June 3, 1943

Sixty eight years ago today, the Sailor Riots began. Another race based riot started by whites fueled by the LA Times, the police and ignorance. The US had locked up the Japanese in concentration camps, but not people of German lineage, so they needed someone else to hate on and as usual Mexicans were targeted.

None of the sailors or members of the white mobs that joined were arrested. Mexicans and blacks were beaten, striped in the streets, arrested and women were raped.
(at 2:30 a scene about the riots begins)

This is a very clear example of how the white population would often attack communities of color based on misinformation from media, fear, lies and racism. All race riots up until the 1965 Watts riots were led by white people and targeted barrios, ghettos and other areas where people of color lived. In some cases entire towns were burned to the ground.
For more information go here.

These times....

It's been a crazy year so far.

Major earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and a little one this week in LA.
People are talking about the end of times.
2012 is out on DVD, apparently the end of humans will be available on Netflix

Students are waking up and protesting, yet 2,000 people protesting in suburban streets don't get the media's attention until cops push and are pushed back.
So who knows how many other protests are going on that aren't reported because they were peaceful and didn't push back.

If we listen, we can hear the grumbling
If we stop and smell the air, the hunger is rising
If we open our eyes, the light is dim at the end of the tunnel

On the flip side people are reaching
Seeking out new forms and systems to replace this crumbling joke
These thoughts will be actions, words, intentions, and yes hope, but one based on the real, not the kind funded by the same corporate devils who created it and benefit from it.
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I learned this week to relinquish when I give something away or lose it.
Many times we give something up but we don't relinquish it. We hold on. Psychically, in memories, in hope.
When we relinquish we really let it go.

Wolf explained it like this: Imagine I gave you a sacred object that had been in my family for generations. I wanted you to have it because we had a good moment. Now I see you one day going into the pawn shop with the necklace. You come out with money and no necklace. If I really gave it to you, I shouldn't care what you did with it. I relinquished it. I don't hold it in any way with me. Relinquishing is tough to swallow but that is what giving and losing is.

CSUN Protest

In the end, 6 students were arrested and one 72 yr old professor was pushed by police, and fell on her arm, breaking it.

We had a month build up on campus for this day. Chicana/o Studies had a teach in on Feb. 3 and began telling our students that today, March 4th the whole State was going to protest.

I couldn't have paid anyone to make this happen. During my 11 am class I just finished showing them the 10 minute version of "Storm At Valley State" the 1985 documentary that looks at student activism on our campus 41 years ago. I was explaining how many in that generation protested because they demanded more from their country. They expected more for offering their lives and bodies in wars. They expect America to live up to its promise.s And they loved themselves. They felt they deserved more and asked for it. They loved themselves and were moved by love for a better future, like true revolutionaries always are. Moved to act out of love. I asked my students how many loved themselves? How many of you feel you deserve better than what they are offering and cutting away? I asked them if they were ready to start demanding satisfaction.
And like it was a sign from the Goddess, protesting students kicked open the doors out in the hallway and were yelling "Walkout!!!
I looked back at my students and said "They are calling you. Are you going to act? Or be like a good slave and not piss off the master, not rock the boat?"
"WALK OUT" you could hear the students coming closer to our door.
"They are calling you, what u going to do?"
One of my students put his fist in the air and yelled "Walkout" and boom they all jumped up and out the door.
Like I said, I couldn't have paid for that to be more perfectly timed.

The wait for the big meet up in the quad had various groups walking campus asking other students to 'walkout.'

One scene that was an 'only at CSUN' moment was when a small group of marchers came upon one of the CSUN choir's impromtu performances they hold in the breezeway of Jerome Richfield. I walked over to see if the choir was really doing their singing thing today, a day of protest. I was hoping they would be doing protest songs.

When the marchers came up on them I half expected the marchers were going to get up in the face of the choir and ask them to join the march and stop the singing. It was the "american idol" generation facing its burgeoning activist other half, would they clash? No.

The choir said "We are singing this one for you."

