- What makes Arizona so especially racist?
- Twenty years ago Public Enemy‘s epic By the Time I Get to Arizona spotlighted Arizona’s failure to implement the Martin Luther King Day holiday. And it looks like some people never change.
- Is banning Mexican-American Studies any different? Disrespect is disrespect.
- And when almost one in three Arizona residents is Latino, disrespect has unintended consequences. 🙂
El Now
It’s News to Us!
Tucson schools ban the A-B-C’s – are the 1-2-3’s next?
(PNS reporting from TUCSON) Even as John Huppenthal takes a breather now that teaching the alphabet is banned in Tucson schools, his Taliban-style campaign of education purification continues in the hands of allies.
“We won’t stop with just readin’ and writin’,” they say, “so ‘rithmetic is next!”
Superintendent of Public Instruction Huppenthal told PNS why he is terrified by brown-skinned children who read books and ask preguntas:
That’s not funny! Why did POCHO go dark for 24 hours?
We’re gonna get real with you for just a second, and then it’s back to the jajaja.
We know it, you know it, even thousands of freaked-out college students know it now:
SOPA and PIPA are horrible bills that would turn control of all the mad, juicy goodness of the Internet – including sites like ours – over to a handful of greedy, pinstripe-suited dobermans known as entertainment industry lawyers. And those dogs would rip it all to bloody shreds.
Hispanic labor federation backs Romney nomination
(PNS reporting from DIXIE) The Latino Labor Association and Limpiadores Alliance today announced they are backing former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney in advance of Saturday’s South Carolina GOP primary vote.
LALALA president Ed “Big Tiny” Calvados said Romney offers the best hope for Hispanics to achieve the American dream of fame, fortune and greed.
“The choice is obvious,” he said. “Gingrich wants to take our food stamps and ghetto language, Santorum’s trickle-down stinks and Rick Perry’s Tejano tushie will get spanked in the general election.”
“Mitt walks the walk. Take his position on jobs,” he said. “Mitt has eight houses, and if you figure a gardener and a housekeeper in each, that’s almost a dozen and a half gente off the welfare rolls and onto the payroll.”
Week in Ñews: @MexicanMitt, bishop with kids, racist white ladies, immigrants suck
It was a big week for big news here at POCHO, where the big estory was our Mexclusive interview with new Twitter sensation @MexicanMitt, who told Pocho Ñews Service PNS “I’m in it to guin it!”
We also released the voicemail Catholic Bishop Gabino Zavala left when he told his boss the Archbishop about his secret life with a chica and two shorties.
The Racist White Ladies video (and response and apology videos) continued to amaze people who thought they’d seen everything from Arizona.
Turns out, Arizona-watchers, you ain’t seen anything, yet!
Click through for the stories and links.
Mas…Week in Ñews: @MexicanMitt, bishop with kids, racist white ladies, immigrants suck
Dear undocumented immigrants: You suck at freeloading
I hate undocumented immigrants. I spent most of the holidays on my roof, throwing used cell phones and rusty nine-volt batteries at my undocumented family members as they arrived for festive gatherings. (Tía Lupe should be out of the hospital any day now, and you better believe that ICE will be waiting to cart her away from her children.)
My hatred for the undocumented is normally on a controlled boil. However, after viewing the Racist White Ladies video, my hatred steamed up.
These classy and thoughtful young ladies made me realize that there is much more to hate about undocumented immigrants, especially the fact that they’re always walking around carrying burritos lecherously. Zing! You really nailed them on that one ladies.
How stupid are undocumented immigrants? Well, they can’t even freeload properly!
Mexican Mitt Romney is live on Twitter: I am in it to guin it!
(PNS reporting from CYBER ESPACE) Like virtual huitlacoche growing on a diseased ear of GOP political corn, an avatar of candidate Mitt Romney emerged on Twitter Wednesday, a digital fungus thriving on the stinking mess of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
Using the handle @MexicanMitt, the campaign’s online Hispanic personality exalts Romney as a canny opportunist, occasionally-job-killing corporate turnaround guru and proud-to-be-loaded capitalist examplar. MexicanMitt now has 1,100 followers.
Pocho Ñews Service interviewed @MexicanMitt via email:
PNS: You seem to love enforcing immigration policies. How many of your own Mexican family members have you deported?
