Mexican garden statues get up, stand up and go on tour (photos)

(PNS reporting from the HATE STATE OF ARIZONA) The “Sleeping Mexican” statues of Tucson we featured last week snooze no more. Buoyed by the online support they received after POCHO publicized their plight, these hombres woke up, stood up, dressed up and went on tour across Los United Estates to tell their story.

From their early untold history — hanging out backstage with Frank Sinatra — to their recent appearances at the Academy Awards, the Mexican garden gnome hombres (AKA gnombres) are on the move, getting out the word and straight up representing! Look for them in a garden near you, or in the photos below.

Mas…Mexican garden statues get up, stand up and go on tour (photos)

Photos: ‘Sleeping Mexican’ garden statues? What’s racist about that?

sleepingmexArizona 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?

Latino nerds = other nerds, but different

Latino nerds are into both American and Latino popular culture. Latinos are part of United States of America.  This standard is not based upon documented status or the ability to speak English.  It not based upon the ability to bleach one’s hair a lighter shade of blonde.  No, Latinos are part of the nation because we have produced something more profound — Latino nerds.

Mas…Latino nerds = other nerds, but different

Sabado Pochonte: DTLA, Olvera St., 1937 (Vericolor, Cliché-o-Vision)


A Street of Memory (1937): You’ll meet “soft-speaking olive-skinned guides, languid in business” the narrator intones as he guides tourists in a walk through Los Angeles’ quasi-historic Olvera Street.
Brain-exploding old school stereotypes spice up this documentary by William M. Pizor – a “Vericolor production offering touristic views of  Olvera Street and the old Mexican quarter in Los Angeles, California” according to the Internet Archive.

Do you see anyone you know? Recognize any landmarks?

The Week in Ñews: Iowa analysis, death by chihuahua, looking ‘Mexican’

By Julio Salgado

Hatred of the poor edged out racism and homophobia in the Iowa GOP caucuses, a Fresno man was mauled by chihuahuas and died of shame, and the attempt to repeal the California Dream Act failed when the referendum’s backer (photo, right) couldn’t score enough racist jerkwad signatures to get their scheme placed on the ballot.

For these Pochostan stories and more, click here:

Mas…The Week in Ñews: Iowa analysis, death by chihuahua, looking ‘Mexican’

You might be a Latino hipster if…

Austin hipsters (photo by NewsTaco)

First off, you may be asking yourself, “What is a hipster?”

Hipsters are the contemporary derivative of beatniks and manifest particular philosophies, fashion and food choices, professional and geographic preferences and, inevitably, are the butt of many jokes.

Why did the hipster burn his mouth on the pizza? Because he ate it before it was cool.

Mas…You might be a Latino hipster if…

Funny, you don’t look Mexican!

doesntlook“You don’t look Mexican” is something I hear a lot. I hear it from whites, African-Americans, Asians, Mexican nationals, Latinos from Latin America, just about everyone. Of course, in polite company, I usually respond, “Oh, yeah, I get that a lot.”

In my head, however, I usually think, “What, exactly does is a Mexican ‘supposed’ to look like?” This is, in turn, followed by some expletives.

I find it uncanny that, in 2011 with a country and a world that is increasingly multiracial, that educated people still assume that certain people are “supposed” to look one way or another. Boggles my mind.

Mas…Funny, you don’t look Mexican!