by Thomas Varela Beloved East Side Chicana activist Sylvia Baray was born at Santa Marta Hospital in East Los Angeles, October 16, 1937. She passed away this January and was both mourned and lauded by friends, coworkers and colleagues at a funeral mass conducted by Father Ramón Farré at Santa Teresita Parish in the Hazard neighborhood of Boyle Heights.  The Baray family migrated to Los Angeles in the 1920s from Morenci, Arizona where her grandfather worked in the copper mines, say surviving members of her family. They took up residence near Hazard Park, officially a part of the historic Boyle Heights community. She attended Murchison Street Elementary School and graduated from Lincoln High in 1956.  She earned an Associate of Arts degree from ELAC and attended CSULA where she studied social sciences as part of her commitment to social welfare. Survivors include: her son, David Cortez, and a daughter-in-law, Carla Cortez of Rancho Cucamonga; her sister Beatrice “Betty”...

Interview by Pancho Lipschitz  You may not know the name Glenna Avila (pictured left), but she created one of the most iconic L.A. murals in the city’s history in addition to guiding the production of nearly one hundred murals working with and eventually taking over for Judy Baca in the city-wide mural program. She continues to foster creativity in young people as director of the Cal Arts Community Arts Partnership program. We met at Self-Help Graphics where CAP students were working on self-portraits, prints and film projects. Like clockwork, we were interrupted every few minutes as students, teachers and friends stopped by to say hello, ask a question or give her a hug. Pancho Lipschitz: What part of L. A. did you grow up in? Glenna Avila: When I was born my family was living in Hollywood. My dad is a musician and he was playing in the studios, but when my brother was born he had severe asthma and the doctor told my parents we should move to the ocean because the ai...

by Richard Vásquez Thank you, Donald Trump. In your zeal for self-promotion and probably because you’re bored with having reached the upper limits of everything that obscene accumulation of wealth has to offer, you have inadvertently focused the spotlight on the most important segment of the U.S. “Hispanic” market: Mexicans. The reason Trump has not felt the full force of what he has stirred up yet is because the voice we, as people who are descendants of Mexican heritage, have needed to respond is only now beginning to gel.  But it’s coming: be sure of that.  And now there is an urgency because we are realizing the scale of our footprint on the US landscape.  Think about it. Singling out Mexicans as the group that has to be feared the most, propelled Trump to frontrunner status among Republicans.  The only time you see that kind of reaction is when you think your power is in jeopardy. The image of a family darting across a freeway after sneaking across the borde...

by Abel M. Salas   Elena Rojas takes her responsibility as the heir to and guardian of the El Tepeyac Café legacy very seriously. Because it came from her late father—the legendary Manuel Rojas—she feels blessed, she says, by the opportunity to extend the hospitality, the warmth and the comfort El Tepeyac and its signature menu have come to represent for a legion of diners from at least three generations and several countries. Dressed in a short-sleeved, white Mexican blouse, jeans and sensible slip-on shoes, she has accented her standard  “uniform” with holiday accessories. Around her neck and on her wrist, miniature Christmas ornaments and silver bells adorned with tiny ribbons and bows announce her movements as she navigates the crowded restaurant floor.   Her eyes gleam with a contagious joy that mirrors the smile she breaks into as she greets old and new customers alike, making sure they being attended adequately.  The self-described “crazy lady” finall...

​ Los Angeles, CA-- Brooklyn & Boyle proudly closed 2015, our 7th year of publication, with a distinctly Angeleno tribute to La Virgen de Guadalupe, despite the fact that prominent Mexican literary critic Heriberto Yépez, considered to be a progressive and provocative voice, once penned an essay in Mexico City's Milenio where he condescendingly alluded to the fact that Chican@ artists and art are still stuck in an extended adolescent veneration of the iconic image. Of course, he also included our alleged love affair with Che Guevara in the screed and suggested that Chican@ poetry was banal and that Mexican Americans were not hip to formal experimentation in literature.... But back to our internalized external legacy from the hilltop known as Tepeyac, the upcoming December issue of Brooklyn & Boyle features a striking photograph of beloved East LA artist Ofelia Esparza standing in front of the statue of La Lupita that once stood vigil over the parking lot at ...

