Cultura

It’s Not News to Us

Chicanos: How did we become America’s new slave culture?

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Chicano_Pride_by_fokrWho are we?

In my journey as a community activist and Chicano advocate, I’ve experienced many fascinating elements that have inspired me but also scarred me to my very soul.

I have fought the Chicano politician who capitulated in the selling out of his community, broke bread with the “Old Man” whom lent the little he had but gave unselfishly of his wisdom, and have shared space with our sons who have fallen victim to a privatized prison system.

I have fought the white dragon of racism and today… today will begin the telling of those many travels.

There are many obstacles preventing the Chicano people from achieving American uni-culturalism, but none more profound than the many differing points of view available within the Chicano community itself on what it means to be Chicano.

Mas…Chicanos: How did we become America’s new slave culture?

Modern Day Classics: Lighter Shade of Brown, Latin Active

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latin active

Lighter Shade of Brown is an iconic group for Latino Hip-Hop.  The Southern California duo of Robert Gutierrez and Bobby Ramirez entered into the Chicano consciousness in 1990 with their album, Brown and Proud. Featuring the singles, On a Sunday Afternoon and Latin Active, the album is a modern day classic.

Can underwater robots find Montezuma’s gold in Utah?

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goldofmontezumaThere’s $3,000,000,000 worth of Aztec gold at the bottom of Three Lakes pond in Kanab, Utah and movie producer Mike Wiest along with landowner Lon Child are determined to get it, even if they need underwater robotic help.

For 100 years, locals have believed Montezuma’s treasure lies at the end of a tunnel below the Kane County pond.

Though some details vary, locals believe Aztecs dug the Three Lakes pond to cover the treasure’s cavernous hiding place in a water trap on the west side of the pond. Once dug, they could divert a river to the pond, fill it up and walk away from an ordinary looking pond with a valuable secret.

While it sounds far-fetched, the story has circulated throughout Southern Utah since 1914, when Freddy Crystal showed up with a map he claimed showed the treasure’s location. It wasn’t until the 1920s, when he found a series of sealed tunnels in nearby Johnson’s Canyon that people started believing him and joining his unsuccessful hunt for the gold.

Mas…Can underwater robots find Montezuma’s gold in Utah?

Dorito Danger: Mexican-style chips threaten our borders

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perilPraise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

Like a Biblical prophet of doom, a God-fearing Christian Conservative who tracks “Degenerate Culture” is trumpeting the news of a clear and present danger:

Hot and spicy tortilla chips are destroying the AMERICA WE LOVE WHICH USED TO EAT LOTS OF PATRIOTIC POTATO CHIPS NOT THESE ADDICTIVE ALIEN ABOMINATIONS.

derbymackDerby Mac (An American Patriot who has dedicated his life to loving his country and preparing his family for the National Apocalypse. He would like to thank the Founding Fathers, President Reagan and Jesus Christ for the opportunity to share Wisdom) writes:

They’re dark. They’re spicy. They’re one of the most alluring treats in our food aisles today. For a child, they’re something fancy, like attending a birthday party in a collared shirt.

For a man home alone, a single bag is as good as an entire meal. But what are we really getting ourselves into with these flashy foreign snacks?

Should we be at all concerned that Doritos are now more popular than good old-fashioned American potato chips?

Mas…Dorito Danger: Mexican-style chips threaten our borders

Classic Elise @Buttronica Roedenbeck: ‘Mija Weekly Valentine’ (video)

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It’s Valentine’s Day with Elise Roedenbeck (AKA @Buttronica on the Twitter) in this 2013 episode of Mija Weekly! Fall in love all over again with drones, skimpy outfits, GOP immigrant-haters and learn the true meaning of Valentine’s Day. And, says Elise, try not to go into a diabetic coma.

Where is Elise now, you ask?

Mas…Classic Elise @Buttronica Roedenbeck: ‘Mija Weekly Valentine’ (video)

Pocho Ocho top activist pickup lines for Valentine’s Day

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lovetshirtLove is in the air for Valentine’s Day, along with cries for immigration reform, economic fairness and equal justice.

Is there a way for the politically active pocha or pocho to get lucky AND make the world a better place?

Yes, there is! Check out our list of the Pocho Ocho top activist pickup lines you can use this Valentine’s Day:

8. What do we want? A quiet romantic dinner for two! When do we want it? Friday night — what do you think — 8-ish?

7. What’s a nice girl like you doing in a MEChA like this?

6. Is that a GMO-free organic sustainably-raised earth-friendly heirloom local family farm non-corporate elote in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Mas…Pocho Ocho top activist pickup lines for Valentine’s Day

‘Tokyo: Living La Vida Lowrider’ by Luis J. Rodríguez

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luisnewA row of bald-headed, broad-shouldered young men stand together in the middle of a small smoky dance club called Sound Base. They wear well pressed Dickies pants, Locs (wrap-around shades), extra-long flannel shirts or long cotton athletic shirts in black and gray. A few had T-shirts with images of lowrider cars as well as cholas and cholos. In the club’s parking lot, adjacent to a lumberyard, several lowered 1950s and 1960s Detroit-built cars display airbrushed murals and shiny chrome, the one exception being a caramel brown 1941 Chevy truck.

Click here for POCHO’s review of Lowriting, from which this special sneak preview is excerpted.

On the stage are two members of Quetzal, one of East Los Angeles’ most popular bands: Quetzal Flores and his long-time companion, Martha Gonzalez. Flores strums a jarana, a traditional stringed instrument from the Mexican Gulf port state of Veracruz. Gonzalez is seated astride a cajon, also used extensively in the Son Jarocho tradition of that state, and thumps with her hands and fingers a driving cadenced beat as she sings in Spanish and English, words heavily tinged with Mexican/Xicano cultural and political significance.

Mas…‘Tokyo: Living La Vida Lowrider’ by Luis J. Rodríguez

Lowriting: Shots, Rides & Stories from the Chicano Soul [book review]

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lowriting_COVEREvery once in awhile, a book comes out that inspires us to take a trip down memory lane. Such a book asks us to reflect on what was and will never be again. If we only knew then what we know now, things would be different we are fond of saying often as we look back at those past moments we now cherish forever in our hearts. These types of books bring tears of joy and even sadness as we remember both the endless hours of laughter and the heartbreaks that at one time encapsulated who were in our lives.

Even so, rare is the book that also reminds us that we do not need to look back in melancholia, but we should use the past to redefine our present and build for the future. At the same time, these occasional books help to break down accepted mainstream narratives or paradigms while urging us to reclaim both our historical space, and our cultural motifs in order to recover our collective memories of who we are as a people.

Mas…Lowriting: Shots, Rides & Stories from the Chicano Soul [book review]

Colombia hipsters take off their pants for freedom (video)

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Do you pochos know the Post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy? It’s an argument — a false one — that asserts that if one event follows another, the first event caused the second.

Thank God it’s a fallacy. Two weeks ago POCHO’s Subcommandanta del Ñews Sara Inés Calderón was in Colombia. And then, over the weekend, Colombian hipsters were marching down the streets of Medellin in their chonies.

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