Happy Valentime’s Day! Lessons in Love from Ramón Ayala

Ramón Ayala

[A Tia Lencha and Aunt Lily Production]

Orale raza! How ju bean?

HAPPY VALENTIME’S DAY! TIA LENCHA IS BACK TO TALK ABOUT LUFF TO YOU POCHOS.

Tia Lencha

Have you heard songs by Ramón Ayala? He’s bigger than Chicano Batman and he knows all about luff. He talks to all of us who no have luck in luff. His songs teash us all about the lessons you learn when jur Corazon (thas heart for ju pochos) is not like the fairy tales on Valentimes Day.

Dis article is written by me, Tia Lencha, and my proper-English-speaking alter ego, Aunt Lily.

Mas…Happy Valentime’s Day! Lessons in Love from Ramón Ayala

L.A. OGs WAR (the ORIGINAL band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

warcinco
This 1981 single from WAR was the first time many non-Latinos heard of Cinco de Mayo. This photo shows the original guys at the Sunset Grill (7439 Sunset, next to their offices (Far Out Productions) at 7417 Sunset. The Guitar Center swallowed up 7417 a while back.

L-R: Charles Miller (sax, RIP), Lonnie Jordan (keyboards, the only original member in the new  WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), B.B. Dickerson (bass, RIP), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee Allen  (RIP, percussion).

  • DISCLOSURE: I was WAR’s National Director of Album Promotion for a while and ate so often at the Sunset Grill (like in the Eagles song) I could run a tab.

Mas…L.A. OGs WAR (the ORIGINAL band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

Tia Lencha’s Cocina Podcast: Valentime’s Day Aphrodisiac Salsa

Hello pochos y pochas! Guess gwhat? Tia Lencha has a special surprise for ju for Valentimes Day! A new podcast! Yes! Now ju can hear Tia Lencha on the google! (Actually m’ijo says it’s Tia Lencha’s Cocina on iTunes and Spotify podcasts).

Anygways, I haf so mush to tell ju!

Gwhy did I make the podcast? Ju may gwonder. I gwas tire of ladies writing to me saying that I make so mush grammatical mistakes when I talk. I no make grammatical mistakes! They just don know how to read Espanglish.

How did I make the podcast? Ju may gwonder. M’ijo stopped playing video games long enough to put Tia Lencha’s voice on the google. (He say it’s not the google, but ju know what I mean, verdad?).

Who is in the podcast? Ju may gwonder. Is me, and M’ijo’s Daddy (played by actor David Acosta). M’ijo’s Daddy got dump by the Eskeleton Lady and now he hang around Tia Lencha’s house eberyday like one of those flies that get in the house and ju can’t get out.

Mas…Tia Lencha’s Cocina Podcast: Valentime’s Day Aphrodisiac Salsa

Chicana punk icon Alice Bag: ‘I Believe Her, Do You?’ (new music, lyrics)


East Los pocha Alice Bag aka Alicia “Alice” Armendariz (formerly of the The Bags) just released this track in support of Professor Christine Blasey Ford, Ph.D.’s testimony about rapey Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

MIRA LOS LYRICS:

Mas…Chicana punk icon Alice Bag: ‘I Believe Her, Do You?’ (new music, lyrics)

LISTEN: All you want for Christmas: ‘Buñuelos a monton’


É Arenas, bass player for Chicano Batman, cooks up some cumbia for Christmas in this new song
Buñuelos a Monton, and he includes all your favorite fiesta Mexmas specialties:

Come mija hay mucho mas
Porque cocinamos muy tradicional
Tamales de elote, de puerco,
De queso, champurrado
Barbacoa y jamon
Con su salsa verde y arroz
Tambien menudo con pata,
Librillo y su tendon
Y buñuelos a monton

Before America went crazy, Uncle Sam welcomed immigrants (audio)

Before World War II, the American government cranked up the propaganda machine to WELCOME immigrants with a Sunday afternoon radio program from the INS called I’m An American. Sara Laskow reports for NPR’s All Things Considered.

Here’s the show with immigration posterboy and refugee from the Nazis Albert Einstein:

Mas…Before America went crazy, Uncle Sam welcomed immigrants (audio)

Latino USA: If You Give a Toddler a Tortilla (NPR audio)

She just wants to prepare some home made flour tortillas with her baby girl just like she did with her own mom. What’s the big deal?

NPR’s LatinoUSA explains:

April Salazar longs to make her Grandma Alice’s tortillas with her daughter. It is the same tortilla recipe her grandmother’s mother made in Baja California and later in Tucson, Arizona, after she fled the Mexican Revolution. There’s just one problem: she needs the stars to align… and the cooperation of her two-year-old daughter.

Mas…Latino USA: If You Give a Toddler a Tortilla (NPR audio)

Little Pedro and the Street Singers explain ‘Spanish America’ (video)


In “Spanish America”, supposed kid singers explain how tortillas are corn bread and frijoles are what’s for lunch:

From the Children’s Record Guild 78, released circa early 1950s. With David Pfeffer as Pedro, also with Sally Sweetland, Earl Rogers, Lee Sweetland, Denise Alexander and David Anderson. Music by Miguel Sandoval. Story by L. Paris.