MexicanMitt: I keep deporting them back after they finish working for me selling oranges. So I don’t think of it as deporting them, more like firing them
Mas…Mexican Mitt Romney is live on Twitter: I am in it to guin it!
Russki space junk crash brings Mayan Doomsday – are we screwed?
(PNS reporting from MIAMI) The imminent crash – later this week – of a Russian space probe scares local spiritual gurus and national experts alike. All of them fear that the death dive of the Russki rocket is a Cosmic Warning of the Mayan Doomsday, scheduled for Dec. 21. Their big brains, however, are split on ways to prevent the Beginning of the End.
“Oh it’s easy,” one local specialist told PNS. “Just burn the candles.” Futurologist Pat Robertson’s advice is just one word: “Run!”
Russians espace commissars have predicted that fragments from the failed Phobos-Ground probe are expected to fall to Earth around Jan. 15.
What can an ordinary person do?
“Candles, definitely lots of candles,” said S.W. 46th St. curandero Alejandro “La Luz de Jesus” Sosa.
Mas…Russki space junk crash brings Mayan Doomsday – are we screwed?
Catholic bishop voicemail transcript: I have a chica and two kids, Your Eminence – I resign
(PNS reporting from VATICAN CITY) Los Angeles Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala shocked the Southern California faithful late last year when he resigned after revelations of a long-standing romantic relationship and two children. He left his farewell to God’s Holy Church via voicemail, according to transcripts of his phone calls to Archbishop Jose Gomez just furnished to PNS by ex-News of the World tech staffers. The transcript:
(BEEP)
Your Eminence...it's Gabe. I know we're busy with the Holy Days and all but I really needed to give you a heads-up on a couple of things. Since you came to the Archdiocese and with you an Opus Dei guy and me a Pax Christi guy...it's been a little bit like Chivas vs America (chuckles)...but anyway I guess you being ultra-conservative and me being more Christ-like...sorry I mean liberal...isn't really why I'm calling. Listen a couple of things have come up. You remember I was telling you about that the woman I met at the Interfaith Worker Justice convention back in '99...the one in Vegas that
Mas...Catholic bishop voicemail transcript: I have a chica and two kids, Your Eminence – I resign
Secret New Hampshire: They lie about origins, talk funny and hate God
(PNS reporting from NEW ENGLAND) New Hampshire is the small Yanqui state where Republicans vote today in a primary election. When tonight’s results come in, remember where they’re coming from – a jurisdiction where people live a lie, talk in a dialect devoid in rhoticity and don’t go to church like other Americans!
These are the secrets of the Granite State:
- First: They’re not from Hampshire. Unlike New Mexico, where 46% of the population claims roots across the border, only 17.6% of New Hampshire residents trace their ancestry back to England, let alone the English county of Hampshire.
Mas…Secret New Hampshire: They lie about origins, talk funny and hate God
Arizona racist white ladies threaten Mexicans: THE MOVIE
Not all people from Arizona are stupid racist dumbasses, but the two young women starring in the now-infamous year-old Racist Arizona White Ladies video sure are. It was reposted recently on YouTube and viewed over 1.2 million times. Throughout this poorly-lit hate flick two young female Arizonans cheer on the anti-immigrant law SB1070, which has since been partially gutted by courts, and engage in racist name-calling and vile stereotyping, and issue horrid violent threats to their brown-skinned neighbors.
Mas…Arizona racist white ladies threaten Mexicans: THE MOVIE
Rick Perry: Mexi-Klingon threat could require Viet troops
(PNS reporting from NEW ENGLAND) As president, Rick Perry “would send troops back into Vietnam,” the Texas governor declared during Saturday’s presidential debate.
Blasting Pres. Barack Obama for letting Vietnam “just sit there,” Perry (R-TX) said the area is susceptible to a light-speed invasion from Mexican Klingons and possibly people who hate Christmas.
“Look, these people have the technology. I’ve seen it. I think the idea that we allow these Mexi-Klingons to come back into Vietnam and take over that country, with all of the treasure, both in blood and money, and uhm, one other thing, oh shit…well with all that we have spent there because this president wants to kowtow to his Borg leftist base…I think it is a huge mistake,” Perry said during the debate.
