How it really is-- from David Horsey, Seattle Times

Chicano/Mexican-American Artists and their benefactors

Cheech Marin

Cheech Marin teams up with city of Riverside and Riverside Art Museum to develop Chicano art center

Photo credit CBS News

Carmen Lomas Garza

photo credit Smithsonian Museum

More of her work at her website carmenlomasgarza.com

Carlos Almarez (claimed by AIDS in 1989)

Playing With Fire: Paintings By Carlos Almaraz

A Conflicted Psyche Revealed

Oral history interview with Carlos Almaraz, 1986 February 6-1987 January 29

Chicano Art Icon Carlos Almaraz Was the Ultimate Shapeshifter

Magic Green Stage, 1982

Echo Park Bridge at Night, 1989

Martín Ramírez

Self-taught artist, confined to a state mental hospital for the last 15 years of his life, diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia.

Three VW Vans

So what is ICE up to these days?

This post is sort of a sequel to this one, and we really cannot, in good conscience, stop writing about it.

The Architect.

To start out, we need to talk about the person who set the tone for the abusive policy attitude toward all immigrants in the United States.  Not just from Mexico.  Not just from Honduras or Syria or Haiti.  Dreamers, refugees, children, disabled.  It is all the same to him.

That person is current Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly.  It would be hard to find a more repulsive,
racist man-- it is true, but the the important point is that he's Trump's boy, and like attracts like.

Examples of reporting on this topic are everywhere.  Here are a few.

John Kelly, Deacon of Deportation by Charles M. Blow

Jan. 17, 2018 People correctly direct their ire about Donald Trump’s hostile, racist, anti-immigrant policies at Trump himself because, after all, this starts at the top.

But there is someone else in the administration, behind the scenes and in the shadows, who deserves more scrutiny and more condemnation for this administration’s approach to immigration: Chief of Staff John Kelly....read full article

John Kelly’s Promotion Is a Disaster for Immigrants
In just six months, Kelly turned DHS into a deportation machine.

A quote from the article:

"On paper (if not always in practice), the Obama administration directed immigration agents to focus their energy on those who’d been convicted of serious crimes and to largely leave alone those who’d been convicted of no crimes. In February, Kelly wrote: “Unless otherwise directed, Department personnel may initiate enforcement actions against removable aliens encountered during the performance of their official duties.” Translation: Every undocumented and deportable immigrant would now be fair game."

As we've seen, ICE has taken this directive and put it into action with sickening zeal.

Has there been a slowing of the deportation machine? Has there been a return to "tiering" (kick out "the bad ones" first) ? Not at all. If anything, things are worse.

Perhaps we really only needed one John Kelly quote.  Talking to Laura Ingraham, he cut to the chase:

"But the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War. And men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had to make their stand."

The Bullshit.

Look no further than the @ice.gov Twitter account. If you cast a net that drags in mostly peaceful, non-criminal immigrants you'll catch some bad guys, too. Law of averages. They love to crow about those.  MS-13, rapists, human traffickers, etc.

Joint Operation nets 24 transnational gang members, 475 total arrests under Operation Matador

We're not saying it's wrong to bring these people to justice.  We're saying they're damaging the fabric of our country by tearing families apart and persecuting innocent people.

The Reality.

All we could stomach for now, in no particular order, since Trump and his cronies got their hands on

the levers of power.  Some of these have been favorably resolved, but only because the spotlight tweaks their sense of how their jackboot tactics might possibly appear to decent people.

More than 500 pregnant women in ICE detention, after reversal of Obama policy

Immigration authorities have detained 506 pregnant women since December, when the Trump administration ended a policy to release most pregnant women while their immigration cases are pending...read full article

Video of woman being pulled away from her daughters in immigration arrest sparks anger

They said Ms. Morales was running a human smuggling ring.  Funny, she's one they released instead of prosecuting. Such a heinous crime, too.  Maybe ICE is soft on crime, or they lied again.  But it's OK to lie.  That's what they told Douglas Schwab.

Police answered immigrant's call for help, then gave him to ICE

Wilson Rodriguez Macarreno and his family heard an intruder so he called police for help. About an hour later, he was in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Rodriguez's detention Thursday sent shock waves through the Seattle suburb of Tukwila and is now garnering national attention from immigration advocates, warning that the way authorities handled the case could make immigrants scared to call police to report crimes...read full article

Mother and son's deportation pits senator against Homeland Security

US Sen. Bob Casey is lashing out at the Trump administration for deporting a Honduran mother and son who he says are at risk of getting killed by gang members

John Kelly's comment at the time...

