latino

As Hispanic Heritage Month ends, Brooklyn Hispanics try to carry on

by

cucahhmsadbloguera(PNS reporting from BROOKLYN) Hispanic Heritage Month is over, and without the corporate-approved celebration as a focus, local members of the Hispanic/Latino community here aren’t really sure how they can go on being local members of the local Hispanic/Latino community here.

“What now?” lamented Brooklyn native and prolific bloguera Marielena Gutierrez (photo, right.)

“Should I tell people to call me Mary Ellen for the remaining 11 months of the year? It’s not like they ever pronounce it right anyway,” she wrote on her PobrePickle blog.

Mas…As Hispanic Heritage Month ends, Brooklyn Hispanics try to carry on

Area taquerias are on lockdown as Trump fever heats up

by

guisadostrumpsticker(PNS reporting from EAST LOS ANGELES) Neighborhood taquerias are on lockdown today with customers urged to “shelter in place” as Donald Trump’s immigrant-hating white wing campaign for the GOP presidential nomination heats up.

Patrons at the highly-rated Guisados on East Cesar E. Chavez Avenue (photo) said they felt particularly vulnerable as Trump supporters began threatening taco-loving families with scary bumper stickers (photo, right).

Mas…Area taquerias are on lockdown as Trump fever heats up

Latina Heritage Month Patriot Alert: Obama’s Iran Deal Disrespects You

by

feypalinYou don’t lift sanctions.

You crack down on their assets.

You cut off their oil and drill, baby, drill for our own.

We don’t retreat. We reload against any foe daring to test us.

And that is what Iran just did.

So, Congress, you got to kill the deal. The president is playing you. He so disrespects you, Congress, and our Constitution, that he won’t even bring you the treaty.

Mas…Latina Heritage Month Patriot Alert: Obama’s Iran Deal Disrespects You

Emilio Estefan: ‘Todos Somos Mexicanos’ (video, lyrics, credits)

by

estefanWe at POCHO have been around so long we remember when even Mexicans didn’t want to be Mexican. (We think that was just about two weeks ago.)

But Miami-based Cuban-American Emilio Estefan and his friends are all Mexicans now, at least in a music video.

By the way, we at POCHO also remember when Emilio Estefan threatened to sue the L.A. Weekly because of a “Mexiled” column that Lalo Alcaraz wrote portraying Estefan as the Fidel Castro of the Latin Grammys. Oh, but that was so long ago…

Let’s all be Mexican instead! Mexican, tu sabes, is the new black.

Mira y escucha: Todos Somos Mexicanos:

Mas…Emilio Estefan: ‘Todos Somos Mexicanos’ (video, lyrics, credits)

It’s Time to #EndHispandering! Take Back Latino Heritage Month

by

hispanderingOn September 14 a Latina friend of mine who’s also a college professor said to me, “Brace yourself for Hispanic Heritage Month, I’m already getting phone calls about recommendations for mariachi bands.”

I laughed a bit, but her comment stayed with me. See, she’s half Colombian and I’m Puerto Rican, and the idea of becoming the “go to” people about such things struck me as, well, just another example of how stereotypes about Latinos often work.

The fact that people are asking her about mariachi bands reveals how U.S. society usually lumps us together under the umbrella label “Latino/a” or “Hispanic” despite our cultural differences and diversity.

At the same time, her warning (“brace yourself”) fittingly captured how many Latinxs/Hispanics feel about Hispanic Heritage Month (which I prefer to call Latino Heritage Month because I find it more inclusive, less Spanish-oriented).

Mas…It’s Time to #EndHispandering! Take Back Latino Heritage Month

Pocho Nerd Pride Alert: The Maya counting system is awesome (toon)

by

articles-31071_recurso_jpgThe Maya, as we all know from Stand and Deliver, were bad ass – one of few ancient civilizations to create the concept of zero.

Since I am an awesome Latina nerd myself, I must share this awesome official Chilean government education ministry photograph of an actual ancient awesome Maya dude counting some stuff out in front of a chart of the awesome Maya counting system.

Mas…Pocho Nerd Pride Alert: The Maya counting system is awesome (toon)

That time when Sylvester Stallone was a Mexican cover boy (toons)

by

argosythrillfWith all the press he is getting, you would think that Pendejo-of-the-Century Donald Trump had invented all the twisted tales of Mexicans floating on the interwebs.

But our pasty-faced, combover fatboy is not the first and not the last of the foolios who will get rich (and famous) for spouting hate-laced bon mots on the hygiene, sexual practices, and criminality of Mexicans or any other Latina/o for that matter.

Here, in some graphics from the 30s, we see some early 20th Century meditations on Latina/o/Hispanic subjectivities from the pages of Argosy Weekly.

As you can see, pulp magazine editors and illustrators were not ethnographers and whether the subjects depicted are Spanish, Argentine, or Mexican (or Italian — Sylvester Stallone?) is impossible to determine — though I am pretty sure the Buzzard Bait issue features some prehistoric Califas bandidos, and Señor Flatfoot’s “pampas” rogues look like they stepped out of the Mexico conjured in John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (which had not been made yet! Time travelers?)

Mas…That time when Sylvester Stallone was a Mexican cover boy (toons)

R. Crumb ‘Zap Comics’ 1975: Mexican kid just lookin’ to make a dime

by

zapcomicstopOne of the peculiarities of my tendencies when it comes to semiotic hoardings, as you well know, are cameos by Latinas/os in mainstream American media artifacts.

Now Zap Comics were anything but the mainstream back in the day, but they have, over time, entered the effluvial, miasmic flow of pop culture leavings that typify a certain moment, a certain groovy time in American cultural history.

So it is that I chanced upon this cover at the REMARKABLE site, The Golden Age Site.

Mas…R. Crumb ‘Zap Comics’ 1975: Mexican kid just lookin’ to make a dime

Memorial Day: In 1918, this Latino war hero swam until he died

by

barkleyHe was only 19 when he died in 1918, a kid who would become America’s first Latino Medal of Honor Recipient.

His posthumous Medal of Honor for heroism came in 1919, but his acknowledgement as a Latino had to wait until 1989.

Wikipedia explains:

David Bennes Barkley was born March 31, 1899 in Laredo in Webb County in south Texas, to Josef and the former Antonia Cantú.

He grew up with his Mexican-American mother. He enlisted in the Army when the United States entered what was then known as the Great War.

He used his Anglo father’s name to avoid being segregated into a non-combat unit.

Mas…Memorial Day: In 1918, this Latino war hero swam until he died

Pocho Ocho changes to expect after Indios + Chinos > Mexicanos

by

immigrationscaleChina and India now top Mexico as leading sources of new immigrants to the United Estates, new data reveals.

What are the Pocho Ocho top changes we can expect from these evolving patterns in immigration?

8. Indian actors will replace Puerto Ricans playing Mexicans on TV

7. San Jose, California will be known as Sanjay, California

6. White people will be considered “the model minority”

Mas…Pocho Ocho changes to expect after Indios + Chinos > Mexicanos

+ Load More Posts