COMIC SAENZ
Fifty-one years go – 1965 – big hair and girl groups were what all the cool kids dug in East Los Angeles.
Sisters Rosella, Ersi, and Mary Arvizu believed they could be the next Supremes — even before there were Supremes. They called themselves The Sisters.
Mark Guerrero, son of Chicano music legend Lalo Guerrero, tells the story:
Mas…51 Years Ago in East Los: ‘Happy New Year Baby’ from The Sisters
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)
A delicious Mexican New Year Dinner Buffet is a mere ௹250 (rupees) (~$3.67) at Hotel Vijai Paradise, a government classified two-star business class hotel with two banquet halls and bar located in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Try the “Mexican Spicy Chicken (Gravy)”!
Here’s the complete menu:
Mas…On New Year’s Eve: Hotel Vijai Paradise Mexican Dinner ௹250 rupees
Stars are born … and then they fade. Forgotten Heroes by Pudim is a short film made for Comic Con Brazil, produced by Stink São Paulo.
Is this the worst online taqueria video of 2016? Spoiler: No tacos were filmed in the making of this O’tacos video. P.S.: It’s from France.
It looks like O’tacos offers a “Philly” taco (suspiciously burrito-looking) which includes provolone cheese and grilled onions. How do they say “cheesesteak” in France?
Mas…Is this the worst taqueria video of 2016? Spoiler: It’s from France
Do you know what they call frackin’ Santa Claus in Italy? [NSFW adult language.]
It doesn’t get more pocho than this! Lalo Guerrero, the father of Chicano music, tells the story of Pancho Claus, Santa’s cousin from south of the border, in this 1956 classic.
Santa Cleese? The vato with bony knees? Sure, I know him, man. We used to gig together.
Mel Blanc, the amazing voice artist who brought our hero Speedy Gonzales to life, is the man behind this November 1957 novelty record, The Hat I Got for Christmas is Too Beeg:
Mas…Speedy Gonzales: ‘Hat I Got for Christmas Is Too Beeg’ (videos)
Actor Bert Lahr — the Cowardly Lion in Wizard of Oz — plays both Christopher Columbus and a stereotyped Native American in this 1966 commercial for Lay’s Potato Chips. At least the Frito-Lay company recognized that taters are “local vegetation” before calling their hosts “Indian Givers.”
In a busy life, a father tries to teach his son the right way. But what is the correct path? Alike is an animated student video from Barcelona.
“What are piñatas thinking about when they’re waiting on the ceiling of the mercado?” asks Lucia Ventura. She answers her own question with this “storyboard pitch for a short film about a paper maché donkey who chases after the one who got away.”
“Stonehenge!” sang the world’s loudest band, Spinal Tap. “‘Tis a magic place, where the moon doth rise with a dragon’s face. Stonehenge! Where the virgins lie, and the prayers of devils fill the midnight sky.” But no druids were harmed in the discovery of a Stonehenge-like structure in the Brazilian jungle.
The NYTimes reports:
CALÇOENE, Brazil — As the foreman for a cattle ranch in the far reaches of the Brazilian Amazon, Lailson Camelo da Silva was razing trees to convert rain forest into pasture when he stumbled across a bizarre arrangement of towering granite blocks.
Mas…Ancient Amazon Stonehenge discovered in Brazil jungle (video)
Yesterday we learned that Bangor, in Maine, is not the original Bangor. Original Bangor is in County Down, Northern Ireland. And guess what? The town with the double entendre name also has the Saborro Mexican Burrito Bar, which looks legit. Have you been?
A new age is dawning. We will never retreat. We will never surrender. Mexicans, tonight we dine… in SAN DIEGO!
An all-you-can-eat taco bar is open for business in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood, according to English-language RocketNews24.
Pollo of some sort, puerco, lechuchga, queso, cebolla, cilantro, guacamole and “salsa sauce” are waiting for you just a few blocks from Shibuya’s famed Scramble Crossing intersection at TexMex Factory. Cheap, too — a mere ¥1000 ($8.62 yesterday).
