POCHO co-conspirator Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano takes to the video to answer an age-old question: Why do gabachos love burritos so much?
Cultura
It’s Not News to Us
‘Sticks and Stones’ may break my bones but empathy (video)
When you compete for LIKEs and LOLs online, virtual Sticks and Stones can hurt like real body blows and peer pressure can be painful to resist. This Canadian video reveals one easy trick that can help you break on through to the sunshine of your love.
For the Vets: Anti-war poetry from WWI: ‘Dulce et decorum est’
Today we observe Veterans Day, AKA Armistice Day, which marks the end of the first World War.
Dulce et Decorum est was written by poet Wilfred Owen in 1917, and published posthumously in 1920. Owen served as a lieutenant in the conflict. The poem is known for its horrific imagery and condemnation of war.
They don’t use poison gas too much any more (attention ISIS and Bashar Al-Assad) but phosphorous flares and drone strikes aren’t much fun either.
POCHO dedicates this poem to all our veterans in gratitude for their service and sacrifice and with the hope no child will ever be sent into war again.
Mas…For the Vets: Anti-war poetry from WWI: ‘Dulce et decorum est’
Cute kids dance to Cheech and Chong’s ‘Mexican Americans’ (video)
It’s never too early to dress the kids up like Cheech and Chong and shoot video as they dance to Mexican Americans.
Does your animation project need a Latina maid?
Does your video animation project need stereotyped cartoon actors?
How about a Latina?
How about we name her “Maria,” oh, and get this, she’s a “housemaid!”
Maria is ready to say “¡Si, Señora!” in all your corporate video, web avatar and/or white privileged productions.
Sure we could have made Maria the “cool girl” character (above), but get real.
This is America!
All this and more from mCharacter. [Windex not included, deviousness available for an additional charge.]
Mad as Hell Mariachi El Bronx has a brand ‘New Beat’ (lyrics video)
Pocholandia homies Mariachi El Bronx are mad as Hell and are not gonna take this anymore. There’s a New Beat in town, tu sabes. Advanced music appreciators — please correct us if we’re wrong, but we think the New Beat is in 7/4 and 3/4 and 6/8 and 12/8 time, but “it’s complicated.”
This newly-released “audio-only” video for MEB’s Everything Twice is pretty good, too, maybe even better, actually it’s lots better. It has a great beat (only one!) and it’s easy to dance to. If we were still alive and still a radio DJ, we’d play this “B-side” instead:
Mas…Mad as Hell Mariachi El Bronx has a brand ‘New Beat’ (lyrics video)
His Royal Highness Prince Charles busts a move in Mexico (video)
Heir to the British throne His Royal Highness Prince Charles joined a group of dancers Wednesday in the picturesque Mexican coastal town of Campeche. El Chaz danced the Sarao Campechano dance, twirling his handkerchief above his head.
PREVIOUSLY ON BRITISH PRINCES:
Mas…His Royal Highness Prince Charles busts a move in Mexico (video)
Watch: So you’re saying that really WASN’T a photo of ‘El Cucuy’?
Yo, calmate, guey! That “El Kookooee” photo from last week is really not El Cucuy, OK? It’s called “refraction,” gente. Get a grip.
Albuquerque’s KRQE News explains:
Mas…Watch: So you’re saying that really WASN’T a photo of ‘El Cucuy’?
1940s Style: Orquesta de Don Ramon ‘Chicano Boogie’ (video)
It’s not much of a video but it rules as a wild examplar of 1940s pachuco “boogie-woogie jitterbug” (like Lalo Guerrero’s Los Chucos Suaves.) This performance features unstoppable rhumba-flavored proto-rock-n-roll beat-me-eight-to-the-bar-boogie-woogie highlighted by shouted Spanglish insanity. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a nice welcoming round of applause to Orquesta de Don Ramon as they perform Chicano Boogie. [The artwork is from the Arhoolie compilation album. Yes, the track ends abruptly.]
Can’t rock harder than Lalo Guerrero’s ‘Los Chucos Suaves’ (video)
Lalo Guerrero is the Father of Chicano Music. His amazing musical legacy (he died in 2005) includes the classic Spanglish “boogie-woogie jitterbug” Los Chucos Suaves – the kick-ass dance-tune inspiration for Zoot Suit (the musical.) We especially like the abstract piano solo that goes off into outer pachucostan and comes back in the nick of time. ¡Que suave!
- [EDITOR’S NOTE]: That’s Pete Alcaraz burning up the keyboard with an insane piano solo. No relation to POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz as far as we know.
Brazil’s Got Talent: Menina sings Alicia Keys’ ‘Girl On Fire’ (video)
The Alicia Keys hit Girl on Fire would be perfect for an online video selfie, this Brazilian menina (girl) thought. Her mom? Not so much.
The more you know: ‘Girl Code 101’ (poetry video)
It’s hard to be female in America, as “gamergate” and the catcall videos show. But once you know how the system works, you can maybe find a way to make a change. Blythe Baird takes the mic with Girl Code 101.
