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


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.

Here’s what I thinko about Cinco in one ranty, illustrated post

chipssalsa
White folks in sombreros and serapes.
Spanglish beer commercials every few minutes. Yup, pretty ridiculous, señor.

I agree with most of my friend Gustavo Arellano:

He says it’s ridiculous, only serves some limited purposes as far as educating about the evils of Imperialism, or the promotion of self-determination, y todo eso. Battle of Puebla my ear. Sure. OK, guey.

However, I think Gustavo misses one big fat burrito-sized point:

We’ve got to celebrate with the holidays we have,
not the holidays we want

Mas…Here’s what I thinko about Cinco in one ranty, illustrated post

Ask A Mexican: Should Mexicans move to the South? (video)

It’s complicated, but Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano considers the future of Mexican-Americans in the South and suggests it’s the new, unconquered Aztlan ripe for the Reconquista Part II. After all, paisas and good ole’ boys are the same with the horses and the whiskey and the marrying their second cousins, right? (Gustavo’s art courtesy Memo Nerricio’s Tex[t]-Mex Gallery and Steve Alvarez’ Mexington.

Hey! You’re lookin’ for tacos in all the wrong places (photos)

necklaceAs POCHO amigo Gustavo Arellano pointed out in his book Taco USA, America loves tacos.

How much does America love tacos, you ask? Taco imagery is everywhere — jewelry (necklace, above), toys, drinks, desserts, babies, kitties, doggies, purses, rear-view mirrors. And how could we make a listicle without the pink taco? [The pink taco final photograph may be NSFW depending on your work. We don’t think it is, but you never know, tu sabes?]

Mas…Hey! You’re lookin’ for tacos in all the wrong places (photos)

Columbus-ing: Gringos discovering ‘new’ things that aren’t new (video)


QUESTION: What do you call it when white hipsters “discover” new things that aren’t new?
ANSWER: Columbus-ing.

Wait.

What do you call it when College Humor dot com, who just released this ^^^^ video, discovers a June 6 La Cucaracha toon by POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz?

cucacolumbus

PREVIOUSLY ON DISCOVERIES:

Mas…Columbus-ing: Gringos discovering ‘new’ things that aren’t new (video)

PochOpinion: Here’s what I thinko about Cinco

chipssalsaWhite folks in sombreros and serapes. Spanglish beer commercials every few minutes. Yup, pretty ridiculous, señor.

I agree with most of my friend Gustavo Arellano’s Cinco de Mayo video rant, mas o menos.

He says it’s ridiculous, only serves some limited purposes as far as educating about the evils of Imperialism, or the promotion of self-determination, y todo eso. Battle of Puebla my ear. Sure. OK, guey.

However, I think Gustavo misses one big fat Manuel’s El Tepeyac Hollenbeck Burrito-sized point:

We’ve got to celebrate with the holidays we have,
not the holidays we want

Mas…PochOpinion: Here’s what I thinko about Cinco

Breaking: Drugs disappear from Texas after El Chapo’s arrest

lemonelchapo(PNS reporting from McALLEN, TX) Police departments throughout the Rio Grande Valley delivered pink slips en masse this week following news that Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán had been captured by Mexican authorities in the resort town of Mazatlan.

“It’s kind of a mixed bag for us,” Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. “On the one hand, illegal drugs are now utterly and completely vanquished from our streets. On the other, (Hidalgo County) Commissioners Court has already cut our budget for next year by 90 percent.”

Treviño, who was reached while fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, responded to Guzmán’s capture like many of his counterparts at all levels of law enforcement nationwide: by quietly folding his office’s entire narcotics unit and slashing the rest of the criminal investigations division from a staff of hundreds down to five full-time deputies.

Mas…Breaking: Drugs disappear from Texas after El Chapo’s arrest

Chicanos: How did we become America’s new slave culture?

Chicano_Pride_by_fokrWho are we?

In my journey as a community activist and Chicano advocate, I’ve experienced many fascinating elements that have inspired me but also scarred me to my very soul.

I have fought the Chicano politician who capitulated in the selling out of his community, broke bread with the “Old Man” whom lent the little he had but gave unselfishly of his wisdom, and have shared space with our sons who have fallen victim to a privatized prison system.

I have fought the white dragon of racism and today… today will begin the telling of those many travels.

There are many obstacles preventing the Chicano people from achieving American uni-culturalism, but none more profound than the many differing points of view available within the Chicano community itself on what it means to be Chicano.

Mas…Chicanos: How did we become America’s new slave culture?

Here’s what I thinko about Cinco

White folks in sombreros and serapes. Spanglish beer commercials every few minutes. Yup, pretty ridiculous, señor.

I agree with most of my friend Gustavo Arellano’s roiling denunciation of Cinco de Mayo, mas o menos.

He says it’s ridiculous, only serves some limited purposes as far as educating about the evils of Imperialism, or the promotion of self-determination, y todo eso. Battle of Puebla my ear. Sure. OK, guey.

However, I think Gustavo misses one big fat Manuel’s El Tepeyac Hollenbeck Burrito-sized point: We’ve got to celebrate with the holidays we have. Not the holidays we want.

Mas…Here’s what I thinko about Cinco

Reagan Library releases rare video to mark Gipper’s 102nd birthday


The Ronald Reagan Library celebrated the 40th president’s 102nd birthday today by releasing this never-before-seen archival footage of Reagan in action during the height of the 1986 Iran-Contra Scandal.

Revered by neo-cons, ex-cons and decepticons as a doting old Weeble, Reagan is considered by many as the ultimate con. The Gipper’s birthday is celebrated in the United States, the Middle East and Central America as a National Day of Lying.

Mas…Reagan Library releases rare video to mark Gipper’s 102nd birthday

Miami braces for mass influx as Cuba lifts travel restrictions

(PNS reporting from LA FLORIDA) Restrictions that kept Cubans from fleeing the island for half a century will be lifted, according to the Communist Party Central Committee’s official newspaper, Granma.

And in a candid interview, America’s favorite Latino rebel Fidel Castro was asked how he felt America would respond to the new policy and expected exodus. He replied simply: “Fuck ‘em.”

“As part of the work under way to update the current migratory policy and adjust it to the conditions of the present and the foreseeable future, the Cuban government, in exercise of its sovereignty, has decided to again flood Miami with even more of our people because fuck America. How you like me now, bitches?” Castro told PNS.

Mas…Miami braces for mass influx as Cuba lifts travel restrictions

When the going gets loco, locos turn pro: ‘Roberto’s Dreams’ (video)


Roberto’s Dreams comes straight from today’s headlines. Roberto has been laid off, Angelica cleans houses to make ends meet and 10-year-old daughter Brittany struggles to reconcile her Latino roots and her American education. Roberto opts for the American Dream of being his own jefe and decides to start his own business: The first Latino green cleaning business in North Carolina.