By Alci Rengifo While most of the country remained distracted by the antics of the presidential election over the past few weeks and suddenly a bombing colored by implications of terrorism in New York, a very serious repeat of the darker side of American history took place in North Dakota. After discovering the details on July 26th, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, with other Native American and social activist groups in solidarity, began a series of protests against plans by Dakota Access to build a massive, 1,172-mile oil pipeline through much of their sacred territory including Lake Oahe and the Missouri River. Among the various environmental hazards that would come with the pipeline, the most worrying for the Lakota Sioux and other local communities is the potential contamination of the Missouri, which serves as a prime source of water irrigation. The project, which according to Dakota Access, would cross another 209 rivers, was going to produce hefty profits for the En...

by Abel M. Salas The bicycle ride from the neighborhood bordering Hazard Park and the USC Health Sciences campus to Highland Park is grueling. A stack of 50 tabloid-sized, 28-page newsprint magazines packed into a worn canvas shoulder bag gets heavier than you might expect once you’ve crossed through Lincoln Heights and cut over the 110 Freeway on Pasadena Ave. to Figueroa and Avenue 39. From there, it’s an uphill climb all the way to Eagle Rock, and the prospect of my first real acupuncture session loses a bit of its luster. The restless, fitful few hours of slumber just before daybreak—and the optimistic decision to make the trip astride the seat of a used but sturdy 21-speed trail bike—bear down on me just as heavily as the midday sun. Recalling how I came by the two-wheeled transport, an early model issued by a UK-based performance bike maker, for a fraction of its original cost from the back of a pick-up does little to ease the unanticipated exertion.  Even ruminations...

By William Alexander Yankes and Abel Salas Released widely in 1966 to critical acclaim throughout Mexico, Tiempo de morir (Time to Die) marked an auspicious directorial debut for a then 22-year-old Arturo Ripstein. The film, shot in black and white, was co-written by Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes, two writers who would eventually achieve near mythical status as internationally acknowledged literary giants. Produced and distributed by Alameda Films—the company founded in 1948 by Alfredo Ripstein, the novice director’s father—it cemented the reputation of the Ripstein dynasty and established its founder and his sons as the leading proponents of a national film industry comparable only to Hollywood in terms of artistry and commercial viability. On August 5th, several hundred serious Latin American film and literature aficionados gathered for a rare screening of Tiempo de Morir in commemoration of the film’s 50th anniversary. Presented by the Boyle Heights-based Libros ...

Assemblymember Miguel Juarez (r,)  is greeted by fellow Sacramento legislator Jimmy Gómez (l.). By Abel M. Salas California Assemblymember Miguel Santiago certainly looks the part. Except for the subversive socks. Otherwise, it’s all there. The subtly patterned gray suit, the crisp white shirt unburdened by the tie he would be wearing for a more important meeting and the modest cuff links that seem more a personal flourish than a nod to GQ style all broadcast Sacramento insider daywear. He’s taken a short break for an interview at a newish but non-descript and obviously independent eatery and coffee house on the ground floor of a renovated downtown LA building not far from his local headquarters as the incumbent Assembly District 53 representative, a state-wide office to which he was elected in 2014. But the multi-colored horizontally-striped socks are hard to ignore. The unusual stockings, however, go unmentioned as the 42-year-old lawmaker discusses the trajectory tha...

by Abel Salas Lila Downs, the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter with roots in Oaxaca and the U.S., has often been described as a “Mexican chanteuse,” a outdated label that falls far short of doing justice to her creative vision, vocal prowess and riveting stage presence. Musically, her 20-year career has been sustained by a powerful, multi-octave voice that turns everything from Cuco Sanchez cantina heartbreak songs to torch-singer classics such as “La Llorona” into blazing, yet still sultry balms for the soul. Her original compositions are as apt to address political realities as they are to broach everyday life with a melancholic, brooding intensity. Or conversely, the songs will manifest themselves firmly as tender love songs that are both lullabies whispered to an infant and hypnotic incantations meted out to melt a lover’s heart. Over the phone from her home in Oaxaca, Ana Lila Downs Sánchez switches easily from Spanish to English. And while it’s been said countless t...