Not just gringas, not just NYC: A Latina walks in Hollywood (video)
Anthropology researcher Juanita Carmelita Gonzalez and her dog Ari — Juanita is the one in the turquoise stretch pants — walked the streets of Hollywood Monday. You won’t believe what happened next!
PREVIOUSLY ON JUANITA CARMELITA GONZALEZ:
Mas…Not just gringas, not just NYC: A Latina walks in Hollywood (video)
Not just team mascots! America’s hated on NDNs for years (toons)
It started long before sportsball team names and mascots. America’s been hatin’ on NDNs ever since they were “discovered” in 1492.
Indian Country Today Media Network’s Christina Rose reports:
Mas…Not just team mascots! America’s hated on NDNs for years (toons)
The Feathered Serpent’s tunnel is full of treasures (video)
Mexican archeologists last week announced the discovery of three new treasure-filled tunnels in the Temple of the Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcoatl) under the ancient city of Teotihuacan. The underground passageway was first unearthed ten years ago beneath the site, just outside of Mexico, DF.
Mas…The Feathered Serpent’s tunnel is full of treasures (video)
New app DVRSE: Black friends in photos when you need them (video)
What do you do when a social media photo needs black friends and none of your many African-American amigos are around? There’s an app for that, new DVRSE. [NSFW F-bombs, etc.]
Latinos: Learn a career at Vosotros Polytechnic Institute (video)
An education is the gateway to a climb up the career ladder, and you can get the skills you need to succeed at Vosotros Polytechnic Institute. Comes with a student loan guaranteed to last a lifetime!
My Halloween costume? I’m going as La Pequeña Hillary Hulk (video)
I’ve decided on my Halloween costume for this year. I’m going as La Pequeña Hillary Hulk.
Mountain bike downhill insanity in Taxco, Mexico (video)
Slovak champion mountain biker Filip Polc strapped a GoPro camera on his helmet and recorded this insane downhill competition run earlier this month in Taxco, Mexico. Although he only came in second (!) this first-person point-of-view video will thrill you, give you vertigo or leave you shaking your head and asking, “Huh?” Polc won the Taxco competition last year. [VOLUME WARNING: LOTS OF ROAD NOISE.]
PREVIOUSLY ON TAXCO:
Mas…Mountain bike downhill insanity in Taxco, Mexico (video)
It’s out in the open now: I like to stir up trouble ;-) [video]
The New York Times got me to admit the truth. I’m a trouble maker:
Lalo Alcaraz uses his nationally syndicated comic strip, “La Cucaracha,” to highlight prejudice, challenge media representations and generally stir up trouble in humorous ways.
From Italy via the DR: Electrochill ‘Cumbia de Pierda’ (audio,video)
Cumbia de Piedra is an abstract chillaxed electro-cumbia video by Benetton’s Fabrica, for MOHS, the second album from violinist Jhon William Castaño Montoya. Animation by by Tomás Pichardo, from the Dominican Republic.
Mas…From Italy via the DR: Electrochill ‘Cumbia de Pierda’ (audio,video)
Wonder Woman and Marya la Giant fight Mexibandidos (1945 toon)
I love it when my vocation and avocation converge as they do in this wonderful comic installment of Wonder Woman from the one and only Pappy’s Golden Age Comic Blogzine. Pappy explains:
This delightfully oddball tale is set in Mexico with a beautiful eight-foot-tall señorita, bandits with bandoleros, Wonder Woman’s invisible plane, chains, bondage, and even Wonder Woman in bare feet walking over hot coals. Wow.
This Mexican melange is drawn by H.G. Peter, and is scanned from Sensation Comics #45 (1945).
An illustrator and lover of classic comics and a curator of artifacts focused on constructions of “Mexicans” in U.S. mass culture, rarely do I chance upon an artifact that blends these worlds (not to mention my not-so-secret fetish for fantastically strong women!)
Here’s a page from the issue featuring bandit “Mexicans,” Wonder Woman, freakish “Marya the Amazon maid” y mucho mas more [click to enlarge.]
Mas…Wonder Woman and Marya la Giant fight Mexibandidos (1945 toon)
Our heritage and culture are not your Halloween costume
A school in our neighborhood recently held a “Dress as Your Heritage Day.”
For one Friday, students were encouraged to wear items representing their backgrounds, and some did. Students walked around campus in a combination of family heirlooms and seemingly exaggerated symbols to reflect their racial/ethnic groups.
The rationale underlying this day was cultural celebration, and families and students were representing their own heritages in ways that they wanted. On the face of it, this seemed like good ole’ fashion fun where dressing up breaks the routine of school and students show-off their family backgrounds.
Alternate Universe: Honest Advertising Slogans (toons)
Somewhere, over the double rainbows, there’s a place on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. And Honest Slogans, perfectly realized, from the Honest Slogans Tumblr.
Photo Contest: Scariest Halloween House in the ‘Hood!
Is there a decorated, haunted Halloween house in your ‘hood? Is it scarier than this one? Send your photo to info@pocho.com. We’ll share the top entries and pick the best one Halloween eve, Thursday night, October 30. Win a POCHO sticker and the admiration of your friends. Enter now!
We’re looking for photos of houses like this “ebola house” near USC in Los Angeles. [Photo via MyFoxLA:]
