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westernartgirlHeavenly Voices from the Barrio and Elsewhere in Los Angeles
This year’s Las Posadas celebration at the Autry, scheduled for December 16, features the Harmonies Girls Choir, whose voices have graced stages as diverse as the Hollywood Bowl and the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. They will perform classic choral arias as well as traditional and contemporary Mexican songs dedicated to the Virgin Mary. … Read more
A Facebook Conversation With Gustavo Arellano
If you missed it Wednesday, here’s a transcript of our Facebook chat with Gustavo Arellano, slightly edited for order. Thanks to Yadhira De Leon for moderating! Let’s welcome ¡Ask a Mexican! columnist, OC Weekly editor, and author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, Gustavo Arellano! In this thread, he will answer our questions … Read more
Gustavo Arellano, the Original “Mexican” Columnist, Answers Questions About Mexican Food in the U.S.
Updated April 18, 2012 — I had a chance this month to chat with Gustavo Arellano, the original “¡Ask a Mexican!” columnist and now OC Weekly editor, about Mexican food in the U.S., the subject of his new book Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. Arellano is one of the featured speakers at the … Read more
A Latina Writer With Something to Say About Immigration — and Motherhood
Recently I asked the writer Melinda Palacio whether Latino writers still have something to say in 2011. The question is somewhat rhetorical, but she knew what I was referring to: through the 1980s and 1990s, it seemed like every new literary star was a Latino, and readers clamored for any novel with a slightly exotic … Read more
Oscar Hernández Looks Back on a Lifelong Friendship With Rubén Blades
Oscar Hernández, leader of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and former pianist and musical director for Rubén Blades, is a New York soul now making his home in Los Angeles. “I got divorced and I got remarried,” Hernández said. “And my wife was living here, so I was kind of at a crossroads in my life … Read more
From Costa Rica With Love: Chino Espinoza
Mirley Espinoza, known as El Chino, appears quite at home when he shows up in T-shirt and distressed, tailored jeans for his regular Friday night gig at the outlandishly posh Coco Palm Restaurant in Pomona. Patrons shake his hand, waiters pat his shoulder or wave, the club manager touches base with him before he goes … Read more
Music as Work and Life: Susie Hansen
Susie Hansen comes from musical stock. Her father, James Hansen, her first and main music teacher, was a violinist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 37 years. Hansen began taking lessons from him at age 5. So you’d think, given all that training, that Hansen would have followed in his classical steps to build a … Read more
Teaching Salsa Between Sets
When the Thursday Sizzling Summer Nights headliner band at the Autry is about ready for a break, that’s when Trish Connery steps into the spotlight. She’s the feisty lady you see with the microphone in the middle of the dance floor, bantering with diva dancers and cajoling salsa beginners as they learn to trip the … Read more
Eddy Ortiz, an Adopted Son of Salsa
Eddy Ortiz didn’t grow up listening to salsa music. He was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, where the prevailing sound leans more to mariachi than son. But Ortiz, whose Son Mayor Orchestra plays the Autry on Thursday, July 21, learned early to respect Cuban music and its history. “Cuban music is so vast,” Ortiz told me … Read more
LA Plaza Opens a Space for Mexican-American History and Culture in Los Angeles
Given that almost anywhere you go in Los Angeles, you’re likely to encounter some aspect of its Mexican origins, on some level it seems almost redundant to have a museum dedicated to L.A.’s Mexican and Mexican-American history, culture and art. On the other hand, not to have one is unthinkable. The latest effort to rectify … Read more