Mas…Rick Perry: Mexi-Klingon threat could require Viet troops
Year after shooting, modest Giffords aide still says he is not a hero
Daniel Hernandez Jr., the Congressional intern who saved Rep. Gabby Gifford’s life on Jan. 8 last year, still declines to call himself a hero.
A mentally-ill man fired on Giffords and her constituents, killing six people and and wounding 13, including the popular liberal Democratic representative.
Only on the job five days, Hernandez, a student intern who had accompanied the congressmember to the Tucson shopping center for a voter registration event, rushed to her side when he heard gunshots and held her bleeding head and comforted her until paramedics took over her care.
In a TV interview, Hernandez still declines the “hero” label. Presidential candidate wannabe AK Half-Governor Sarah Palin was also singled out for scrutiny at the time because of an ad on her website that put gunsite cross hairs on Gifford’s congressional district.
Hernandez was just elected to the Tucson school board.
Palin has never been elected to anything since.
The Week in Ñews: Iowa analysis, death by chihuahua, looking ‘Mexican’
Hatred of the poor edged out racism and homophobia in the Iowa GOP caucuses, a Fresno man was mauled by chihuahuas and died of shame, and the attempt to repeal the California Dream Act failed when the referendum’s backer (photo, right) couldn’t score enough racist jerkwad signatures to get their scheme placed on the ballot.
For these Pochostan stories and more, click here:
Mas…The Week in Ñews: Iowa analysis, death by chihuahua, looking ‘Mexican’
The importance of ethnic studies and thanks, Sandra Cisneros
I honestly don’t remember the first book I ever read. It probably wasn’t that good if I can’t remember it right? But I do remember the first time I read a Sandra Cisneros book. I was in the tenth grade and I picked up House On Mango Street because of one thing: Sandra’s last name.
It just clicked with me.
It wasn’t until I read Cisnero’s Caramelo in college that I realized the importance of knowing about someone like her when I was still young.
Mas…The importance of ethnic studies and thanks, Sandra Cisneros
CA Dream Act repeal fails to gather enough hateful signatures
(SACRAMENTO) Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly announced today that his effort to repeal the California Dream Act, which allows undocumented students to apply for in-state tuition and scholarships in the state’s universities, has failed to collect enough signatures from racist assholes to get on the ballot.
Mas…CA Dream Act repeal fails to gather enough hateful signatures
Pocho Ocho cosas I found in my Rosca de Reyes
Happy Three Kings Day, Dia de Los Reyes Magos, AKA Epiphany, the day when Los Tres Reyes dropped by the manger to gift up the original Anchor Baby, El Baby Jesus.
In Mexico and now all across Pocholandia, some celebrate with the Rosca de Reyes, a tasty and yeasty treat topped with butter and sugar.
Sometimes it is soaked in rum, like Tio Frankie. Baked inside is a plastic Baby Jesus figurine, which, if you get it in your slice of pan, symbolizes great fortune. And it also means you are stuck with the bill for yet another Catholic drinkfest one month later.
Below are the top eight things we have found in the Rosca de Reyes here at the POCHO world headquarters! Enjoy!
8. Plastic Baby Jesus
7. One long black hair
6. Homies Doll, “Cholo Priest”
Obama immigration officials run out of immigrants to deport, switch to deporting American citizens
In a curious move, the Barack Obama White House is campaigning tirelessly for the Latino re-election vote while also deporting a record number of undocumented immigrants.
In a mad dash to burnish their law-and-order credentials, Obama officials have deported over a million undocumented immigrants during the past 2 1/2 years and are on track to out-deport the two-term Bush administration’s 1.57 million. In fact, they have deported so many undocumented immigrants they may have depleted the supply.
They have turned to an American resource to fill the void: deporting U.S. citizens. The instances are numerous, and growing:
Daily Show Senior Latino Correspondent Al Madrigal tells all
Comic, actor and soon-to-get-a-fulltime gig Al Madrigal dropped by POCHO world headquarters and Pocho-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz got him to sit down for an impromptu and poorly-lit chat.
Al talks about his move from LA to NYC for his new Daily Show news team gig and reveals a joint project with POCHO.
Iowa analysis: Hatred for poor edges out homophobia, racism
(PNS reporting from IOWA) Hatred for the poor won in Iowa yesterday, squeaking by second-place entry homophobia and runners-up racism and tax evasion in the hotly-contested GOP caucuses.
