Category Archives: The Ethnics

Highland Park in the NY Times

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These residents don’t count when the New York Times is discussing Highland Park “culture.”

It’s been making the rounds, The New York Times did an article on the new “culture” of Highland Park and you can guess who and what culture they are referring to. The vast majority of Highland Park residents will never read this article nor would they care about it but I can imagine the boutiques and gastropubs featured and interviewed couldn’t be more thrilled about this kind of validation.

Funny though, Highland Park has always been a place of community activity and art. Back in the 90s, it was ground zero for the Chicano cultural renaissance due to spaces like (De)Center, The Popular Resource Center (bands playing here: Quetzal, Ozomatli and Rage Against the Machine), pirate radio station Radio Clandestina, community garden La Culebra and the wonderful Arroyo Bookstore. The area was buzzing with art shows, concerts, poetry, political events and other happenings.
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Piñata Technology Takes a Leap Forward

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It’s about time. Piñatas finally achieve a structural advancement that is worthy of note for all Party People and Pachangeros alike. Maybe this has been around for some time but I didn’t get the memo, I found out about it by accident and by paying attention to all the significant things that happen in the world around me. Err, maybe it wasn’t an “accident”, let’s just call it approved-but-focused-violence. Above we see some weak kids crying about the fact they are going to have to bash and destroy their piñata friend, cuz that’s how they learn to grow up to be strong individuals that can take on the world. Rites of passage, they just need to be done.

Oh yeah, click ahead for the break-through (har har!) innovation that will turn parties upside down!

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What happened to Broadway?

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I am kind of sick of all this gentrification speculation about the Eastside being white-washed. It will take a lot more Clorox and wood-fire baked pizza to change East Los than yuppies have yet to offer in the American Southwest, so I don’t sit at home biting my nails that Nana will be evicted (well actually, she won’t, the house was paid for by Tata’s VA loan for pre-storming Normandy in WWII).  Even so, chuppies (chicano yuppies, a.k.a.  chicanos with degrees) have already gentrified these areas, but they are ingrained in the cultura and still buy elotes, so it isn’t as much a hard fit (in fact, I would say the same about Whites who are genuinely down with these areas).  Not that the genuine concerns of locals doesn’t matter or isn’t valid, but I think we need to focus on the tangible changes gentrification has already brought to the Latinoscapes of Los Angeles, specifically the Eastside’s center of gravity: Downtown.

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I am actually ALL for the demographic diversification of Los Angeles; even my beloved Eastlos with all its sheltered ethnic enclave delights.  The truth is the quality of life in East Los has degraded since its multicultural times of yore, and although ignorant pundits of conservative mantras have tried to pin it on Mexicans since the decline coincided with the rise in Latino immigration; it is much more obvious that the downward slide had much more to do with the middle class drain on the community that began with White Flight and continued with the ban on segregated housing covenants in 1955 (thats when my grandparents moved to the newer Maravilla housing tract on the Monterey Park/East Los border, as did many East Los middle class residents).  Along with the decline in more economically stable residents, came the decline and eventual outright withdrawal of Corporate America, and the amenities that come with them, from this area.  This decline in economic revenue as well as citizens with the resources to devote their extra time and energy to improving the community had a devastating toll on the community.

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More Videos from the Eastside Luv event

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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!

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Dewey Tafoya at Eastside Luv

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So I braved the poetry and the “wine bar” scene and came away quite energized by this gathering of Eastsiders; people that mostly come from a history of having land stolen, not willing to accept our name be taken as well. It’s late at the moment and I have to get my feo rest but I wanted to post this video so you can all get an idea of what went down in BH. (I hope to post more on this event tomorrow.)

It seems some people have had issues with the title of the event, as they think it might be inappropriate. Where you from? – that inescapable loaded question of my youth. What they don’t understand is the reality of how non-gang members experienced the question, having to say “I’m from nowhere” just to avoid getting beaten up, or worse. Intimidated to being from nowhere. Which is no different when newcomers to the city tell me, not ask me, that the term that has defined our reality is suddenly their domain, that they’re gonna tell me about some “fluidity” and their new logical reasons why I’m, yet again, from Nowhere. Yeah, fuck that.

I was especially awed by Dewey’s piece because the last time I spent much time with him was at Hollenbeck , where we were friends cuz of our fondness for Heavy Metal. I’m glad that all these years later we still have something in common: an understanding of where we come from,  and pride for our Eastside. Nothing like shared experiences to teach you the value of something as simple as a term.

Eastside, presente!

Modesta Avila y otras

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This Saturday, I will provide artistic mentorship to a group of Orange County Latina high schoolers who have taken on the ambitious endeavor of creating 3 murals dedicated to 3 important women in California history. The 3 historical figures are Dolores Huerta, Judith Baca and Modesta Avila (pictured above). With the cutbacks in creative arts in California public and private schools, I think it is important to continue to provide training and creative dialogue with students. I feel very privileged to be able to give of my time to such important work. Often I wish there had been such exciting projects to work on in my teen years, then I step back and remember that our time as an artistic movement had only begun to sprout back then.

