By Alan Diamante Diamante Law Group APLC There is a small storefront in Tijuana near the Otay Mesa port of entry known as “The Bunker.” It is the Deported Veteran Support House, a shelter for deported veterans managed by a deported soldier, Hector Barajas, who has not forgotten about his military brothers, unlike the U.S. government. The vets at “The Bunker” are indistinguishable from any one born in Los Angeles. They are more likely to be listening to Tom Petty’s “Forgotten Man” rather than Los Tigres del Norte’s “El Mojado Acaudalado.” Hundreds and possibly thousands of deported veterans reside south of the border, separated from family and the country for which they were willing to risk their lives. Most of these veterans have been honorably discharged and decorated. The biggest mistake made by these veterans is that they did not apply for naturalization when they had the chance. A naturalized citizen generally cannot be deported but a permanent resident who commits an “aggra...

by Abel M. Salas It is not unbelievable or surprising that Isaac Pelayo, still in his early 20s, is opening his first solo exhibition as a fine artist this week at Paul Stewart’s Over the Edge art gallery in South Central LA. He has been drawing since he was in diapers. His father, an event producer, a curator, a self-taught illustrator and an accomplished, internationally recognized graphite artist with a day job at Disney, keeps the earliest evidence of his son’s artistic promise in his collection. The drawing, says the University of Nevada-Las Vegas art student, is proof enough that he came to art on his own. As toddler, Pelayo observes in retrospect, he couldn't know his father was pursuing a career as an artist. The impulse to create, he honestly believes, came from within. As a result, he does not count the biological father he saw only when occasion allowed during his childhood, as a primary influence. “My dad (artist Antonio Pelayo) has a drawing of a big smiley f...

Dr. Yanis Varoufakis in Pasadena. Photo by William Alexander Yankes By William Alexander Yankes While serving as Greece’s Finance Minister, Dr. Yanis Varoufakis made every attempt to negotiate an acceptable bailout for Greece while both the world and his countrymen waited with taut nerves. At press conferences, he spoke with the confidence of a winner, even though his country was battling for its financial and political survival. His efforts preceded the massive migration of war-ravaged Syrian migrants to Greek shores. The country already teetered on both bankruptcy and the loss of its standing as a member of the European Union. The fate of a nation hinged on the destiny Varoufakis could carve with his crucial intervention. After cliff-hanging negotiations, the European Union lenders handed Varoufakis bailout terms that were tantamount to an ultimatum: either accept loans demanding deeper sacrifices or exit the European Union. Rather than using his ministerial powers, he subm...

By Pancho Lipschitz, El Art Pocho Before I was hanging out in John Valadez’ new Boyle Heights studio a few miles from where he grew up, before he poured two shots of good mezcal into styrofoam cups and we toasted to nada y todo, I always thought he was one of the best painters working in America over the past 40 years. After we hung out, I realized he’s just a cool vato who happens to be one of the best painters working in America over the past 40 years. (Left: Emerald Float, 2016, pastel. Courtesy of John Valadez) Pancho Lipschitz: I know you said you grew up in Boyle Heights but I didn’t know you worked at the Fine’s Market. John Valadez: I always had a job. I lied and said I was 16 when I was 15. I was there about four and a half years. Every week I would buy an album. PL: What was the first art that influenced you? JV: I liked drawing, and I remember in grammar school when the Flintstones were the big rage. I spent one night looking at Fred Flintstone and trying to draw ...

by Abel M. Salas A year ago, the successful soft launch of Mi Pasión Catering & Taqueria, a unique gourmet catering concern, surprised a vast circle of friends, long-time partners in several downtown L.A. law firms and an exacting cross-section of municipal, county and state employees. Founded by partners Lydia Rodíguez Arago and Chef Camron J. Torres, “Mi Pasión” is the inevitable and natural offshoot of a family gastronomic tradition Rodríguez Arago traces back for at least three generations. (Composite photo courtesy of Lydia Rodríguez Arago) Raised on the East Side in both Boyle Heights and El Sereno, two adjacent East Side communities, Rodríguez Arago recalls her first job as a teenager. “I went to work at my uncle’s restaurant in Boyle Heights... La Serenata de Garibaldi,” she says. The restaurant, a mainstay on the high-end lists of recommended destinations for aficionados of upscale Mexican cuisine, was established in 1985 by her great-grandmother Isabel, her grand...

