January 2010
BROOKLYN & BOYLE
Brooklyn & Boyle
In This Issue:
Art & Life in Boyle Heights and Beyond t
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Abel Salas Associate Editor: Erick Huerta Online Editor: Greg Mena Marketing/PR:Veronica Jacuinde Assistant to the Editor: Christy Ramírez
4 Ask a Wise Latina
by Josefina López
Contributing Writers:, Iliana Carter, David Díaz, Ron Fernández, Rami Rivera Frankl, Erick Huerta, Josefina López, Aleja Sierra, Antonia de la Torre,
6 Comic Belly Room Debut
by Rami Rivera Frankl
Contributing Artists/Photographers: Willy Herrón, Christopher Pérez, Sonia Romero, Aleja Sierra Antonia de la Torre, Arturo Urista Special thanks to: Gloria Enedina Alvarez, Peter Carrillo, Olivia Chumacero, Emmanuel Deleage, David Díaz, Margaret García, Kathy Gallegos, Leo Limón, Josefina López, José Lozano, Metabolic Studio/Farmlab, Jesús Treviño, Arturo Urista Cover Art: Tattooed Lady, Sonia Romero, 2009, Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 48” High-quality prints available: Large (36” x 48”) $800 each; Medium (24” x 36”) $375 each; Small (16 x 30”) $250 each; Postcard $3 each. Contact Brooklyn & Boyle at with inquiries or visit www.soniaromero.com
Brooklyn & Boyle is a registered trademark of Brooklyn & Boyle Ltd. All advertising inquiries should be directed to the publisher. The publisher is not liable for claims made in display advertising. All non-electronic submissions should be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
8 Cine: Sylvia Morales
Mailing Address: 2003 East 1st St. Los Angeles, CA 90033
by Aleja Sierra
Telephone: 323.780.9089 213.321.7115 gatux007@gmail.com www.brooklynandboyle.net
9 Space/Time/Farmlab
Ave. 50 Studio is pleased to join Brooklyn & Boyle in a grass-roots effort to support East Side Community Arts in Los Angeles!
by Ron Fernández
10 Corazón del Pueblo Sí!
by Iliana Carter
Please join art rep and Author Margaret Danielak and artist Julie Snyder of The Art Engine for THE ART OF SELLING ART WORKSHOP Saturday, January 30, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm LEARN HOW TO: Find a good gallery to represent your work Close sales by dealing effectively with buyers’ objections Use new technologies and low cost methods to promote your artwork. Fee: $75.00 (Includes all materials) Lesser Saint No. 5 by Richard Turner from “Two Testimonies Contemporary Ex Votos” Curated by Raoul de la Sota
Ave. 50 Studio •131 N. Avenue 50 • Highland Park • 323.258.1435
11 Tamales at Christmas
by Antonia de la Torre
12 Memoria: Madre Milena
by Roberto Leni
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BROOKLYN & BOYLE January 2010
Visit www.worksusa.org for information on our programs or on how to volunteer.
Brooklyn & Boyle: One Year Later, Still Alive and Kicking
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t’s almost difficult to believe that Brooklyn & Boyle was launched just over a year ago. At the time, it was impossible to imagine that an upstart community arts, life and culture paper would grow into a gallery space/cultural center and become an integral part of the movement to foster an Eastside inter-disciplinary art scene rooted in a long history of arts and activism. How could we know that all of this would unfold alongside the fairly straight ahead arts coverage and focus that had led to the magazine in the first place? To say it was an uphill struggle just to get the print publication off the ground would be an understatement. There were more than a few raised eyebrows cast my way by my own artist friends when I began tossing the idea around last summer. “Why don’t you call it Brooklyn and Soto?” said a printmaker I know and admire after a meeting to help save Self-Help Graphics. “Because it just doesn’t have the same ring,” I said. Undaunted by his dubious tone, I diligently boarded a crosstown bus from El Sereno to West Hollywood soon thereafter for visits with my friend Rami Frankl. Rami, a young filmmaker and executive in the field of digital entertainment, argued that I needed a business plan before proceeding. I had already borrowed a laptop loaded with the necessary software from Guillermo Uribe, proprietor of the now popular Eastside Luv Wine Bar y Queso, and I wasn’t about to be delayed by some rational plan and a practical search for investors. That would have been too level headed. Of course, my pockets were empty, and I was running on fumes. On the other hand, I could never be accused of not having enough hope and optimism. With a great deal of support from veteran poets and community activists Gloria Alvarez and Ruben “Funkahuatl” Guevara, I had just helped organize a successful poetry reading at Uribe’s hip night spot in the heart of Boyle Heights. The success of the reading made it clear to me that Boyle Heights and the greater Eastside were more than ready for an authentic, community–based publication that would chronicle the arts renaissance I had originally written about for another magazine. A corporate product that tried hard to bill itself as the “Eastside” monthly, the magazine eventually folded and went the way most print media seem to be headed nowadays. Enter Josefina López, a playwright, screenwriter and novelist who I had invited
to participate in the reading. She had been unable to read from her new novel because of travel plans, but found herself in West Hollywood for a meeting with her manager a little later. Raised in Boyle Heights, she had made a name for herself beyond the confines of the Eastside and the Southern California cultural maps with a play called Real Women Have Curves. Although we’d met briefly two decades earlier, we had reconnected in LA upon my arrival here. I’d followed her work as the founder of Casa 0101, a theater space on 1st Street she’d established to bring the arts back to her childhood stomping grounds. Since I was already making midday camp on Rami’s couch, Josefina met me for coffee and shared her book publishing experience, handing me a proof copy of her novel. Because the magazine was gestating, and I was in the midst of deep discussions
“Why don’t you just call it Brooklyn and Soto,” said a printmaker I know and admire after a meeting to help save Self-Help Graphics.
