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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
Bang Data Rocks an Immigrant Groove Mixed With Latino Standards — and Hip-Hop
Juan Manuel Caipo, one-half of the driving force behind Bay Area-based alternative hip-hop band Bang Data, says he was born in the United States, but grew up in Peru. Deuce Eclipse, the other half, is of Nicaraguan extraction. So it’s fair to say that their music has a certain . . . something . . … Read more
Torrance Families, Anti-Violence Group to Make a Statement at ¡Vivan los Muertos!
One of the altars that is scheduled to be on display in front of the Autry at this month’s ¡Vivan los Muertos! celebration commemorates the shooting death of a young girl — and the rebirth of a community. “Those bullets were not for her,” said Blanca Mendoza, a mother and resident of the low-income, racially diverse … Read more
Josefina Quezada: A Lifetime of Fighting for Public Art
A Mexican artist who was responsible for starting the drive to restore David Alfaro Siqueiros’ downtown Los Angeles mural América Tropical was honored Monday, June 11, in perhaps the best way possible: with the start of conservation work on one of her own murals. Josefina Quezada died about three weeks ago in Mexico, but she … 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
As American as July 4th — on May 5th
It’s true that Cinco de Mayo is more popular and more celebrated in California than in Mexico, where the Battle of Puebla that it commemorates actually took place. But contrary to popular belief, that is not because of U.S. Latinos’ flimsy grasp of history, says David Hayes-Bautista. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Hayes-Bautista, an … 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
Tere Romo and a Seven-Year Quest for Art Along the Hyphen
Updated Jan. 10, 2012 — As much as Domingo Ulloa’s painting Braceros has become a symbol and one of the most admired works in the Autry’s current exhibition Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation, there was a time when its very existence was little more than a theory. The large canvas, which depicts a … Read more
Dia de los Muertos the Way They Do It Back Home
This year’s ¡Vivan los Muertos! celebration at the Autry, on Saturday, will carry what you could call a Oaxacan seal of approval. Rogelio Santibañez Arellanes, cultural promotion director for the state government of Oaxaca, Mexico, was on hand all this week as a consultant to help guide the celebration. “I come to make the offerings … Read more
Michael Heralda: Passing on a Native Philosophy Through Stories
Michael Heralda found his life’s vocation in a dusty book bin in a yard sale 17 years ago. But he is neither author nor bookseller. He is a storyteller and a philosopher for our time, fostering people’s understanding of what is and is not authentic in the modern world. “The key to remember is that … Read more
