LA area.

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Home Despot Festival: El Matador & A Killer Toilet

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Sometimes when I have free time, by which I mean time when I’m avoiding doing the things I’m supposed to do, I like to go on a walk around my neighborhood of Lincoln Heights, just to see que pasa. Usually there’s not too much excitement, but today I saw a huge Mexican Futbol jersey hanging on the side of the Home Despot and a bunch of stalls over on Ave 22 and figured I’d better see what all the mitote was about. And all of a sudden my lil’ walk turned into an exciting minute of celebrity spotting and a glimpse at one fine toilet. Since you probably also didn’t know about this parking lot festival, click ahead to see a few pics of how it went down!

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