:::
“Because it just doesn’t have the same ring,” I said. with Rami over my obsessive need to create a magazine by, for and about the part of LA rarely seen on the screen, the possibility of including an excerpt from her book suddenly brought everything home. If was as if a switch had been flipped in an incandescence instant. Why couldn’t the vast literary, visual art, dance and music world east of the bridges that joined Boyle Heights to the industrial edge of the city center, support a publication dedicated to creative efforts that have emanated from here for almost a century, a magazine that would honor the historical antecedents of and examine the contemporary currents in artistic production, I asked? From my personal perspective, there really was no Eastside arts renaissance occurring. In fact, while still a high school student in Austin over 20 years ago, I had already been exposed to the world caliber prints created at Self Help Graphics through traveling exhibitions culled from the collection there. East LA writers like Elena Maria
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Adriana Alvarez
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Psychotherapist License Number LCS • 17951
745 S. Marengo St. Pasadena, CA 91106
Viramontes and Luís J. Rodríguez were already part of standard curriculum in some of my early college courses on new American writing. Artists nurtured on the Eastside were already showing at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris when I spent scholarshop money on a flight here in the early ’90s to find the founders of ASCO. So, calling it an Eastside arts renaissance was really just a euphemistic way of saying the rest of LA was finally paying attention to and grooving on what had been happening in this part of town for a very long time. I asked Josefina for permission to publish the prologue from Hungry Woman in Paris, and she said yes. I asked Gloria Alvarez, a well-known bard—who had asked hard questions and encouraged me to write my way out of some dark places the previous year—for a poem. Mentor, human rights activist, gang-intervention specialist, poet,
(626) 281-6893 (626) 281-6893
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novelist and Tia Chucha’s Cultural Café founder Luís Rodríguez offered to write an article for me when I told him what I was up to.Visual artist José Lozano, an el ChucoJuarez exile in Orange County, contributed a signature drawing. I recycled my own story on Mentiritas, an Ozomatli offshoot commissioned by Tu Ciudad Los Angeles magazine. Scraping together enough ad money to pay for the printing took a little longer than I’d hoped, but it finally happened. The result was a tribute to a psychic space, a location in the collective memory of a community more than a set of geographical coordinates that came together at the intersection of César Chávez (formerly Brooklyn Ave.) and Boyle St. As such, it was an homage to a shared sense of place and the exploration of what it means to belong. Many long time denizens still refer to the street by its original name, with no disrespect intended toward the true American hero and farm worker labor leader for whom the street was re-named. When the
by Abel Salas
first issue hit the streets, Josefina called to let me know a furniture store three doors west of Casa 0101 had became vacant, telling me in no uncertain terms, that a publication like Brooklyn & Boyle should have a home in the neighborhood that had inspired it’s title. A year later, you are holding the latest issue in your hands. The response from the community has been warmer and more enthusiastic than I could have predicted. The gallery, which is being expanded into a larger entity—called Corazón del Pueblo: An Arts, Education & Action Collective—will become the hub for more than just a magazine and art exhibits. See the excellent editorial by Iliana Carter on page 10 for the lowdown. We have been fortunate to garner support from community elders as well as a a newer generation of artists, activists and community organizers who have committed to the creation of regular and consistent programming. We will stay true to the heart and soul of a community that is not about to give up its integrity without a concerted effort to remind the policy makers and the developers and the property owners that short term windfalls come at a human expense. As artists, we refuse to serve as foot soldiers for gentrification, which has almost always forced long time residents out and resulted in higher rents in those places where that kind of change has been allowed to take place. We intend to celebrate the artists who are committed to respecting the authenticity of the community, its needs and its dreams. These pages will also highlight the internationally renowned and community-based creators and makers who labor incessantly with devotion to visions of beauty while working through concepts and ideas in the various arts disciplines. We will lobby stridently for more arts and culture curriculum in the educational institutions that purport to serve our youngest residents. And we will offer events and classes that provide it in the absence of such programming there. Welcome to the anniversary issue of Brooklyn & Boyle, not just an intersection, but a state of mind, or… as some of the more traditionally minded in our circle like to say… a state of Mayan. Aho. May your sun always shine with brilliance. Thank you for reading, for responding, and most of all, for believing. That said, vamos a Brooklynear!