The marchers stopped their chanting and listened for a few minutes then, while the choir kept singing, just turned around kept on recruiting other students to join them with another chant and marched away.

When 2pm finally came around there were about a core of 300-400 students throughout the quad in front of our library. Speeches were made, people inspired. We lined up on Matador Way and it looked like the 3-400 swelled a little more. Teachers and students from local schools came to join the march. By the time the march hit Prairie we had at least 2,000 people.

At Prairie and Reseda we went south to Nordhoff. Cars were stopped and honking in support. People got out of their cars and were taking pictures and video. There were no negative Nellies to be seen or heard.

As we went East on Nordhoff the long line of protesters was split in half by CFA 'march leaders.' These were the adults in charge. As faculty we tend to hang back and support our students, but not take any leadership or guiding roles. We advise before hand and if anything gets crazy, but its the students who are doing this, its theirs. CFA did play a major role in organizing this day of protest on a State level and they obviously did a great job of getting people out. At one point they cut the protest in half by letting half the column proceed down Nordhoff to Zelzah and turning the other half back in to campus at Lindley. I stayed with the front half knowing this was going to be a long walk.

We kept going down Zelzah and stopped briefly at Plummer. Some students tried to sit -down there, but the mass wanted to keep moving. At this point I got my homey Nelson's djembe from him. He said he was tired and I love drums. I carried and banged that sucker all the way around campus back to Reseda and Prairie where we had Thee Sit Down, you see in the news.


As you can see in these videos, all the numbers that the media reported are under counted.

(video is from iphone using an app.)

Happy Birthday Pachucoville!!!!

Yes today three years ago I began this blog and its been one great time.

My first blog is here and the one that followed was about the Super Bowl.

I want to thank my readers for the comments and support and my fellow bloggero/as. You have all made my world richer and more full of chisme.

In reading my Super Bowl post I see how I have changed. For one I became a Colts 'fan.' At the start of the season that year my homeboys who are big sports fans said I had to have a team. They said I couldn't just show up to hang out without adding to the shit talking and in order to shit talk I needed to have a team that I would support no matter what. My home Emi said your team will be the Colts and that was it. So with yesterday's humiliating loss I still write here as a Colt fan.

This year's Super Bowl sucked, not only did I miss the pre show (did they even have one?) but The Who at halftime sucked, the commercials were not funny or creative, and my team lost the game due to divine intervention.

How could the Colts lose? The spiritualist in me thinks it was because EVERYONE wanted the Saints to win for so many non football reasons. They wanted the Saints to win for history's sake, the city's sake, everything but that they were a great team. So with that I hope that our collective hopes and dreams take us to a better future in light of whack leadership and a system that consistently sides with the rich, powerful and few.

So that is my bday wish, that if we can all pull for the Saints to win, lets all pull for all underdogs out there, near us, and far and hope that their day in sun is today or tomorrow but soon for sure.

Feliz Nu Decade

I'm back from a mental and physical break. Skipped December cuz it was just too much to spew here and didn't want to shoot out the energy I was holding at the time.

Now, what are we going to do this new year and decade?
Well I might slow down some on posting cuz I'm writing other stuff I want to make some feria on so I won't give so much free reads, sabes?
I'm also exploring the invisible world more with meditation using various techniques that just keep finding me.
I'm still going to post at LA Eastside.com as well, I know I need to do more there too. That blog is blowing up!!!
One blog that I recently read over there was about a Thai restaurant and it got me thinking about my experience with Thai food.

Growing up the only Asian food I had was Chinese and my folks weren't very experimental at that. It was always the dinner specials with the basics: egg flower soup, fried shrimp, sweet pork, fried rice, some veggies and noodles. Never did I hear of Thai or Vietnamese for that matter.

The first time I thought of even trying Thai was driving through K-Town on Vermont and seeing a line of people for a place with a red awning that said Thai Bar B Que in big bold letters. Later I would learn it was called Ocha. I remember driving by there all the time coming from Hollywood heading home in South Central at the time. One day rolling with mom, we were hungry but didn't know what to eat so I said let's stop there, "they always have a line so it must be good."