"You can't pick and choose the laws that you obey.  And I can't pick and choose the laws that we're by law required to enforce.  We had a court order to remove her and we did."

This guy is scary.  Trump called him spectacular...read full article

Wife of 7th Special Forces Group vet faces deportation under tighter immigration rules

A Virginia immigration court on Monday could decide to deport the wife of an Army 7th Special Forces Group veteran, despite provisions in the law that allow her to remain in the United States.

Retired Sgt. 1st Class Bob Crawford, 52, and Elia, 44, married in 2001 when he was still on active duty and deploying regularly with 7th Group to conduct counter-narcotics operations and training missions in Latin America...read full article

Deported, divided: How a mom’s return to El Salvador tore her family in two

More than two months had passed since he’d last seen his mother, through a glass barrier in an immigration detention center in Williamsburg, Va. The U.S. government deported Liliana Cruz Mendez to El Salvador before her son, Steve Bermudez, finished fourth grade...read full article

Immigrant arrested by ICE after dropping daughter off at school, sending shockwaves through neighborhood

Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez had just dropped off his 12-year-old daughter Tuesday morning at her Lincoln Heights school when two black, unmarked vehicles surrounded his car.

As he pulled away from the school and got back onto the main road, the vehicles’ lights flashed. Avelica-Gonzalez, with his wife and 13-year-old daughter in the car, pulled over. Agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wearing jackets that said “POLICE” on the back, detained the 48-year-old father of four...read full article

Follow up to the above:

How one L.A. father’s arrest put an entire neighborhood on edge

The air-conditioning system pumped cold air even during frigid winter nights on the high desert. To fall asleep under his thin blanket, Romulo Avelica Gonzalez, then 48, wore two pairs of socks, wrapped his feet in bath towels and tried to bring his mind to a warmer place...read full article


Often, reporting on immigration will refer to "Obama-era" policies, but this is not really accurate.  The policies, for the most part, are "Bush-era", "Clinton-era", and "Reagan-era".

Past administrations, both Republican and Democrat, understood the difference between campaign-trail rhetoric and policy in the real world.  They understood immigration policy is complicated because they weren't in the business of harassing and sowing fear among law-abiding immigrants, and more importantly, their vulnerable family members, whether documented or not.

Natividad Vácio: First in a series

Mexican-American character actors....who were they?

Remember Father Knows Best? Seen re-runs?  Aware of it's iconic status?  Whatever way you know it, you may have come across a character who appeared in 5 episodes.  His name is Frank, but they called him "Fronk", which we suppose was a bit of humor-- pronouncing an Anglo name as a native Spanish speaker might, if he spoke English with a heavy accent.  Perhaps it was an anglicized derivative of "Francisco", but we'll never know!  We know this actor was born in Texas.  Perhaps he spoke English without a Spanish accent at all.

He played the Anderson family gardener.

"Fronk" is Natividad Vácio (September 8, 1912--May 30, 1996)

His career spanned 41 years and 65 TV and movie appearances.  Yet, the vast majority of his roles were stereotypical Hispanics, especially in the early years. A large percentage of his roles contain only a first name or a descriptor such as "bartender", "waiter" and "vagrant".

Paco.  Chico.  Manuel.  Pedro.  Bricklayer.  Bootmaker.

He was never a president, a CEO, or even a riverboat scoundrel.

One of the more interesting facts we discovered was Vácio's close friendship with Superman actor and director George Reeves (then known as George Bessolo).  They were high school pals in Pasadena, California.

From a Sarasota, FL Superman conference

From imdb

"Born in El Paso, Texas, Natividad Vacio grew up in Pasadena, California. In high school he became friends with future actor George Reeves, who encouraged Vacio to join him at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. Vacio appeared in several plays there as an actor and musician. After military service in World War II he worked as a teacher, but with the encouragement of his best friend Reeves, appeared frequently in films and television." 

In turn, "Nati" taught George how to play the guitar. The two formed a vaudeville-style musical duo, but unfortunately-- no records of their performances seem to exist.

As was mentioned, Mr. Vácio was a World War Two veteran.  It is the only thing mentioned on his headstone at Forest Lawn.

We wanted to write a more complete profile of this prolific, talented man, but information is limited.

