Cultura

It’s Not News to Us

Can solar-powered mariachis replace bean-powered mariachis?

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3mariachis(PNS reporting from GUANAJUATO, MX) Solar-powered mariachis have begun coming off production lines here in the high tech manufacturing city of Guanajuato, Mexico, musical soldiers in the war on climate change.

The eco-friendly musicians use renewable energy from the sun instead of traditional musical fuels like frijoles, tacos y cerveza, all of which produce the damaging “greenhouse gas” behind global warming.

The solar-powered trio – maracas, trumpet, and guitar – were recently spotted playing an unpublicized gig at a 99 Cents Only store in the Houston, Texas area, according to Juan of Words, who took the photo above.

YouTuber David Diaz spotted another trio dancing silently in a letterbox, and added his own music:

Mas…Can solar-powered mariachis replace bean-powered mariachis?

Bienvenidos a Minneapolis, Minnesota, Aztlan (photos)

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zootsuitsDuring the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Minneapolis last weekend I decided to take a break and visit East Lake Street.

That’s the heart of the city’s Mexican and Somali immigrant communities. I had tacos at Taqueria Los Ocampo then strolled down East Lake and discovered scenes one might find in East Los Angeles, Houston’s Northside or Albuquerque’s South Valley.

The murals were a reflection of a people who came north…way north.

I like these photos especially:

Mas…Bienvenidos a Minneapolis, Minnesota, Aztlan (photos)

Ramiro Gomez remembers ‘The Forgotten – Los Olvidados’ (video)

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ramiroLos Angeles artist Ramiro Gomez, Jr. first captured our attention when he began placing carboard cutouts of immigrant laborers in front of fancy mansions in Beverly Hills. Why? He wanted to celebrate the workers who are usually invisible by making them visible for all to see.

Gomez subsequently began creating cutouts memorializing immigrants who died on their journey to El Norte, and installed these new figures in the Sonoran desert on the border with Mexico.

Gomez and his partner David Feldman documented the project in Los Olivados — The Forgotten. Their documentary — which has been playing the film festival circuit for a year — is now online for the first time.

Here’s what they wrote on YouTube:

Mas…Ramiro Gomez remembers ‘The Forgotten – Los Olvidados’ (video)

New medical study: Eating spicy foods helps you live longer

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mexicanchilesHere’s some fantastically hot news: The more chiles you eat, the longer you’ll live!

The New York Times explains:

Eating spicy food is associated with a reduced risk for death, an analysis of dietary data on more than 485,000 people found.

Study participants were enrolled between 2004 and 2008 in a large Chinese health study, and researchers followed them for an average of more than seven years, recording 20,224 deaths. The study is in BMJ.

After controlling for family medical history, age, education, diabetes, smoking and many other variables, the researchers found that compared with eating hot food, mainly chili peppers, less than once a week, having it once or twice a week resulted in a 10 percent reduced overall risk for death. Consuming spicy food six to seven times a week reduced the risk by 14 percent.

Mas…New medical study: Eating spicy foods helps you live longer

R. Crumb ‘Zap Comics’ 1975: Mexican kid just lookin’ to make a dime

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zapcomicstopOne of the peculiarities of my tendencies when it comes to semiotic hoardings, as you well know, are cameos by Latinas/os in mainstream American media artifacts.

Now Zap Comics were anything but the mainstream back in the day, but they have, over time, entered the effluvial, miasmic flow of pop culture leavings that typify a certain moment, a certain groovy time in American cultural history.

So it is that I chanced upon this cover at the REMARKABLE site, The Golden Age Site.

Mas…R. Crumb ‘Zap Comics’ 1975: Mexican kid just lookin’ to make a dime

Pocho Ocho best ways to bait a Chipster (Chicano + hipster) Trap

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hipstertrapIn New Jack City, proactive pranksters have set Hipster Traps to snare unwary hipsters. The NYC traps are baited with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, American Spirit cigarettes, a bike chain and neon-pink Wayfarer sunglasses.

When trapping chipsters (Chicano hipsters), our experts recommend these Pocho Ocho Best Ways to Bait Your Chipster Trap:

8. Suavecito® Pomade and Beard Wax

7. Venti horchata latte, half skim, half leche de cabra, with agave sweetener

6. $60 huaraches from Urban Outfitters

Mas…Pocho Ocho best ways to bait a Chipster (Chicano + hipster) Trap

Born in the USA: The secret downside of espeaking Spanglish

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primos“Wow, it’s so cool you can speak Spanish,” people tell me after they hear me on the phone with my mom.

I say thanks and try to shrug it off, but I worry that letting them think that gives a mistaken impression.

I mean, yes. I can speak Spanish.

My parents taught me Spanish when I was growing up in California because it was the only language they had to give.

Like a lot of children of immigrants, I grew up in a Mexican immigrant bubble – my tias and tios spoke only Spanish. My baby primos spoke Spanish with me when we watched Plaza Sesamo and ate conchitas.

Mas…Born in the USA: The secret downside of espeaking Spanglish

Grammar vigilantes are on a mission to correct Quito graffiti (photos)

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They may not be the heroes that Ecuador needs or deserves but they sure do get pissed off when you don’t know where a comma goes.

Since January, vigilantes in Quito, Ecuador have been correcting mistakes in the city’s graffiti.

These guerillas use stencils cut from pizza boxes to add commas, question marks and, ah yes, even accent marks to imperfect street art around town.

The members of Acción Ortográfica Quito take their pseudonyms (or superhero names) from punctuation marks: Diéresis, Tilde and Coma.

Diéresis, a 30-year-old lawyer/vigilante, told The Guardian in an interview, “Grammatical errors cause stress. We only make texts comprehensible that otherwise would not send any message whatsoever.”

Mas…Grammar vigilantes are on a mission to correct Quito graffiti (photos)

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