Why are imported bananas so cheap while apples grown next door are expensive? I’m Chiquita Banana and I’m here to say: I’ve got your answer and it’s CIA.
Mas…Bananas! How Uncle Sam raped Latin America for cheap fruit (video)
#TBT Throwback Thursday Frank Zappa ‘Cucaracha’ (1970s audio)
ESTRANGE BUT TRUE:
It was the tail end of the 1960s and Frank Zappa of the Mothers of Invention was making Public Service Announcements for “underground radio.” Few examples survive, but this short audio segment warns impressionable young people about a popular Chicano-themed cartoon that had not even been invented yet — a subversive cartoon that could “rot your mind!” Let’s listen in to see what Zappa has to say…
Out of F-bombs, Foo Fighter Dave Grohl puts ‘Chile Olé’ in a song
At a concert in Chile last week, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters ran out of F-bombs to drop on stage, so he turned the adoring crowd’s Chile Olé chant into a new song. [NSFW F-bombs.] H/t Remezcla.
PRO TIP FOR ROCK AND ROLL CONCERT PROMOTERS
WHO WANT TO BOOK THE FOO FIGHTERS:
THE BAND IS VERY PARTICULAR ABOUT ITS MEXICAN FOOD REQUIREMENTS,
SO READ THIS TOUR “CONTRACT RIDER” CAREFULLY!
Mas…Out of F-bombs, Foo Fighter Dave Grohl puts ‘Chile Olé’ in a song
(Jo) Raquel (Tejeda) Welch: ‘One Million Years B.C.’ (1966 video)
This sci-fi fantasy B-movie trailer is so old-school it’s prehistoric! Pocha pin-up (Jo) Raquel (Tejeda) Welch co-stars in One Million Years B.C.
Mas…(Jo) Raquel (Tejeda) Welch: ‘One Million Years B.C.’ (1966 video)
Heavy Rain to Hit Houston, Texas, Thursday, January 22, 2015 (video)
Here’s Thursday’s weather forecast for Houston, Texas, via Nova Scotia, Canadia, provided by Internetz Weather Expert FRANKIE:
Heavy Rain is on its way for Houston Texas on Thursday January 22, 2015 and it will bring 30+ mm of rain and the Heaviest Rain will be in Southeastern Texas Including Houston and Galveston and the Center of the Low Pressure System is Heading into the Gulf of Mexico that will cause a lot of Rain in Houston Texas and the Surrounding Areas and it will be a lot of Rain in Southeastern Texas Including Houston and it will bring Windy Conditions and the Thursday will not be a good day to Head to the Beach in Galveston Texas and it will bring Windy Conditions in Houston Texas and the Surrounding Areas and People in Houston Texas Be Prepared have your Rubber Boots, Rain Coats and Rain Suits Ready and when you are walking Wear your Rain Gear, Rubber Boots and Rain Coats to keep you Dry and have your Umbrella Ready and Don’t Walk Through the Puddles and Avoid the Puddles when you are going for a walk and it will be Very Wet Conditions in Southeastern Texas Including Houston on Thursday January 22, 2015 and it will Not be a Good Day to Head down to the Beach to Go Swimming in Galveston Texas and Order your Pizzas and Chinese Food and Buy cases of Pepsi and Coke and have your iPads, iPods, Cell Phones, Laptops and Tablets Charged and have your 3G and 4G Internet Ready since it will be Very Wet and Rainy down in Houston Texas on Thursday and if you have anybody living in Houston Texas Be Prepared for the Heavy Rain on Thursday January 22, 2015 Take Care and Stay Safe and Don’t Get Caught in the Heavy Rain Stay Dry and Be Safe.
Reies Lopez Tejerina, One of the Chicano Movement’s Four Horsemen
Reies Lopez Tijerina? Read the obituary of this controversial activist by our friend Russ Contreras of Associated Press.
Ask A Mexican: Why do politicians hate taco trucks so much? (video)
Even in Santa Ana, Orange County, Califas (it’s actually “Santana,” Gustavo Arellano notes), the Latino-controlled city council dislikes taco trucks. To find out why, it seems prudent to once again ¡Ask A Mexican!
Expect these Pocho Ocho surprises in tonight’s State of the Union
Washington insiders all know tonight’s State of the Union address — like every one before — will bring a few surprises.
We asked around town, and our peeps say these are the top eight to watch for:
8. First use of the Booger-Cam™ captures candid live video of bored Republicans
7. Warmup act Oprah Winfrey to Congress: “You get a drone…and you get a drone. Everybody gets a drone!”
6. Obama cruises to the Capitol in a clean 1953 Packard limousine, a gift from the people of Cuba
Mas…Expect these Pocho Ocho surprises in tonight’s State of the Union
‘Testimonios’ of the undocumented (Lalo Cura music video)
Testimonios tells the stories of undocumented immigrants and the “American Dream” — soulful rock en español from Lalo Cura. No one is illegal.
