orange county

Sombra of OVERWATCH: Latinx champion of a tech-forward identity

by

sombraAfter months of secrets leaking out of headquarters, the new hero for Orange County’s Blizzard Entertainment hit game Overwatch has finally been revealed. She’s a Mexican Latina named Sombra (photo). Her name means Shadow.

But does this impact the culture of Orange County? The culture of video game development? The very essence of Mexican and Mexican-American culture?

As a first generation Mexican-American, I think Sombra represents an important and much-needed shift in thought to get Latino people into careers in which we are consistently underrepresented. She is the champion of a new tech-forward identity that uses its own skills to take matters into its own hands. But, most importantly, she’s really freakin’ cool, as you can see in this video:

Mas…Sombra of OVERWATCH: Latinx champion of a tech-forward identity

Abstenganse de molestar! We are not pendejos! (photo)

by

estehogar“It’s Proselyte Week here in Orange Aztlán,” POCHO’s anonymous Orange County photographic contributor emailed Wednesday. He put this sign on the front door of his Anaheim townhouse.

“Person after person is coming to ask whether we’ve found Jesus (“¿Ya se les extravió Jesús otra vez?! Qué descuidados son los cristianos con su salvador…”), to try and tell us Trump is more than just a bloviating human camote, to sell crappy chocolates for dubious fundraising efforts, etc. This sign has only been up for a few hours, but so far no one has knocked.”

Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands

by

marilynn
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

What are you doing? What am I doing? Be careful out there!

by

sanclementetags“What are you doing?” I asked the teenage boy who was gleefully tagging a repainted space at Santiago Park in Santa Ana. Alarmed, he jumped down the small ledge to look up at the bridge where I was standing.

Others emerged from beneath the bridge to see where the stranger’s voice was coming from. There were probably five or ten of them altogether.

They looked so fresh-faced, ranging in age from perhaps 15 to the early 20s. A young adult with shoulder-length crimped hair appeared to be a leader. He wore a wide grin on his face.

A wave of sadness and great disappointment washed over me. These kids belonged in a boy band, or on a soccer team, or part of a visionary group that would put a person on Mars. Instead they were misusing their talents and potential to deface public property.

Mas…What are you doing? What am I doing? Be careful out there!

Pope: ‘Quakes are message from God: Let there be gay’

by

popebylalocropped (PNS reporting from VATICAN CITY) The recent earthquakes in Southern California are a message from God, according to Pope Francis. The Almighty, he told a visiting delegation of American Catholics Monday, will shake things up until they are more gay.

“Lord knows this mortal world needs some bright flashes of color that aren’t suicide bomb explosions in crowded markets,” the Pontiff said.”And maybe some marigold-print cafe curtains in that drab nook over there.”

Mas…Pope: ‘Quakes are message from God: Let there be gay’

Obama’s List: Pocho Ocho things more dangerous than alchohol

by

obamaweedFormer stoner Barack Obama doesn’t think marijuana “is more dangerous than alcohol,” according to The New Yorker:

“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” the president said.

But if mota is not more dangerous than alcohol, what is? Here are the top eight contenders:

Mas…Obama’s List: Pocho Ocho things more dangerous than alchohol

From the OC: Finish this Mexican funnel cake and it’s free (video)

by


At the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, there’s a tempting challenge for manly men — finish a gargantuan pile of fried dough (AKA a Mexican funnel cake) in 30 minutes and this exciting taste sensation is yours for free. It’s a $20 dessert, weighs five pounds and comes with whipped cream and strawberries. Of course, it’s easier said than done, as this video shows.

Gustavo Arellano: Summers, I turn on my inner George Clooney

by

Summers are when our amigo Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly, turns on his inner George Clooney. In a grisly yearly ritual, Gustavo entrusts me, POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz, with the opportunity to illustrate a comic relating some sad aspect of his tragic love life. He writes the comic script, but then lets me have his way with the last panel, and the results are guaranteed to entertain you and embarrass Gus!  The way he described it to me, it looks something like this…

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Zip-a-Dee-Guns; Hola Anaheim, We’re Havin’ Fun

by

Now in the shadows of the world’s most famous amusement park residents of Anaheim are bravely (and in some cases stupidly) confronting the Anaheim Police Department, an at times callous, authoritative government power that isn’t accustomed to being questioned even when it executes people. Crisis always spurs creativity and the most original ideas are presently forming outside of the gates of Disneyland.


Art by Lalo Alcaraz, photo by Johnny Nguyen.