Category Archives: Politica

Dia de los Muertos 2010

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Considering how I got a lot of positive feed back from last years impromptu Day of the Dead guide, I was debating whether or not to make another this year too. I mean, I do have a life beyond my random ramblings on this here bloggito. But then again, I love DOD and I love sharing the tradition and parties with as many people as I can. My homework will still be there after I finish. So here it is, your 2010 Dia de los Muertos guide to events you probably already know about and some you may have missed. Also, Day of the Dead is also election day. So, after you vote between a @#!*% and a turd, which I won’t get into lest I be called childish names again, start making your way to Self Help Graphics for the original Dia de los Muertos celebration, going on its 37th year and it’s free. Free !! You can also print and wear this kick @#!*% mask made by Cuéntame, the ¡Latino Instigators!, for a get out the vote campaign. I think it’s hilarious because if you can vote and don’t for whatever reason you have, then you are a cabron and you have no right to complain about how bad things are either. Also, most of these events are pretty self explanatory, soo I’m gonna cut corners and just copy and paste info with flyers and pics really. Anyway, enough jibba-jabber, on to the festivities

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Protesting Whitmans East L.A. Office

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No one really likes Meg Whitman, for numerous reasons. So she got the bright idea to open up an office in East L.A. to ‘target’ the Latino community. Frankly, if you’re ‘Latino’ and are voting for Whitman, then your off your rocker. Her office has been picketed since day one and almost once a week by unions, orgs or people that just plain don’t like her. It’s become a regular thing, so much so that her office staff have started counter-protesting. It’s quite hilarious.

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A VIEW TO DIE FOR

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A worker installs panels in the array, which will be about the size of a football field. (Christina House/For The Times / September 19, 2010). A photo from the LA Times article about the installation of 1400 large solar panels on the hills above Griffin Ave.

The project on property belonging to the Christian Science Convalescence Home has been temporarily halted as public outrage over the ugly scaring of the hills is discussed further.

The owners of the old folks home have all the permits and legal rights to complete the project but is the eyesore and desecration one of the remaining undeveloped hillsides going to be allowed? At what price does solar energy and energy savings to the owners have on not only the aesthetics of the community but also the future of the birds and animals that reside in those hills?

Solar energy is a viable and resourceful way to combat the oil industry and it’s dirty poisonous effects on Mother Nature but does this justify the destruction of nature and habitat that is becoming so rare in Los Angeles nowadays?

As a roofing and construction professional of many decades I would ask why we in the USA don’t mandate the use of roofing materials that use solar collector cells integrated into the membrane as is so popular now in Europe.

Imagine if almost every roofing surface in Los Angeles was covered with a solar energy efficient material that turned solar energy into a power source, on most days peoples electrical meters would run backwards and ugly solar collector panels and giant wind turbines wouldn’t be ruining the aesthetics of the landscape.

100 Years of Food & Revolution

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Self Help Graphics & Art begins celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the Mexican Revolution with a dialogue, art, performance, pan dulce y chocolate!

Saturday, September 18, A free screening of Like Water for Chocolate/Como Agua Para Chocolate at 5pm, where delicious Mexican cooking and La Revolución fuse into mood enhancing cuisine. read more The film screening is followed at 7pm with light refreshments of pan dulce y chocolate and a short talk with CSULA History & Latin American Studies teacher Enrique C. Ochoa, whose main focus are issues of power & culture in the tortilla industry and revolución.  He is the author of Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food Since 1910.

After, please stay and enjoy the fiber exhibit of 100 Years of  Food & Revolution until 11pm. The exhibit artists are:  Leslie Gutierrez Saiz, Poli Marichal, Victoria Delgadillo & Yolanda Gonzalez.  This collection of art celebrates the Mexican Revolution Centennial and acts of revolution in and out of the kitchen.  The 100 Years of Food & Revolution exhibit runs from September 14 to October 15.  Come feed your mind and your soul.

Tuesday September 21, catch an interview (en Español) of 100 years of Food & Revolution co-curator Victoria Delgadillo,  Artist Poli Marichal and Erendira Bernal of Border Corps on Radio Insurgencia Femenina, 9pm to 9:30pm,  KPFK 90.7 FM.
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LA to Host Lamest Grito Ever

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A reventar!

So you thought you were going to check out the Grito downtown tonight, like you do every couple of years in front of city hall, eh? I sure did. But you forgot that this is the city that thrives on terrible ideas, replacing simple traditions with stupid media events that nobody can enjoy. That’s what’s happening today, the lil’ celebration to mark Mexico’s Independence has been moved to something called the “Nokia Plaza” in the totalitarian wet dream of developers known ridiculously as “LA Live”. A public event moved to private property.

Oh, and you thought you could just show up asi nomas? Ja ja, pero que menso eres! Nope, you have to buy tickets for a show of Los Temerarios, or you can go today to the Mexican Consul to get some wristbands. Because, you know, you don’t have to work or anything.

I’m not at all surprised by this selling out of our Grito tradition, but is anyone else as pissed as I am?

Screw that business, I suggest you go to Huntington Park instead.

