We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.
Orange County poet and activist Marilynn Montaño’s poem His Machucada Hands is a “testament to the ways that being undocumented has taken a physical toll on her father’s body. The title, she said, came from noticing his hands on the steering wheel every morning as he drove her to middle and high school,” according to the PBS News Hour.
Mas…Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands
Hola. I’m Lalo Alcaraz. You might know me.
I have been a Chicano political cartoonist forever. I know, I know, it’s God’s work, you’re welcome. Now, all of a sudden I’m a primetime TV writer and producer. Huh? Yes, the last two years in my life have been a super WTF. With ten percent LOL. #facepalm
Like it or not, I am now part of a historic pop culture moment: the first season of the first animated primetime TV show featuring a large cast of Mexican and Mexican-American characters: Bordertown.
Mexico has recaptured fugitive drug cartel jefe El Chapo Guzman –– who notoriously tunneled out of a high security prison last summer –- but the criminal mastermind isn’t done yet.
Sources tell our correspondents that Guzman’s narcotrafficante associates are already working on plans to bust the gangster out of his next cellblock; we’ve compiled this list of the Pocho Ocho Top Ways El Chapo Could Escape Again:
8. Trained bats
7. Incredible shrinking ray
6. Those gigantor worms from Tremors
Even before the recent MIGRA raids targeting families denied asylum, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants have been deported annually. Many were kids when their parents brought them over the border.
And those who grew up in the U.S. have found themselves living in what feels like a foreign country — Mexico. It’s like a dream Los Otros Dreamers never imagined.
PBS News Hour Special Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro talked with some young people who are dealing with culture shock as they try to start over — strangers in a strange land.
[POCHO amiga Nancy Landa aka Mundo Citizen was a DREAMer before it was cool. Brought to the U.S. as an undocumented child, she was elected student body president at Cal State Northridge. And then she got deported.]
In paying my respects to those who came before me and their struggle due to their legal status, I share an excerpt of this 1995 L.A. Times article featuring the first undocumented student body president of California State University, Northridge, Vladimir Cerna (1996-1997), about his life and advocacy efforts to fight the Donald Trumps of his time.
In her new music video Borders, Brit rapper M.I.A. (Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam) says “No More Deportations” — #Not1MoreDeportation –– for the refugees.
Happy Thanksgiving from La Cucaracha!
Speaking to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) condemned the ignorant governors who have vowed to turn away refugees fleeing violence and seeking freedom in the U.S. Freedom, Gutierrez noted, is exactly what our country stands for.
PREVIOUSLY ON CONGRESSMAN GUTIERREZ:
Mas…Illinois Congressman Gutierrez condemns racist governors (video)
We’ve been celebrating the artwork of SoCal’s Ramiro Gomez, Jr. since 2012 and we’re thrilled he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves. Just this week he was named one of OUT magazine’s OUT100 (photo), and The Atlantic featured him in a video:
Mas…The art of L.A. homie Ramiro Gomez reveals hidden immigrants (video)
In 2006, when George W. Bush was in the White House, I predicted an alternate universe where a real estate mogul built a wall along the US-Mexican border. The only thing I left out was the guy’s name.
Mas…La Cucaracha: Coming soon! Borderwall Estates! (#TBT 2006 toons)
OSCAR winner Alejandro González Iñárritu spoke to an audience at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Sunday night. No human being, he told them, is illegal.
Here’s the transcript:
Mas…Alejandro González Iñárritu: ‘No human being is illegal’ (video)
What do you get when a bunch of cute kids use very adult language to tell El Donald what exactly they think of him and his racist agenda? The video is called Trashing Trump: Latino Kids Pound Racism Like a Piñata and it’s from DeportRacism.com. [NSFW: F-bombs galore.]
Celebrity chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain tells SiriusXM’s Pete Dominick that the restaurant industry in the U.S. would collapse if Donald Trump deports 11 million immigrants.