We parked right in front and got in line. It was a trip they had so many people working. One person sat you, another brought water, another took your order, others stood in between tables ready for you to ask for anything, the food came out quick and the customers were mostly Raza. WOW. Never seen anything like this. All the people working had headsets and they would rattle off your order or request for more water or tea and boom someone was there with what you asked. Efficient and fast. I learned about their 'caldo de siete mares,' pad thai, and garlic chicken. It was the only place I would go to for minute.

One day while attending CSUN my homie Hugo came to the apt. and was telling Oscar, Ernie, Manny and Me about this amazing soup in this cool restaurant that had Coronas for $2.50. So we piled into Oscar's ride and went to Aruni on Western. It was a lighter siete mares soup than what they had at Ocha, but very good. This place was also packed with Raza who were pounding beers with their soup. Everyone only came for the soup! Later I would try something else on their menu and realized I should stick with the soup there. That was my second Thai restaurant.

My next experience with Thai food came from Michelle D. who brought me some Bar-b-que chicken from Chao Praya (sp?). It was a much nicer Thai restaurant than Ocha and Aruni. They had table cloths! All their servers were super model looking Thai women that spoke in soft tones. Muy cool. I learned about coconut milk soup, and other dishes here. I would sometime just ask the super models what was good that day and trust them. It was that good all around. They were on Yucca near Vine, no longer there, but will always be remembered.

Since then I have gotten bolder and braver and now have a variety of Thai spots for the variety of peeps and tastes I or my peeps need.

My favorites these days are:

Palms in Hollywood for Thai Elvis and basic Thai.

Daisy Mint, thanks to Yanini, this is very special, very tasty, its French fusion brings squashes into dishes like I never knew could be done. They are for those ready for flavor bombs to go off.

Saladang is also muy flavorful and consistent with their quality. Its also in a very modern nice locale with a sweet patio.

Vics is in the Valley (omg) thanks to Fabi for this one too. This is Thai fast food style but very good. Its like the many burger joints in the Eastside but with Thai. They make everything by the order.

Now I also have Korean spots, Japanese houses and Vietnamese joints that I love.

The other day I was driving with my father going to eat in Chinatown and he took a phone call. His friend on the other end asked where are you? and pops said (in spanish) "We are in the barrio Chino for lunch." The friend probably asked "Oh you like THAT food?" and pops answered "Oh yes, I'm international like that."
I love that.


Happy Nu Year and Decade, eat well, treat yourself and yours well...

LA Day of Dead weekend...

I haven't done a weekend recap in a while and since I'm in a quiet but sharing mood here you go:

Thursday I went to my homie Rueben Mendoza's Contemporary Chicano Issues class at ELAC to participate in a discussion on Blogotitlan with Cindylu and Random Hero. The students were very cool and I think they like the idea of blogging and how we as Raza are making a mark in cyberlandia. We went to eat at Ordonez after and then I went home to do some quick emails.

Later I hit the streets to check out Brooklyn n Boyle's new installation about dead soldiers. I don't agree with celebrating dead soldiers. I know its to heal the families of those who went off to kill in the name of the USofA but I can't shake the feeling that it is glorifying war and supporting our killing machine. I let Abel know this when I got there. We get along that way. After this we all rolled over to Eastside Love.

It was $5 at the door and I was ready to turn around and walk to the bar next door for a drink, cause I ain't paying $5 for bar. To my surprise the generous Rueben Mendoza paid the entry fee for 5 of us. Gracias! Once inside the El Conjunto Los Pochos was hitting the stage. It perplexed me even more to hear these guys after a $5 cover charge because on any given morning or afternoon, heck even in the evening in Boyle Heights, if you are in a decent restaurant there is usually a strolling conjunto that plays the same songs that these guys on stage were doing, and in most cases with less off key notes. I asked one of my homies what was the difference between these guys and the conjuntos I've heard at Chispa de Oro and he quickly replied, "These guys are Pochos its harder for them to hit the notes and sing in Spanish, I guess." LOL

I bailed out of there at 12:25am in order to get home to watch "Star Trek: The Next Generation." It's on at 12:30 am on Ch. 5 in case any fellow Trekies didn't know.

