Chicana on the Edge Reviews ‘American Dirt’ by Jeanine Cummins (video)

Regina Rodríguez-Martin, aka blogger Chicana on the Edge, read and reviewed Jeanine Cummins American Dirt as a public service.

Her review starts like this:

Three weeks ago I got an email announcing a new book club for women over 50, and the first novel they were going to read was Jeanine Cummins’ American Dirt. The novel focuses on a Mexican woman’s journey from her home in Acapulco to the U.S, crossing without papers in extremely dangerous ways.

Then I read about the book’s big controversy. Latinos were angry about the red carpet treatment given to this book written by a white woman because Mexican Americans telling similar stories don’t get nearly as much attention from publishers. The most scathing review was written by Myriam Gurba (and I urge you to read it). I would usually pass on a book like this.

Mas…Chicana on the Edge Reviews ‘American Dirt’ by Jeanine Cummins (video)

Espanish 101: ¿Where did we get the word PENDEJO?


You heard it, you said it, you know it.

PENDEJO. USE IT IN A SENTENCE. ERES UN PENDEJO.

There’s the Orange Pendejo, first of all, and that pendejo down the block who parks his ranfla like a baboso. Let’s not forget that pendeja on the train with the cheap perfume and those pendejos at the construction site who cat-call every time a mujer walks on by.

But what does PENDEJO mean, exactly? If you’ve ever looked it up, the dictionary says it means “pubic hair,” but how did that turn into “asshat” or “jerkface” or “_______?”

Let’s follow along with University of Texas Río Grande Valley Profe David Bowles:

Mas…Espanish 101: ¿Where did we get the word PENDEJO?

54 Years Ago in East Los: ‘Happy New Year Baby’ from The Sisters


Fifty-four years go – 1965 – big hair and girl groups were what all the cool kids dug in East Los Angeles.

Sisters Rosella, Ersi, and Mary Arvizu believed they could be the next Supremes — even before there were Supremes. They called themselves The Sisters.

Mark Guerrero, son of Chicano music legend Lalo Guerrero, tells the story:

Mas…54 Years Ago in East Los: ‘Happy New Year Baby’ from The Sisters

George Carlin’s advice to ‘edgy’ comedians: Punch up, not down (video)


Ground-breaking standup comedian George Carlin is all in favor of free speech, but thinks the best comedy comes from punching up, not punching down, and that means not mocking gays, immigrants, women, and other vulnerable minorities.

Mas…George Carlin’s advice to ‘edgy’ comedians: Punch up, not down (video)

Talk (And Sing) Like A (Mexican) Pirate Day: ‘Santy Anno’ (video)


It’s International Talk Sing Like A Pirate Day and we’re please to present not only a “sea shanty” about being a pirate, but one about the Mexican-American war of the 1850s. It’s even in Wikipedia! This video of Santy Anno has music by Forebitter and Lord Cavendish manga-influenced artwork assembled by uploader LordDrakoArakis, probably not his real name.

Here’s the some of what Wikipedia says about this traditional song:

Mas…Talk (And Sing) Like A (Mexican) Pirate Day: ‘Santy Anno’ (video)

Can true love win in the end? Mom and Dad aren’t so sure! ‘Susana’, new video from The Mariachi Ghost, shows and tells (with lyrics)


In the new music video from Winnipeg’s The Mariachi Ghost, Susana, mom and dad seek to separate young lovers. But cutting heart strings is a dangerous approach.

Mira las palabras:

Mas…Can true love win in the end? Mom and Dad aren’t so sure! ‘Susana’, new video from The Mariachi Ghost, shows and tells (with lyrics)

Always Look for the Union Label: Music vids for Labor Day Weekend 2019

pocholabel

It’s Labor Day Weekend!
¡Orale!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Sing along with the music that celebrates the ordinary working people who keep this country — and the world — in business: 9 to 5 from Dolly Parton, Look for the Union Label, Workin’ in a Coal Mine, This Land Is Your Land, and Solidarity Forever.

Mas…Always Look for the Union Label: Music vids for Labor Day Weekend 2019

Los Lobos: Will the Wolf Survive? (classic music video)


How much better can it get? Will the Wolf Survive? is the 1984 music video that exploded East Los homies Los Lobos into stardom. And don’t the guys look young⁈ Released 35 ago years today! Yikes.

Wikipedia:

How Will the Wolf Survive? is the major label debut album of Los Lobos. In 1989, it was ranked #30 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 461 on the magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Ghost of Spanish dude sighted in CDMX, and he is pissed!

(PNS reporting from MEXICO CITY) A reeking appartition dressed in the decaying uniform of a Spanish Conquistador was sighted around Mexico City last week, and boy, was he pissed!

The shrieking ghost was seen haunting the Mexico City site of a 1720 battle where the indigenous Mexica Empire defeated the Spanish.

Area man Pito Perez, who reported the ghost to PNS, said it first he thought the goblin might be La Llorona, or pero his drunk Uncle Abelardo, the mariachi, but no.

Mas…Ghost of Spanish dude sighted in CDMX, and he is pissed!