Congratulations to Brooklyn & Boyle on its first year operation as a Boyle Heights and beyond community arts publication from the law offices of
Armando Durón Attorney-at-Law
3500 W. Beverly Blvd. • Montebello, CA 90640-1541 Phone: (323) 728-0311 Fax: (323) 725-0350 January 2010
BROOKLYN & BOYLE
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LISTINGS GALERÍAS
with witty titles that reveal a quirky sense of humor. http://mincingmockingbird.blogspot. com/2010/01/free-as-bird.html. For contact Sandra Mastroianni at semastroianni70@yahoo. com or call 323.256.6117. 4534 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock, CA 90041 323.256.6117. www.eclecticcactus.com Fremont Gallery “David Weidman,” a charming octogenarian and Los Angeles native is a true master of the silk screen medium. February 7 - March 6 Artist’s Reception: Sunday, February 7, 3 - 6 pm 812 Fremont Ave. South Pasadena, CA 91030 626.403.9901. www.fremontgallery.com
Birth of My Grandmother by Mita Cuarón from “Two Testimonies” at Ave. 50 Ave. 50 Studio The Valentine Peace Project presents “Poetry & Peace, A Night of Poetry, Music & Art a Page Of Poems by Cindy Rinne, Gloria Alvarez, William Archila, Lois P. Jones, William O’Daly, Ron Baca, Susan Rogers, Kathabela Wilson, Taoli-Ambika Talwar witj by Rick Wilson. Public is invited to create poem-wrapped flowers this evening as a call to peace. Opening: Saturday, February 6, 7 to 9 pm 131 Ave. 50, Highland Park, CA 90033 323.258.1435. www.ave50studio.com Ave. 50 Studio “Body Language” featuring work by Louie Metz, Willie Middlebrook, Andrés E. Montoya, José Lozano and Judithe Hernández Opening Reception: Saturday, February 13, 7 10 pm. Exhibition runs February 13 - March 7 Ave. 50 Studio Annex “Here is My Heart: 50 Artists 50 Hearts for Sale” A mini-fundraiser for the Avenue 50 featuring wooden hearts that were given to invited arts and poets including: Lalo Alcaraz, Katrina Alexy, Guillermo Bejerano, Kay Brown, Yrneh Brown, Nancy Bucanan, Mita Cuaron, Raoul De la Sota, Diane Destiny, Kathy Gallegos, Margaret García, Graham Goddard, Pat Gomez, Yolanda González, Lauren González, Frank Gutiérrez, Gerald Hacer, Lucy Hagopian, Cidne Hart, Kevin Hass, Amy Inouye, José Lopes, Robert Lowden, José Lozano, Maja, Poli Marichal, Amyliah Mejia, Andrés E. Montoya, Beth Peterson, Ester Petschar, CCH Pounder, Stuart Rapeport, Sonia Romero, Nancy Romero, Abel Salas, Peter Shire, Suzanne Siegel, Rachel Siegel, Joe Sims, Annie Sperling, Stormie, Cindy Suriyani, Howard Swerdloff, John Paul Thornton, Richard Turner, Sergio Vasquez, Gisel Vincent-Osuna, Mike Yanagita and Val Zavala. Opening Reception: Sat., February 13, 7 - 10 pm. 131 Ave. 50, Highland Park, CA 90033 323.258.1435. www.ave50studio.com Corazón del Pueblo “One Love: A Celebration of Black & Brown Unity in Words & Pictures,” a Valentine exhibition featuring work that speaks to peace, love and justice in our inner cities. February 11 - March 7 Opening: Through November 2003 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033 323.780.9089 www.brooklynandboyle.net Cactus Gallery “Free as a Bird” Celebrate the song, flight and freedom that birds symbolize! Featured artist: The Mincing Mockingbird (Matt Adrian) Also, featuring avian art of all types, painting, installation, sculpture and more. Matt Adrian paints rich, detailed, colorful birds
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La Tia “Es Amor Cabrón,” a valentine’s day mixed media group art show featuring work by Jhovanny Gutierrez, Guillermo Millan, Luciano Pimienta, Edgar Ramirez and Tifany Reza. Opening: Saturday, February 5 4519 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90022 323.263.7842. www.moleslatia.com
www.myspace.com/eastsideluv www.eastideluv.com EchoPlex “Mardi Gras” with Ollin along with guest appearances by Mentiritas, featuring Olzomatli’s Will-Dog, Ulises Bello, Alfredo Ortiz (Beastie Boys) and Anton Morales as well as Las Cafeteras, a female-lead Son Jarocho group from East LA and Upground, an East LA Latin-soul. booty shaker mainstay. February 16th, Doors open at 8:30 pm, $10 1154 Glendale Blvd., LA, CA. 90026 213.413.8200. www.attheecho.com Juanita’s “Benefit for Haiti and Juanita’s Gratidud Fest” live music with La Santa Ceclia, Buyepongo, art raffles, pachangona, drink specials, lunch and dinner specials and much, much more, plus the Best Micheladas in LA!! Kitchen Open Until 1AM. Saturday & Sunday, January 30th & 31st, all day $10 5930 York Blvd. Highland Park, CA 90042 323.254.4200 (call for line-up updates) www.juanitasrestaurantandbar.com
John Carlos de Luna co-hosts Flowers of Fire Illegals, ASCO) 5930 York Blvd., Highland Park, CA 90042 323.254.4200 www.juanitasrestaurant.com Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore Open Mic every Friday, 8 pm - 10 pm Free. Donations welcome. 13197-A Gladstone Ave., Sylmar, CA 91342 www.tiachucha.com Phone: 818.528.4511 info@tiachucha.com
TEATRO Casa 0101 “P.M.S. (Pinche Mentirosa Sisters) in Blind, Deaf & Dumb Dating” Three powerful and plump Chicanas take a punch at dating! Written and performed by Josefina López, April Ibarra, Miriam Peniche, Blanca M. Melchor. Directed by Hector Rodriguez
Artwork by Luciano Pimienta at Moles La Tia, from the “Es Amor Cabrón” exhibition. Primera Taza Coffee House “My Memories of Boyle Heights,” a photo tribute to the neighborhood by Eddie Ruvalcaba featuring images of the Breed St. Shul, 4th St. Bridge, Hollenbeck Park, the Sears Building, El Mercado, METRO Rail, Hollenbeck Station, General Hospital, Evergreen Park, Roosevelt High and more. Opening: Saturday, February 5th, 6 pm 1850 1/2 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033 323.780.3923. www.primerataza.com
