It’s Not News to Us
Washington, D.C. native and football fan Lewis Black explains to fans why the name “Washington Redskins” for the hometown football team is offensive to Native Americans. [NSFW F-bombs.]
(If the Facebook video doesn’t play, click here to view it on Facebook.)
When I first applied to UCLA, I wrote in my personal essay that I didn’t have any positive role models in my violent neighborhood.
Having grown up in East Los Angeles’ Ramona Gardens housing project, I wrote that most of the adults represented gang members, drug dealers, thieves, tecatos (heroin addicts), alcoholics, felons and high school dropouts (or push-outs). I also wrote about my disdain for housing authority officials and government workers for behaving like prison wardens and guards toward us: project residents who depended on government aid or welfare.
Moreover, I decried the police abuse that I had witnessed and experienced, like the time when a cop pointed a gun at me. My crime: being a 15-year-old making a rolling stop while learning how to drive.
Italian pecorino cheese, sauce bernaise a la chipotle, oyster mushrooms, Berber spices, sweet potatoes and kohlrabi (a cabbage cousin) are the ingredients in this Swedish veggie taco recipe video. Lohmanders, the sauce people, are responsible for this abomination creation.
We generated a Google translation of the recipe for your convenience. Note that the recipe contains a warning:
Tear pecorinoosten of sweet potato and mix gently again. It should not be like a mush, but more like a clumsy move.
The recipe:
Mas…Swedish sweet potato tacos with chipotle sauce bernaise (video)
I always feel that somebody’s watching me. Could it be La Migra? [Music video by Comedy High.]
All we know are these mariachi album covers which we found online.
Has anyone ever heard the music?
Mas…Online Finds: Challenger Disaster mariachi tribute LPs (photos)
[Editor's Note: When we shared our Happy Birthday Ritchie Valens story on Facebook last Friday, FB user Danna Carina commented, "Ritchie was the subject of my senior thesis and I graduated with my Bachelors yesterday ON HIS BIRTHDAY. Good omen I suppose!"
We wanted to see what she wrote, and to share it with you.
She agreed, and noted, "Writing this paper was a very intimate and intellectual experience, so it makes me very happy to share it with Pocho.com and the Chicano community."
Thank you, Danna Carina, and congratulations on your graduation from SUNY Purchase.]
Mas…My SUNY Senior Thesis: Ritchie Valens and the Creation of Chicano Rock
As our esteemed Associate Naranjero Gustavo ¡Ask a Mexican! Arellano has pointed out over and over, the taco is American as apple pie.
That’s why we weren’t surprised when we read reports of a marvelous new American “taco” creation, the grilled-cheese taco.
Although we think the so-called Elite Daily’s headline asserting that “You’ll Never Need a Tortilla Again” betrays the bleak gustatory horizons of an editor who has never eaten a proper tortilla (see videos below), we are thankful she included a link to the original recipe.
Originator FoodInMyBeard blog (original recipes and mashups by Dan Whalen) lays out the rationale:
Mas…Chef with beard invents a grilled-cheese ‘taco’ that isn’t a quesadilla
Mexican, American or both? Residents of Elkhart County, Indiana, talk to The Elkhart Truth.
And this wonderful music video from Los Cenzontles expresses the same sentiments in song:
Mas…Regular gente plus Los Cenzontles: ‘I’m a Mexican-American’ (videos)
NEW EPISODE!
Good-hearted couple Lucy and Steve brought home a “rescue cholo” named Creeper, but he didn’t work out the way they planned. That’s why they called Ignacio de la Cruz, The Cholo Whisperer. [Bay Area POCHO amigo Frankie Quiñones stars as the cholo.]
PREVIOUSLY ON THE CHOLO WHISPERER:
Mas…The Cholo Whisperer helps Steve and Lucy rescue ‘Creeper’ (video)
Deb and Maria are the same age, each has two kids, and they live just a few miles apart. Deb, however, will live, on average, 15 years longer than Maria. This public service video from The California Endowment — narrated by George Takei — explains the discrepancy:
What determines how long we live? The surprising thing to us was that adjacent communities can have a 15 year-difference in life expectancy.
Mas…To live and die in CA: Your ZIP Code determines life expectancy (video)
Video creator Glen Hunt was just an ordinary guy, microwaving an ordinary burrito (don’t judge) and then THIS happened.
A 15-year-old from Quebec, Canada, has pinpointed the location of a lost Mayan city, and he found it by looking at the stars.
A 15-year-old boy believes he has discovered a forgotten Mayan city using satellite photos and Mayan astronomy.
Maya civilization chose the location of its towns and cities according to its star constellations.
Mas…Quebec kid pinpoints lost Mayan city because constellations
The “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)
[Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this post misidentified the studio as Pixar. My bad. – Comic Saenz.]
Fullerton, California’s finest psychedelic cumbia punk rockers Thee Commons have released the first track from their album Loteria Tribal. The Orange County group’s edgy Foolish King comes as the band begins a national tour this summer.
Mas…OC cumbia punks Thee Commons debut ‘Foolish King’ (audio)
Internet and tacos? Who could ask for more?
