Me? I’m drinking a cerveza and contemplating Cinco de Mayo

I approach el Cinco de Mayo with excitement and ambivalence.

I learned the history of the Battle of Puebla as the son of proud Mexicans, who happened to be immigrants. The story goes: On the fifth of May 1862, a small Mexican army kicks French butt. Bueno.

My dad and grandmother worked at the Cinco de Mayo restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in a small L.A. harbor town. My association with the day is food, drink, familia, history, cultura.

Mas…Me? I’m drinking a cerveza and contemplating Cinco de Mayo

Beetles with rhinestones are the living jewelry of Mexico (videos)


Bugs. Bugs with backpacks of rhinestones. Bugs with backpacks of rhinestones on gold-plated chains. Bugs with backpacks of rhinestones on gold-plated chains you wear as jewelry. Does Mexican PETA know about this?

“Meet the Makech, the Bedazzled Beetles Worn as Living Jewelry,” writes The Smithsonian.com. “The unusual bugs from the Yucatán have a backstory as colorful as their rhinestone-studded rumps.”

Mas…Beetles with rhinestones are the living jewelry of Mexico (videos)

‘Dale Evans [the Mexican help] and the Roughneck Romeos’ (toon)

COMBODALE“Queen of the Westerns” Dale Evans aka Mrs. Roy Rogers, starred in her own comic book series in 1958. Roughneck Romeos, from Issue #2, features Dale and the Mexican “help.”

When two cowboys fight for the favors of sexy Conchita, Chef Gomez’ niece, there’s trouble on the rancho [click on images to enlarge]…

Mas…‘Dale Evans [the Mexican help] and the Roughneck Romeos’ (toon)

Listen: Why does Mexican music have polkas, waltzes and accordions?

bigflacoHappy birthday, Texas accordion star Flaco Jimenez! (DOB: March 11, 1939.)

Why is Mexican music filled with polkas and waltzes and accordions? It’s about immigration, according to Felix Contreras of NPR’s Alt.Latino and Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records on Morning Edition:

 

PREVIOUSLY ON FLACO JIMENEZ:

Mas…Listen: Why does Mexican music have polkas, waltzes and accordions?

BREAKING: Sean Penn set for Cesar Chavez keynote speech

seanpenn(PNS reporting from MALIBU) Sean Penn will deliver the keynote address at the City of San Jose’s annual Cesar Chavez Day celebration March 31, friends of the actor say. The ceremony honors the late Mexican-American icon and civil rights leader on his birthday.

Penn told dinner companions here Tuesday night that he plans to open the speech at the San Jose Civic Center with some humorous anecdotes.

Mas…BREAKING: Sean Penn set for Cesar Chavez keynote speech

Pat Boone sings ‘Speedy Gonzales, Why Don’t You Come Home?’ (video)


America’s favorite nice clean young white boy, Pat Boone, had a 1962 hit with this love-sick appeal to our hero, Mexico’s fastest mouse. “Speedy Gonzales, Why Don’t You Come Home?” he asks.

In this video, a fan mashes up a Warner Bros. Speedy cartoon with Boone’s music.

Speedy, of course, is voiced by the great Mel Blanc.

Mas…Pat Boone sings ‘Speedy Gonzales, Why Don’t You Come Home?’ (video)

Official Report: La Migra’s border drone results not on fleek (videos)

droneThe Department of Homeland Security Inspector General may not have the sad, exactly, but his end-of-2014 report on border-patrolling drones was not very happy.

Tio Sam, the Inspector General recommended, should spend his Migra-Industrial Complex money somewhere else. More drones are not on fleek, the report concluded.

The LexisNexis newsroom pulled this quote from the report:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Unmanned Aircraft System Program Does Not Achieve Intended Results or Recognize All Costs of Operations

Although CBP’s Unmanned Aircraft System program contributes to border security, after 8 years, CBP cannot prove that the program is effective because it has not developed performance measures.

Mas…Official Report: La Migra’s border drone results not on fleek (videos)

Tia Lencha’s Cocina: Roasted Red Hanukkah Christmas Kwanzaa Salsa

jarosalsaHola. Is Tia Lencha here.