Lalo Cura is Sonny Carreño on drums, Adam Carter on guitar and backup vocals, Rafael Chávez y Moreno on guitar and vocals, Adam Hartung on bass and Sam Que on sax and backup vocals. Video by Sophia Vergara. Music and lyrics by Rafael Chávez y Moreno.
Los Pollos Hermanos – one taste and you’ll know! [sponsored video]
The Chicken Brothers use only the finest pollos and hermanos. One taste and you’ll know!
POCHO History 101: Public Enemy, Arizona, MLK Day (video)
In the final decade of the 20th Century Public Enemy‘s epic By the Time I Get to Arizona spotlighted the Hate State of Arizona’s failure to implement the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
#blacklivesmatter
America pauses for Ricky Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2015
(PNS reporting from WASHINGTON, D.C.) America will pause Monday to remember the life and message of Ricky Martin Luther King Jr., whose Tengo a Dream y Dance! speech changed the nation forever.
Post offices and other public facilities will be closed, banks and stock exchanges are taking the day off and salsa picante and sweet potato pie – his favorite snack combo – will go on sale all across America. Monday’s holiday honors RMLK’s 39th birthday.
Despite his tragic death in 2007 (he was shot and killed by the president of his fan club before an appearance in Dallas) King’s promotion of “love, equality, justice, innocence, malice, refuge, oppression, freedom” has continued to resonate for confused African-Americans, Latinos, Afro-Latinos, Chicanx and Anglx alike.
Mas…America pauses for Ricky Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2015
Pocho Ocho worst Twitter #JeSuisCharlie hashtag fails
Some Twitter users are just unclear on the concept, especially when it comes to the appropriate use of the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag, the most popular ever (“heat map,” above). The viral slogan — coined after the massacre at Paris satire magazine Charlie Hebdo — affirms support of free expression.
French-deficient? “Je suis Charlie” means “I am Charlie.”
The Pochodores combed the Internets for these Pocho Ocho top Twitter #JeSuisCharlie hashtag fails:
8. 
Feets don’t fail me now: Quebradita dance-off in Zacatecas (video)
A nine-year-old niña with dirty-blonde hair and commando pants wins the Quebradita competition in Quebradita, a Mexican analog to Square Dancing. She enters with her 26-year-old partner at 0:35, at least according to video uploader rubicon_cube.
Video Link: Topless women protest PAN land grab in Mexico City
We can’t publish this video because NSFW but we can link to it. Hundreds of members of the 400 Pueblos movement protested Monday in front of the National Action Party (PAN) headquarters in Mexico City, many of them topless. Semi-nude protests — by men and women — have been a tactic of the group for over a decade.
Documentary photographer Mark Manley explains:
Mas…Video Link: Topless women protest PAN land grab in Mexico City
Watch: Mexican fashionistas demo what the cool kids will wear in 2035
The students at Mexico City’s Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Moda de Casa de Francia designed and produced 20 “intelligent” pieces of clothing for your fashion-forward future. Twenty years from now, we’ll all be wearing black and white poofy mexi-burkas with built-in virtual reality. SPOILER: All the extra-cool kids will have gray hair, 3D printers and electric shoes.
‘Charlie Hebdo’ is publishing millions of these today (cover cartoon)
“All is forgiven,” says the weeping Prophet Mohammed on the cover of the first post-massacre issue of Charlie Hebdo. “I am Charlie,” reads the sign.
Read more at The Washington Post.
Ramiro Gomez: This Golden Globe is for ‘the little people’… (toon)
Our amigo artist Ramiro Gomez writes:
For the many who were not thanked Sunday night, for those that help keep the Hollywood engine running steadily, behind the scenes: Congratulations!
[10 x 12 in. Acrylic on magazine advertisement. 2015.]
[Editor’s Note: Ramiro names all his subjects. For best performance using a leafblower…*drum roll*….AURELIO!]
Photos: Los Angeles No Pants Subway Ride 2015
Photographer Dan “The Steel Shark” Cooke braved the chilly 60° L.A. weather Sunday to take his pants off and ride the subway. He brought some friends.
Pocho Ocho top questions asked before joining a Mexican cartel
Kids these days know they have options and they want to make smart choices — and not only kids in the United Estates.
These are the Pocho Ocho top questions wannabe gangsters ask before joining a Mexican cartel:
8. Will beheading be on the final exam?
7. Soy vegetariano — is heart-eating mandatory?
6. Do I need to supply my own botas picudas?
Mas…Pocho Ocho top questions asked before joining a Mexican cartel
Video of Federales vs. gang battle shows round metallic UFO/OVNI
That awkward moment when you review footage of a January 6 encounter between gangsters and Federales in Michoacan and you notice a spherical, metallic OVNI/UFO hovering overhead.