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The 14th Annual Northern-Southern Winds Pow Wow

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It’s time for the yearly celebration of indigenous culture, honoring mothers and recognizing no borders. Food, music, vendors, crafts, music and dance draw in thousands of participants every year. It’s the first time this pow wow will be happening outside of East Los Angeles so head downtown and show them some love!

May 8-10, 2009
Los Angeles State Historic Park
1245 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

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(click on flyer to enlarge)

For more info, please visit their website.

Just added: East LA’s Chicano/Indigena Roots Reggae group Quinto Sol will do an acoustic set Friday Night at the Pow Wow.

Japanophilia, or the obsession with Japan

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Anyone here obsessed with Japanese culture (i.e. anime/manga, cherry trees, samurai, kendo, taiko, karate/judo/aikido, sushi, teriyaki, Kurosawa, “Beat” Takeshi Kitano) and things related to it (Little Tokyo, Comic-Con) and consider themselves or have been called a Japanophile?
I find America’s rising obsession with Japan so interestingly ironic. 20 years ago in elementary school and throughout high school, anyone who looked remotely Asian was called Chino or China.
My mother and other Japanese tenants in nearby apartment buildings in Boyle Heights were and still are called Chin@ by neighbors.
Nowadays, elementary and high school students carry “manga” (Japanese comics) books with them and are fascinated with Japanese culture. Some high school students I’ve worked with are so obsessed with Japan that they are studying the language via podcast and the internet on their own so that they can one day travel there.
An American Caucasian friend of mine who now lives in Tokyo with his Japanese girlfriend has told me that he feels most at home when he arrives to Narita Airport. Another Mexican American/Chicano friend has told me he believes he was Japanese in his past lifetime because of his deep interest in Japan and the culture.
Oh, how I wonder what it would have been like to be “cool” for bringing salmon and riceballs to school in my pink New Kids on the Block lunchbox while envying my classmates who had normal sandwiches and bags of pepinos.

An article by Oxy professor, Morgan Ptelka. http://www.discovernikkei.org/forum/en/node/1709

How Mexican are you?

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Prelude.

As a substitute teacher in public charter schools throughout Los Angeles, I have the honor and pleasure of meeting young students (K-12) – America’s future! – almost everyday. All of the schools I work at are 98% Latino/Raza (except when I get called to work in Inglewood, and rarely do I take the job – too far!).

I’ve worked in East LA, Northeast LA, South Central/LA, Pacoima, Inglewood, Crewnshaw, Korea Town, MacArthur Park and Downtown. The most fun I have and maybe the students have when I’m in the classroom with them is when I introduce myself. First, they have trouble with my name. “Kraus,” I say, “Miss Kraus. It rhymes with mouse and house. If you can say house, you can say Kraus.”

Then it goes into an impromptu Q&A session. “Where are you from, miss?” or “Where are your parents from, miss?” and sometimes just bluntly, “What are you, miss?” Elementary school students don’t care as much as the high school students. I say, “Guess.”
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Lies and Berries: Art Is Priceless Except When It Costs $1.75

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BookSale. Two words together that make me smile, kinda like job and blow. I got up on Saturday morning, a lazy morning, the best kind. Exercise, wash clothes, check e-mail, blah blah. Looked at my calendar and saw that the week of April 12 – 18 was highlighted. Of course, National Library Week! Ok, they weren’t highlighted, just kidding. I promise.

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La Linea de Odio

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I guess someone should have mentioned it here earlier, this whole thing with Gloria Molina asking for the new Eastside extension to be named in Spanish, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. I keep forgetting about the hatred people have for Spanish and Spanish speakers. In 2009. In a city of mostly Latinos, where half speak Spanish. I was planning on being outraged at the backwardness, call some assholes out, but fuck it, who cares? It’s just the monolingual ethnic white enclaves grasping at anything as they build up the virtual gates to stave off the inevitable: you will have to accept us. And the way we speak. Oh, I bet they are longing for those restrictive covenants now.

This shit is old and tired and repetitive. I’m used to it. I grew up with it. A second class citizen in my own country. My primary language mocked, derided, condemned. Taking the brunt of irritation as some annoyed monolingual bureaucrat is forced to talk through a child to communicate with his Spanish speaking parents. Authority figures that treat you like a criminal just because of an East Los accent. Newbies to the city thinking I’m the foreigner since they don’t recognize that accent. Even as other romance languages signify upscale. Yet a symbolic gesture to recognize one of the main languages on the Eastside, somehow that’s considered offensive?  Efaak eyuu.

I’m not going to get mad. Para tal baboso, sus babosadas. Look it up.

What you don’t understand is that we have defensive mechanisms, built from experience, to deal with this continued attack on our identity. What you don’t understand is that your streak of hostility will not touch us.

Sas!