Soul singer Donny Hathaway’s classic I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know comes alive in this club performance by “LA’s Best Latin Blues Band,” The Delgado Brothers. Smokin’ soulful stuff. If it take a little long to load, not to worry. It’s way worth it.
Bill Santiago is in online hell, trying to type an estupid Ñ (video)
When you switch between Spanish and English, says comic Bill Santiago, it can sometimes be confusing if your eyes see one thing and your brain is thinking something else. Am I right, people? And don’t get me started on the email…
My name is Lady Justice and I endorse this message
Lady Justice wears a Hoodie for Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman, the killer of the 17-year-old African-American teenager in Sanford, FLA, has finally been arrested and arraigned — this only after national outrage and agitation by Americans of all races. We hope that Justice is truly blind, and also that she wears a hoodie.
PochoCast #3: Alcaraz and Madrigal on tacos and art and identity
POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz gets Migrant Editor Al Madrigal on Skype to talk about the art and death of Thomas Kinkade and the Pew Hispanic identity survey (Latino? Hispanic? Mexican?)
¡Ask A Mexican! Gustavo Arellano phones in to discuss his delicious new book Taco USA and producer Marcelo Ziperovich wonders if he’s a “white Hispanic” like you know who.
Oh! The laughs we had. Those were the days my friend, I thought they’d never end. Is this thing still on?
Photos: ‘Sleeping Mexican’ garden statues? What’s racist about that?
Arizona sure loves its Mexicans!
Taos-based author and photographer John Hamilton Farr went to Tucson on family business and was stunned by the “Sleeping Mexican” statues all around his mom’s old hood. He photographed these guys “within a two or three block radius of my mother’s old place…less than 10 minutes!”
He brought the statuary to the attention of official neighborhood Arizonians. Their reply? “What’s racist about that?”
People are asking the same question in San Antonio and Tucscon.
Nine big versions of Farr’s photos are below.
And can you answer the trick question: What’s racist about that?
Mas…Photos: ‘Sleeping Mexican’ garden statues? What’s racist about that?
Paranormal investigators investigate Argentina cornfield OVNI tracks
Experts from Argentina’s leading ufologist group Vision OVNI are investigating strange skid marks where some say an objeto volador no identificado landed in a farmer’s field in the northeastern province of Santa Fe.
Inexplicita explains the inexplicable this way:
A cornfield that appeared to display strange marks caused astonishment to many citizens of the town of Pujato… The event prompted a visit from member of Visión Ovni, the Victoria-based group devoted to the study of unidentified flying objects.
On 5 April, cornstalks standing 2 meters tall were found flattened in the same direction in the middle of a lot. The field is some 2 kilometers distant from Route 33 and the marks were found by Rubén Marelli, the owner, who presented a complaint on the following day…During a field survey, they found a trail measuring 2.10 meters wide and nearly 600 meters long, which presents side trails that open and mark a sort of figure eight, doubling back on themselves.
Scroll down for two big photos of the tracks. What do you think?
Mas…Paranormal investigators investigate Argentina cornfield OVNI tracks
Pocho Ocho U.S. military secret special operations
The minute we heard the United States Air Force had planned and carried out Operation Chimichanga, we knew there had to be more to the story. Our Pentagon sources confirmed the hunch: The inspiration for the “chimichanga” code name was the way the Tex-Mex fried-burrito-belly-busters incapacitated unwary diners every time. The brass hats’ hope was that secret teams in state-of-the-art aircraft could make the enemy moan just like fajita-fed TGIFridays customers on Cinco de Mayo.
There is more to the story — the pocho ocho secret Pentagon operations still in the planning stages:
8. Operation Don’t Drink the Water: Secret “wetback” forces from the Navy SEALS sneak into enemy territory and dose the water with “pedo-biotic” agents bioengineered to cause widespread “Montezuma’s Revenge.” This is expected to cause pandemic personal distress, lessen the enemy’s fighting capability and reduce water pressure.
7. Operation Hot Tamale: Inspired by the guetherman’s motto of “cool today, hot tamale,” stealthy airborne drones seed enemy skies with specially-formulated lard and masa pellets that trap your fat, screw your cholesterol and clot your veins.