Mas…Are you in Tokyo? All-you-can-eat tacos for under $9 (photos)
Cheech y Chong can’t go burn one or grab a beer at the bar. Por que? Police got my car! [NSFW adult lyrics.]
Los lyrics:
Mas…Cheech and Chong Xmas Classic: ‘Police got my car!’ (NSFW video)
I’m dreaming of a white privilege, just like the one y’all seem to know.
Yovany Diaz was brought to the U.S. without papers when he was only seven, and he grew up in Georgia, speaking English. When his mom’s health issues required him to move “back” to Mexico City, this all-American ice hockey loving pocho found himself in a strange new world, even though it was “home.” James Frederick of NPR’s Latino USA has the story.
Los Angeles band Chicano Batman team up with New York’s Mariachi Flor de Toloache in Friendship (Is A Small Boat In A Storm) the debut single from forthcoming album Freedom is Free. Does every friendship, they ask, end in betrayal?
Lucha libre is no longer just for men, as Marcela and her friends explain to the BBC.
Here’s an idea: Make your ground beef tacos ahead of time, put ’em in a bag, suck the air out, freeze the bag o’ tacos and reheat when needed. Tacos In A Bag demonstrates.
Today we remember Rudy Martinez, a Mexican-American from San Diego who became the first Latino casualty of the Second World War when the Japanese sunk his ship, the U.S.S. Utah, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii 75 years ago today, December 7, 1941.
Martinez’ story inspired us to search for “Mexican” AND “Hawaii” and we found this video from Kapa’a High School on the (Garden) island of Kauai. The kids wanted to know why their small town of 10,000 — a community with just one Starbucks — was lucky enough to have nine Mexican restaurants.
Folk/country singer songwriter Tish Hinojosa sings a song about a pilgrim’s progress in America — a Mexican pilgrim in Texas. Felipe, the father, lived in San Antonio, on The West Side of Town. That’s were Felipe met Maria…
Los lyrics:
Mas…Tish Hinojosa: He was from ‘The West Side of Town’ (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)
Archaelogoists have found a circular platform dedicated to wind god Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl and eight sets of human remains under the site of a demolished supermarket in the Tlatelolco area of Mexico City.
Mas…MX archaeologists find wind god temple under supermarket (video)
Tonia Jo Hall has some words of encouragement in She’s that kind of woman. “Shout out to all the beautiful strong native women,” she writes:
Mas…Tonia Jo Hall shout out to Natives: ‘She’s that kind of woman’ (video)
We bet this looks familiar! Yamelith made tamales with her mom over the Thanksgiving weekend and shared her experience in this student video, uploaded by the Charles W. Harris School in Phoenix, AZ.
Roberto Pelayo aka El Niño is one of the world’s top sneakerheads, with a collection of over 1000 pairs. He started out as a collector is Mexico City; now he buys and sells for himself and his retail operations, Globstore.
The word “Nazhé” means “seed” in the Mexican Zapotec indigenous language and inspired this short animation about the cyclical nature of life and death. [Video by Chilango artist Fafer Reyes.]
Home fries, red onions, cream sauce and Pont-L’Evêque cheese are the stars of this one-minute recipe video for “tacos” from Elle&Vire, a diary conglomerate in France’s Normandy region. But this begs the critical tortilla-based question: Corn or wheat? Also note that they call tortillas “galettes fajitas,” which translates as fajita pancakes. Unclear on the concept, n’est-ce pas? On the other hand, since they want you to heat the assembled dish on a griddle at 400° for five minutes, and then fold it up, it’s actually a potato quesadilla. Or something.
Hypnotic. Uplifting. Native American jazz saxophonist and songwriter Jim Pepper’s 1969 version of traditional peyote song Witchi Tai To got a slight remix and a Native dancer in this mesmerizing YouTube fan video. #NoDAPL!
Mira los lyrics:
Mas…Witchi Tai To: Water spirit feeling springing round my head (video)