Eddie Gee (@omgitseddieg on the Twitter) is all about the pochismo and explains why. Don’t miss the quick graphic shoutout to POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz.
PREVIOUSLY ON SOY POCHO:
stereotypes
Mexclusive: Hollywood has called my bluff with ‘Bordertown’ at Fox!
Fox has just announced the pickup of a new animated TV show called Bordertown, debuting in 2014. It was created by the showrunner of Family Guy, Mark Hentemann.
I was offered a gig writing and consulting on the show, and I happily accepted.
This will be the first animated prime time network TV show with a significant number of Latino characters.
Over half the cast will Mexican or Mexican-Americans or Chicanos. It will be historic.
Mas…Mexclusive: Hollywood has called my bluff with ‘Bordertown’ at Fox!
@SaraChicaD: Does this Halloween costume make me look racist? (video)
POCHO’s Subcommandanta del Ñews, Sara Inés Calderón (@SaraChicaD on the Twitter), has some Halloween costume do’s and dont’s for tonight’s festivities.
PREVIOUSLY ON RACIST COSTUME VIDEOS:
Mas…@SaraChicaD: Does this Halloween costume make me look racist? (video)
JLo wins Espiritu Award for playing Mexicans
(PNS reporting from BEVERLY HILLS) Actress Jennifer Lopez was honored at the Espiritu Awards last night, netting the coveted Best Non-Mexican Actress Who Plays A Mexican In Every Role Award.
“I’m just so grateful to all of you who see in me what every casting agent in Hollywood sees: a Mexican. Which is actually better than being a real Mexican, because then I can actually get work,” she told a gleeful crowd as she accepted her award.
“If it weren’t for Mexicans, I would not have the career I do today, thank you, thank you!”
Feminists: The struggles of immigrants are our struggles, too
I’m often asked, “Where were you born?”
My answer? Houston, Texas.
“Where were your parents born?”
El Paso, Texas.
“Where were your grandparents born?”
El Paso, Texas, Balmorhea, Texas and Ft. Davis, Texas.
That is when people usually start to get frustrated and ask, “Well, where is your family from originally?”
The actual meaning behind this statement is “You are a brown-skinned woman and brown-skinned women are not native to the U.S.”
My answers explain that I am not the stranger. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah were all once part of Mexico, after all.
Mas…Feminists: The struggles of immigrants are our struggles, too
I’m a smart, attractive Latina — so ‘Y Am I Single?’ (video)
When you ASSUME you make an ASS of U and ME. Also him and her. He and she tambien. Both of them. [Video by Elaine Del Valle.]
PREVIOUSLY ON YOU DON’T LOOK/SOUND/ACT LATINO:
Mas…I’m a smart, attractive Latina — so ‘Y Am I Single?’ (video)
La Cucaracha presents Latino Heritage Month on TV (toon)
AT LEAST ONE WEBSITE VISITOR WHO LIKED THIS TOON ALSO LIKED:
Mas…La Cucaracha presents Latino Heritage Month on TV (toon)
Does this sound familiar? ‘You’re a Latina/o? But you speak so well!’
If you are Latina or Latino, you may have heard comments such as, “Wow, you speak so well… You are not like them… You are really smart… OR You are different and they will really like you.”
You might even be asked repeatedly where you are from if your first answer is a city or state in the U.S.
Remarks like these are called microagressions, according to Silvia L. Mazzula, PhD (Asst. Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY).
These …”subtle forms of racism,” she writes, “…communicate hostile and racial insults. Microaggressions are things said or done – many times unconsciously – that reflect a person’s inner thinking, stereotypes and prejudices. They are difficult to recognize because they are brief, innocuous, and often difficult to see. Why are they important to talk about? Because microaggressions are pervasive and have a detrimental impact on people’s psychological and physiological well-being.”
Mas…Does this sound familiar? ‘You’re a Latina/o? But you speak so well!’