At Pasadena Playhouse

For example, we know his creativity on the stage abounded, and that he started Commedia del Artistes stage company of Padua Hills, California. (present-day Claremont)

The page linked below might refer to that effort, but we can't say for sure.  Although it is now a banquet hall, until the 1980s it was the home of "The Mexican Players".  It seems likely that Natividad Vácio would involve himself in something like that.

Padua Hills Theatre Home Page

It is true that many character actors live and die largely unnoticed, while being the backbone of every TV show, movie and stage play, it is far more true of those who play a select group of Hispanic stereotypes.  Our plan is to write more of these profiles interspersed with posts on other topics.

Hope-- Miguel Rivera

Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon

Before the 1943 outbreak of the infamous Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots . . .there was the death of José Gallardo Díaz.

José Gallardo Díaz.

Known popularly as "The Sleepy Lagoon Murder", (legalese People v. Zamora)-- this was more than kindling for the ensuing riots. This was the lighter fluid, a combustible mixture of wartime paranoia, rampant racism in Los Angeles law enforcement and the judicial system, wild fear-stoking newspaper headlines, misunderstanding of 1940s Mexican-American youth culture, and celebrity activism-- in particular Anthony Quinn, Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles.

In writing this post, we were really struck by the fact that history is messy, and finding the truth can be confusing.  Textbooks and secondary sources must package things neatly, but it is clear the essence of some of the events is overlooked or obscured in the process.  Anyway, on to the story .  . .

On a still moonlit Sunday morning, August 2, 1942, 22 year-old José Díaz was found battered and dying by the fence of a dirt road in what is now Bell, California. This was the awful aftermath of what can only be described as a hellish series of events for all concerned.

The Sleepy Lagoon

A birthday party for one Mrs. Amelia Delgadillo-- given by her family and 20-30 invited guests, a reservoir on old Williams Ranch, and drunk, rowdy teenagers set the stage for the tragedy that formally ended in late 1944, when twelve wrongly convicted young men were released from San Quentin Prison.  We couldn't improve on this introduction to the case, so we'll use it.

credit: law.jrank.org 

Sleepy Lagoon Trials: 1942-43

"Late at night on August 1, 1942, eight to ten uninvited young men were ordered to leave a birthday party at the east Los Angeles ranch home of the Delgadillo family. The party crashers ended up half a mile away on a "lover's lane," where they assaulted several young people parked by a reservoir nicknamed "Sleepy Lagoon".

The victims of the beating returned to their own neighborhood, collected a large group of friends, and returned to confront their attackers. Finding no one there, they followed the sound of music to the nearby Delgadillo party. What happened when they arrived would never be clear, but a brawl erupted inside and around the Delgadillo house."

Upon discovery of Mr. Díaz (who died shortly after arriving at the hospital) LAPD officers descended en masse and rounded up about every young male caught outside in the barrio, from age 12 to early 20s, according to Lupe Leyvas, sister of main suspect Henry "Hank" Leyvas. Somewhere between 300 and 600 guys, as well as many young girls were caught up in the dragnet and interrogated.

Lupe Leyvas on PBS American Experience

As the police closed in on the most likely attendees at the brawl, the beatings by police during interrogation increased accordingly, coercing false statements, all of which became fodder for the jury and the press eager to stoke fomenting fear that these brash "foreigners" (all but two were US citizens) were actually subversive Axis or even Nazi agents undermining the fabric of the country while we were at war, all while wearing flamboyant attire who's style was borrowed from African-Americans, known as the "Zoot Suit".

via California Historical Society 

Whether Hank Leyvas and his friends from the "38th Street" neighborhood were actually wearing Zoot Suits that evening is unclear.  However, it doesn't matter. The Zoot Suit was a symbol, and the Sleepy Lagoon (sometimes shortened to "goon" in the headlines)Trial became inextricably tied to the riots that erupted in June 1943, occurring in a different section of Los Angeles and involving different groups of people.

Biased headlines stoke a spirit of revenge.

Most likely due to white resentment of Zoot Suit wearing Mexican-American guys leaving the confines of the barrio and embracing the LA jazz club scene in a big way, we saw prominent newspapers adopting a nativist tone in the months prior to the Sleepy Lagoon incident.

These stories conjured visions of a tsunami of lawlessness perpetrated by "pachucos"-- who were always portrayed as ruthless gangsters.  Our intention is not to delve into the pachuco topic, because it is very clear from the record that neither the "38th Street Gang" or the "Downey Boys" (those who initiated the melee after being ejected from the Delgadillo party) were hardened criminals.

