Mas…La Cucaracha: This one cool trick makes spy balloons disappear forever!
barrio
Check It! New Barrio Watch merch from me, POCHO’s Chicano Punk Rock Artesano, Junco Canché
It would be no exaggeration to say that 2020 has been a year that has shaken up our daily routines.
I concluded, for example, that I need to push harder with my art, my job, and my message. That push became real with the creation of my Barrio Watch line.
A satirical take on the “Neighborhood Watch” signs seen during the 80’s and 90’s, the Barrio Watch logo serves as a warning sign to white supremacists, reminding them that our barrios and hoods are keeping an eye on them. In the dawn of the Ku Klux Klan, minorities feared their night raids. Today, the tables have turned.
Mas…Check It! New Barrio Watch merch from me, POCHO’s Chicano Punk Rock Artesano, Junco Canché
From San Antonio: Don’t gentrify my barrio or my bar! (video)
What happens when your neighborhood gets gentrified?
Mas…From San Antonio: Don’t gentrify my barrio or my bar! (video)
Top Chef Katsuji Tanabe: ‘Got salsa, chips? Make chilaquiles!’ (video)
POCHO amigo Top Chef alumnus Katsuji Tanabe doesn’t want you to waste food. That’s why he’s sharing his recipe for chilaquiles.
Maybe it is a thing: The Curse of Chavez Ravine (toon)
READ MORE ABOUT THE SAD HISTORY OF CHAVEZ RAVINE HERE.
Before the Doyers: ‘Once Upon A Time in Chavez Ravine’ (videos, photo)
Although we root root root for the home team, we can never forget the gente who were forced out of their homes in Chavez Ravine to make way for Dodger Stadium.
Last night Chavez Ravine looked like this …
Mas…Before the Doyers: ‘Once Upon A Time in Chavez Ravine’ (videos, photo)
La Quirky Nancy visits a ‘gentrified’ East Los coffee shop (video)
La Quirky Nancy’s Cousin Becky from the Bay Area moves in with Nancy, but when they grab some METRO shared bicycles and tour the new hood, things don’t turn out exactly like Nancy expected.
PREVIOUSLY ON LA QUIRKY:
Mas…La Quirky Nancy visits a ‘gentrified’ East Los coffee shop (video)
High fashion lets you look like a cholo – if you have the dinero
Thanks to Professor Eliza Rodriguez Y Gibson who pointed my now-scalded eyes, my scarred Mexican-American soul, to this fantabulous atrocity!
Haute couture non-mexican “cholos”!!!! Holy Baudrillard meets Eddie J. Olmos’s Pachuco — who would be rolling over in his grave if he weren’t still thriving in Hollywood!
Mas…High fashion lets you look like a cholo – if you have the dinero
Hipster ‘Palm Pies’ or culturally-appropriated empanadas? (video)
In the second episode of Welcome to the Northside, a Denver hipster brings his Palm Pie food cart to the hood, but our hero Mikey Gonzales is skeptical.
Gonzales, a Chicano young professional, just bought a house in this gentrifying neighborhood, but still finds himself searching for home.
- See all the episodes of Welcome to the Northside on their YouTube channel
- Check out the Facebook page, too!
The Barrio Nostalgia of ‘Veteranas and Rucas’ on Instagram
The internet is so much about what to look at.
For me, that’s weird. You see the bulk of the first part of my life was bound up with reading—which is all about looking at things, reading words, but has little to do with seeing, with reading pictures.
It is true that as a kid, I was all about reading while seeing, with Richie Rich, Mad Magazine, Vampirella, Batman, Eerie, and Plop! infecting the technicolor corridors of my imagination.
But after that came college and graduate school with a major in literature—so novels took over (that and critical theory), so words came to dominate the scene of my life.
Mas…The Barrio Nostalgia of ‘Veteranas and Rucas’ on Instagram
‘Highland Park’: Binge-watch all the episodes right here! (NSFW videos)
Have you been watching Highland Park on the YouTube? We’ve got all the episodes right here for your binge-watching convenience. You can start with this trailer (above), or dive right in (below). [NSFW. Adult situations, language.]
In Episode 1, Los Angeles locals Juanita and Diego had a holy vision in Highland Park. Who knew Tonantzin, Aztec mother goddess, had a cousin named Concepción?
Mas…‘Highland Park’: Binge-watch all the episodes right here! (NSFW videos)
Boyle Heights’ The Tracks want you to ‘Go Out Tonight’ (video, lyrics)
Go Out Tonight is the debut release from Boyle Heights band The Tracks. The noir-looking video — with visuals from the 1961 film The Exiles — sets a contrasting stage for the band’s poppy high energy sound and escapist lyrics:
Mas…Boyle Heights’ The Tracks want you to ‘Go Out Tonight’ (video, lyrics)
Can Juanita and Diego survive the gentrification of ‘Highland Park’?
Los Angeles locals Juanita and Diego had a holy vision in Highland Park. Who knew Tonantzin, Aztec mother goddess, had a cousin named Concepción?
The reason Trump wants to build a wall? To keep America white
Emilio is a childhood friend of mine who we appropriately call Malo (mean).
Usually, Malo and I converse about old times; friends we have lost and experiences we shared growing up. So it surprised me the other day when he asked me, “Poule, why does Donald Trump want to build a pinche (damn) wall?”.
I gave him a short shrift answer that it was his solution to end unlawful border crossing.
Malo replied indignantly, either to my casual and shallow observation, or to Trump’s callousness:
I don’t have any fancy letters after my last name, Poule, but chale (no), that’s not the real reason he is trying to separate us from Mexico. Trump knows this country is changing in color, culture, and influence and he wants to stop it.
Mas…The reason Trump wants to build a wall? To keep America white
Hey, Trump! Come down to my barrio and say that again
On the first day of class, I always inform my university students that I hold two PhDs — one from a premier research institution, UC Berkeley, and the other from one of the toughest neighborhoods in the country, East Los Angeles’ Ramona Gardens housing project or Big Hazard projects (named after the notorious gang).
While I’ve relied on my research and analytic skills to criticize Donald Trump, as the Republican presidential nominee, I’ve also depended on my street smarts to deconstruct his extremist politics and erratic behavior. While political foes, pundits, cable news anchors and journalists are bewildered by Trump, I grew up with his type: Wannabe tough guy, bully and hustler. To deal with Trump, we must view him through these typologies, among others, such as xenophobe, racist, money-grubber and liar.