history

FDR died before he could deliver on his ‘Second Bill of Rights’ (videos)

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On January 11, 1944, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised the country a Second Bill of Rights when World War II was over, but he died before the conflict ended.

America’s future security, he said, demands citizens have a right to good housing, good healthcare, good education, a living wage and more.

POCHO FACTOID: FDR never used the word “bigly” in a speech.

Transcript of his “Fireside Chat”:

Mas…FDR died before he could deliver on his ‘Second Bill of Rights’ (videos)

The San Patricio Batallón: Aztlan’s Irish heroes (4 music videos)

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🇲🇽 ❤️ 🇮🇪

This corrido by Orange County Celtic-rock homies The Fenians tells the tragic story of the San Patricios, the St. Patrick’s Battalion.

The unit of 200 mostly Catholic Irish immigrants deserted the United States Army and fought with the Mexican Army against the U.S.A. in the Mexican–American War.

Scots-British post-punk The Wakes Band offer their version of the story next. The video’s not much to look at but the lyrics are killer, so read along below:

Mas…The San Patricio Batallón: Aztlan’s Irish heroes (4 music videos)

Encyclopædia Britannica: Immigration to the U.S.A. (1946 video)

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This 1946 educational film from Encyclopædia Brittanica presents a period look at immigration to the New World. “Negroes” are mentioned once, Native Americans are invisible, and Mexicans don’t show up until the very end, but it’s an interesting film pitching the “nation of immigrants” meme. Good public schools are important for the Melting Pot, they note, the quest for freedom brought many persecuted refugees here, Congress started blocking “undesirables” (Asians, Southern and Eastern Europeans) in 1924, and yet there’s the Statue of Liberty who lifts her lamp beside the golden door. History: You’re soaking in it.

La Realidad: The Realities of Anti-Mexicanism

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“Where have you been, my darling young one.”
– A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan

U.S. anti-Mexicanism is a race premised set of historical and contemporary ascriptions, convictions and discriminatory practices inflicted on persons of Mexican descent, longstanding and pervasive in the United States.

This essay conceptualizes, historicizes, and analyzes anti-Mexicanism, past and present, concurrent with some references to sources. Here, the emphasis is conceptual, not historiographical. Anti-Mexicanism is a form of nativism practiced by colonialists and their inheritors. Mexicans, being natives, became targets of aggressive practices inclusive of the violence directed at Indigenous and African peoples. The words “Mexican” and “Mexico” speak to Indigenous heritages. The origins of the thought and meaning of “Mexican and “Mexico” speak to historical native roots. White supremacist ideologues have understood this.

Mas…La Realidad: The Realities of Anti-Mexicanism

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Donald Trump, John Lewis and MLK Day (video, toon, photo)

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In 1991, 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 national holiday.

Contrast and compare with PEE-OTUS Donald Trump’s weekend Twitter attack on civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, draw the necessary conclusions, and prepare to take appropriate action:

Mas…Donald Trump, John Lewis and MLK Day (video, toon, photo)

Tia Lencha’s Cocina: Oh jes! Thanksgiving turkey al pastor tacos

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lenchatacosHappy Mexican Thanksgiving Day!

Is Tia Lencha here. Gwhat is Mexican Thanksgiving Day you ask? Is Thanksgiving but with all Mexican food. What?!?! My gringo frends say. Oh no! How you can do that! Is crazy! And Tia Lencha say, no really.

When I help mijo with his homeworks, I learn that Thanksgiving come from a Puritan holiday in Englands. When it was the Reformation the Protestantes wanted to throw away all the Catholic holidays, even Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny!

Mas…Tia Lencha’s Cocina: Oh jes! Thanksgiving turkey al pastor tacos

Tia Lencha: What pochos need to know about El Dia de Los Muertos

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Happy Day of the Dead! Is Tia Lencha here. Many people ask me questions about Dia de Los Muertos. I answer the questions today.

Question numero one: Tia Lencha wass this Dia de los Muertos? Is it the Mexican Halloween?
Gwell, kind of, I say. Except that the Day of the Dead celebrations come from the indigenous pagan rituals that trace back 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. Way before Duane Reade sold Halloween candy.

Question numero two: Tia Lencha, wassup with the calaveras (“skulls” for you pochos)?
Bueno, before Jesus came along, people used to keep skulls of their loved ones (and maybe not so loved ones) as trophies. They showed off the skulls during the rituals as symbols of death and rebirth. Kind of heavy, no? I never say my history was all tequila shots and tacos.

Also, calaveras can be short poems, like epitaphs like to mock your friends. Like you can make fun of them on their tombstones. Like for mijo’s daddy, I wrote a calavera about him call “Oscar Meyer” because he like to stick his weenie ebrywhere! He no think it was so funny.

Mas…Tia Lencha: What pochos need to know about El Dia de Los Muertos

Talk and Sing Like a Mexican Pirate Day: ‘Santy Anno’ (music video)

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It’s International Talk Sing Like A Pirate Day and we’re please to present not only a “sea shanty” about being a pirate, but one about the Mexican-American war of the 1850s. It’s even in Wikipedia! This video of Santy Anno has music by Forebitter and Lord Cavendish manga-influenced artwork assembled by uploader LordDrakoArakis, probably not his real name.

Here’s the some of what Wikipedia says about this traditional song:

Mas…Talk and Sing Like a Mexican Pirate Day: ‘Santy Anno’ (music video)

We Are One: Preschoolers know more than Trump voters

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In the lobby of the school where I work, there is a huge image of Earth taped onto the wall. It is made of kraft paper and crisscrossed with colorful broad strokes of tempera paint.

Circling the perimeter of the planet are cutout drawings of children holding hands. No two children are the same, partly because of the way the preschoolers scribbled and colored them in.

Above the planet are the words “WE ARE ONE.”

Mas…We Are One: Preschoolers know more than Trump voters

DON’T MISS! Latino Comics Expo this weekend at MOLAA (toons)

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expologoTomorrow and Sunday the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach hosts the fifth annual Latino Comics Expo.

Featured artists include POCHO contributor Eric J. Garcia, POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz, New York’s Stephanie Rodriguez and more.

Javier Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame, is the ringleader.

KCET’s Matt Stromberg explains the cultural significance of Latino cartoonistas and the political history they pioneered:

As box office figures can attest, comic books are big business, with successful cinematic adaptations proving that superheroes have made the leap from pop cultural niche to mainstream entertainment. Despite their wide appeal, however, comic books, at least the established titles that usually become big screens franchises, are still predominantly filled with white, male characters, especially in leading roles.

A new exhibition at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, “Artists Assemble! Empowerment and Inspiration in Contemporary Comics,” aims to challenge that narrative by focusing on mainly Latino artists who are using the medium to explore cultural and political issues that have meaning for them.

Mas…DON’T MISS! Latino Comics Expo this weekend at MOLAA (toons)

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