An excerpt from the website Digital History

 "The Los Angeles papers started it by building for a "crime wave" even before there was a crime. 

MEXICAN GOON SQUADS.

ZOOT SUIT GANGS. 

PACHUCO KILLERS. 

JUVENILE GANG WAR LAID TO YOUTHS' DESIRE TO THRILL.

Those were...the headlines building for August 3rd.

On August 3rd the death of José Diaz was scarehead news. And the stories were of Mexican boys "prowling in wolf-packs," armed with clubs and knives and automobile tools and tire irons, invading peaceful homes....

On August 3rd every Mexican kid in Los Angeles was under suspicion as a "zoos-suit" killer. Cops lined up outside of dance halls, armed with pokers to which sharp razor blades were attached, and they ripped the peg-top trousers and "zootsuits" of the boys as they came out."

Out of all the potential culprits caught in the police dragnet, 22 young men were eventually tried in a highly unusual "group trial" for conspiracy to murder José Díaz on that night.

Judge Charles W. Fricke conducts a corrupt, racist trial.

The exact details of Judge Fricke's misconduct are painstakingly detailed in the appeal opinion overturning the verdicts, but we'll highlight just a few that struck us as most egregious-- beyond the basic fact that there was no evidence linking any of the defendants to whatever circumstances led to Jose Diaz' fatal injuries that night, much less a conspiracy.

There was inadequate to nonexistent legal representation allowed by the judge.

Those who were represented by counsel were not allowed to sit next to them and confer during court proceedings or court recess, as was and is standard procedure.

All of the defendants sat as a group, reinforcing the impression that the crime was committed by a group (a conspiracy murder).

They were not allowed to wear clean clothes or get haircuts, therefore the jury saw them dressed in the now disheveled clothing they wore when they were arrested and interrogated.

Blatantly prejudicial "expert" testimony was read to the jury including something called the Ayers Report, which included this statement:

"Mexicans, because of their Indian blood, have no concept of the value of human life, and when fighting have only a desire to kill, or at least let blood."

Not surprisingly, the outcome was as follows on January 12, 1943:

Three convicted of 1st degree murder and 2 assaults (sentenced to life imprisonment); nine convicted of 2nd degree murder and 2 assaults (sentenced to 5 years to life); five convicted of assault; five acquitted.

Now we come to the brightest side of a dark story-- a group of people who rode to the rescue and created the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee.  As we mentioned, a number of activists in other areas who became aware of the case were outraged by it, and determined to do whatever was needed to right the injustice.  An important part of this was the commitment of those people with the power to sway public opinion-- Hollywood stars.

Had they not done this, it seems highly likely that most of the wrongly convicted would have spent years, and perhaps life in prison.  An example of their work:

The Sleepy Lagoon Case-- Pageant of Prejudice by Alice Greenfield

In the end, an appeals court overturned all the convictions and reprimanded Judge Fricke, stating that the trial judge "...injured materially the defense of the appellants by his insulting remarks to defense counsel, by (unwarranted) rebukes, and by failing to make provisions for consultation between defendants and their counsel.

For more detail on that:

EXCERPTS FROM THE DECISION OF  THE SECOND DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA  IN THE SLEEPY LAGOON CASE  ENTERED OCTOBER 4, 1944

The twelve young men were released from prison on October 4, 1944.

Telles Family with Hank Leyvas in background via UCLA 10/4/44

As we searched and found information on this case, we couldn't help but have the impression that "the more things change, the more they stay the same", as we have chronicled in several of our posts-- the stirring of fear by the powerful, aggressive and intimidating law enforcement agents, a sensationalizing, biased media sector, injustice perpetrated on the powerless, and sometimes a reprieve coming from people with influence who can't stand to sit idly by and watch it all happen.

Further reading on the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee from the Online Archive of California

Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee Records, 1942-1945

I've started a new page containing a more extensive list of sources used in the writing of this post.  Click here for that:  Lots of Sources

Vicente Fernández-- the King of Ranchero

. . .deserves a Friday entertainment post all to himself.  He's retired now, but what a voice.  We have two videos from this beloved singer.  "Por tu amor maldito" (for your damned love--English translation at the bottom of the page) and "A Mi Manera" (Spanish language version of "My Way" from Mr. Fernández' last concert in 2016).

His last performance (2016) "A Mi Manera"

A touching story from Reuters Entertainment

Mexico's beloved Vicente Fernandez bids farewell with concert

Youthful Vicente does the smoldering eyes . . .