Trópico de Nopal Gallery - Art Space “Listen! Dance! Stand withHaiti” A night of readings and music to benefit Partners in Health, providing medical care for Haiti’s poor before, during, and after the earthquake. Proceeds to be donated to Partners in Health featuring music sets by Ceci Bastida, Domingo Siete with poetry and prose by Will Alexander, Gloria Alvarez, Tisa Bryant, Percival Everett, Ben Ehrenreich, Sesshu Foster, Veronica Gonzales . Jen Hofer. Doug Kearney, Chris Kraus, Maggie Nelson and Abel Salas. Dj sets by Glenn Red, Concise, Gomez Come Alive Saturday, January 30, 8 pm, $10 1665 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026 213.481.8112 www.tropicodenopal.com
SPOKEN WORD/OPEN MIC Breed Street Shul by Eddie Rubalcava at Primera Taza. Salon de la Plaza “Reencuentro de Ayer y Hoy de Ex-Braceros: una exhibición fotográfica d ex-braceros de 1942 - 1967,” an exhibition of photographs that pays tribute to the thousads of braceros who participated in the temporary U.S.-Mexico guest worker program from 1942 - 1967. December 15 - February 5 Hours: Mon. - Sun., 10 am - 5 pm. 1868 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 9033 323.710.3696
MUSIC Eastside Luv Wine Bar & Queso East LA Taiko w/ very Special Guests Maceo Hernandez, Alfredo Ortiz & Louis Perez III, also known as East L.A. Taiko, present a new chapter in our Latino Taiko Music Thursday, Jan. 28th, 8 pm, $5 1835 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033 323.262.7442
BROOKLYN & BOYLE January 2010
Ave. 50 Studio “La Palabra,” featuring monthly Sunday reading series and open mic hosted by Laura Longoria and Don Newton. This month features well-known LA poet and El Sereno resident Steve Abee, a highly regarded bard who writes the city in uncompromising and unmitigated ways. Sunday, January 30, 2 pm 131 Ave. 50, Highland Park, CA 90033 323.258.1435. www.ave50studio.com Corazón del Pueblo “Flowers of Fire: Poesia de Lucha y Amor” Hosted by Boyle Heights Bards: Bus Stop Prophet, Kristy Lovich & John Carlos de Luna. Free Bimonthly. Early Sign-Ups for Open Mic: 7:30 - 8 pm JANUARY 27th: featuring Dora Magaña, Christy Ramírez and Abel Salas. Featured music by Willy Herron lll (Los Illegals), Sid Medina (The Brat) 2003 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033 323.780.9089 www.brooklynandboyle.net Juanita’s “Open MI-crófono” Open mic every Sunday, IAMU (Illegal Acoustic Movement United). Hosted by Willy Herrón (Los
Special guest appearance by Adrian Gonzalez & Andreas Riter February 12-28, Fri & Sat @ 8pm; Sun @ 5pm **18 & OVER ONLY!** $15 General; $12 Senior/Students; $10 Boyle Heights Residents 2009 East 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033 323.263.7684 or tickets@casa0101.org www.casa0101.org
MULTIMEDIA 18th Street Arts Center “Love in a Cemetery,” Presented by Otis College of Art and Design’s MFA Public Practice Program and the 18th Street Arts Center. an unprecedented visual arts learning laboratory led by L.A.-based visual artist Andrea Bowers and curator Robert Sain. Young artists from Otis College of Art and Design’s MFA Public Practice Program and community organizations throughout Los Angeles are participating in an exploration of aesthetics, pedagogy, and the cultural politics of the city’s arts organizations. January 23rd-March 26th Thurs. Feb. 4th, 7pm Screening/Discussion: “Fruits of War,” a documentary which tells the story of four young men’s struggle to survive when they are deported to El Salvador after spending most of their lives as members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS 13) and 18th Street gangs. The men share their journeys of self-discovery and examine their transformations from members of violent groups, to deportees, to their current and most important role - as peacemakers. Hosted by artists: Felicia Montes and Rodrigo Marti. 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA
CLASSES/WORKSHOPS Corazón del Pueblo “Arts 4 City Youth/Art as Resistance“ Drumming, Muralism, Multi-Media Arts, Hip Hop Dancing, Spoken Word and more with Liliflor, Boogie Frantic and Bus Stop Prophet.
February 6 - March 27 2003 East 1st St., Boyle Heights, CA 90033 To register for free contact: 323.881.9609 or 323.780.9089. Email: funkahuatl@azteca.net or corazondelpueblo@live. com Contact Brooklyn & Boyle at gatux007@gmail.com with jpeg art images and calendar listings.
Dear Wise Latina: Why do all men cheat? God, if I hear about another male celebrity cheating on his hot wife/supermodel/superstar I am gonna vomit! It disgusts me. Dear Disgusted, Not all men cheat. Hard to believe, but there are a lot of good men out there who are doing the best they can. Now, I think the question that should be asked instead is, “Why is monogamy so important when it seems men can’t keep it in their pants and they can’t be monogamous?” (Of course so many women will argue, including me, that monogamy is hard for us too!) To answer that question, let’s go back in history to the time when women were Goddesses (loooonnnggg time ago) and pretty much called the shots. Property was handed down matrilineally (motherdaughter, and so on) and men needed dowries to get married. At some point, men took issue with this and used force to turn things in their favor (I know, I’m simplifying history, but check it out if you don’t believe me). What allowed men to ultimately assume ownership of property and ensure that it would remain within the hands of their male heirs was the imposition of control and domination of female sexuality. This way, they would be assured that the male heirs were really their own. Yes, we marry for love, but marriage was created for financial reasons that favor men. Of course back when women couldn’t own property, vote, or work, they too, were men’s property… So, men cheat because monogamy isn’t something that is natural to both men or women. (Yes, women used to take on the whole clan way back and that was also part of our biology, so it’s not just men who are horny!) Anyway, I can go on and on about this topic, but maybe you should ask yourself why it personally bothers you? Did you cheat, think about cheating, or did someone cheat on you? Because if that is, beneath it all, the real question – then forgiveness is always the answer.
