Over ten years ago I was at the right place at the right time to help set up the Tierra de la Culebra. We would go move out rocks, pull weeds and practice danza Azteca there. One day when it really wasn’t that cloudy, the danza leader said we were going to dance until it rained. It rained within 5 minutes of us dancing hard. I will never forget that day and the magical place it happened. The other day I re-visited and these are some pics I took.
the culebra head
After one year of L.A. EASTSIDE doing it’s thing, some of us here have not failed to notice the painful disappointment we have created among certain Right Wing detractors out there.
Yes, your hate mail has been received and noted. Continue reading
Last year, there was an excellent episode of This American Life themed “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”
The last segment of the show was about a pre-med student at UCLA from East LA who is undocumented.
I was wondering if anyone listened to it, possibly knows this person, and if so what her situation is like now.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1235
I know that many of us eastsiders have an embedded belief that using marijuana connects us to our ancient sacred roots, much like the spiritual use of cannabis to the Rastafari. A sprig in rubbing alcohol or as a tea, has been a part of our grandmothers’ homeopathic medicine cabinet for many generations. As an artist, I have questioned the culturally profound and the political correct. [Note: Above image is a self-portrait connecting me to MarÃa Sabina and Bob Marley through marijuana.]
I feel that my obligation as a human and artist is to speak out on matters that I find unjust, using whatever power I have. Being a Chicana artist, I have used my body of work as a platform for creating exhibits and art that have a social message. I have worked with many other artists around the world to keep the sadistic murdering of young women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico current and on our minds through various artistic campaigns. One of the reasons we have come together as a community in LA to demand righteousness for the people of Juarez is because of our history of resistance to injustice. That’s just the way we have been, since California became part of the United States. It was not by chance that in 2001 Raul Baltazar, Rigo Maldonado, Azul Luna, Erika Elizondo and I were invited by the victim mothers of Juarez to strategize on finding a resolution to these crimes—we were a small group of representatives of the greater Los Angeles consciousness.
Continue reading
Lalo’s Place. Lalo Guerrero’s Eastside nightclub on Chavez & Marianna Ave. Here’s a look at what some special Eastside places look like today…..
I love when the brown folks get their daps, in any way possible. Because of my busy schedule and lack of proximity to the Pico Indoor/ Del Amo/ Broadway shirt vendors (my preferred bootleg stomping grounds), I have been FEANING to grab a “Los Leikers” and/or “Los Doyers” jerseys, but have been fantasizing about them since I saw them in all their eastside prestige-glory. Mofos just be gloating in them, I had this one cat cold hold down a corner for me while I painted over gang tags (on my mural) sporting a new los doyers jersey, and he got mad props. I still have to get my son the thugbob shirt he’s begged for, maybe a family trip to the callejones is in order before a stroller is needed for baby #3.
Anyways, these jerseys were being used for beaner appreciation hour or whatnot (pardon my cynicism), and it was great to see Los Lakers in action, abuelo would have been proud. If only chick and stu had been casting and gramps’ keggerator was working (not that fratboy BS, a real keg mini-fridge), I wouldve been in heaven.
I saw a part of the game they had those jerseys on at a dive bar near my crib and it was hilarious (especially in terms of the demographics of the west SGV). there all these “americans of mexican descent” older brown folks there, perplexed at what angle they should talk shit from (pride muted by happiness is hard), and a group of young proffessional upwardly mobile asians giggling. The asian crew began a debate as to whether it should be pronounce “loss” or “lose”, which made totally made everyone uncomfortable. these are the times I live to be a part of, my humor being indulged with mass uncomfortablility stemming from cross cultural polination. Ahhh nirvana….
BTW, Im a big fan of brown hyperconsumption imposing itself on white Americana, when I dont have to think about its effects on brown communities.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySX9XByKSuE
Some of the giants of Jazz and Blues with the great Billie Holiday, don quixote is feeling it tonight
Hopefully, a few Eastside residents auditioned for Cornerstone Theater Company held auditions for “Flow,” a Julie Herbert play about the Los Angeles River and surrounding communities.
When CTC called for anyone who live, work, or loves the LA River to try some acting, El Chavo commented “I’m gonna see if I can be the shopping cart somebody threw into the water.”
I saw this on Sunday. So I took a photo.
ADD: A play worth writing is one that talks about what the Eastside is.
Pictured: Under the Sixth Street Bridge, Â a shopping cart is sitting in the Los Angeles River (or it’s El Chavo doing some method acting for “Flow”)
Thank you PATT MORRISON for telling it like it is in your usual style. Your OP-ED:In L.A., East is East was as refreshing and welcomed as an ice-cold Horchata drink on a summer day. I would like to make an open invitation to you to please accept lunch on me, at the Taco Truck of your choice, anytime, anywhere, in the true East side of L.A.
Kenneth Turan, Times Movie Critic says in his review (August 28, 2008) “‘The Garden’ is a case study in how hardball politics is played and why it is so difficult to take on the system. Not that anyone has given up the fight. As a story in the L.A. Times this week pointed out, the battle over this piece of land is far from over. What ‘The Garden’ does is demonstrate what it’s all about and why it’s important.” Turan’s title of this piece on The Garden, a 2008 academy award nominated documentary on the 6-year struggle of the South Central Farmers is “The Garden, Turf wars flourish in South-Central L.A.” Ouch! Here we go again—diminished from urban ecological pioneers and community healers to gang banging discontents. (sigh)
I haven’t seen The Garden yet, but have heard many good things about it and the director, Scott Hamilton Kennedy, especially from friends involved in the film, Gabriel Tenorio and Domingo 7 of East LA who co-wrote the musical score with seasoned soundtrack composer Doug DeAngelis. One of the reasons the film has been difficult to catch up with for me is that it seems to be on tour, rather than part of the usual distribution schedules in local movie houses. Daryl Hannah even hosted a screening of The Garden as part of the National Democratic Convention programming. Continue reading
This Saturday, February 7, noon to 5pm come to La Botanica de Amor and find that someone special you have been looking for. You’ll have to start off with a limpia para el amor, a sangria punch, poetry for inspiration, Continue reading
Un viejito walking around boyle Heights with his clean up cart, one of many…
This whole gentrification issue got me thinking. Commentor ubrayj noted his efforts to keep his Lincoln Heights neighborhood clean, and that should be commended. That got me thinking about the million “mexicans leave diapers in the streets” comments I have heard and read from various folks (not that Ub-homeboy was saying that, but the convo got me thinking on the subject), led me to analyze the roots of so much litter and other Quality of Life (QoL) problems in our Latino urban neighborhoods and how they got to be what they are today.
I think the lack of public infrastructure such as Browne was talking about is THE big issue, even more than socially dysfunctional behaviors like litterbugs because it IS the catalyst. Almost every social oriented planning class and/or policy maker meeting I have been in notes that social dysfunction always follows instituional. It seems like if the people who study and analyze this problem recognize this aspect of urban QoL (quality of life) regression, that it would eventually make it out into normal convo on the issue, but it hasnt. People still bitch about mexican and black communities “allowing gangs to exist”, yet when crime drops in those places the community is forgotten and only the police are commended.