For your damned love 

The day I found you I fell in love

You know I've never disclaimed it 

Cruelly you managed to drive me crazy

And illusioned, I fell into your trap

Suddenly, all of that was over

You failed on the promise of adoring each other

You drowned me in oblivion for believing

That to you, the years would never come

For your damned love

I can't end with so much afflictions

I wish to blow up even my veins

For your damned love

For your damned love

Because of your damned love

I can't adjust my feelings

And my soul keeps draining

Because of your damned love

For your damned love

And now what do I want the grave for?!

If you already buried me in life

I don't want you ever to come back, no

I'd rather hold defeat between my hands

If yesterday I pronounced your name so many times

Look at me today, breaking my lips

For your damned love

I can't end with so much afflictions

I wish to blow up even my veins

For your damned love

Thanks to your damned love

I can't adjust my feelings

And my soul keeps being drained

Because of your damned love

Because of your damned love

Because of your blessed love.

A closer look at Maria Hinojosa

We've got friends everywhere, and some have made mention of journalist Maria Hinojosa, who they said, "is on PBS".

photo credit: futuro media group

Honestly, the consensus around here is that PBS is a bit of a snoozer.  We didn't want to do it.

Nevertheless, Gracie (our brilliant canine office administrator) exclaimed, "It's like it's raining men on the blog!  What's up with that?  Write about a woman!"

So, OK then!

"Maria Hinojosa is on PBS."

What an understatement that turned out to be!  Similar to Jorge Ramos, Maria Hinojosa is as American as Donald Trump, and as it turns out-- is so much more accomplished than we were aware of.

We're going to start with a short promo featuring Maria Hinojosa "broadcast journalist" because it really captures her personality and her point of view: from LinkTV:

Maria de Lourdes Hinojosa, journalist.

Born: July 2, 1961, Mexico City, Mexico
Citizenship: American
Residence: Harlem, NY

When Maria was just one year old, her father, Dr. Raul Hinojosa, moved the family to the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago when he was appointed to the surgical faculty at the University of Chicago.

While there is not a lot of information about her childhood and life prior to college, Maria shared her feelings about motherhood and her Mexican heritage in a memoir, Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son (1999) In it she discusses her frequent trips to Mexico to visit relatives, commenting, "I can't let go of Mexico.  It is part of who I am."

Ms Hinojosa attended Barnard College, graduating in January 1985 with a BA in Latin American Studies with minors in Political Science and Women's Studies.

Here is a summary of her early career from the blog Barnard Archives and Special Collections:

"Hinojosa’s career in broadcast journalism began immediately after college, when she took a position as a production assistant for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. In 1987, she joined the staff of WCBS Radio and produced shows such as “Where We Stand” with Walter Cronkite,” “The Osgood File", and “Newsbreak.” From 1988 to 1989, she was a producer and researcher for CBS’s “This Morning.” Then, from 1990 to 1997, she worked for NPR and WNYC Radio as a general assignment correspondent, covering issues in the New York area and throughout the country."

In 1992, Maria put her mark on the national radio stage with NPR's "LatinoUSA" radio program, which continues to the present day.

Trying to fill out the rest of Maria Hinojosa's achievements is daunting.  Books, TV, documentary films, appearances on numerous news programs, charity work, and also the recipient of numerous prestigious journalism awards.

We have however, picked out a few that seemed particularly interesting, relevant, or curious.

ICE Director Thomas Homan

As our readers may know, we wrote a post (this blog makes no pretense of objectivity) about the aggressive, Trump-inspired attitude permeating ICE and DHS regarding non-criminal undocumented immigrants being arrested and sent to detention centers.

This is generally where the stories end.  We wonder, what then?  What is life like in a detention center?  As it happens, Maria Hinojosa produced and wrote a full epidsode of the PBS investigative series "Frontline" exactly on that topic.

Here we have to point out that the introduction from the PBS page devoted to the program "Lost in Detention" is chilling in light of who currently occupies the White House:

"More than one million immigrants have been deported since President Obama took office. Under his administration, deportations and detentions have reached record levels. The get-tough policy has brought complaints of abuse and harsh treatment, including charges that families have been unfairly separated after being caught in the nationwide dragnet . . ."

Perhaps rank-and-file ICE agents really are straining at the leash.  Perhaps they enjoy rounding up non-criminal immigrants, including minor children, and sending them into indefinite incarceration, also known as "detention".