his apartments than the working class families who had always occupied his property. I couldn’t believe my ears. While it’s a sad to say, artists always have great intentions and vision, but they sometimes become “the foot soldiers for the Real Estate generals” as the politically conscious and talented Danny Hoch said in his one man show about gentrification titled “Taking Over.” I think the difference comes down to your intention. Are you here to take or are you here to contribute? I was born in Mexico and grew up in Boyle Heights. I was not born in Boyle Heights, so I can’t honestly say that I have any more right over another to claim proprietary rights in Boyle Heights, so I feel good welcoming all those who want to come here and contribute. All I have to say is, “Pick up a boom or the paint roller” and let’s make this a beautiful neighborhood for everyone. Boyle Heights is unique because it represents the microcosm of the immigrant experience and it’s the place where people of many nationalities lived in peace and tolerance. Dear Wise Latina: I love my husband, but he is so boring in bed and he is too macho to go to a therapist with me. What should I do? I am so unsatisfied that I am seriously considering going on Ashley Madison or other websites to coordinate an affair! I’m bored on the verge of leaving.
Dear Bored on the Verge, There is a funny saying, “Men fall in love with women hoping they never change, but they always do. Women fall in love with men hoping they change, but they never do.” Most therapists will tell you that if you love someone you should never ask them to change. I would agree that is true to a certain degree. If you married young like I suspect you did, your man is happy because he was probably calling the shots in the bedroom when you started. However, now that you have come into your own and feel more confident and empowered Dear Wise Latina: you realize you need more because after What does Gentrification really mean? The reason I ask is that I recently moved to Boyle all sex isn’t just a physical thing for women, Heights because I like the area and the com- but our brain needs to be stimulated with sound and visuals…. So girl, if you are not munity, but people look at me like I don’t belong here or I did something wrong? I come willing to leave your man over this then the burden is on you to slowly introduce here to be a part of Boyle Heights and contribute; what is wrong with that? What’s wrong new items or rituals – but you have to make it a seduction so that there is no with trying to belong? resistance on his part. I personally believe Dear Just Trying to Belong, that you can ask a man to bring his best Gentrification: the buying and renovation of self into a relationship if you are too. Do houses and stores in deteriorated urban neigh- not have an affair for the obvious reasons, borhoods by upper- or middle-income families but also because you should get sexual or individuals, thus improving property values satisfaction in a marriage and you have the but often displacing low-income families and right to renegotiate your contract. We are small businesses. lucky that unlike our mothers, we do not This is a very complicated subject have to suffer quietly and “quedarnos con that requires a lot of discussion because las ganas.” there is a heated debate over this in Boyle Josefina López is not a licensed therapist, but Heights, right now, so I am so happy you has an M.F.A. in Screenwriting, certification as asked this question. On a personal level, a life coach, a Reiki Master, Spiritual CounI am trying to be as objective as possible because I have had to come to grips with a selor, NLP Practitioner,Time Line Therapy Practitioner, Hypnotherapist and Divine Healing startling truth. Without even knowing it, I was, in esence, a catalyst for gentrification. Practitioner. She is working toward her Ph.D. in Metaphysical Science and just happens to be I had to hear it from my landlord, who pretty wise because she’s made just about evwas congratulated me on all my success ery mistake there is to make and has learned with my theater, CASA 0101 because it was attracting artists from the downtown from it. Send your questions to: AskAWiseLatinaAQuestion@yahoo.com L.A. arts district who could pay more for
TWO TRACKS ART STUDIO representing fine artists Pola López and Heriberto Luna
www.polalopez.com 135 N. Ave. 50
u
myspace.com/heribertoluna
Los Angeles, CA 90042
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505.920.2638 / 323.321.4308
q Congratulations Sonja Francine Marie DÍaz for your acceptance to Boalt Hall UC Berkeley’s Law School
o although your tÍa Francine Marie is Here IN spirit the candlelight of hope and dreams has is now bequeathed to you in the fight for social justice and Human rights for working people
your Dad. love you dearly.
q
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Caramba
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Mexican Food 111
¡Orale Brooklyn & Boyle! Here’s to another year of East Side Art & Life! 1
3020 W. Main St. Alhambra, CA 91775 626.282.5645
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Happy Birthday to Brooklyn & Boyle! We were happy to be there with you at the start. We salute the venture and applaud your honest heart. Life and commerce would have little meaning if not for art. COMMUNITY COMMERCE BANK Gene Aguilera, Vice President gaguilera@ccombank.com
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MUSIC Soy Metalero Por Vida, y Que?
