On the outskirts of Mexico City, over 50 years ago, a family began making and selling piñatas to the local community. Nowadays, the whole town is involved. The Piñata King takes a look inside the life of this town, and the head of the family who started it all.
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POCHO’s @SaraChicaD says ‘Happy Mexican Sansgiven!’ (video)
POCHO’s Subcommandanta del Ñews, Sara Inés Calderón, shares everything you need to know about Sansgiven, the Mexican Thanksgiving. She’s @SaraChicaD on the Twitter.
The border is a river and there’s a ‘Ferryman at the Wall’ (video)
Originally proposed as an international peace park with Mexico, Big Bend, Texas has a unique relationship with its southern neighbor. For the past 40 years, Mike Davidson — the Ferryman at the Wall — has been ferrying tourists across the Rio Grande for a little taste of Mexican life. He’d like to keep it that way, but some orange pendejo wants to build a great big border wall to divide the park.
#TBT ThrowBackThursday: When Yugo-Mex ruled (audio, video)
In the mid-’60s, Mexican mariachi music ruled the airwaves in Yugoslavia. Singers sported charro suits and sombreros, typical mariachi garb, with typically Slavic names. Public Radio International has the story:
Here’s a video example:
Mas…#TBT ThrowBackThursday: When Yugo-Mex ruled (audio, video)
‘When Mexican Joe Met Jole Blon’ (1953 YouTube music, lyrics)
A story of cross-border romance — a mojado and a Cajun queen — are the stars of country singer’s Hank Snow’s Mexican Joe and Joli Blon, released on 78 RPM disk in 1953.
Here are the lyrics and guitar chords (via Genius Lyrics) so you can sing and play along!
Mas…‘When Mexican Joe Met Jole Blon’ (1953 YouTube music, lyrics)
I guess white girls don’t like frijoles for breakfast (video)
All the Mexican immigrant wanted was a hug and some conversation. His guera Texas girlfriend? Not so much. [Video by Luis Fernando Puente.]
The Zoot Suits you are looking for are in Ciudad Juarez (photos)
Just across the Rio Grande from El Paso is Ciudad Juarez, where suits are still zoot and chucos are still suave.
Photographer Francesco Giusti shared his Ciudad Juarez photos with Roads and Kingdoms and we’re sharing some with you.
Mas…The Zoot Suits you are looking for are in Ciudad Juarez (photos)
Mezcal: It’s not just for Mexicans anymore (NPR audio)
More and more Americans are getting into mezcal, and that’s good news for a new generation of artisanal farmers and producers.
Tennis on the US/Mexican border is not all fun and games (video)
Swedish sportswear brand Björn Borg orchestrated a tennis match on the US/Mexican border with one player on each side, half the court on Mexican soil and the other half in El Norte. Things didn’t work out exactly like they planned.
Mexico’s waltz gift to the world: ‘Over the Waves’ (videos)
Even if you didn’t know that the proper name for this waltz is Sobre las Olas — Over the Waves en Ingles — we bet you recognize the melody. Right? It’s the song they play on merry-go-rounds! And it’s not by Johann Strauss, the waltz king. It’s by Mexican classical composer Juventino Rosas, and performed here by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Mas…Mexico’s waltz gift to the world: ‘Over the Waves’ (videos)
David Hidalgo y Los Cenzontles salute los braceros (video, lyrics)
This homage to Mexican braceros sets archival photos and portraits to Best of Me by Los Cenzontles with David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Taj Mahal from their American Horizon CD. [Portraits by Craig Sherod. Edited by Maureen Gosling.]
Mira los lyrics:
Mas…David Hidalgo y Los Cenzontles salute los braceros (video, lyrics)
Quick-thinking tourist snaps photo of MR. POCHO in Puerto Vallarta
What was Our Fearless Leader MR. POCHO doing in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico on Tuesday? We can’t tell, but it was NOT COLLUSION and NO GLOWING ORBS were involved.
We CAN say this:
Mas…Quick-thinking tourist snaps photo of MR. POCHO in Puerto Vallarta
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!
Tens of thousands of ‘illegal’ Americans live in Mexico (video)
Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens are living illegally in Mexico. Chinese Global TV Network reports.
‘We Are America’ – Mexican, gay, straight, black, and white (video)
We Are America — black, white, brown, gay, straight, bi, old, and young. [Video by Martin De Leon and friends.]
If you need a hat AND cabeza de vaca, this mercado is for you (video)
You can get anything you want at a traditional Mexican mercado like this one in downtown Mazatlán. [Video by Robert Ellis.]
American Tragedy: The Deportation of G.I. Jose (toon)
[More about deported veterans at PBS News Hour….]
NOLA 3/5/2017: No person is ‘illegal’ says Taco Truck Theater (video)
Taco Truck Theater, a Teatro Sin Fronteras project, served up some sense Sunday in New Orleans. No human being is illegal. Respect my existence or expect my resistance. [Video by Jose Torres-Tama.]
In the area? More shows this weekend:
Mas…NOLA 3/5/2017: No person is ‘illegal’ says Taco Truck Theater (video)
Tom Russell live music video: “Who’s gonna build your wall?”
Singer songwriter Tom Russell — he comes from border country in Texas — has a question for the Cheeto Bandido: “Who’s gonna build you wall?”
The lucha libre wrestler’s mask: Don’t enter the ring without it! (video)
The history of the lucha mask goes back hundreds of years.
“The mask is the most important accessory in lucha libre because the mask makes a warrior,” according Magno, a luchador for over 20 years.
Luchadores place such a premium on their in-ring personas that they refuse to reveal their identities whenever they appear at an event. The mask draws from Mexican history in which Mayans and Aztecs warriors would complete for superiority.
“They used to paint their faces to symbolize the warrior because they used to fight against each other to become the god, to become the top one,” according to Magno.
