by Abel M. Salas The Water of Life Remains in the Dead,   Maria Nieto. Moorpark, CA: Floricanto Press & Berkeley Press, 2012. Pp. 198. $19.95 (paper) With her second Alejandra Marisol mystery, author Maria Nieto—a real life biologist who teaches in the Bay Area and, as such, has an understandably more informed appreciation for the forensic sciences—has reached into a reserve of deft humor and a lifetime of personal observation to generate a proto-Chicana super-sleuth that we can as proud of as we are entertained by. Meet Alejandra Marisol, the intrepid protagonist of Nieto’s first two outings as a mystery suspense writer. A Los Angeles Times reporter with gumption, Nieto’s unlikely gumshoe tools around town in a powder blue Volkswagen Beetle named Azulita and is pulled into solving a series of grisly murders that seem connected to the case she helped the authorities break in a previous novel, The Pig Behind the Bear .  More than a sequel, however, The Water of Li...

Interview by Pancho Lipschitz, @pancho_lipschitz Master muralist Wayne Healy calls Isabel Rojas-Williams “La Reina de los murales,” but in reality she is more an ambassador or a madrina ; making friends and building coalitions among artists, politicians,  academics and arts supporters on behalf of public art. Her love of street art and murals began in the ’70s when she sprayed anti-government slogans on the walls of Pinochet’s Chile. She wrote her Masters’ thesis on the history of murals in Los Angeles and, unsurprisingly, gave birth to a muralist.  Her son, former street artist Pablo Cristi, studied at the California College of the Arts and now teaches at the Oakland School for the Arts . But her most significant role now, many believe, is her post as the Executive Director at the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA) , where she leads an epic and long overdue mural restoration initiative. We met on a drizzly morning at her outdoor office— Nicole’s Cafe in Sout...

Francisco X. Alarcón (l.) and Javier Pinzón, su compañero y alma gemela. by Abel M. Salas The rosary was both beautiful and heartbreaking. During a slideshow of his life in pictures, movimiento -inspired music comforted those gathered at St. Joseph’s Parish in Long Beach, California. Mercedes Sosa’s voice reminded the poets and trobadores among us of our sacred duty as warriors for peace and beauty.  When Francisco’s brother Arturo, an architect, recalled the conversation he’d had with our departed compa’ about the dwindling population of Monarch butterflies, I could no longer hold back my tears. Francisco and I had been friends since 1985 when I dragged him almost kicking and screaming onto the boardwalk ferris wheel in Santa Cruz. He’d invited me Santa Cruz to meet his friend, poeta xingona Lorna Dee Cervantes . We reconnected many years later in LA, during the Floricanto revival reunion. We kept in touch, organized readings in Boyle Heights at Corazón del Pueblo and t...

by Richard Vásquez with a nod to two-time Oscar winner Anthony Quinn, who did not attend the 1952 Academy Awards to accept his Oscar and who won again for his portrayal of Paul Gaugin in 1956... The Oscars broadcast audience share fell 6% this year, which makes it the lowest rated Oscars since 2008, according to the Los Angeles Times.   What was an apparent attempt during the telecast to address the lack of diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry turned into an over-the-top display of multicultural miscues, borderline cultural insults and a missed opportunity to align the conversation with the most significant concerns of culturally diverse film audiences.   To begin with, Chris Rock got his locations mixed up. While he claimed to be doing his man on the street interviews in front of a theater in Compton, he was actually conducting them in Baldwin Hills at a former AMC Magic Johnson theater, a well-known movie viewing destination for the Black community...

On the Sixth Street bridge before its demolition. Photo by Pete Galindo. Words by Abel Salas It’s a mild Saturday night in January. Lysa Flores has accepted an invitation to play at an event commemorating the release of a high profile Latino literary magazine being held in the private home of a respected Chicana historian turned documentary filmmaker and her husband, a well-known, award-winning novelist and former LA Times staff writer. Dressed in black and armed with a fire engine red Fender Telecaster, Flores is joined by drummer Fredo Ortiz and break-out prodigy Giovanni Verduzco on electric bass. What was supposed to be a half-hour set is extended by a barrage of audience requests for encore after encore. Flores is happy to comply. Her voice, long lauded as a uniquely powerful extension of her poignant and riveting work as a songwriter, is compelling. Honest and honed, it resonates with a razor sharp readiness. The living room crowd is understandably weighted in favor of w...

Todos somos Proyecto Jardin. Contributing writer Susana Sandoval. by Susana Sandoval with additional reporting by Abel Salas For the last 15 years, Proyecto Jardín, a community garden project that took root as the result of one physician’s determination to see something beautiful in place of a vacant, neglected parcel of land within eyeshot of his office at White Memorial Medical Center, has stewarded the one-acre farm, outdoor classroom, playground, meditation center, nutritional health resource and public art showcase. Dr. Rob Krochmal, the medical resident who looked out from his office window, imagined a tranquil, beautiful, well-tended greenspace where neighbors from the surrounding Boyle Heights community could garden, heal, exercise, and learn as part of an “Integrative Wellness” approach he still champions today, according to his website. As the grandson of a doctor who was one of the last physicians to make house calls on the East Coast, he initiated discussions bet...

     From  left to  right:  Angel Marie Galván,  Gabriel  González,  Diana  Castrillón,  and  Kenneth  López  as  the  Ramírez  family in Eastside Heartbeats at Casa 0101. Review by Abel Salas What if it was 1965 and your East LA rock ‘n’ roll band, inspired by Ritchie Valens as well as the runaway  success of  ’50s and ’60s Motown rhythm & blues,  was about to break out in a big way?  What if, for one glittering moment, your memory could zoom in on the still photo of your group racing across the tarmac at LAX to board a flight with the Fab Four, yes, those blokes from Liverpool, headed for New York City after a jaw-dropping, show-stopping gig at the Hollywood Bowl as an opening act for The Beatles themselves? Would you pinch yourself? Would you die and head straight to heaven, the dream of a lifetime made real? What if this really happened? Well, it did. And it w...

Chile's Guillermo Yanquez, film pioneer, by William Alexander Yankes Guillermo Yanquez was a Latin American actor, born April 20, 1904, who starred as a lead in both silent films and the talkies. For Chileans, he became a symbol of self-esteem when the country lacked it.  A century has elapsed since he first appeared on screen. He was my father. Thirty-one years have transpired since he left us. Aside from my family and me, perhaps he will also be remembered by those who appreciate the pioneering and heroic days of Chile’s nascent film industry. During those heady, groundbreaking years, he married Nina Pinto Riesco, a granddaughter of two Chilean presidents. With no divorce law, the two soon went their separate ways. Several years later, he partnered with Maria Teresa Casanova, a member of Chile’s oldest aristocracy. She died a natural death after eight years together. There were no children from either of these two unions. My father’s  film career coincided with ot...

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...