First Time Comic Faces Fear in the Belly of The Comedy Store by Rami Rivera Frankl
by Erick Huerta
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f it wasn’t for Heavy Metal, I would be a frigging punk. Ever since I stumbled on it when I was a kid in my father’s truck, I embraced it with no looking back. Like anyone else who is passionate about music, Metal is life because if you were to cut me, I would bleed it. It’s something you live for; you die for; and defend until your very last breath. It is not an acquired taste or some trend of the week. It’s music to live by and music to help you get by. My parents did what they could raising me and my three younger sisters, struggling to keep a roof over our heads, feeding us and making sure we were always alright. My parents did what they could raising me and my three younger sisters, struggling to keep a roof over our heads, feeding us and making sure we were always alright. Through them, I learned what it means to work for a living, to earn a hard day’s wage and appreciate your family as well as everything you have, but even at that, they couldn’t teach me everything I needed to know in order to survive out on the streets. That’s where the music comes in. As corny and cheesy as it may sound, I learned to stand up for myself from the music I listened to, not from my parents or anyone else. I learned that there are times to back down and there are times to stand up for what you believe in no matter what the consequences. My parents always criticized it, misunderstood it. “Apaga ese pinche ruido carbon! ¿Que se te metió el diablo o estás loco”? they would say when ever they caught and earful of Metallica, Slayer or Pantera. They always wondered why I never listened to music in Spanish or
liked the music they liked. I would tell them that rancheras and corridos are fine and dandy, but that’s not who I am. That’s not what I’m about. Although there were times when I felt guilty or bad because I never embraced the kind of music they would have liked for me to listen to, every time I hear lighting-fast guitar solos, bass and double-bass pedals pounding through a set of speakers like a thunder storm or when ever I get near the banshee vocals of a lead singer, I get all warm and tingly. Like most people, my parents stereotyped Heavy Metal as some stupid-ass, noisy-as-hell racket that hurt their ears when ever I would play it in the car. But to the legions fans and me, it’s the type of music we wake up to, head banging until the day is done. It’s okay that most people will never understand the majesty of Iron Maiden, Cannibal Corpse or Dio. As far as I’m concerned, it’s their loss because it takes a certain level of intellect to be able to understand the musical mastery that has been evolving and growing over the years. Inspired by the blues music African American slaves played during the 1800s, Heavy Metal is something you’re born with. It’s in your DNA and all it takes is one song to get you hooked for life. Posers come and go with the trends, but true metal fans will stand together till the bitter end. “Metal forever... my homies.”
Consuelo Campos
Silversmith i Artisan i Artist
Valentine Trunk Show i February 6th
201 S. Santa Fe Ave, Loft # 208 i Los Angeles, CA 90012 www.consuelocampos.com • 213.625.7640 • chachaseven@sbcglobal.net
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BROOKLYN & BOYLE January 2010
Comics Adam Bernhart and Liliana Molina
“People fear dying and public speaking. This is the PhD of fear,” says Adam Bernhardt, referring to those doing stand-up comedy for the first time. His comedy class, part of the Los Angeles City College’s extension program, is billed as “Your World Premiere at the Comedy Store Stand-Up Work.” Upon completion of his class, his graduating students are invited to perform at Bernhart’s “Comedy Revival,” held every Sunday night at the Belly Room, one of three venues inside the worldrenowned Comedy Store. Tonight, Liliana Molina is among those first-time comedians, falling into step among her classmates. Near her, an elderly colleague struggles up the stairs with his cane. A handsome, guitar-playing Adam Sandler type is there as well. They are all prepared to debut their funniest sides before a live audience that includes friends, classmates, family and onlookers. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Liliana M. Molina Pagán, graduated from Indiana University with a double major in Psychology and Communications. She went on to film school and later learned to be a script supervisor in Los Angeles. While working with director Nancy De Los Santos in 1993 on the
short film, Breaking Pan with Sol—Molina figured out she wanted to be close to the director’s chair. “I saw a girl doing script, and that’s when I realized that was the perfect position for me,” says Liliana of her work on the film, a directorial debut for De Los Santos. Working on the project changed her life permanently, says Molina. For starters, De Los Santos introduced to director Gregory Nava, who brought her onto both Selena and Bordertown, two films starring Jennifer López. Liliana Molina has since worked with leading figures in the industry, including Forest Whitaker on Street Kings and more recently with Jada Pinkett Smith on The Human Contract, a film that marks Pinkett Smith’s first foray as feature director “Jada and Will Smith are two of the best people in Hollywood I ever met. They are humble, down to earth, funny, and sweet. But most importantly, they are very professional and respect the crew who works for them,” says Liliana. With 39 film and television projects during a span of 17 years under her belt as a script supervisor, Molina is “still loving it,” but, according to her, has often felt ready to stretch her creative energy in new directions. “For years friends, family and coworkers kept telling me how funny I was, and that I belong in front of the camera or audience.” Still, she was more interested in developing a reality show concept and, as she puts it, “took the Stand-Up Comedy Class thinking it was going to be useful for my reality show, and I was not wrong, I found my true voice [there].” The course consists of a foursession series where students learn how to write jokes, develop characters, improvisation skills, how create a stage persona and connect with any audience. After only four, one-and-ahalf hour sessions, students get the chance to try out their stuff on the Continued on page 13
Second Chance U: East LA College by Erick Huerta
Barrio Dog Productions & Jess Treviño proudly salute filmmaker
Sylvia Morales kkk Recipient of the
2009
B.H.L.I.F.E.
Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza
Arturo Urista & Daughter
I
n my five years at East Los Angeles College, I have heard the school called a multitude of things. “Ghetto,” “High School, Part II,” “Whittier University” and my personal favorite, “Taco Tech.” All derogatory remarks aside, I know it as “the school of second chances.” Yes, I’ve given it my own nickname because, it’s been here at ELAC that I have been able to put part of my life back on track, figure out what I want from the world, how I’m going to get it and how to go after it. If five years seems like a long time to be at ELAC, then call me an old man because that’s how I feel in some of my classes. There are moments when I find myself in a class full of 19 and 20-year-olds talking about how wasted they got the night before as I take a sip from my ritual morning coffee. I give them an inquisitive look and recall the days when I was doing the same, enjoying life to its fullest and not giving a hoot about the consequences. I decided to enroll at ELAC after I spent three years working dead end jobs, gigs that included selling hot dogs, fruit and raspados from a cart, working at a recycling center and being an all-around bum. I began by going to school part-time in the evenings while working during the day. I took two or three classes at a time just to get into the flow of things, since sitting in front of a desk again was like a sudden splash of cold water. In those evening classes, I met others like me, kids who were looking for a second chance at higher education to better not only their lives, but the lives of their families. I missed a semester in spring of 2007 and waited for the fall so I could focus on being a full-time student, working on the weekends. I focused on school rather than work because I realized that I would never get anywhere otherwise, that my life could easily head down a dead end path. I had the luxury to focus on school because of the breaks I would catch here and there from friends and the few extended family
members who have managed to make their way here. There are other students at ELAC that don’t have the same privileges I do, and I never let myself forget that. We all take different paths in our lives and in East Los Angeles, those paths intersect and are rebuilt at ELAC. I’m not the first student to learn to appreciate the school. I won’t be the last. And this epiphany didn’t happen over night. It took five years. In that time, I’ve had some of the best teachers around. They have challenged and prepared me for the next level. I have met former Huskies from almost every decade that tell me how the school was during their time there and all the crazy shit that went on. The same teachers that influenced them are still there influencing the next generation. Those are the teachers that are hard to find unless you know about them ahead of time. Those are the teachers who have come from schools like ELAC and want to give back and help students the way someone did for them in their day. It takes a lot of drive and desire to make it through any college today because of the budget cut backs and increased registration fees. It’s not going to get any easier anytime soon either, but we all have to persevere, no matter what obstacles come our way. It may have taken me five years to earn an Associates Degree and transfer out to Cal State Northridge, but it was worth it. It’s all worth it because I know I am making my parents proud. I’m their mi’jo, the first in the family to graduate from high school and go to a university, like a scene taken right out of the film, Mi Familia. There are always going to be criticisms about ELAC one way or another, for whatever reason, but those of us who have had the pleasure of being part of the Husky family know better. ELAC may not be the best school in the world, but like us it’s doing the best it can with what it has ala Jaime Escalante… echandole ganas.
an exhibition of the heart. mind and soul
March 6th - 28 opening reception: March 6th, 5 - 9 pm
City of Baldwin Park Arts & Recreation Center 14403 East Pacific Ave. Baldwind Park, CA 91706 www.baldwinpark.com www.urista.com
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS THOUGH RESULTS AND PROUDLY SUPPORTING THE ARTS IN OUR INNER-CITY COMMUNITIES 7876 Deering Avenue F Canoga Park, CA 91304 phone 818.883.5110 F fax 818.883.2923 F info@lmela.com
Arts 4 City Youth / Art as Resistance Drumming, Muralism, Multi-Media Arts, Hip Hop Dancing, Spoken Word
Corazón del Pueblo February 6 - March 27 2003 East 1st St. • Boyle Heights, CA 90033 For more information contact:
323.881.9609 funkahuatl@azteca.net January 2010
BROOKLYN & BOYLE
7
CINE
Filmmaker Sylvia Morales on A Crushing Love, Motherhood & Change By Aleja Sierra
she “thought was going to be about Chicana feminism.” After interviewing about ten women, she narrowed the list to five well-known activists: United Farm Worker leader Dolores Huerta; writer and community organizer Betita Martínez; organizer Alicia Escalante; author and Chicana Studies pioneer Martha Cotera and playwright Cherrie Moraga. While Morales was forced to limited the field of subjects because there we insufficient funding for a feature-length documentary, she also recognized the body of work and the years of community service these women in particular had contributed as a cumulative legacy in the span of their lifetimes. “I also wanted to make a film on those women who had been around, que eran veteranas. They’d been around awhile,” Filmmaker Sylvia Morales is a working mother. says Morales. Her voice communicates awe and wonder when otherhood isn’t easy. It’s a she describes the undertaking. “Betita, tough—often underappreciwhen I interviewed her, was 82-yearsated and almost always undercompensated—gig. Changing the world? old! Dolores was 74. She’s now 77.” As the film gradually took shape and Now that borders on the nearly imMorales confronted issues of motherpossible. Filmmaker Sylvia Morales has hood in her own home, she began to quietly and effectively gone about both wonder what it was like for the children firsthand for the greater part of her of activist mothers. She knew then that adult life. In her new documentary, A her documentary would need to examCrushing Love, the groundbreaking Chicana director introduces us to five activ- ine the lives of these powerful women from the perspective of their children ist moms who not only raised families in order to tell the story she wanted to but did it while fighting tirelessly on the share. frontlines to create a better, more just, “I interviewed one child from each tolerant world for everyone as leaders in the struggles for civil rights and social mother. I asked them what it was like,” she says. “I also used myself and my justice. daughter as a thread throughout be“It looks at the lives of five Chicause of the fact that I wanted to know cana activists, who at the same time how these women did it.” were mothers,” says Morales during a For Morales, the road to parentrecent visit to LA’s Eastside where she hood and acclaim as a filmmaker actually was accepted the award