In a stunning, almost come-from-behind finish, current homophobe and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum ended the caucus vote in a number two position, rubbing up right behind human simulation Mitt Romney.
Mas…Iowa analysis: Hatred for poor edges out homophobia, racism
The Math4Men™ formula: BOOBS+BUTT–WAIST=♥ (I think)
A girl can never win.
When I was in seventh grade, I was derided for being flat-chested. When I was in college I was derided for having ample junk in the trunk. As a 20-something I was felt self-conscious because I didn’t have thin legs.
It turns out, depending on who you ask, this is all good — or all lacking. It’s confusing: do Latino men want voluptuous or not? Or do they only want voluptuous in certain places? Do they just like to drool over skinny women on TV, but when they get home prefer something more ample? What are the mathematics on being an “adequately-attractive” Latina?
Bolivia puts Mother Earth over God, dooms country to Hell
(PNS reporting from BOLIVIA) Undoubtedly weakened by defending herself from deranged Islamo-fascists seeking to nestle in her naïve, hot-blooded bosom, Latin America has fallen victim to an even more dangerous attacker: The Green Dragon of Environmentalism.
Bolivia is slated pass unprecedented legislation that would grant the planet the same rights as human beings. The environment will be given special protections from industry and related development under the recently-proposed Law of Mother Earth. Socialist cocaine-growing President Evo Morales, the first openly-heathen president in Latin America, believes this legislation will help protect unwed whore Mother Earth from the fairy tale of climate change.
Mas…Bolivia puts Mother Earth over God, dooms country to Hell
Pochophotographic Exclusive: Occupy Rose Parade 2012
After the regular Pasadena Rose Parade, the Occupy Rose Parade people were kind enough to march right in front of my phonecam, leaving me little choice but to take their pictures.
After all, we are the 99%!
Music by Alice Texas Marching Band.
Traditional GOP caucus ritual marks Iowanian New Year
(PNS reporting from THE HEARTLAND, USA) Thousands of Iowanians are fighting their way across the wind-blown plains today to perform the traditional Republican caucus ritual. Sioux City City College PoliSci Professor Rico Alvarado explains the Ceremony of the Caucus this way:
First, the gabachos make a 4WD posada to the high school gym for the ritual gathering. There, by standing and waving, they compete for a majority of the donuts and coffee. The Caucus Ceremony must end before the Big Tornado Siren heralds the start of the Iowanian New Year.
We photographed six citizens and asked them to evaluate the political process and the contenders. Here they are and here’s what they said:
Hoy in History 1/3: Drunk ‘how to cook a taco’ video? Must be Taco Tuesday!
It’s the year’s very first Taco Tuesday, which means you can laugh yourself back to work with this borracho taco recipe video.
Cooking while drunk is dangerous, especially if it involves charp knives. Don’t try this at home.
Cover girl: ‘I Exist’ magazine features undocumented protester
No papers — no voice? Not any more!
What is the proper adjective: undocumented or illegal?
Lalo Alcaraz: A cartoonista’s 2011 year in review
There are a million stories in the naked barrio. Here are some of mine from 2011.
Background music: ‘Viva Tirado’ by The Bullets. Used by permission. Thanks, pochos!
‘Happy New Year Baby’ from The Sisters (East LA 1965)
It’s 1965 and big hair and girl groups are all the rage.
In East LA, sisters Rosella, Ersi and Mary Arvizu, who had been singing and playing music together all their lives, thought they had the right stuff to be the next Supremes — even before there were Supremes. They call themselves The Sisters.
My militant Pocho Ocho New Year’s resolutions
8. Remove Christmas lights from my Occupy L.A. tent a little earlier this year
7. Scare white folks with the 2012 Doomsday predictions
6. Get Cheech to collect one of my Chicano paintings
5. Train my revolutionary pets Karl Barx and Chairman Meow to attack all Republicanos in mi barrio
Year in Review: JLo needs to fix it again, Tony
You can’t go home again; ask la Señorita Lopez.
JLo’s waxing poetic about her roots and her neighborhood made for a very nice commercial but a not-so-nice commentary about her beloved Bronx.
Jenny-from-the-block’s part in her new commercial was not shot “round the way” but rather on the rough and tumble streets of West Los Angeles (yeah, I know they both look soooo much alike.)