Friday: I got up and did some laundry, ran some errands and then met V.V in Burbank to get on our way for a night in Valley. We met up with some homies at Claim Jumper for drinks. Yeah I know but we're in the Valley what else is there? Acapulco? El Torito? Flavor and funk is in short supply out there. Anyway, its about the company not about having a watering hole with style and good drinks. We had a good time and then we left to rendevous at Pierce College for the Corn Maze. I try do this every year, it's the little hillbilly in me I suppose. We had a blast running around scarrying each other and getting lost.


After this we went back to CSUN for MEChA's Day of the Dead party which is always great. This year was no exception. Lots of people, great bands including Very Be Careful and Quinto Sol, teatro from Las Ramonas and tasty food. One side trip on campus we did was to try and 'hear' the ghost of the Asian House. Apparently it is afraid of or doesn't like Mexicans because it didn't come out while we were there, but as soon as we left Mamma M called and said it made all kinds of noise. I wouldn't come into a room if I knew Mexicans were sitting in the dark waiting for me.

Later I got a ride back with Soul Rebel Miguel because he wanted to go on a taco hunt in NoHo. I had my doubts. After driving around and watching all the trucks shut down and drive down Vineland at 1:00 am we ended up at a stand somewhere on Vineland. It was ok. Nothing memorable.

Saturday: Very simple, Lili and I picked up the Noodles and hit Monster Massive, then Deeper Moods where Noodie Suli was spinning at 2 am. It was Noodie Lana's b-day earlier in the week so we were celebrating! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANITA! All love to my girl. MM was crazy, thanks to Reza for getting me tix ahead of time we were able to get in with little drama. It was super packed and even though we hung out in VIP getting from one VIP to another was hellish. Sometimes the crowd would just move you in another direction. Total mob rule.

The shuttle for Deeper Moods was on Santa Fe and the space was on the Boyle Hts./Vernon border. Very cool. I had heard of this place for months, so glad I got to see it in full swing. Of course Suli rocked it. We crawled out of there at sun up.

Sunday: chill out. Good food at Hecho en Mexico, thanks to Gumby for posting it on FB. Gumby was still there when I got there and he sent over some michiladas and a bucket of beer. What a great and generous guy. Thanks homes always.

Monday: came to work and right back to Los. I made a stop at the site where we scattered my mom's ashes for a quiet moment. Got a quickie car wash, got some last minute stuff at Ozzie Dots and home to get ready for my MC gig at Self Help Graphics Day of the Dead. I had to be on site by 4 pm. I got there without my calvera makeup wearing my rented Mariachi suit. My goal was to be a vampiro mariachi this year. I got my bite marks on my neck but my calvera makeup didn't imply anything about me being vampire-ish.

Lalo Alcaraz was co-MCing with me so it was sure to be a great time.
The new location, full moon and thick spirit of Eastside DoD celebration made it all magical. The bands all impressed. The Camino de Calaca Coutoure was awesome! We had anyone who wanted to strut their calaca wear walk on stage after I read their description and dedication. The big hits were Lilifor's tribute to migrant workers that had here flossing huge angel wings made of fence and barbed wire. When I read her description at the end it said "Because we didn't cross the borders, the borders crossed us!" I used that opportunity to get the audience to cheer that and boy did they! Like five times I went "We didn't cross the borders!" and they would cheer back "The Borders crossed us!!!" louder and louder, it was beautiful.
Bunny Martha was also a hit in her ensemble called "The Death of Higher Education" the scariest of all the ensembles. People really reacted to it. Education, as all Raza knows, is the only way for us to change things for the better and one of the better ways to reach our highest potential.

By the end of the night my toes were killing me. I had to wear botines that were very pointed. I now understand what women go through for fashion's sake.