The Patriots of Ciudad Juarez

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As most of you know, I am an art activist regarding the femicides in Ciudad Juarez. After a caravan to and 3 day protest in Ciudad Juarez in early 2002, I came back to LA with a fervor for creating art and inviting others to join me in this dialogue—but mostly my choice of art as an activist tool was out of desperation to help in whatever way I could.

I have met many revolucionarias and revolutionarios on this long-ass, no-light-at-the-end- of-the-tunnel road. Many of the activists I have met are victim mothers and artists (like me) that dedicate many of their hours trying to figure out how to end these seemingly senseless murders through our words, our research, our writings, our appeals, our pleas, and our diligence not to forget these families. Its one step forward and one step back most times.

My friend and El Paso Times reporter Diana Washington Valdez (who I have mentioned many times on LAeastside) sent me a copy of her recent article for the newspaper. This week, which should be the most joyous and celebratory time for all Mexicans everywhere, because its the 100th anniversary of the 1910 Mexican Revolution—comes with a morbid reminder that drugs and power fuel the dark forces. They are the killers of any ray of hope and fairness in the world.
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Bacon wrapped hot dog official L.A. hot dog ?

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So let me get this straight, for years the city has fought tooth and nail to condemn these culinary chimeras because of health and safety reasons. Some of the reasons behind this are that the vendors aren’t licensed and governed by the health department, their grills are not safe to cook on and because you can’t be grilling out in the open, they are undermining businesses that pay all kinds of taxes and taking away their business and because it’s just against the law. blah, blah, blah, blah it’s the same rhetoric over and over again. Well, Farmer John is funding a campaign to make the Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog THE OFFICIAL HOT DOG of L.A. Hmm … I’m not sure how this is gonna work, but for every vote they donate a pound of food to a food bank, so I guess that’s a good thing. If the hot dog does become official, I guess we’ll see a “gourmet” lunch truck selling them pretty soon, offering organic hot dogs with bacon. I haven’t been to the art walk in a while, maybe there’s already one out there, who knows. But what I do know is that this isn’t gonna happen and the bacon wrapped hot dog will remain the UNOFFICIAL hot dog of L.A. If the city makes this legit, then they’re full of shit, more so than they already are. It’s just another chapter in the story of how L.A. loves, hates, loves street vendors. Give us your delicious food so when can condemn you later for selling it.

DREAM Act Town Hall meeting this Thursday

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In order for this post and semi-rant post to make sense, please watch this clip from Democracy Now, in which the documentary, “Yo Soy El Army: America’s New Military Caste,” a film about the military targeting Latinos, is discussed. You can watch the first part of the clip by clicking here. After you watch the first part, play the video at the top and skip to 3:55 in which the discussion shifts to the DREAM Act being a back door military draft.
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Judge Bolton Blocks SB1070

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On Tuesday of this week, Judge Susan Bolton of the Federal District Court blocked the police in Arizona from becoming self-appointed immigration judge and jury.  The entire  SB1070 was not overthrown, but today Arizona residents will not be stopped for being Mexican.  Read all the details in yesterday’s New York Times.

Part II this morning (Friday) is that Sheriff Joe is defying the decision.  [Hope part III in this saga is that they arrest his ass.]  Read the story in Yahoo News.

Hunger Strike for the DREAM Act

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“The height of manhood/womenhood, Cesar Chavez believes, is to give of one’s self.”

Watching nine of my peers start an indefinite hunger strike to get Senator Diane Feinstein to champion the DREAM Act as a stand alone bill brought me back down to earth. Knowing that they’re going to be depraving themselves of all food except water for the next few weeks is nothing short of amazing. The hunger strike is in solidarity with the 21 students that participated in civil disobedience in Washington D.C. yesterday, two of them here from L.A. All across the United States, undocumented youth and allies are working on making the DREAM Act happen this year because immigration reform is an idealistic, farfetched dream right now. The current IR bill would mandate more enforcement and laws than new path ways for people to adjust their legal status. Immigration Reform is dead and people need to realize that by passing the DREAM Act first, we are creating a path for just and fair Immigration Reform that will help people, not just imprison and deport them.

Come and show your support as they hold down the corner of Sepulveda Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd. in Westwood. It’s funny, the things you see sitting and watching the world drive by. Angry honks of road rage. Angry yells of idiots who talk out of their ignorant asses. But also to personally speak with people out on the streets, explaining to them what they are doing, what the DREAM Act is and why they are doing. Wishing us luck on the campaign and saying they support the cause. If you would like to help the cause, give her a call or two and tell her you support the DREAM Act as a stand alone bill and that she should get cracking on it (310) 914 – 7300. Feinstein already supports the DREAM Act, but that’s not enough. She has the power to put it up in the Senate so it can be voted and passed. Sim ply saying you support something to get people off your back isn’t enough.

“Come on Brown, come on!… I’m trying to tell you … I’m telling you, that picketing thing is over … All you’re doing is getting your own people in trouble. Now look …he leans over toward me and lowers his voice, “the blacks picketed for years … for years. They marched and they did they very things you people are doing right now … but you know something, and this is the honest-to-god truth … they didn’t get a thing until they had Watts! That is a fact. And I’m telling you, until your people riot, they’re probably not going to get a thing either! That’s my opinion.” Revolt of the Cockroach People ~ Zeta pg. 74