Immigration
We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.
White Wing Theme: ‘Let’s take back America – to 1955’ (video)
In a sketch from November, 1997, when this was still a joke, MadTV’s country music diva Darlene McBride (played by Nicole Sullivan) announced a concert tour to Take Back America (to 1955).
Vanessa Del Fierro is a coyote on a ‘Mexican Train’ (music video)
San Antonio sensation Vanessa Del Fierro is the alt.mariachi chingona behind Las Coronelas, whose mega-viral David Bowie cover almost blew up POCHO’s servers this week.
Vanessa also stars as an immigrant-smuggling coyote in a new video for her original composition Mexican Train. It’s a love song; too bad she’s in love with the wrong vato. Extra firme oldies points for the doo-wop backup girls, the triplets feel, and the tubular bells:
Mas…Vanessa Del Fierro is a coyote on a ‘Mexican Train’ (music video)
Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands
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
A funny thing happened on the way to ‘Bordertown’
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.
Pocho Ocho top ways El Chapo could escape again
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
What happens when young deportees get sent back? (PBS video)
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.
What the past can teach immigrant advocates of today
[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.
British rapper M.I.A. hates ‘Borders’ (music video)
In her new music video Borders, Brit rapper M.I.A. (Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam) says “No More Deportations” — #Not1MoreDeportation –– for the refugees.
Illinois Congressman Gutierrez condemns racist governors (video)
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)
The art of L.A. homie Ramiro Gomez reveals hidden immigrants (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)
La Cucaracha: Coming soon! Borderwall Estates! (#TBT 2006 toons)
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)
Alejandro González Iñárritu: ‘No human being is illegal’ (video)
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)