We are certain, however, that the Obama Administration would never actually encourage these operations, as Trump and his bureaucratic lackeys currently do.

Here is a 5-minute promo on the film:

We mentioned the interesting and the curious.  To be specific, we're talking about Maria Hinojosa: One on One, her interview series.  In it she covers stories nobody else does.  In particular, she traveled to Cuba to interview a couple, part of the "rockero" subculture, who deliberately injected themselves with the AIDs virus in order to be committed to a sanitarium, where they would be housed, fed, and allowed to dress as they pleased without fear of recrimination.

Here Maria discusses interviews that most affected her:

In reading about all of Maria's accomplishments, we couldn't help but notice what seems to be her "baby", her own production company, Futuro Media Group.  The website has lots of information on their activities.

Now we'll conclude this post with a video that expresses the enthusiasm and dedication Maria still brings to her endeavors: The Push-up Challenge:

. . .and check out her very entertaining podcast In the Thick!

Film Noir on the border

Friday A & E handed in late:

Criminals escaping and the people tracking them down, a simple concept makes for a trove of fascinating film noir plots.  Our favorites, including one that is actually set in New Mexico, but has all the elements of a great film noir set in Mexico, and Jesika loves Robert Montgomery.

Ride the Pink Horse (1947)

We like this review from The Criterion Collection.  It starts out:

Director and star Robert Montgomery suffuses his moody 1947 New Mexico–set noir with palpable postwar anxiety and expressive fatalism . . .

Expressive fatalism, that's what you want in a great film noir.

Next, we have sort of a sleeper film noir, but definitely, we love it.  The plot is reminiscent of the great Double Indemnity, where an insurance investigator is actually investigating his own crime, but that's all the spoiler we have to offer.  We particularly love Felicia Farr as the devoted, unsuspecting wife and Jack Klugman as small-time hood Frankie Page.

Time Table (1956)

Third, we have:

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

We feel the quality of this film can be attributed to the fact that it is directed by Ida Lupino.  The very bad guy is William Talman, who later played Hamilton Burger on the Perry Mason TV show, which we feel is a waste of some really scary looking psycho eyes.

Last for now (we know we missed lots of great ones in this post), it's the wonderful, notorious:

Borderline (1950)

Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor get top billing in this classic film noir, but we really love Raymond Burr in his white suit, being oh so cold and evil. Raymond Burr played numerous film noir antagonists that sometimes it's hard to believe he later became our beloved good guys Perry Mason and Chief Robert Ironside.

'Til next time!

La Raza! Chicano Power!

Fist in the air!

All that scary stuff that struck terror in the hearts of whites back in the early '70s.  Specifically, in

Southern California and Texas, but undoubtedly most of the nation was familiar with La Raza, as something like Mexican Black Panthers.  We suppose your average middle-class white family who stared at "radical" political activism on their TV sets each evening were perfectly glad they lived someplace other than populous cities in Texas or Southern California.

But who were they, really?  What exactly is "La Raza"?  As with all our post topics, the "journey of discovery" applies to the writer as much as it does the reader.

We found a story much more complex than the familiar angry, scary people who want to turn half of (or maybe all of!) the United States into Mexico.  They carried a Mexican flag to a march!

Turns out the truth is much deeper than the modern day activist group.

The roots of "la raza" actually date back at least from 1925, with a book titled, "The Cosmic Race" by Mexican author José Vasconcelos.  From website Inside Mexico:

"The term La Raza originated in the 1925 book, La Raza Cósmica, The Cosmic Race, by the Mexican writer José Vasconcelos. He explained la Raza Cósmica as the product of continuous racial mixing that was already underway in the Latin world. Vasconcelos thought that ultimately all of the people within the former Spanish Empire would be thoroughly blended into a new race."

So, as we understand it, this book was a coming-to-terms with the idea that hundreds of years after the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico, the population was now consisting of people who were descendants of the Spanish, and the indigenous people of Mexico, without a modern day understanding of genetics, the term "race" was applied with arbitrary definitions.

It was meant to give Mexican people an identity of their own.  

Now we fast forward to Texas, 1970.  We see the founding of a new political party, who borrowed the term and called their party "La Raza Unida".  This is the mother of the infamous "La Raza" we still talk about today.

