You never know what’s going to happen when you get into a ring with an angry, two-tun bull.
Pope: ‘Quakes are message from God: Let there be gay’
(PNS reporting from VATICAN CITY) The recent earthquakes in Southern California are a message from God, according to Pope Francis. The Almighty, he told a visiting delegation of American Catholics Monday, will shake things up until they are more gay.
“Lord knows this mortal world needs some bright flashes of color that aren’t suicide bomb explosions in crowded markets,” the Pontiff said.”And maybe some marigold-print cafe curtains in that drab nook over there.”
The Idiot’s Guide to Smart People: ‘Music’ (video)
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Michoacán tornado home video: ‘¡No manches!’ (NSFW)
A tornado hit the town of Tangancicuaro in the Mexican state of Michoacán on March 22, damaging over 250 homes. This unedited, single-take home video features great play-by-play voiceover while the camera documents flying chonies and other debris. And enjoy the narrator’s colorful vulgar interjections! [NSFW Spanish audio.]
Immigrants now leaders in town where Chavez began [PRI audio]
In Delano, the California Central Valley agricultural community where Cesar Chavez began the work that led to the formation of the United Farm Workers (UFW), immigrants and their children are now in charge.
Public Radio International Reports:
Mas…Immigrants now leaders in town where Chavez began [PRI audio]
Street art of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, MX (photos)
POCHO amigo Professor Gary Burnett just uploaded a brilliant set of photos he shot in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, where the 1994 Zapatista (EZLN) uprising was centered. The profe has a good eye for political and surreal street art.
Mas…Street art of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, MX (photos)
True text message stories: Dude, what is your street name?
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Mas…True text message stories: Dude, what is your street name?
America’s Shame : 12-year-olds pick our fruits, veggies (video)
Children as young as 12 are still working in America’s fields alongside adults — bent over all day in often-dangerous conditions — just so there’s enough money to put food on the table and pay the phone bill. Although this Human Rights Watch video is from 2010, the practice continues, and is defended by some farmworkers themselves.
#FFF #FelizFrijolFriday: The ‘Blazing Saddles’ campfire scene (video)
Can we have some more beans, Mr. Taggart?
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Mas…#FFF #FelizFrijolFriday: The ‘Blazing Saddles’ campfire scene (video)
For Cain Lopez, cholos ruin everything (NSFW video)
Cholos ruin everything, according to stand up comic Cain Lopez. [NSFW language.]
Throwback Thursday: ‘Those Darn White Kids’ (POCHO 2000 toons)
Briton Jim Tavaré is a comic and cholo playa (video)
A lanky British guy got lost driving in L.A. because Google Maps; lucky for him, he ended up in friendly East Los Angeles.
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Lucha libre + garage band punk = Grito-Fest 2014 (video)
Looks like hella fun was had by all at Grito-Fest 2014 last Saturday night in Alicante, España. When lucha libre meets punk rock in a night club, what could go wrong?
Here’s the video from Matias Alhambra:
Mas…Lucha libre + garage band punk = Grito-Fest 2014 (video)
Naranjas, Señor?! Oranges for sale! (video)
Post by Being Chicano.
The naranjero works hard for his money, so hard for it, honey.
As much as this street-vending orange seller looks like POCHO amigo Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano, it’s not him.
Here’s Arellano at his weekend gig:
And now a generic commercial from some brand (video)
At [insert company name here] we care about the __________, the __________ and the ___________ so you and your family can ____________ and the world _______________.
[Your mileage may vary. This product is meant for educational purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. List each check separately by bank number. Batteries not included. Contents may settle during shipment. Use only as directed. No other warranty expressed or implied. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment.
Attention Latino ‘Millennials’: Is this your story? (video)
Telemundo says it knows the secret to attracting the Millennial generation — so advertisers and marketeers can sell more product. (Spoiler: The secret word is 3BALL MTY.) What do you think? Is this video about you?
But wait! What does Univision have to say?
Mas…Attention Latino ‘Millennials’: Is this your story? (video)
Census Bureau considering new race/ethnicity questions
The tricky choose-your-own race/ethnic questions in the 2010 United States Census didn’t work out as planned.
“As many as 6.2% of census respondents selected only “some other race” in the 2010 census (photo, top), the vast majority of whom were Hispanic,” the Pew Research Center reports.
The 2010 Census form asked two questions about race and ethnicity. First, people were asked whether they are of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin.
Then they were asked to choose one or more of 15 options that make up five race categories — white, black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander.
A separate question about Hispanic origin has been asked of all households since 1980, and the census form specifically instructs respondents that Hispanic origins are not races.
To address concerns about a rising share of “some other race” selections, a combined race and ethnicity question is under consideration for 2020 (photo, bottom), in which people would be offered all the race and Hispanic options in one place.
They could check a box to identify as white, black, Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander or some other race or origin.