by Citlalith Pérez Reprising the inaugural community-wide, multi-media homage to “Lucha Libre,” the Mexican wrestling sport characterized by larger than life characters, theatrical showmanship, acrobatic virtuosity and a perennial parade of masked wrestlers, Exodus Events is pleased to present the second annual edition of LA’s most authentic homage to the internationally popular tradition. (Photo courtesy: Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy) Part sport and part made-for-TV entertainment, the classic Lucha Libre wrestling legacy—the unique cultural expression which originated in Mexico and went on to spawn the wildly successful World Wrestling Federation (now the publicly traded World Wrestling Entertainment) media juggernaut—has inspired a growing legion of fans even as it has stoked the imaginations of countless aficionados drawn to its pageantry, near comic book hero iconography and all-American fun. The brain-child of artist Antonio Pelayo, founder of Exodus Events, “La Bulla” b...

by Abel Salas Born in Chicago on June 15, 1953, Ana Castillo is a universally celebrated poet, novelist, short fiction writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator and independent scholar. Her novel, Sapogonia , was a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year” and her first work of fiction, The Mixquiahuala Letters , received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Other award-winning and bestselling novels include Give It to Me, which was the 2014 winner of the Best Bisexual Fiction from the LAMBDA Foundation, So Far From God , The Guardians and Peel My Love Like an Onion .  Massacre of the Dreamers , her classic, award-winning collection of essays celebrated its 20th anniversary with an updated edition released in 2014 and her award winning novel in verse, Watercolor Women, Opaque Men will be re-released in fall 2016 by Northwestern University Press in a deluxe new edition. Calling her “the most daring and experimental of Latino novelists,” Com...

by William Alexander Yankes The annual French film festival, COLCOA (the abbreviation for City of Lights, City of Angels), that honors the ever-stronger bond between the world’s two film capitals—Paris and Los Angeles—celebrated its 18th year at the Directors’ Guild of America in 2014. Traditionally held after the Oscars, COLCOA devotes just over a week in April, nine days which are anticipated with baited breath all year by cinephiles and Francophiles alike, to showcasing the very best of contemporary French filmmaking. ( Photo courtesy of Gaumont. ) Two years ago, on April 20th, the curtains opened on the first night of the annual festival to a full house. The standing room-only crowd was eager, as always, to spend a week witnessing and celebrating films infused with poetry, humor, candor, pathos, passion, sex and, yes, a most French ingredient, love. On that night in particular, François Truffart, COLCOA director, announced the presence of Claude Lelouch, director of the 1966...

By Abel Salas Committed to creating a sound that pays homage to world and soul music in a riveting, infinitely danceable—yet still utterly original—distillation of those global, cross-cultural currents, Cuicani is a five-member collective of singer-songwriters, community activists and educators.  Amidst a growing popular buzz, the quintet makes its first full-length recording debut this month. (Above left to right: Tony Sauza, Marisa Martínez, John Northup and Marlene Beltrán-Cuauhtin. Photo by Farah Sosa) Like long-time powerhouse Chicana songstress, Irma “Cui Cui” Rangel, known as “Cuicani” for over two decades now in the danza azteca community and in movimiento -era theater, art and music circles, the newly minted ensemble also takes its name from the Nahuatl word for “singer.” With “mavens” Marlene Beltrán-Cuauhtin and Marisa Martínez on vocals, Tony “Tone-Irie” Sauza on vocals and guitar, Caitlin Moss on drums and John Northup on bass, the millennial band members draw ...

by Abel M. Salas The LA Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, unveiled the 2016 Festival poster artwork by Colombian-American Carolyn Castaño yesterday while proudly announcing the selection of Ricardo de Montreuil’s Lowriders   as this year’s opening film. This year’s festival will run from June 1 through Jun 9. “In 2013 we launched a series of LA Film Festival posters designed to celebrate LA artists. Carolyn Castaño joins the ranks of acclaimed artists Ed Ruscha and the late Noah Davis as the 2016 poster artist,” said Mary Sweeney, Film Independent Board Chair. “Castaño’s work reflects and celebrates her deep roots and experiences in the powerful Latina culture of Los Angeles. Film Independent and the LA Film Festival support and celebrate the diversity of unique artistic voices.” Castaño, whose mixed-media installation at San Diego’s New Americans Museum last year went on to sh...