The group was founded by two men-- José Angel Gutiérrez, not exactly a hair-on-fire bomb-thrower type:

"Gutiérrez is a 1962 graduate of Crystal City High School in Crystal City, Texas and served in the US Army.  He has also earned degrees from Texas A&M University--Kingsville (B.A. 1966), St. Mary's University in San Antonio, the University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D. 1976) and the University of Houston Law Center (J.D. 1988). He has done postdoctoral work at Stanford University, Colegio de México, University of Washington, and Centro de Estudios Económicos y Sociales del Tercer Mundo in Mexico City, Mexico."

and Mario Compean, MA.  We weren't able to find a lot of information about Mr. Compean, other than that he worked for Washington State University as a project director, and this very recent interview:

Civil Rights in Black & Brown Oral History Project

The La Raza Unida party operated within the bounds of any fledgling political party, promoting and campaigning for candidates with a like-minded viewpoint, staging demonstrations, etc.  They never promoted violence, anarchy, or the reconquistador philosophy.

That certainly doesn't mean everyone associated with La Raza was a warm and fuzzy huggy-bunny.  La Raza tapped into a lot of simmering anger, especially among young people in an intense reform era, where all sorts of oppressed groups decided not to shut up anymore, and their message wasn't always dressed up in niceties.  

Where is La Raza today?  Does it still exist?

It does.  Both literally and in the form of formal lobbying groups, most prominently the National Council of La Raza, now known as UnidosUS.  The president of UnidosUS, Janet Murguía, recently wrote this article for Huffpost addressing the issue of La Raza and violence.

Violence is Never the Answer

La Raza has a Facebook Page

. . .and an address in San Fernando, California.  We checked Streetview, and the area doesn't look like a business district, so maybe it is incorrect.

As we wind things up, we want to point out that misinformation about La Raza abounds.  A large part of this problem is the existence of "The La Raza Gang", which is involved in criminal activities and We feel certain this gang is not sanctioned by anyone connected with the original La Raza Unida party.

update to add: here is an example of such misinformation.  Most of it comes from (usually right-wing) bloggers.  You will see "pundit" Jim Kouri associate the criminal gang with a quote from José Angel Gutiérrez

La Raza Unida Leader Sentenced to Life in Prison for Racketeering

Friday Fluff-- I mean, Arts & Entertainment Day

Somehow, it just doesn't seem right to call these artists "fluff"-- but we've got some great arts and entertainment links for today . . .

First, one of the funniest movies you will ever see, guaranteed, unless there's something wrong with you.

But, really-- can a comedy with Jonathan Winters and Peter Ustinov not be funny?

It's Viva Max!

Here's a summary from imdb:

"When his girlfriend tells him that his men wouldn't follow him to a house of ill-repute, Max, a general in the Mexican army, decides to  perform some great act of heroism.  He takes his men over the border into Texas and recaptures the Alamo.  This upsets the Texans greatly.  The Texas National Guard is sent in to retake the mission.  Normally this would be easy as Max's men have left all their ammunition back in Mexico, but the State Department insists that no one be killed and so the National Guard also goes in with unloaded weapons."

Max even has his own march by Al Hirt and Hugo Montenegro!

Next we have Hey Señorita by The Penguins (of 'Earth Angel' fame), because it's doo-wop and it's called Hey Señorita-- and we're nostalgic for '45s' . . .

Last but not least we have Linda Ronstadt in one of the lovely videos from her 1987 LP "Canciones de Mi Padre".  In this one she describes some of  her talented relatives from Sonora, Mexico and the musical heritage that infused her life since she was a little girl.

Happy Weekend!

Trump's SS: DHS and ICE

We don't really want to write this post.  We'd rather post pretty pictures, in fact.  But there's a growing reality out there we can't avoid.

"We're not about breaking up families."-- George W. Bush

Donald Trump is about breaking up families.

It's under the radar in the US media, but it's not under the radar in Latino, or even US-based Latino subsidiaries.

DHS and ICE agents are becoming the gestapo in the eyes of a vast swath of our Latino population, along with the ensuing constant, consuming fear that occurs anytime a population is under threat by law enforcement with an inhumane agenda.

Yes, we'll go as far as to say kristallnacht differs only as a matter of degree.

The personal anecdotes are everywhere.  They even made it to Spanish language religious television, where frightened children are taught to turn to God to comfort them.  They're afraid their parents will be taken away.

These are the kids derisively called "anchor babies" by the staunch, hugely ignorant nativists that Trump attracts.

We believe logic will tell you that with a US Latino population of 56.6 million, for every one of these stories that makes it to print, there are thousands out there that don't.

We've written about one such case already, Dennis Rivera Sarmiento.