Don’t call me a ‘Mexican,’ America! Also, I’m not a ‘Latino’
It’s a phenomenon older than the United Estates of America. We’ve named it Looking Down On More Recent Immigrants Syndrome:
- In 1751, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, a North American colonial with British roots, disparaged “stupid” and “swarthy” recently-arrvied German immigrants, who, he wrote, were too dumb to learn English, and did we mention they were “swarthy”?
- Discrimination against Irish Catholic immigrants by their English Protestant predecessors was one of the reasons 200 fresh-off-the-boat Irish United States Army draftees switched sides and fought for Mexico in the Mexican-American War of the 1840s. These deserters/heroes formed the famed Saint Patrick’s Battalion (Los San Patricios.)
- Hoity-toity German and Sephardic Jews who immigrated to the U.S.A. in the 18th and 19th Centuries were ashamed of the Hebrew homies who arrived later from Eastern Europe; the assimilated Jews banded together to “Americanize” the Russian and Polish immigrants in the 1880s.
Last week three latter-day Looking Down Syndrome sightings lit up our screen, INSISTENT MESSAGES from people who want you to know THEY ARE DEFINITELY NOT THOSE OTHER PEOPLE OVER THERE — those Mexicans and/or Latinos.
Mas…Don’t call me a ‘Mexican,’ America! Also, I’m not a ‘Latino’
Vatos Locos International: Meet Thailand’s ‘cholos’ (NSFW videos)
What do a Buddhist meditation teacher and a Thai policeman have in common? They both think they are “Mexican gangsters” because tats, Pendletons, leaning like a cholo and saying “Fuck the popo!” [NSFW lyrics and explicit subtitles in English.]
Ditto two Armenian gang-bangers who were deported from Southern California back to the Old World; these vatos locos are fighting for Bashar al-Assad in Syria:
Mas…Vatos Locos International: Meet Thailand’s ‘cholos’ (NSFW videos)
Danny Trejo: Action movie star, ‘Breadanimal’ maker (video)
We don’t know what to make of this video from Danny Trejo, where the machete-wielding movie tough guy reveals an improbable hobby: making Breadanimals. It’s a promo, somehow, for his new flick, Bullet, but it seems less funny than awkward and forced.
He doesn’t look like a happy camper to us. What do you think?
PREVIOUSLY ON DANNY TREJO, WE’RE HAPPY TO REMIND YOU ABOUT ONE OF THE GREATEST ONLINE PROMO VIDEOS EVER MADE THAT TAKES A LONG TIME FOR THE *FLASH* FILE TO LOAD BUT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT SO HANG IN THERE:
Mas…Danny Trejo: Action movie star, ‘Breadanimal’ maker (video)
Sen. Ted Cruz hates avocados (allegedly) and Pocho Ocho other things
Tea Partier Ted Cruz, the Canadian United States Senator (R-TX), hates avocados, the fruit of a tree native to Mexico and Central America, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel.
We just learned from a blog post that this Canuckian “public servant” allegedly confessed his shameful prejudice in an interview last October, but sometime since then, the original evidence mysteriously disappeared.
(Crack Malaysian detectives are investigating the disappearance.)
Of course, this Grand Old Pendejo official has many other skeletors in his closet — the Pocho Ocho Other Things Sen. Ted Cruz Hates Besides Avocados:
8. LIFE cereal.
7. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
6. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Mas…Sen. Ted Cruz hates avocados (allegedly) and Pocho Ocho other things
Up close and personal with Chilean Rose, full-body stripper (video)
So Chilean Rose, what’s up? That’s a good tarantula. Calm down now. What? Is something wrong? You seem nervous. Take it off. Take it ALL off!
Lisa Lisa/Cult Jam: I Wonder If I Take You Home (video)
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam is an iconic Latino group. At the forefront of “freestyle,” Lisa Velez fronted the group, which released the album Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force.
Women’s History Month: Sister Megan Rice (toon)
Megan Gillespie Rice (born January 31, 1930) is an anti-nuclear activist and Roman Catholic nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. On February 18, 2014, Rice was sentenced to 35 months in prison for breaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, spray-painting antiwar slogans, and splashing blood on the outside of the heavily-guarded Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility.
BSAA airliner over Andes transmits ‘S T E N D E C’ in Morse, vanishes
They called her Star Dust.
The British South American Airways (BSAA) Avro Lancastrian airliner (registration G-AGWH) took off from Buenos Aires, Argentina enroute to Santiago, Chile on August 2, 1947.
Star Dust’s final Morse code transmission to Santiago airport, S T E N D E C, was received by the control tower four minutes prior to its planned landing and repeated twice:
… – . -. -.. . -.-.
… – . -. -.. . -.-.
The Morse transmission sounded just like this:
Star Dust — like Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 and Argentina’s Cadet Flight — was never heard from again.
And what does S T E N D E C mean? No one knew then, no one knows now.
Mas…BSAA airliner over Andes transmits ‘S T E N D E C’ in Morse, vanishes