history
Molé is the mero mero magical mezcla madre (video)
An energetic dreamscape captures Mexico’s passion for molé, a signature celebration dish, through the eyes of Mexican chef Enrique Olvera.
Reagan tells Mex Prez on Cinco de Mayo: ‘Mi casa es su casa’ (video)
QUESTION: Why are Mexican rapists and drug dealers streaming North to enter the US of A illegally?
ANSWER: They were invited by “The Great Communicator.”
Check out this video about the 1988 Cinco de Mayo ceremony at the White House when Republican President Ronald Reagan told Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, “Mi casa es su casa.”
We all know how that worked out! #BUILDTHEWALL
East Los man doesn’t care what Cinco de Mayo is all about, yo!
(PNS reporting from EAST LOS) Ruben Covarrubias (photo) astounded family and friends here Sunday night when he admitted that the history of Cinco de Mayo didn’t concern him and he’d always thought “May 5 was Mexican Independence Day, so like so what?!”
“I don’t care what it’s about, yo!” he told everyone within earshot of the backyard grill. “I just always celebrated it with MEChA and at school. Partay!”
Mas…East Los man doesn’t care what Cinco de Mayo is all about, yo!
Americans stick with traditional ignorance for Cinco de Mayo
(PNS reporting from the EEUU) Tex-Mex restaurants across the country are banding together this week to ensure the flawed traditions of margaritas, sombreros, maracas, bastardized Mexican food and overall cultural cluelessness are again propagated upon masses of uninformed Americans this Cinco De Mayo.
Mas…Americans stick with traditional ignorance for Cinco de Mayo
Mexican-American Studies 101: The History of Cinco de Mayo (video)
5-Second Films is all about explaining things in 5 seconds, like their 5-second video The History of Cinco de Mayo.
What language is that? Funny, you don’t look Nahuatl (video)
Languages around the world share similar characteristics, but how do we know if they are related?
Old time stereographic slides show early 1900s Mexico (video)
YouTube user Chubachus created an “animated” video using stereographic slides of life in Mexico in the early 1900s.
FDR died before he could deliver on his ‘Second Bill of Rights’ (videos)
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)
🇲🇽 ❤️ 🇮🇪
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)
This One Goes Out for International Women’s Day: Las Cafeteras ‘Mujer Soy’ (video)
In Mujer Soy, by Las Cafeteras, we see a day in the real life of Maryann Aguirre, a woman from East Los Angeles. Happy International Women’s Day! (Remixed by YUKICITO.)
Mas…This One Goes Out for International Women’s Day: Las Cafeteras ‘Mujer Soy’ (video)
Exploring ‘The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema’ (student video)
Antioch College student Cristian Perez-Lopez put together this cool short video for a history of film class. How many of these films have you seen?
Mas…Exploring ‘The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema’ (student video)
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.
La Realidad: The Realities of Anti-Mexicanism
“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.
Donald Trump, John Lewis and MLK Day (video, toon, photo)
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
Happy 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
Remember when California had an African-Mexican governor?
Pio Pico, an African-Mexican, was the last governor of California under Mexican rule.
His name is everywhere. There is the city of Pico Rivera, Pico Park, Pico Canyon, and, of course, Pico Boulevard. The corner of Pico and Sepulveda in West Los Angeles even has its own music video:
Mas…Remember when California had an African-Mexican governor?
Tia Lencha: What pochos need to know about El Dia de Los Muertos
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
This DF family has been making piñatas for generations (video)
Hugo Mena and his family make and sell piñatas in Mexico City, a family tradition for generations
Talk and Sing Like a Mexican Pirate Day: ‘Santy Anno’ (music video)
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)