And that's how I did it this DoD weekend.

semester's horizon

One month and half to go til we break for the winter, ending the Fall semester.
Some students have left, some have fallen off and are trying to get back on, others are clueless, some are cruising through focused and determined. Pressure is building as term papers and final project deadlines are approaching fast.
With Thankstaking break being a week long break in many cases, students need to plan these final days with clarity in order to fulfill school, family and work needs.
I'm writing this in class as we do a peer review of an essay due this weekend. They are reading each others papers making notes on how to improve or what they liked about them. I've seen these students grow since this summer. Some really have blossomed and get it others are still dealing with the fog of teen needs like boyfriends and other commitments they believe right now are so important. One from this class is out taking care of their new born baby boy. She will have to do without peer reviews.
Some don't see the approaching end and will freak out on the last week wondering where did all the time they thought they had go. And so it is with life, no?

Happy Halloween

Growing up my family used to decorate our old Victorian with cob webs, fake spiders, rats, ghosts, and make of dummies with old clothes stuffed with older clothes. Everyone would get into it. Dad would be at the door which led to the walkway to our house. He would let only small groups of kids in at a time. Some kids would be too scared to come in. I would be on the roof with a speaker next to me blasting screams and moans from a special effects record and dropping a basketball wrapped in a sheet on top of people who came to the porch where the candy was. My mom and cousin would be there dressed up giving out candy to the brave one who made it. Sometimes one of them would pretend to be one of the mannequins and lay still until a group of kids would get close then just move an arm or make a noise. Grandma would be on the sides in a white dress waving her arms 'ghost' like.
We made a kid pee in his pants once!
When the numbers would die down I would get to play my music loud from the roof top and do a little dance in south central.

Guanajuato 2009 Festival Internacional Cerventino CLETA

It was a last minute decision to go to Guanajuato for the Festival Internacional Cervantino. Alberto and Lea stopped by my place to pick up some music and invited me to come with their teatro group: CHUSMA. It was three weeks away, I needed to get my passport updated, find a flight and hopefully a place to stay. Alberto had said we would all be sleeping on the floor of a communal house where all the teatros stay at. That didn't sound enticing to me. I like a bed when I travel to nice cities.


I heard it was a "Mexican Burning Man." The website made it look very bourgie. Others said it was cool. When I doubted going a dear friend just said "You have everything you need to go, friends, a place to stay, a festival to see, a city you haven't seen in a long time, a little bit of time to go, so what is stopping you?" So I went.

I got to Leon at 6:15 am local time on the 15th, the second day of this 36 year old festival. I met Lea at Vips, at 8:15 after being a little lost and waiting around for nearly an hour. The last time I was in GTO I also arrived in the morn and waited around for hours for a woman. That was 14 years ago.

The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC) began in 1972. The Festival Internacional Cervantino of CLETA (FICC) began in 1975. FIC is sponsored by the Mexican government and features world renown artists with ticket prices starting at $30 (US) and up to $100+. The FICC is about providing an option to the "elitism" of the FIC and features artists from all over the world who perform in the various plazas, alleys, shopping malls, tourist spots, and street corners throughout the 3 week festival. Chusma was there for the CLETA and it was dope.


Funded in part by the European Union, the CLETA had a base camp at the Jardin San Pedro. We ended up finding a room a block and half away. We had a short walk to get to meetings, workshops, have rehearsals, meals, and entertainment every night from 8-midnight.


Chusma was scheduled to perform Friday at La Plaza de Los Angeles (how appropriate), Saturday at Plaza Pozuelos (an indoor mall) and Sunday at the Jardin San Pedro the base camp where a lot of the CLETA participants came to at night to see teatro, dance, bands, singers and performance art.


The first day (Thursday) Lea, Alberto and Eddie were there, so we took off to San Miguel de Allende (SMA) since it was the only day they didn't have rehearsal or a performance. SMA has been in a couple of Robert Rodriguez films and is known as an international artist colony. It is very beautiful. You can see the horizon in SMA versus the hillsides of the bowl where GTO sits. We came back that night and were tired, so we just kicked it at the Jardin chatting it up with beers for $1!!!



