by Rocío Maya Dozens of South East L.A community members gathered on Tuesday, April 11th at the Ricardo F. Icaza Workers’ Center in Huntington Park for the southern California premiere of The Long Ride , a documentary film on the 12-day journey taken by a group of 106 riders from Northern California to the nation’s capital in 2003. Produced and directed by Valerie Lapin Ganley, the 77-minute, Spanish subtitled documentary details the caravan more than 900 immigrants and allies embarked upon from various states and cities across the country. Traveling by bus, the solidarity riders concluded their bold trek with a march onto the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. where they demanded that immigrant labor be treated with dignity.  The cohort of activists known as the Immigrant Workers Freedom Riders (IWFR) sought to spark the birth of a new Civil Rights Movement for immigrant workers in response to the anti-immigrant sentiment that sprang from the 9/11 terrorist attack...

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...

A Short Story by Roberto Leni Olivares Old man Pablo never missed a game.  Rain or shine, he stood there on the side of the field sipping his Yerba Maté, as if he was Uruguayan, or, a prisoner in one of the distant concentration camps everyone wants to forget. His head floated from one end of the field to the other, following every play. The black and white checkered ball moved revolving in the opposite direction through the air as it traveled towards the left pole of the opposing team’s cage.  The play made him smile, but it was a contained smile.  Really, he felt like jumping up and down, even if it meant spilling the hot cup of ultra-sweet maté in his hand.  Seeing the left wing offensive player of his team, jump and with a fast motion of the forehead lose the sphere in the annals of the opposing team’s cage. He was the first one there for all of the Sun...

Josefina López, seated at center, and the cast/crew of Chicanas, Cholas y Chisme at Casa 0101.        by Stephanie Serrano I first heard about Casa 0101 in one of my Chicana Studies classes. My bad ass chingona professor Dr. Terri Gómez gave us—mostly young fiery women of color—glimpses into worlds and options beyond the neighborhoods we grew up in. Josefina López—like Gloria Anzaldua, Ana Castillo, Rigoberta Menchu, Dolores Huerta, and Frida Kahlo—is a staple, a pillar in Chicano/Chicanx community. She, like each of those named, became a change-maker through diligence and hard work.  They all continue to spark fires in successive generations of revolutionary spirits, and they breathe life into Chicana Feminists when the world attempts to drown out our voices. Since hearing of it, I have wanted to visit Casa 0101, which had grown to include two spaces over the last few years, according to what I’d heard sometime after graduating fro...

For the first time in history the Boyle Heights Salesian football team takes home a championship. Photo by Tom Varela by Thomas Varela The bar has been raised at Bishop Mora Salesian High School as the Mustangs ploughed through the Northeast section of the CIF Division XIII play-offs to capture their first ever football championship. Salesian had the home field advantage for the game that was played at their Soto Street at Whittier Boulevard campus on Saturday, December 7th. From the opening kick-off the Mustangs played with focus and purpose testing their opponent, Mission Prep High School, from San Luis Obispo. It was a lively and exciting first quarter as both squads were busy scrambling after fumbles punts and QB sacks until nerves were quelled and sophomore sensation, Felipe Mesa, broke off a 61 yard run and a couple of plays later the quarter ended with a 0-0 draw and the Mustangs knocking on the door at the Warriors eight-yard line. A minute and 35 seconds into the ...

by Alci Rengifo Joyous expressions, haunting visions and political defiance- such are the components of the season’s most exciting region-wide art project, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an initiative of the Getty Center with support from Bank of America. This immense amalgam of Latino art, ranging from Latin American to Chicano to Afro-Latino, is of late installed in the form of 70-plus exhibitions across Southern California. The massive survey will run from September until January 2018. In Los Angeles, PST arrives as a long overdue acknowledgement of the artistic power of cultural roots that form the bedrock of the city. This correspondent found himself on a shuttle with the press tour covering exhibits at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), and Self Help Graphics & Art here in the boiling caldron of the east side. Journalists from as far away as Chile and Panama were on board, as well as local and nat...

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...

by William Alexander Yankes “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and n---?” this court interpreter asked the Cuban witness, in Spanish, as he was about to testify. Before I could finish imparting the oath, he cut in vehemently. “Si me atrevo a mentir, que se desmorone la iglesia!” (If I dare to lie, may the church crumble down to pieces!), declared the Cuban stoutly. In December 2000, I attended an interpreters’ seminar in Cuba. Fidel Castro was still in power and George W. Bush was the U.S. President. We arrived in Havana as evening fell. The grim landscape appeared symbolic of a culture made dark by, according to some, Castro’s harsh policies as well as what many others would identify as the stifling choke-hold of the American embargo. As I disembarked in Havana, a semi-circle of armed soldiers stood before us. It would be my first indelible memory of Cuba. For some odd reason, I worried that someone would follow me and watch me. I wondered if agents would observe ...

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 ...

Grand Performances, L.A.'s beloved downtown performing arts series, now led by Mari Riddle. by Abel M. Salas Nestled discreetly among a slew of buildings at the top of Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles, California Plaza Watercourt is invisible to those driving by. Bordered on three sides by Grand Ave., 4th St. and Olive St., respectively, the hodgepodge of structures which shield the open-air urban retreat includes, among others, a pair of office towers, a hotel and the upper terminus of the city’s 116-year-old Angel’s Flight rail car service, which ascends at a sharp, 33-degree angle for nearly 300-ft. from its base at Hill St., one block to the east. First-time visitors who brave the steep, two-story escalator ride up from 4th St at Olive are often surprised to discover such a generously apportioned public space tucked away at the summit of the well-known topographical landmark that gave its name to a downtown neighborhood once synonymous with the mystery, intrigue, mur...