Launderland Disfraces, Lincoln Heights, 2008
Botanitas is an ongoing feature bringing you stories and news from various sources, upcoming events and other bits of ephemera that might be of interest to LA Eastside readers. Suggestions welcome!
Halloween and Dia de los Muertos events after the jump!
I took the Purple Line to the 720 to an art event on Sunday.
And this happened:
I was pouring myself some wine and a woman said, “That’s a beautiful dress you have on.â€Â I said thanks. She went on to say it was the first time she had been at this particular establishment on Wilshire Blvd. I told her I went to this particular establishment all of them time, well rather used to.
I said the place had lots of events. Art talks, poetry, jazz…she then stopped me.
“Oh I like jazz, but I don’t like rap music, sorry. I don’t like it.â€
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Los Angeles, you are in luck! If you haven’t been able to make it to Chicago for the past two Latino Punk Festivals, this time around you’ll only have to figure out how to get to Montebello cuz it’s taking place here! I don’t have much else to say about this event because I haven’t been to the previous ones but I’m quite sure it’s the largest festival of Latino Punk bands in the US. (Err, maybe it’s the only one?) It’s also appropriate that the Fest take place in LA, easily the city with the biggest Latino Punk scene, not that anyone outside of the Eastside would notice. For more info about the event, check out their FAQ where they have helpful info like this great tip:
4. I get out of work late, what can I do?
–If you can afford it, call in sick or take the day off! How many fest like this one will you have an opportunity to attend in your life time? A lot of the bands playing the fest are traveling from out of town so there will be all kinds of shit going on all day, each day, where you can hang out!
Ditch work, nice! You can check out the full 3 day schedule here, though I think most punks are gonna try and get into the Saturday show to see the reunion of Los Crudos, or cuz they just want to get a glimpse of a band that would name themselves “Cara De Mil Putazos“, certainly one of the best band names ever! Hopefully we’ll have some coverage of this event to report back, there’s some young and not-so-young punks here on the staff of LA Eastside!
Latino Punk Fest 3 October 23-25 (Thursday thru Saturday)
All happening at:
Terraza Jamay 104 S. 10th St. Montebello, CA 90640
Click here for google map.
I’m in college and I am writing a research paper for a class on America in the 1950s. After giving it much thought, I’ve decided that I want to write it on Mexican women in Los Angeles County in the 1950s. If you know any women who lived or grew up in Los Angeles anytime the 1950s, let me know because I’d like to interview a few for this research paper!
What exactly am I looking for in these interviews? I want to ask about what they did for fun, their jobs (and if they ever felt any barriers in attaining jobs), the role community groups served in education, politics, job attainment, and other details. I am especially interested in anyone who moved around in the 1950s and why they did it.
I know some of you are anonymous, but don’t worry about that. You don’t have to tell me your relationship to the person I interview, I’d just like names and contact information. Contact me over at my site’s contact page.
EDIT Oct. 15, 2008: I forgot to mention this, but it is not relevant if they were born in Mexico, Los Angeles, or some other part of the United States. If they are of Mexican descent and were raised or spent part of the 1950s in Los Angeles, I am interested in interviewing them. Interviews would probably occur face-to-face in late-December or over the phone.
Image taken from UCLA’s Digital Collection.
Artist Harry Gamboa, Jr. said when he was a boy in East Los Angeles, all the streets were filled with beautiful trees, but in the 1960’s they were cut down to accommodate the Los Angeles Police’s helicopter surveillance program.  Remnants of what the trees may have looked like still exist on Cesar E. Chavez boulevard, on a strip between Evergreen and Indiana, which by the way, is flanked by a jogging path and the oldest cemetery in Los Angeles (see the first picture above).  These non-native Ficus Trees, a distant relative to Fig Trees, provide a great source of nutritional support to the wildlife in the area, cool fresh air during the hot summers and somewhat of a sound barrier from the traffic, to us residents.  I have lived here for a few years now, and have noticed the diligent pruning of the trees on my corner, several times a year.  On further investigation, it appears that the City of Los Angeles maintains the Ficus Trees on my corner excessively stubby year long, to give traffic visibility to a privately owned billboard situated between four trees (see the second picture above).  When the whole nation is looking at ways to keep our country “green”, I wonder why the community of Boyle Heights has to relinquish nature to corporate commercialism.
Here we see a Lincoln Heights street corner during the day, an average mini-market with the usual fare and the occassional pedestrian stopping in to pick up some snacks. Click ahead to see what happens to this sleepy corner at night!
