I gave this Commencement Speech Sunday at Cal Berkeley

laloatcalLalo Alcaraz Commencement Speech
for UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, May 17, 2015

Hello Wurster Hall Class of 2015!

Good evening graduates and long suffering families.

CONGRATULATIONS PARENTS! YOU’RE ALMOST FREE.

And graduates, it won’t cost you anything: how about the loudest most tremendous cheer for your families?!

Good, NOW this is sounding like the Chicano/Latino graduation! Next year, may I suggest mariachis?

Mas…I gave this Commencement Speech Sunday at Cal Berkeley

Rep. Sanchez mocks American Indians in talk to Indian Americans

sanchezwhoopDemocratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, from Orange County, put her foot in her mouth on Saturday, and she used her hand to do it.

In a speech to Indian American Democrats, she whooped up an “American Indian war cry.”

She was confused, she told a group of Indian American at a party convention in Anaheim, about an upcoming meeting with an Indian American.

“I am going to his office,” she said, “thinking that I am going to meet with a” — then she put her hand over mouth and made the noise that is the stereotypical imitation of a American Indian war cry. “Right? … because he said Indian American.”

Mas…Rep. Sanchez mocks American Indians in talk to Indian Americans

Angry area youth calls menudo ‘yucky,’ demands pizza

menudokid(PNS reporting from ALTADENA) Javier “Flaco” Hernandez outraged his family Sunday night when he refused to eat his bowl of menudo.

“It’s yucky!” the 8-year-old shouted as he repeatedly banged his spoon on the dinner table and insisted on pizza instead.

Flaco’s refusal ticked off his mom, who had spent hours preparing the beef stomach broth in the kitchen of their tidy suburban Los Angeles County bungalow.

Mas…Angry area youth calls menudo ‘yucky,’ demands pizza

The plastic yellow car, a (true?) story

yellowcar“Okay, podemos ir a caminar pero si te cansas, es tu problema. No cargo bebes,” Lina says meanly to her four-year-old cousin.

“I’m not a baby!” says Teresita predictably but then insists on bringing her large plastic car, a hideous yellow contraption with giant painted eyeballs instead of headlights. Teresita gets in the toy car and looks at Lina expectantly. Lina sighs and begins to push her down the street.

“This is just a stroller, you know.” Lina grumbles. “You’re not making any progress into becoming a real person.”

Teresita either does not hear or pretends not to understand the English sentence. Lina suspects that rather than being a child “confused by the dichotomies of her bilingual upbringing” as the pre-school teacher suggested, that Teresita is just selectively deaf.

Mas…The plastic yellow car, a (true?) story

Pocho Ocho changes to expect after Indios + Chinos > Mexicanos

immigrationscaleChina and India now top Mexico as leading sources of new immigrants to the United Estates, new data reveals.

What are the Pocho Ocho top changes we can expect from these evolving patterns in immigration?

8. Indian actors will replace Puerto Ricans playing Mexicans on TV

7. San Jose, California will be known as Sanjay, California

6. White people will be considered “the model minority”

Mas…Pocho Ocho changes to expect after Indios + Chinos > Mexicanos

Can Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano finish OC’s hottest burger? (video)


Can intrepid POCHO Associate Naranjero Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano and OC Weekly colleague Nick Schou make it through the Nuke Burger, said to be the hottest/spiciest hamburger in Orange County?

How spicy is it? The OC Weekly’s Charles Lam reports:

The Nuke Burger [at Bombburger in Huntington Beach] is quite possibly the spiciest burger in Orange County at the moment, featuring a who’s who’s list of hottest peppers in the world (Scorpion and Reaper for you pepper heads, as well as Ghost Pepper Jack Cheese).