Hispanic Heritage Videos: Popeye, Mexican Hat Dance, El Kabong
When it comes to Hispanic Heritage, there’s nothing like Ye Olde Mexicanne Hatte Dance. And it’s so nice to have a complete dance band hanging around the old adobe!
Quickdraw McGraw El Kabong saves the day and Popeye El Marinero goes to Mexico, next, on POCHO:
Mas…Hispanic Heritage Videos: Popeye, Mexican Hat Dance, El Kabong
@SaraChicaD and @omgitseddieg: Latino Stereotypes (video)
Our very own Sara Ines Calderon — (@SaraChicaD on the Twitter) — is Eddie Garcia’s guest star for a discussion of Latino Stereotypes and How to Address Them.
Casting director to actor: Can you act more ‘Mexican’? (video)
Frank Lucero could get more Hollywood gigs if he could just act more Mexican!
Everything you wanted to know about ‘Colors’ but were afraid to ask
If you grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, you remember the film Colors. It spawned a lot of headlines about violence at movie theaters and the spread of Los Angeles-style gang wars. The Guardian Angels even protested the flick and left a toilet bowl outside of Sean Penn’s home as an “award.” They also strapped makeshift coffins to the roofs of their cars.
The film had this weird mystique. Colors introduced suburban kids (and their parents) to a whole new world – one they would spend the next decade imitating. Long gone were the fierce but safe dance-offs in Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo – in Colors, Turbo and Ozone would have simply blown the heads off of Electro-Rock’s crew with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Mas…Everything you wanted to know about ‘Colors’ but were afraid to ask
Breaking: Marketing to Latins? Talk Latin to us, activists say
(PNS reporting from UPTON ABBEY, MI) Frater Cassius the Yon was adamant.
“In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti,” he insisted in a rare English-language interview Sunday. “There is no such thing as Latin dancing, unless you mean the “dance of death” from the Black Plague. And Latin music is Gregorian chants, Enya and Necrodeath. Ain’t nobody got no time for that! Tempus fugit!”
Mas…Breaking: Marketing to Latins? Talk Latin to us, activists say
Unfunny ‘Latino’ sitcom debuts Sunday, people will watch anyhow
(PNS reporting from HOLLYWOOD) Newcomer John Gomez stars as The John Gomez Show premieres Sunday night, the latest sitcom starring a Latino that is destined to join the long line of Latino TV shows that suck.
John and his sweet, sexy wife Lisa are a happily-married couple with two children. Daughter Rosie is just turning the corner to teenager, and son Sam is a precocious — oh, forget about the plot line, it promises to simply suck big time.
“It’s a formula for failure,” declared Hispanic TV audiences everywhere.
“I will watch it no matter how bad it is. Juan Gomez is one of our own, even though he is the unfunniest Latino on the planet,” said Latina inactivist Vera Tellez.
Mas…Unfunny ‘Latino’ sitcom debuts Sunday, people will watch anyhow
The map is not the territory — or is it? (toons)
We’ve already run maps seeking to explain such mysteries as Texas and Florida. But now for something completely different via our friends at Wired.com. Well semi-different. Actually not that different from the Texas map but instructive, nevertheless. It’s a map [click to enlarge] of Los United Estates, from Yanko Tsvetkov’s Atlas of Prejudice. Look right to you?
And here’s Tsetkov’s map of the world according to Americans [click to enlarge]:
Howard University in hoodies: ‘Am I Suspicious?’ (video)
Run! Black men in hoodies! These Howard University undergrads and grads are not the gangsters you were looking for.
Latinos in Hollywood? First of all, who are these so-called ‘Latinos?’
I disagree with Dennis Leoni.
In the POCHO article, he says this: “One more time, what do we need to do? BUILD OUR OWN MARKETPLACE!”
Here’s my take: It won’t work. It simply will not work. Why? Because the so-called “Latino” experience cannot be compared to the African-American experience in the United States. The “Latino” experience is different for each of us.
