Salomón Huerta, Dr. Juan Gómez Quiñones , Oil on canvas, 2018  By  Álvaro Huerta, Ph.D.  Anti-Mexicanism is a form of nativism practiced by colonialists and their inheritors.   —Dr. Juan Gómez-Quiñones (2017) Tuesday, November 11, 2020 marked one of the saddest days of my life. On this day, we—the Mexican people on both sides of la frontera and our allies—lost a legend: the one and only, Dr. Juan Gómez-Quiñones (JGQ). We have not only lost one of the finest scholars and public intellectuals in the Americas but one whose academic tenure and scholarly contributions were among the foremost in the world. The esteemed historian and writer was born a Mexican in el sur (Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico) and died a proud Mexican/Chicano in el norte (Los Angeles, California). That his passing occurred during a time when the Mexican continues to be otherized, marginalized and pejoratized serves as a sobering reminder of the staggering loss his death represents for la raza. ...

  José Rizo (kneeling) leads a band called Mongorama in honor of legendary Mongo Santamaría. Photo by Dr. Andrea Bruce By Abel M. Salas Tranquil and dotted with the tall trees from which it takes its name, Sycamore Grove Park greets visitors with a quiet peace and a pleasant stillness. The park appears to offer more wide-open space than it really has, a result of its proximity to Debs Park, which stretches over the crest of the highest nearby hilltop visible directly across the 110 North. Until recently, more than half of Highland Park residents were children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of either U.S.-born Mexican Americans or Mexican immigrants. These often gathered their families on warm summer weekends under the shade of a Sycamore or at a picnic table for birthday parties, baptismal celebrations, ball games, and carne asadas. Others came in pairs on missions of courtship and romance. Some drove in from neighboring East Side neighborhoods or rode public transit to ...

Review by Patrick Fontes   Mowing Leaves of Grass By Matt Sedillo 126 pp. Flowersong Press. $15 www.flowersongpress.com In Mowing Leaves of Grass Matt Sedillo gives us something special. More than a book of poetry about a lived experience, more than a powerful insight into life as a Chicano growing up in the barrio, Sedillo combines a unique awareness of the Chicano experience, rooted in race and class, with an intellectual critique of American society and history. And the poet pulls no punches. We quickly learn from his verse that he is servant to no master; he is an iconoclast willing and ready to pull the curtain away from any Oz America might be shrouding in its past. “And I didn’t come to make friends; And I didn’t come to hold hands; I came to talk shit,” Sedillo writes in the poem “Raise the Red Flag.” His honesty is not latent. We don’t need to muse over a cappuccino while wondering what his verse means—it is clear and often brutal. If you know your ancient poetry, this is...