In the morning DJ Papalotl aka Diana, Gustavo, Goretti & Sander arrived. Goretti & Sander had their own place around the corner from ours. We were six in a room at the Canta Ranas Hotel. The place was clean but the owner was more of mother superior, telling us how loud we were and to keep it down. What did she expect from a teatro group filled with fun, loud people?




The teatro was complete now and they had a performance at Plaza Los Angeles at 6pm. They would have rehearsal at the Jardin while Eddie and I ran around town taking it all in and making flyers announcing all the upcoming shows from the Chicano Teatro from Los Angeles, Califaztlan. We met them later at the Jardin and helped move props and costumes to the Plaza.



Most mornings we would have breakfast at the Mercado Hidalgo. We would have fresh fruit and vegetable juices and then either tacos, cocktails or soups of various seafood, tortas, huevos con chorizo, chilaquiles or something else that was hearty and would get us through to lunch.

The first performance was delayed due to clown activities and setting up a makeshift dressing in strong winds. Either way the show was good. That night at the Jardin we saw a group of 30 dancers and musicians from Venezuela and dancers from Austria.

We walked around a lot watching the city fill with more and more people. By Friday night it was in full swing and the locals told us it was basically a young people's getaway. Everyone looked around 18-23 yrs. old. Their energy filled the air.


Saturday I got left behind and had to visit Diego Rivera's museum alone. It was cool. I also went to the underground mercado that was filled with razteca, rock, psycheldelic, goth and indigenous items. I got lost in the hills trying to find a short cut and ended up going around in circles. I noticed there were a lot of single women walking around alone, traveling alone. They all had the same look. Cautious, constantly moving, curious, and dressed to run. Didn't see or notice single men walking alone. I guess it may be a woman thing to travel alone?

The show on Saturday was inside a shopping mall. It was very typical and in a way off putting but we had a good time. They gave me a mask and Eddie a costume and we joined them on stage in the final acto.

That night we hit the town in costumes and masks in the spirit of Cervantino. We had a shot of Cazadores in the oldest bar in GTO El Incendio. When we walked in wearing masks everyone kind of stopped and tripped for a second, that was cool. Dinner this night was a little nicer than other nights and I got to order a Chile en nogada, a very special treat. We strolled around taking pics and having our pic taken. We ended up dancing in the main square, El Jardin de la Union, which is actually a triangle, to strolling bandas that played cumbias. I stayed up til 4:30 am smoking and drinking on our terrace sharing good laughs, stories, and giving thanks. The city hummed along, people singing in the streets, up until the sun came up and the church bells began to ring.

Sunday we got a late start but we bumped into a plaza with Pippo and the Pirates, a teatro from Switzerland. They were a riot. Overall most of the performers had at least one or two members who spoke Spanish, but others would just say their lines in their native language. After they were done, Enrique Cisneros, the founder of CLETA, spoke about the history of the Festival and how he had been arrested during the first one, but after international pressure on the Mexican government for arresting students who were simply doing art in the streets, the government decided to fund the festival. He gave a shout out to Chusma, "with their Chicano themes that speak to the core of the major issues of our day, immigration, economic decline of the US, and land." We tripped out!!! He recognized. He went on to say that Mexico with its upcoming celebrations of the the revolutions of 1810 and 1910 have nothing to celebrate, instead "we need to be prepared to be rebeldes once again, because what is happening cannot stand anymore." This man is just too cool.


That night's performance was amazing. I also got to speak on the history of Chusma and Chicano teatro in between a major costume change. I think I tripped the crowd out when I mentioned how they "...may view us as pochos or as Americanos, but we are viewed as illegal, gangsters, foreign and suspect in our own land, that is if and when we are considered."




After the show we just hung out and caught the rest of night's performances which included a Costa Rican band called Dub Experimental. They could have been from LA.






Overall it was a great time and I am planning on going next year. I hope to get more Chicano/as there to represent and connect.