by Abel Salas Renowned artist Roberto Gutiérrez has the silhouettes of the 6th Street Bridge etched into his soul. Some might even say he is in love with the historic cement and steel structure that has joined Boyle Heights and downtown Los Angeles for more than three quarters of a century. Born just over a decade after the bridge was built in 1932, the veteran artist, known for his tender, stylized Eastside cityscapes, was saddened when he heard that it would be torn down and replaced. The new viaduct, a sleek, futuristic behemoth based on a winning design selected as part of an international competition, is a harbinger. Alongside the recently opened Broad Museum, it is indicative of a now obvious top-down commitment to restoring and re-invigorating DTLA as part of an overall plan. Great cities, as noted in much of the public information and in statements issued around the bridge replacement project, are typified by dynamic city centers. Vibrant urban hubs invite suburbanites b...

by Abel M. Salas Art is excitement, which if we can’t create ourselves, we can at least, through love of it, make it available to others. – Vincent Price When the late Vincent Price and his wife Mary Grant Price donated 90 pieces of art to East LA College in 1957, they probably did not imagine that the gift would someday become the cornerstone of a world-class museum collection and a vital institution. Price, the legendary actor best known for an affinity toward horror, thrillers and the macabre during a long and illustrious career as a Hollywood actor, was also a respected art collector who earned his art history degree at Yale University. The modest collection of Mesoamerican, African, Native American, and European artworks was provided to establish a teaching resource for the ethnically diverse and largely working-class students at ELAC who won the renowned patrons over with their genuine love for art and their enthusiastic commitment to its study. Over the next 40 years, ...

by Abel M. Salas  On November 10, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to support increased diversity in both programming and management level staffing at LA County arts institutions. A motion by Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, will require the County Arts Commission to establish an advisory group of diverse arts leaders who will work with arts institutions to develop recommendations for ways to enhance the participation and leadership of individuals from underrepresented communities in the arts. A recent national study of diversity in American Art Museums released by the Mellon Foundation found that minorities are significantly underrepresented in top positions among museum leaders, only four percent are African American and just three percent are Hispanic. Further, the study found that minorities have no significant pipeline for leadership positions. “As a global leader in the arts and perhaps the most diverse County in the nation, Los Angeles should be ...

by Aleja María Sierra “The idea for the benefit art and music show came from Margaret García,” says Nataasja, Saint-Satyr, a Lincoln Heights-reared artist, curator and vocal performer. Saint-Sinclair met the internationally recognized Chicana artist over a decade ago while still an art student. Understandably, Saint-Satyr counts García among her mentors and feels grateful that the well-known painter has tapped her to run with an idea for a benefit art exhibition and concert that has origins in García’s 2010 “Stamp Project.” “Prayers from Los Angeles Art & Music Benefit Fest,” the widely anticipated inter-disciplinary event Saint-Satyr refers to, will take place on December 5th at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights. Its predecessor, the “Stamp Project: Creating Cultural Currency,” was a traveling exhibition and cultural event which evolved organically from a concept that arose from within an informal art collective known simply as a “Circle of Women” and organized by García. The c...

por William Alexander Yankes Desde el 15 al 17 del abril pasado hace unos cuantos meses, más de noventa personas, de trece países, se dieron cita en California State University Dominguez Hills para rendirle homenaje a Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra y evaluar la influencia en las humanidades de su obra maestra, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. Este simposio celebró los cuatro siglos de existencia de esta obra inmortal, cuya Segunda Parte se publicara en 1615. Entre las más de sesenta ponencias hubo tensión intelectual, coincidencias y divergencias de enfoque. En un castellano marcado por acentos políglotas, se habló del impacto del Quijote en distintas regiones del mundo: el lejano Oriente, el norte de Africa, el Medio Este, y por supuesto, Sud América… “Hubo intercambios de desayunos, tragos nocturnos en bar, charlas y más charlas en un español adquirido y un peninsular aggiornado; hispanoamericanos extrapolados, estadounidenses nuevamente conquistados por Ca...