A professor visits migrants at the border near Nogales, Mexico

border_immersion_morenoBy the time the two young women walked into the shelter, the other migrants were mostly finished with their meals. They stood out as two women among dozens of recently deported men enjoying a meal before continuing on their way. I did what I had been doing all that January morning: I served them each a glass of hot chocolate and a plate of food.

We were volunteering at the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) in Nogales, Mexico, as part of the Center for Social Concerns’ Border Immersion Faculty Seminar. For several years, Notre Dame students have participated in this seminar, but this was the first time it was being offered to faculty and staff as well. As a professor of U.S. Latino literature who studies and teaches about the border, this was an opportunity for me to experience the border in a different way.

Mas…A professor visits migrants at the border near Nogales, Mexico

The San Patricio Batallón: Irish heroes of Aztlan (4 music videos)


This corrido by Orange County Celtic-rock homies The Fenians tells the tragic story of the San Patricios, the St. Patrick’s Battalion.

The unit of 200 mostly Catholic Irish immigrants deserted the United States Army and fought with the Mexican Army against the U.S.A. in the Mexican–American War.

Scots-British post-punk The Wakes Band offer their version of the story next. The video’s not much to look at but the lyrics are killer, so read along below:

Mas…The San Patricio Batallón: Irish heroes of Aztlan (4 music videos)

Around Our Town on St. Paddy’s Day: Where to go, what to do

LUCK OF THE IRISH: Look for a pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow today at Gustavo O’Grady’s Bar y Grill on East Olmos Boulevard. The popular hangout will serve corned beef tacos, potato-stuffed chiles rellenos and beer-marinated enchilada irlanda sliders at $1 each during Happy Hour.

Happy Hour, you lucky leprechauns, lasts all day long, and GO’G’s always keeps 100 bottles of beer on the wall.

For $144 and a signed damage waiver, you high-rollers can try GO’G’s One Night in Dublin Lifestyle Tasting Menu — generous pours of Guinness and Jameson’s followed by a course of impassioned story-telling and poetry, more pours, then a rich hour of melancholy singing, pours again, all capped off by your choice of a bar fight or vomiting in the alley.

Wear a wee bit o’ green and Gay Gus O’Grady himself will kiss your Blarney Stone.

Mas…Around Our Town on St. Paddy’s Day: Where to go, what to do

El Vez live at the Tiki Oasis: He’s going to ‘Aztlan’ (videos, toon)


The Tiki Oasis, San Diego, Califas 2014: El Vez is going to Aztlan — that’s where he wants to be. “The Mexican Elvis” (real name Robert Lopez) is from Chula Vista, Califas, so he’s already there. POCHO world headquarters — in East Los — tambien!

Here’s the studio version, from his album Gracias Land:

Mas…El Vez live at the Tiki Oasis: He’s going to ‘Aztlan’ (videos, toon)

Profe ‘Memo’ Nericcio sits in chair, goes to Laredo’s Mami Chula (videos)


POCHO amigo and contributor William A. “Memo” Nericcio is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University. The school him sat down in the red chair and shot this video, and we’re glad they did.

Did you know that Memo LITERALLY WROTE THE BOOK on our hero Speedy Gonzales?

Indeed he did!

And since it’s #TBT Throwback Thursday, let’s go back to 2010 when Memo kicked off his blog with a video of his visit to Mami Chula Drive-Thru Beer Run in Laredo, Texas:

Mas…Profe ‘Memo’ Nericcio sits in chair, goes to Laredo’s Mami Chula (videos)