Un chico makes his own arcade: Caine’s Arcade
This has got to be the most wondrous film about a small Latino businessman ever made. Caine Monroy, a nine-year-old from East L.A., built his own DIY arcade out of cardboard boxes from his dad’s car parts store. He charges a dollar for two plays, but you really ought to get the Superpass, which is a good deal. He has designed security features with 99 Cent Store calculators, and an ingenious ticket delivery system that you have to see to believe. The excellent and funny short film is by Nirvan Mullick, who was Caine’s first and only customer — for a little bit, anyhow.
Watch the movie and warm your corazon!
Help Caine’s Scholarship Fund:
Caine’s Arcade online:
‘Hey Vato!’ In the hood, a moment of self-reflection (NSFW video)
Hey Vato! stars “two puppet cholos who have discussions about everyday “hood” issues and question their ghetto instincts,” director Juan Rodriguez emails. In the first episode, the “struggle within” captures the boys’ attention. Chuy (on the left) is in the jersey and Smiley is wearing the Pendleton. Ralph Waldo Emerson is also involved. (NSFW language.)
Photos: Great Moments in Arizona Republican Party History
Republicans in the Hate State of Arizona are not newbies when it comes to ignorance, racism and stupidity. The state’s Grand Old Party has a grand old poopy history.
Come with us now as we take a Hate State Hot Tub Time Machine Tour — in photos. A picture is worth a thousand palabras.
Mas…Photos: Great Moments in Arizona Republican Party History
Pocho Ocho ways Latinas deal with unwanted body hair
If you’re a Latina, then you know the dirty little secret: body hair everywhere. Maybe you didn’t grow up with hairy arms or legs, but once you approached 30 or had children, the secret caught up with you.
Hair on your arms, hair on your legs, hairy eyebrows, chin hair, toe and foot hair, moustaches, sideburns, hair on your breasts, even a female version of the treasure trail! Aye!
I’ve seen the culture around Latina body hair traverse everything from shame to denial to indifference to pride (I’m looking at you Frida Kahlo.)
But for the rest of us not so lucky to look good in a moustache, this hair must be dealt with. Here are the top eight ways this can go down:
Spring cholo fashion tips from Le Smoké light up Montebello
Le Smoké is celebrated for his ground-shaking declaration in 2006 that burgundy was the new red and periwinkle would not be considered blue. His list of do’s and don’t’s is always the highlight of the show.
Le Smoké, a 13-year Communications Sciences major at Unincorporated East Pocho City College and a 15-year veteran of the mean streets of Pocho Hills, a struggling suburb of Mission Pocho Viejo, uses the cutting edge of fashion rather than a prison shank to do his stabbing.
Mas…Spring cholo fashion tips from Le Smoké light up Montebello
Ex-cyber-cop: Stop border infiltration by Internet-powered ‘netbacks’
(PNS reporting from CYBERESPACE) They slip across the border at night, invisible, hidden in the multitude of American web surfers, bringing with them accented characters, exclamation points turned on their heads and foreign ideas like “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Mexican and Mexican-adjacent Internet users called “netbacks” are sucking up American bandwidth and adding so-called “salsa” to American websites — and right-wing forces want them stopped.
Mas…Ex-cyber-cop: Stop border infiltration by Internet-powered ‘netbacks’
Dear Latinas: You are not allowed to make fun of yourselves
In the future, Latinas like Sofia Vergara won’t be able to make fun of themselves on TV shows like SNL because it would be politically incorrect. Oh wait — that’s happening now!
Here’s a Philadelphia blogger’s unfocused anti-Sofia rant we find perplexing:
Mas…Dear Latinas: You are not allowed to make fun of yourselves
San Antonio’s Bombasta rocks the hood with ‘De la Calle’
People you know, situations you recognize, stuff you resemble, calles you cruise, stories you live — they’re all here in De la Calle, the super Spanglish new alt.cumbia video from San Antonio band Bombasta.
POCHO remembers ñewsman Mike Wallace of CBS-TV’s ’60 Minutes’
Mike Wallace, iconic hard-hitting interviewer and 60 Minutes OG, died Sunday at 93.