Ju want to give presens to eberyone on your Chrismas list or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Reyes Magos or Chinese Year but ju are short on dinero? No worry! Tia Lencha is going to give ju recipe for to make the oven roast red salsa!

Is nice! Is a good gift for the peoples! And is easy! No like making mole for Turkey Day.

I make this salsa to give to my comadres and the lob it. They have little hearts in their eyes when they see my salsa. They eat with almost eberything. They say they fight their childrens and viejos to eat the last drops of it in the jar. Is that good. Oso, it don’t matter if the peoples are no Mexican. The peoples at my job are no Mexican and they ask me for the salsa.

Mas…Tia Lencha’s Cocina: Roasted Red Hanukkah Christmas Kwanzaa Salsa

PETA: Quinoa vs chia cartel wars hurt Fido, Fluffy over Christmas

fidofluffy2(PNS reporting from AUSTIN) Fido and Fluffy have become collateral damage in the war between the rival QuinoaTraficante and ChiaTraficante agricultural cartels.

Recent attacks on Mexican chia seed production — apparently at the hands of rival-cartel-affiliated quinoa growers — have left thousands of local seed-deprived Chia Pets cold, shivering and hairless this Yuletide season, Texas People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told PNS.

PETA said this includes Fido and Fluffy, of Barton Creek, pictured (above) in the organization’s latest Web ad.

Mas…PETA: Quinoa vs chia cartel wars hurt Fido, Fluffy over Christmas

Tia Lencha’s Cocina: How ju make Mijo’s favorite Mole Poblano turkey

turkeymole640Hola. Is Tia Lencha here. Sorry I no give ju recetas (recipes for ju pochos) for a gwhile. Mijo’s daddy no send the cheques for the mijo support. I mad.

Then he go to my house crying because the eskelton eskank he marry left him for another viejo (old man for ju pochos). The viejo had more dinero and drive a troka (thas truck for ju pochos) with plastic bolitas hanging from the bumper. Oh gwell.

In Mexico we say mijo’s daddy got put horns. Mijo’s daddy cry and cry but he no give me my mijo support cheque. I tell him my house is no LenchaCare. He need to pay. He say need money for divorce the eskank. I have to go to the offices to get him to pay.

Mas…Tia Lencha’s Cocina: How ju make Mijo’s favorite Mole Poblano turkey

Can’t rock harder than Lalo Guerrero’s ‘Los Chucos Suaves’ (video)


Lalo Guerrero is the Father of Chicano Music. His amazing musical legacy (he died in 2005) includes the classic Spanglish “boogie-woogie jitterbug” Los Chucos Suaves – the kick-ass dance-tune inspiration for Zoot Suit (the musical.) We especially like the abstract piano solo that goes off into outer pachucostan and comes back in the nick of time. ¡Que suave!

 

  • [EDITOR’S NOTE]: That’s Pete Alcaraz burning up the keyboard with an insane piano solo. No relation to POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz as far as we know.

 

Our heritage and culture are not your Halloween costume

ddlmfaceA school in our neighborhood recently held a “Dress as Your Heritage Day.”

For one Friday, students were encouraged to wear items representing their backgrounds, and some did. Students walked around campus in a combination of family heirlooms and seemingly exaggerated symbols to reflect their racial/ethnic groups.

The rationale underlying this day was cultural celebration, and families and students were representing their own heritages in ways that they wanted. On the face of it, this seemed like good ole’ fashion fun where dressing up breaks the routine of school and students show-off their family backgrounds.

Mas…Our heritage and culture are not your Halloween costume

Meet the American Nazis who protect our US-Mexico border (video)

bordernazisThese Nazis wear swastikas and call themselves National Socialists, sure, but they’re not really socialists. They’re more nationalists, really, supporting the White Nation. All they want to do is to save America from the loser and quitter immigrants who gave up on their home countries to invade the U.S. of A. After all, integration was forced on the White Man at the point of a bayonet. White people get racially profiled too, you know.

Mas…Meet the American Nazis who protect our US-Mexico border (video)