Dank beats from L.A.’s Goblins from Mars: ‘King Taco’ (audio)

goblinsfThe “two dudes from Los Angeles, California that make some dank beats fam” create magic free open source music as the Goblins from Mars. They’re on Facebook, of course, and they have this new cool reggae tune out on SoundCloud called King Taco. Is it an ode to the famous taqueria in East Los? We don’t know. We have inquired via email. We’ll let you know.

Mas…Dank beats from L.A.’s Goblins from Mars: ‘King Taco’ (audio)

WAR (the OG band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

warcincoThis 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 so-called WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), BB Dickerson (bass, Lowrider Band), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee (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…WAR (the OG band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

Three poems from Mexington, KY by Profe. Steven Alvarez (audio)

alvarezfacebookSteven Alvarez, POCHO amigo and Assistant Professor (Writing Rhetoric and Digital Media, Latin America Studies, English) at the University of Kentucky, teaches a course called Mexington, about the growing community of Mexican Americans in UKY’s hometown, Lexington. He’s a poet, too.

CON PAPELES / CON DIGNIDAD

0:03to my left is Appalachicano see & down the canyon just six miles in
0:07a thousand people oh it’s citizenship—
0:09one senses the isolation of citizenship in Appalachicano seen the twin mining
0:13communities nestled in the corner mountains—
0:15the history this area has been a history of struggle—
0:18labor struggle—
0:21do—
0:25do—
0:28since the turn of the century—when the club dinner in A district was the first
0:31major coal producer in Kentucky—

Mas…Three poems from Mexington, KY by Profe. Steven Alvarez (audio)

Kosher for Passover nachos, and rice and beans (video, audio)


The Jewish celebration of Passover is a week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, or “matzo” in Hebrew. Most Jews stick to matzo and avoid regular bread, wheat products, rice, corn, and beans. This may change, though, since an 800-year-old religious ban on rice and beans was just overturned.

Ingenious cooks over the centuries have found ways to make the most of matzo, by using sheets of softened matzo in place of lasagna noodles, for example, or transforming matzo crumbs into soup dumplings — so-called matzo balls. But what if you want a spicier treat, like nachos? Not to worry! This video from NBC’s TODAY SHOW has the recipe.

The rabbis’ rice and beans reprieve made NPR’s Maria Godoy a happy Hispanic:

Mas…Kosher for Passover nachos, and rice and beans (video, audio)

Latino USA: Trump is good for business – the piñata business (audio)

trumppinatas“Jennifer De Benito could have had any piñata she wanted for her 14th birthday party. She chose a piñata of Donald Trump. The three-foot-tall piñatas depict Trump in a business suit with his infamous blonde hair and they’re flying off the shelves on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border,” writes Samantha Clark.

“It all started last summer when Trump said Mexico was “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.”

“Jesús Márquez makes piñatas in Watsonville, a small farming town on the central coast of California. Márquez is from Mexico and says that although Trump’s comments are racist, they have been good for business.”

Maria Hinojosa of NPR’s Latino USA reports:

Mas…Latino USA: Trump is good for business – the piñata business (audio)

Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands

marilynn
Orange County poet and activist Marilynn Montaño’s poem His Machucada Hands is a “testament to the ways that being undocumented has taken a physical toll on her father’s body. The title, she said, came from noticing his hands on the steering wheel every morning as he drove her to middle and high school,” according to the PBS News Hour.

Mas…Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands

LatinoUSA: Malinche, Mexico’s Eve, the mother of all mestizos (audio)

cortezmalincheMalinche: You love her, you hate her.

LatinoUSA calls her Mexico’s Eve. Antonia Cereijido reports:

La Malinche, often referred to as “the mother of all mestizos” is one of the most controversial figures in Mexican history. She’s been called a traitor and a victim. She was a Nahua woman who acted as interpreter for the conquistadors in the early sixteenth century. She had a child with Hernan Cortes named Martín and he is often called the “first mestizo.” Mestizos are the mixed race people of Mexico that make up 60% of the country. Her legend led to the creation of the term “Malinchista.” A Malinchista is a traitor, or someone who denies their Mexican culture in favor of another.

But since the 1950s, female writers have been trying to reclaim and vindicate the story of La Malinche – not just in Mexico but also here in the U.S. Chicana writers relate to La Malinche. They too are stuck between two cultures: their Mexican heritage and the U.S. culture they live their daily lives in.

Here’s the radio report:

Mas…LatinoUSA: Malinche, Mexico’s Eve, the mother of all mestizos (audio)

WAR (the original band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

warcincoThis 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 so-called WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), BB Dickerson (bass, Lowrider Band), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee (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 had credit.]

Mas…WAR (the original band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)