For one classic story, Wallace went to China to track down the manufacturer of counterfeit American toys and ended up confronting a smarmy, chain-smoking attorney, Nathan Thurm, Esq. Thurm was not pleased.
Ñewsweek: Tucson school board’s exercise in ignorance and hate
POCHO Migrant Editor Al Madrigal (he commutes coast-to-coast so he can work nights as Senior Latino Correspondent for The Daily Show) went to Tucson AZ to find out why students there aren’t allowed to take classes in Mexican-American history.
Cameras running, Al interviewed a school board official who was apparently high on ignorance, stupidity and hate.
These are the POCHO stories that broke the ñews this week:
Mas…Ñewsweek: Tucson school board’s exercise in ignorance and hate
Alien: The Easter Edition (video)
The crew of the USS Chocstromo really should have seen this coming.
Disinformation Company: Doomsday 2012 Science or Superstition?
Yo what is up with all this Mayan Doomsday 2012 stuff? We need some disinformation and we need it now, and that’s why we turned to the Disinformation Company for this video. Like check it:
Disinformation Company producer Gary Baddeley, director Nimrod Erez and the Disinformation team contacted and arranged interviews with multiple experts, often obtaining speedy access due to more than ten years of working with them or colleagues in their fields!
Mas…Disinformation Company: Doomsday 2012 Science or Superstition?
Hamburguesas never looked so good! Salma Hayek for BurgerBoy
Don’t judge! She was young and she needed the money. Salma Hayek stars in a musical commercial for the now-defunct Mexican fast food chain BurgerBoy.
Lima, Peru: Why did you paint the wall? Because it was there (video)
Tajo Abierto by Decertor. Festival Latir Latino, realizado en las calles de Miraflores, Lima 2012. In other words, OK, like in Peru? It was this Latino Beat Festival. Right, yeah. Lima, Peru. And this dude painted this massive other dude all sideways and stuff on a wall. OK and he like video’d it. Sweet.
From Coldrank for Trayvon: ‘Black Man’ (music video)
Citing Malcom X, MLK and Michael Jackson, rapper Coldrank‘s Black Man explores, shall we say, discrepancies in society’s treatment of blacks killing blacks, blacks killing whites and whites killing blacks. And those that don’t learn from history, he reminds us, are doomed to repeat it. Directed by Joe Mexican.
Colbert to Romney: Run this commercial to get Latino votes
It’s no secret that Mitt “Self Deportation” Romney is not Latinos’ favorite presidential hopeful. Stephen Colbert explains the political realities and introduces a new Mitt Romney TV commercial.
POCHO has a Mexican Mitt Romney commercial too — and it’s a music video (below).
Mas…Colbert to Romney: Run this commercial to get Latino votes
Video: Tortilla-chip UFO buzzes York, England — again
“The mysterious Dudley Dorito UFO has been spotted for the fourth time in five years flying through a cloudless sky over woodland in Yorkshire,” reports Britain’s The Sun:
The object, which looks like an extra-terrestrial tortilla chip, was captured by an amateur cameraman who posted the footage on YouTube. He can be heard saying “I don’t know what that is” as the triangular aircraft glides silently across the frame above a forest in the north of England.
The UFO was dubbed the Dudley Dorito after its first sighting over the Midlands in 2007 but it is unclear whether the YouTube footage is real or a hoax.
Pocho Ocho new merit badges for Latina Girl Scouts
Latina girls are the key to growth for the Girl Scouts, and the organization needs to shift culturally to accommodate these new scouts.
How do you bring in a new crop of Latina scouts? How about some new Merit Badges?
8. Touting Trenzas.
It may be India María style or Frida Kahlo style, but any good Latina needs to know how to work the hair art. Whether it be one braid or two, a French braid or any other variety.
7. Masa Mashing.
Scouts need to know how to mash masa around between their hands in a variety of ways. Masa mashing can be the cultural equivalent of chopping, the manner in which masa is mashed alluding to unspoken or subtle feelings, including: anger, happiness, interest, nervousness, etc.
Chicano? Mexican? Cuban? Boricuan? Latino? Hispanic? What are you?