Latinos are culturally diverse. Yawn. Haven’t we heard this a million times already? Yet, it probably hasn’t really sunk in. A Mexican-American story will be different from a Puerto-Rican story, a Dominican story, a Colombian story, etc. It will also be different from a Mexican immigrant story, a Nuyorican story, an Ecuadorian/Irish story. Assimilation changes who we are. Migration changes who we are.
Mas…Latinos in Hollywood? First of all, who are these so-called ‘Latinos?’
Attention: It’s time to get real about Latino movie projects
Okay, time for a reality check.
Despicable Me 2 made $59.5 million in its first two days of release. Do any of you seriously believe that Universal gives a flying fuck if Latinos are upset over the negative stereotyping of a Latino character ?
As my good friend Bob Eisele likes to say, “Here’s the situation…” THEY DON’T CARE. Please allow me to repeat that… THEY DON’T CARE.
We Latinos can yell, scream, jump up and down, stand on our heads, do somersaults and they still won’t care. The movie is on track to make hundreds of millions of dollars for Universal.
Year before last, Ron Meyer, the head of Universal Studios, spoke at a NALIP luncheon and told us to our faces that Universal doesn’t make Latino-themed or Latino-starred movies because Latinos don’t go to see them. And you know what? He’s right. Latinos are almost 40% of the all important opening day box office. Unfortunately, Latinos go to see Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Transformers, Star Trek, Star Wars, Iron Man, Batman, Spiderman, anything but Latino-themed movies. What’s the solution?
Mas…Attention: It’s time to get real about Latino movie projects
POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz explains himself (audio)
It’s Ray’s Podcast — from the Ciudad of Brotherly Love.
Mas…POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz explains himself (audio)
Flash: ‘Foxy Farmworkers’ set for Fall premiere on Fox
(PNS reporting from HOLLYWOOD) Hoping to capitalize on the Devious Maids buzz, Fox will jump on the stereotypical Latino programming bandwagon with a new entry this fall called Foxy Farmworkers.
The show will follow a quirky group of “young, single and ready-to-mingle” Mexican farmworkers as they make their way from the impoverished US-Mexico border to fields in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Michigan.
Between backbreaking 14-16 hour days in the sun and working in the fields, the young men manage to get themselves into a world of trouble chasing after petite, white women in the towns they pass through, breaking hearts along the way.
Animal Planet Latino launches controversial show ‘Devious Mermaids’
(PNS reporting from HOLLYWOOD) Animal Planet Latino will be premiering a new “documentary” series that has stirred the waters of controversy.
The new cable show, Devious Mermaids, will explore the lives of five captured Latina mermaids who live in a giant tank on display at a Florida aquatic park set in the fictional town of Orlando.
Critics of the show are disturbed by what they call misleading and unrealistic portrayal of Latinas.
They also are assailing creator Marc Cherry, charging that as a middle-aged landlubber, he is insensitive when it comes to interpreting the experience of Latina mermaids.
Mas…Animal Planet Latino launches controversial show ‘Devious Mermaids’
Ask Google: Why do Mexicans stare and eat beans?
What did we ever do before the Google? Where did a poor pre-Googlite go to find out the big answers and the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything? Actually, we could Google that. But why even hypothesize? Google has the answers we want today and knows the questions we want to ask even before we ask them:
- So why DO Mexicans stare? Because you’re a hot guera. Doh!
- Well then why do they eat beans? Because if you know how to cook them properly they are a delicious, nutritious low-cost protein.
How many generations until Latinos become ‘Americans’?
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I consider myself Latina, close to my family’s Mexican culture; I’m bilingual and I’m happy with that identity. But, more often than not, it seems like everyone else is trying to corral me into some other identity, telling me that mine is not sufficient.
The neighborhood where I live (photos, above) is a perfect example.
It’s split in two: one part of it is gentrifying rapidly, and the other is filled with Mexican and many immigrant families. I where it’s more Mexican, which makes me — in all my professional hipster-ness — stand out sometimes, but people still speak to me in Spanish and often I just become part of the scenery. But then there are other times.