In that case, we were actually shocked to hear that ICE in Houston threatened retaliation against local institutions if they didn't proceed to hand Dennis over for deportation, but this DHS/ICE attitude has only been confirmed upon further investigation.

The reality is if nobody had intervened on his behalf, Dennis would be in Honduras right now, life as he knew it and a bright future torn away by vindictive DHS/ICE people expressing the hostility that infuses their "leader".

Before we proceed further, we want to say that we know there are good agents out there, working hard, day in and day out.  We're not talking about them.  We're talking about a proactively angry culture being created by those "higher-ups" with enough influence to do so.

The main force behind the Nazi shit is none other than Trump's current White House Chief-of-Staff, John Kelly.  Well, he certainly appears to be good at knocking heads together, figuratively, and probably literally.  The news always contains "fun" surprises about Trump's inner circle.

We're going to recount several more current events that, we can be sure are the tip of the iceberg, and will be so until the menace currently occupying the White House is gone.

All of it points to the completely farcical nature of Donald Trump's comment during the campaign regarding keeping "the good ones".  Presumably, those that aren't rapists and murderers.

Every one of these stories involves deliberate targeting of "the good ones".

To begin, we have:

Father of three, in the US since 2004 with no criminal record calls police to report a trespasser.

The trespasser (who was, in fact, trespassing) is not arrested.  The man who called for help, however, is arrested and taken to a detention center.

Traumatized kids and law-abiding people now afraid to report a crime.  Good job!

Immigrant faces deportation after calling police for help

Next-- Let's send middle-aged parents back to hell!  They've been here since Hurricane Mitch, and their son is a US citizen, but they've got to go!  (see the article link below for the details on this impending action against the parents of a 27 year-old man and his parents)

These two excerpts from the article say it all.  The article also contains a detailed description of the causes of the current violence in Honduras.

"Though previous administrations kept on extending beneficiaries' TPS status, the Trump administration has taken a different stance."

Yes, very different.  Different from any administration of either party as far back as we can remember.

"In November, DHS ended TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for 60,000 Haitians who arrived after the 2010 earthquake, giving them an 18-month period to leave. In November, the administration announced they would not extend TPS for Nicaraguans, saying the country was recovered from Hurricane Mitch and gave them 14 months to leave the U.S."

It's obvious from the article that things are so bad in Honduras that these people are actually refugees.  But then, the Trump Administration has demonized refugees, so it wouldn't matter what we called them, anyway.

Amid political unrest, violence in Honduras, TPS holders in U.S. worry about their fate

These actions just seem pointless.

Third up-- cuffing up the good ones and hauling them in.

No further explanation needed.

Deportation officers are increasingly arresting people with no criminal records

In depth, with the numbers.  From New York Times Magazine Daily Intelligencer:

Arrests of Undocumented Immigrants Without Criminal Records Skyrockets in 2017

The scariest part of the above article was an ICE Union official declaring how morale is really great among the agents now!

They care nothing about why an undocumented person is here.  They care nothing about the collateral emotional damage caused by their new Trump-inspired policies.

Just swing the cudgel and kick 'em out!

Our last example is the most heart-wrenching, and caused a somewhat larger blip in the Anglo media, simply because of the "how could you?" factor.

Well, they could, and they did, and we suppose, morale was through the roof back at the station that day.

Rosamaria Hernandez is a 10 year old undocumented girl with cerebral palsy . . .

. . .we'll let Esther Yu Hsi Lee of Think Progress continue (link to her article below the quote):

"On Tuesday, Rosa Maria Hernandez, a 10-year-old undocumented child living in Laredo, was taken by ambulance to receive emergency gallbladder surgery in Corpus Christi. At an interior checkpoint along the way, border agents flagged the young girl for living in the country illegally and followed the ambulance nearly 150 miles to Driscoll Children’s Hospital."

Of all the articles about Rosamaria (and there are many), this article is our favorite because it contains an interview with her mother:

Mother of detained 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy speaks out: 'This is like torture'

In the end, Rosamaria was released to her parents.

Because the ACLU got involved, apparently not quibbling over who was American or not.

That's what they do.  When the spotlight is turned on, they panic and skitter, and equivocate, almost as if they knew what they're doing is shameful, and not a matter of exultation.

We have to believe there are people involved in these increasingly common DHS/ICE operations who will be so bothered by what they're doing they'll speak up, but the culture of fear is contagious.  We're pretty sure they're afraid of repercussions, too.