NBCLatino asked POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz whether he’s a Chicano or Latino or Mexican or Hispanic.
Lalo was commenting on the Pew Hispanic Center survey everybody is talking about:
Nearly four decades after the United States government mandated the use of the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” to categorize Americans who trace their roots to Spanish-speaking countries, a new nationwide survey of Hispanic adults finds that these terms still haven’t been fully embraced by Hispanics themselves. A majority (51%) say they most often identify themselves by their family’s country of origin; just 24% say they prefer a pan-ethnic label.
Mas…Chicano? Mexican? Cuban? Boricuan? Latino? Hispanic? What are you?
Pocho Ocho reasons Gustavo Arellano should win a Pulitzer Prize
POCHO amigo Gustavo Arellano, the ¡Ask A Mexican! guy who writes columns and books and edits OCWeekly.com, has a new book coming out soon: Taco USA — How Mexican Food Conquered America.
Despite his adamant refusal to bribe us for coverage, we still want to present Pocho Ocho reasons he should win a pinche Pulitzer:
8. The use of the inverted exclamation point in ¡Ask A Mexican! has forced gabachos across America to learn special key combinations to send him hateful email.
7. Consistently employing “SantAna” when referring to the Orange County City of Santa Ana has moved Carlos Santana out of the old-age home and into a long-term gig at the House of Blues on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip.
Mas…Pocho Ocho reasons Gustavo Arellano should win a Pulitzer Prize
Al Madrigal reveals inside story of ethnic studies ban in Tucson AZ
Tucson public school students are no longer taught Mexican-American history, and POCHO Migrant Editor Al Madrigal (who also moonlights as Senior Latino Correspondent for The Daily Show) went to the Hate State to find out why.
The California Mission lost to history: Santa Zipporah de la Culpa
Founded on Passover 1799 by a youthful colony of Spanish Jews fleeing the persecution of their parents, at its height the mission comprised a thriving community of several hundred souls along the Los Angeles River, near present-day Boyle Heights.
Often overshadowed by its overachieving Catholic neighbors in San Gabriel and San Fernando, Mission Santa Zipporah was founded by the storied ‘Father’ Shmuel, the Jewish missionary sometimes known by his nickname, “Father Sarah.”
Mas…The California Mission lost to history: Santa Zipporah de la Culpa
Is guitarist and singer Omar Torrez the Latino Jimi Hendrix?
Omar Torrez sure can play! That’s why he toured with Tom Waits and played with others like the Buena Vista Social Club and Jethro Tull. The Los Angeles Times wrote: “Dare we dub him the Latin Hendrix?! The fastest fingers in the West, a massive talent poised to break out and kiss the sky.”
Omar Torrez describes his music as “equal parts rock, Latin, delta blues, atonal classical, and performance art.” His heritage is as diverse as his music, ranging from Spanish and Basque (via Mexico) to Norwegian, Native American and Russian roots.
We especially like his new release — a happy-go-lucky smile of a tune called Marina (play this loud!) which will have you chair-dancing in no time at all. Srsly.
Videos: Librotraficante caravan smuggles banned books into Tucson
Tony Diaz’s Librotraficante crew smuggled banned Mexican-American Studies books — AKA wetbooks — into Tucson. These three videos tell the story.
Diaz’s own video picks up the story below:
Mas…Videos: Librotraficante caravan smuggles banned books into Tucson
GOP seeks Hispanic vote, taps Seagal for ‘You’re Busted, Beaner!’
(PNS reporting from HOLLYWOOD) Republicans scared to death worried about the GOP’s ridiculously awful poor standing with Hispanic non-Mexican-American voters have launched an election-year scramble to put a better spin on their party’s immigration problem. Their solution? A TV reality show starring Hollywood flunkie and all-around jackass, Steven Seagal.
Seagal leads the list of C-level actors in You’re Busted, Beaner! a new Republican Party-backed reality series. Seagal stars as a cop who pursues “illegals” while promoting the GOP’s non-Mexican Hispanic-friendly agenda.
The show will be produced by Tinsel Town’s sole Republican, who prefers to remain anonymous.
Mas…GOP seeks Hispanic vote, taps Seagal for ‘You’re Busted, Beaner!’