CNN identifies three Mexican mujeres wanted for Boston bombings
(PNS reporting from BOSTON) CNN has identified the three Mexican women suspected of the Marathon bombing, sources say:
Three obese Mexican women…are the chief suspects in the Boston Marathon attack.
“My top-level sources have confirmed that the individuals depicted in these photos planned, coordinated, and put into effect this week’s deadly bombing,” said CNN reporter John King, speaking of the trio of overweight Hispanic women, two of whom reportedly died in the late 1990s and one of whom has never actually visited the United States.
Mas…CNN identifies three Mexican mujeres wanted for Boston bombings
La Cucaracha: All I want for Christmas is… (toon)
Based on the POCHO story “The Talking Dead: No Habla Zombie” by S.J. Rivera.
The Talking Dead: No Habla Zombie
The Walking Dead is a great television series. It has captured that attention of the nation with a human drama centered around less-than-human storylines. But it is not without its own flaws, one of which is the lack of racial diversity on the show.
One of the people I follow on Twitter is Glen Mazzara, the executive producer and one of the writers for The Walking Dead. His Twitter feed usually consists of promos for the show but the other day he posted a link to an article in Slate that criticized the show for only allowing one black guy at a time among the living. The Tweet ? “One Black Guy at a Time.”
The article noted that the show’s only black female character, Michonne, was not allowed to use words to settle conflicts – she always resorts to the sword. Rick, the show’s main character, has used reason to get out of a bad situation on more than one occasion. Why does the black chick always have to be pissed off, silent and bloodthirsty?
Student activist confesses: ‘I’m actually mestizo, not indígena’
(PNS reporting from SAN JOSE) Johnny Ramírez had a huge confession to make to his Pre-Columbian Latin American history class last week. The summer he spent in Barcelona really changed him, the San Jose State junior told his fellow students during section.
“I always felt this pressure to be true to my indígena Aztec roots, you know? Even though me — and well my parents and grandparents, too — were all born right here in California, I always wanted to honor my family’s real roots,” the well-known Latino campus activist said. (Ramirez, right, was photographed at an immigrants’ rights march last May Day.)
When he was in Barcelona, he said, he realized that he had Spanish blood, too, and it wasn’t something to be ashamed of — but proud. He has a cousin, Juanita, who has hazel eyes, so obviously his family has Spanish blood, too.
Mas…Student activist confesses: ‘I’m actually mestizo, not indígena’
So let it be written: Now I am become ‘Hispanic’
In The Beginning: For 37 years I lived my life without realizing I was Hispanic.
A few days ago, while waiting for the bus, I overheard a conversation that changed my life. A gentleman was speaking Japanese with several ladies, and when they reverted to English, the ladies asked him, “Well if you’re not from Japan, what nationality are you?” He replied that he was from Brazil. This did not surprise me, as there are over 1.5 million Brazilians of Japanese descent.
His response did make me wonder, however, about how Americans define “Hispanic,” whether this gentleman would consider himself Hispanic, and whether he met the U.S. government’s definition(s) of Hispanic.
‘Prometheus’ exhibits subtle (and not-so-subtle) Hollywood racism
First things first – Ridley Scott is an asshole.
OK. Now that that’s out of the way, I recently rented the film Prometheus and boy did it suck. I had to check the credits and make sure David Duke wasn’t executive producer.
There are a ton of sites that discuss why this film sucks so I won’t go into those here. There are also a ton of sites that get into why film snobs like me just don’t “get it” and that’s fine – I was actually disappointed to find that Roger Ebert not only liked this film but thought it was “magnificent.” Four stars? Pfft.
This film, while visually stunning at times, is just another notch in the belt for the subtle and not-so-subtle racism that spews out of the Hollywood machine. I Googled “Prometheus racist” and found one thread that had people mocking the very notion:
Racist?! Give me a break!
Mas…‘Prometheus’ exhibits subtle (and not-so-subtle) Hollywood racism