By William Alexander Yankes Hooligan Sparrow, a documentary by debut filmmaker Nanfu Wang, takes its name from a well-known Chinese feminist and human rights activist who first gained notoriety when she offered to take the place of women being exploited as sex workers and provide the same services free of charge. Unconventional and daring, it was her way of drawing attention on their plight in a country where women’s rights are ignored or, worse, systematically trampled upon. In the film, Wang trains her camera on nine women, among them Ye Haiyan—source of the film’s title—that band together to protest the sexual abuse of six grade-school aged girls by their principal in 2013. ( Above: Filmmaker Nanfu Wang) Wang joins them in China’s Hainan Province where she and her subjects are followed, intimidated and threatened with bodily harm by government authorities when they take to the streets to demand justice for the six young victims and a legal sanction of their abuser. Her film, ...

Clement Hanami, Goonsquad Garage , 2016 By Pancho Lipschitz What happens when a Japanese American kid grows up in East L.A. in the ’70s? It sounds like the set-up for sit com on the El Rey network but it’s really the story of Clement Hanami’s life. We sat down for beers in Little Tokyo to talk about his journey from East L.A. to UCLA, coming home again to design the art for the East L.A. Civic Center Metro station and how he learned about the true meaning of art by being a roadie for Los Illegals. PL: Did you always think of yourself as an artist? CH: My father was a photographer and my mother was a seamstress but they both dabbled in artistic things. My dad was a poet on the weekends. He would do this thing called senryu. It’s like a haiku but haiku deals with nature and senryu deals with ironies in life. Like a Seinfeld episode. My mother used to paint. So I grew up in a house that was very creative. Do you remember when you started to take art seriously? Growing up Asia...

Organized as a collaboration between three well-known LA non-profit arts organizations that include socially and politically engaged art as an integral part of their focus, 43: From Ayotzinapa to Ferguson opened at Self Help Graphics & Art on May 12th.  The milestone exhibition, an effort to underscore a parallel between the reasons for the rise of the #blacklivesmatter movement in the U.S. and the disappearance of 43 politically active students from La Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, featured work by artists from throughout the world. “We wanted to bring artists from both the African-American and Chicano-Mexicano communities together over the idea that excessively aggressive policing in places like Ferguson, New York, Texas, the Bay Area, is part of a larger problem,” says co-curator Jimmy O’Balles. Raised in both LA’s East Side and Monrovia before being sent to Vietnam, O’Balles founded the Monrovia Latino Heritage Society and has organiz...

Urban Renewa l, 2016, Mixed Media on Canvas, 96"x 41" The Latino Art Museum opens an exhibition featuring the work of renowned artist Jesús Toro Martínez this week. The show, Jesús Toro Martínez: NOT TRADITIONAL , a collection of 100 paintings and drawings will be on view through July 30th.  The exhibit presents Martínez’s newest works on canvas, wood and paper.  An artist reception will be held today from 4 p.m. - 9 p.m. as part of the monthly Pomona Art Walk.   “I’m thrilled to have my work exhibited in such a prestigious  and rapidly growing institution. It’s an honor to have been invited to have a one-man show by the world-class staff at the Latino Art Museum in Pomona,” said Martinez. “I love to paint visual expressions that change the viewer’s opinion by using unconventional organic materials.  It’s rewarding to see individuals appreciate my art and their interest in technique and purpose.  I am grateful to have been included as part of the...

From Staff Reports MAS ACA , the self-published, hard-cover edition of photographs by East LA-raised and Boyle Heights-based Rafael Cárdenas, will be released with an official book-signing and exhibition on July 8, 2016 at Espacio 1839, a long-standing gallery, bookstore and artisan boutique located at 1839 E. First St. The powerful and highly anticipated collection, made possible in large part through crowd-funding support, is the artist’s first-ever foray into the realm of high-gloss, coffee table quality publication and represents a survey of his photographic work from 2010 to 2015. The book release and accompanying exhibition of photographs will be preceded by an informal plática from 5p.m. to 7p.m. at Primera Taza, the eclectic, home-grown Boyle Heights café located across the street from Espacio 1839 and now co-owned by Chuy Tovar and Angel Orozco.  During the coffee house discussion, Cárdenas will share the story of how the book came together and describe his non-trad...