In Quantum Physics, there is a Law of Attraction in which similar objects are attracted to each other. Since we humans are also part of the physical world, that theory would also apply to each of us.
I am fortunate to meet many great men and women during my usual week. They work quietly and diligently in the background, always steady, always faithful—adding more than their share towards the whole. It is not then surprising that two such similar beings should succumb to the Laws of Attraction even on the eastside.
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I grew up listening to music in Spanish, mostly anything with a mariachi, banda, or conjunto norteño, never even hearing those “oldies” organic to Los Angeles. I’ve had a musical exploration reverse to many people my age or of previous generations. Many I know grew up listening to music in English and started to explore music from México or Latin America later in life (if they ever did), while I started to explore music in English when I was about fourteen. Even now, I mostly listen to and explore different music from México, but that’s due to me playing in mariachis for the past eight years.
Imagine my surprise yesterday when a post over at Guanabee came up on my RSS feed. I scour the internet for news relating to mariachi, especially this week, when the San José Mariachi and Latin Music Festival is on. [During mariachi festival time, new & interesting things come to light, like Rubén Fuentes, longtime former member and director of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán (64 years and counting), and songwriter extraordinaire, gave an interview (he is very reclusive) and stated that the future of mariachi music was in the United States.] One of the festival’s concerts, last night’s, was headlined by Ersi Arvizu, a name I did not recognize. As I read on, however, it became clear I already knew who she was. Continue reading
You’d be surprised at some of the ideas non-Mexican people have about Mexican-Americans. Continue reading
You know who he is. He’s all over the local media. He’s written a book about himself, Orange County: A Personal History, and it’s reputed to be serious. He’s going to be signing it at Borders in Pico Rivera, at the corner of Washington and Rosemead, relatively convenient to Eastsiders. Starts at 7:00 PM. La Bloga has details. (He’s in OC on the 18th at Libreria Martinez, his home turf.)
El Grito
The annual El Grito celebration will take place tonight at City Hall. For those not in the know, here’s a description from a city website:
El Grito, which translates to “The Cry,” celebrates the cry for Mexican Independence from Spain. The annual tradition includes food, fun, and Mexico’s President ringing the bell that was originally used by the Mexicans who shouted the cry for independence that started the revolution in the early 1800s. El Grito has also become a Los Angeles tradition, with our city’s mayor sounding the chimes of freedom by ringing a bell at a local ceremony.
Of course, the real El Grito happens at the Zocalo in Mexico D.F, where pride of La Patria is taken seriously. Forget the words of the excruciatingly long national anthem and in Mexico you can be fined. Jenni Rivera, who infamously flubbed the lines at the Los Angeles Grito celebrations a few years ago was lucky to have an audience of fans who didn’t care.
Monday, September 15, 2008
El Grito festivities tonight at 7:00 p.m.
Los Angeles City Hall (200 N. Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles)
Where are the flags?
Usually every year around El 16 de Septiembre, Mexican flags small and large can be seen waving from car windows, houses, poles and various other places around Los Angeles, except this year they aren’t. In fact, every year I notice less and less flags. Even after 9/11 in 2001 when everyone had the small American flags on their cars, I saw folks with Mexican and American flags. It seems though all the propaganda by anti-immigration groups and right-wingers has made Mexicans have second thoughts about displaying La Bandera Mexicana. Last year in Lincoln Heights around this time, I counted two flags on cars, this year not even one. In years previous, I couldn’t count the amount of Mexican flags I saw around town. How about the rest of you? Notice any difference this year?
“Last night, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin accepted the nomination to the vice-presidency at the Republican National Convention.
Originally the buzz about Palin, focused on her having a vagina. Her presence was analyzed as a calculated McCain strategy to lure disgruntled, hard core Hillary Clinton supporters.
Then the shift went internal, to her uterus, her identity as a mother to five, the youngest with some form of developmental delay, and a 17 year old daughter, unmarried and pregnant.
So what does this Palin parranda of information and analysis mean to mamis of color, Latina mamis like me? Not surprisingly, nada.
Sarah Palin wants to put herself out there as “every womanâ€. She wants to be seen as “just your average hockey momâ€, and other mommies see themselves and their reality reflected through Palin, except, mamis of color, that is.”
excerpt by Maegan “La Mala†Ortiz, Racialicious from the post: Mccain’s VP pick Palin and the Politica and Privilege of White Woman’hood/ Mommy’hood