[Photo taken in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, MX by Flickr user LeCates. Some rights reserved.]
Frida Kahlo is back from the dead and live on stage in this slow-motion Portuguese fashion show video from State of the Art.
Mas…Back from the dead and live on stage! ‘Frida Kahlo In Slow-Mo’ (video)
Gastronomy students at the Tabasco campus of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara broke a Guinness world record Saturday with the world’s longest tamal — a tamal wrapped in Yucatan-style banana leaves instead of the corn husks used in other parts of Mexico.
And remember, kids, there is NO SUCH THING AS A “TAMALE:”
Mas…Cooking students in Tabasco make world’s longest tamal (videos)
I’m pretty sure I was the only redhead at the NYU Latino Law Students Association Gala in the spring of 1990. The food was delicious, my date looked stunning, and I was glad I had jumped on the opportunity when I received the LALSA invitation.
My journey to that moment began 25 years earlier. I was born in Santiago, Chile in 1965: a third generation Chilean on my father’s side (whose people came from Odessa), and first generation on my mother’s side, who arrived when she was 12 from Hungary.
We left Chile in 1970 after the election of socialist president Salvador Allende. For Mom, socialism was close enough to the Soviet regime she’d fled in Hungary.
I started kindergarten at P.S. 81 in the Bronx. With a curly mop of flaming red hair and speaking only Spanish, I immediately embarked on a lifelong career of not fitting in. I learned English fast, but I still felt like an outsider. I got into X-Men comics because I identified with the mutants.
BRUNCH: Nothing makes for a mellow mom like the All You Can Drink Micheladas Mother’s Day Brunch at stylish Bar Racho at the Ritchie Valens Hilton on East Olmos Boulevard.
Executive Jefe Gustaco Naranjero once again promises his extensive buffet featuring a soft and hard taco station, the always-popular Holy Habanero salsa challenge and the spectacular Flan Fountain.
New this year is the Fusion Fiesta featuring creations like the Banh Mi Burrito, the Tamales de Lox and the Philly Cheesesteak Chimichangas. Don’t miss the free giveaway of the new mini Tapatio espray bottles for when you absolutely, positively need to spice stuff up.
Mas…Around Our Town: Where to go, what to do on Mother’s Day weekend
Happy Inko de Mayo!
Yes, today is the day where we celebrate cartoonists, as it is National Cartoonists Day.
Serio, the National Cartoonists Society started this event a few years ago, apparently because they had no Latino members at the time who might have mentioned May 5 is already Cinco de Mayo, but, hey, I’m glad they ran with it!
Mas…Happy Inko! It’s National Cartoonists Day AND Cinco de Mayo
POCHO’s Associate Naranjero Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano dons traditional garb to esplain How REAL Mexicans Should Celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Mas…Ask A Mexican: How should Mexicans celebrate Cinco de Mayo? (video)
White folks in sombreros and serapes. Spanglish beer commercials every few minutes. Yup, pretty ridiculous, señor.
I agree with most of my friend Gustavo Arellano:
He says it’s ridiculous, only serves some limited purposes as far as educating about the evils of Imperialism, or the promotion of self-determination, y todo eso. Battle of Puebla my ear. Sure. OK, guey.
However, I think Gustavo misses one big fat burrito-sized point:
Mas…Here’s what I thinko about Cinco in one ranty, illustrated post
I approach el Cinco de Mayo with excitement and ambivalence.
I learned the history of the Battle of Puebla as the son of proud Mexicans, who happened to be immigrants. The story goes: On the fifth of May 1862, a small Mexican army kicks French butt. Bueno.
My dad and grandmother worked at the Cinco de Mayo restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in a small L.A. harbor town. My association with the day is food, drink, familia, history, cultura.
Mas…Me? Today I’m drinking a cerveza and contemplating Cinco de Mayo
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 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.]
It’s time again for Cinco de Mayo, the holiday whose popularity no one really understands, except for the beer companies.
But now you can celebrate by getting your Grito on with the ¡Grito! app. Get it here.
What is the ¡Grito! app? It’s an app a native Texan and lover of her Mexican heritage Kathryn Gonzales made in order to celebrate — not mock — the culture of Gritos.
The app lets you play gritos at appropriate times, teaches about the history of gritos, and even lets you create your own. Here’s one I made for everyday usage:
Willy Wonka:
Matrix Morpheus:
Mas…Look! All your Cinco de Mayo memes in one click-bait listicle!
Hola! Is Tia Lencha here.
I going to help ju make a new drink for Cinco de Mayo on Thursday. Is fruity and a virgin. Ju know, with no beers. Get jur mind out of the trash can, cochinos!
I think of the new drink when mijo ask me to taste my watermelons michelada. I think to myself, what if he like it? Will he want to drink beers? I don’t want him to be like mijo’s daddy who drink beers and fall asleep in the tub with his chonies wet with his own pee pee (thas urine for ju pochos). So I make mijo a drink, one that is virgin, and he taste it and he like it, and I taste it and I like it.
Mas…Tia Lencha’s Cocina makes Fruity Virgin Micheladas for Cinco de Mayo