for Excellence began with her own mother’s quest for in Directing from County Supervisor new opportunities and a new life away Gloria Molina during the Boyle Heights from a familiar barrio in Culver City. Latina Independent Film Extravaganza “My mom moved us out when I (B.H.L.I.F.E.). was in the 4th Grade, and we went to The film, she explains, was a response to her own circumstances as the the West Side. So I went to the schools child of a single mother who moved her over there. I was the only Mexican there for awhile,” Morales says with a grin. out of Boyle Heights while she was still “She’d give me a tortilla that she’d just a young girl, as an accomplished media made in the morning. She’d say, ‘Don’t let artist with over 30 documentaries to anybody call you a dirty Mexican. You’re her credit and 10 turns as an episodic Mexican but your not dirty.” television director and as a mother That attitude, a sort of “don’t you herself. “For me, being a mother is a tell me anything” spirit with which her full-time job. I was going crazy doing mother sent her to school every day, creative work, doing my full-time job. coupled with her reaction to a charI’m a professor a Loyola Marymount University in the School of film and tele- acter portrayed by famed Mexican actor Alfonso Bedoya in John Huston’s vision,” Morales continues. “And being a legendary Treasure of the Sierra Madre, parent. How could I be a good mother, confesses Morales, was what drew her be a good artist, and be a good worker, to filmmaking. be a good teacher?” “The image that stayed with me On the creative front, she recalls, she was working on a documentary that the most was [Bedoya’s] ‘I don’t have
M
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BROOKLYN & BOYLE January 2010
to show you know stinking badge!’ That one just made me shrivel up with shame because I thought that’s what all these [people] were seeing and that’s not who we are,” she recounts. Her life’s work has since has been an attempt to change those images and bring honest, accurate depictions of Chicanos and Latinos to the screen. Trained in filmmaking at UCLA, Morales has dedicated much of her film production to studies on race and gender. Her work covers the breadth of the industry. She has authored screenplays, directed feature films, created television programs and developed numerous documentary series, many focusing an unflinching lens at issues of racism, classism and sexism. In A Crushing Love, Morales takes that unrelenting honesty and turns the camera on herself as she visits with other women like herself, mothers who given, given to their children, to their husbands and to the community. For her, being the frequent recipient of the highest accolades given to filmmakers in both the U.S. and Europe—among them First Place at the Democracy in Communication Video Festival, New York Film and Video Festival’s Silver Medal, the Columbus International Film
and Video Festival Chris Bronze Award, Emmy and ACE nominations—is of little regard in the pursuit of progressive change in society. Despite the fact that she burst into public life and became one of the only Chicana filmmakers in the country when she produced, directed and edited the now classic documentary Chicana! (1979) as her thesis film, she becomes finally, a mother seeking to understand her multiple roles. “Between Chicana! and A Crushing Love, I was very lucky. All I did was make movies,” she says in reference to her role as an artist. Initially intent on making a fictional feature, Morales returned to the documentary format because of budget constraints, but she is pleased because the film brings her full circle. Women Make Movies, the non-profit organization that distributed her first film (Chicana!) will distribute A Crushing Love. How can one love so much without being crushed by the weight of it all? Morales isn’t sure, but her life, her films and her newest documentary can certainly shed some light on how six powerful women who doubled as tender-hearted, nurturing women have used that love to transform a nation and a planet.
With a 90% graduation rate, one of the city’s most successful arts programs offers free classes in art, writing, dance, theater, and performance to students from ages 12 through 24 during peak violence hours. Located in the Downtown Arts District at Hewitt and 4th Place, Art Share Los Angeles matches potential with success. ArtShare Los Angeles 801 E. 4th Place Los Angeles, CA 90013 213.687.4278. For more info/contacts/programs: www.artsharela.org
SPACE/TIME/FARMLAB Anabolic Monument Provides Urban Peace By Ron Fernández
I
t’s a balmy, autumn Saturday in Los Angeles, and it’s time to feed the hybrid animals. Welcome to the Anabolic Monument, a working farm just north of Chinatown. Deer Dancer, a cross between a sheep and a deer, looks like it escaped from a Dr. Suess story. Munching amaranth seeds from my palm, it shares its chain-link pen with a pack of enhanced Nubia goats and some regular roosters. I always knew LA would morph into Blade Runner, but this isn’t what I had in mind. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the downtown skyline, the monument leases land from the Los Angeles State Historic Park, which for many of us on the eastside has become an oasis in the heart of urban sprawl. Underwritten by the forward-thinking Annenberg Foundation and its Farmlab imprint, the Anabolic Monument covers the $200K a year overhead and takes care of Deer Dancer and his pals. “I thought genetic animals were something out of X-Men,” quips Morgan Gjovik-Smith. She and her husband Corey Smith dropped by the park to fly their box kite and were smitten by the gentle creatures. Sipping grape contraband from brown paper bags, they are easily my new favorite couple. Living out their own version of A Tale of Two Cities, she has recently returned from a film set in the Big Apple, where the star lives in a bubble of make-up artists and hairtweakers, ever-ready to protect her from a blink of introspection. Today all of that is a million miles away. Olivia Chumacero, Farmlab’s community affairs coordinator, explains the purpose of the farm is to “generate consciousness for everything that generates life” and to supply the seed bank, which freely distributes organic
seeds to anyone who drops by. She and Marizta Alvarez, a filmmaker, are sitting under a beach umbrella recording visitor responses to the Anabolic Monument. Like the park itself, the project is a much needed bitch slap to the faceless forces of house-flipping, who sank the economy and wanted, as Olivia puts it, to “just have condominiums.” Yet the park remains a park. Runners jog around the 1.1 mile track and a serious game of flag football is underway. That’s the beauty of the place. It has a little something for everyone. Brainchild of environmental artist Lauren Bon, the Anabolic Monument evolved from her 2006 “Not a Corn Field” project. Echoing the installations of locals like Gronk and ASCO, whose “No Movie” series condensed imaginary cinematic landscapes into single frames, the space plays with notions of time. We usually think of a monument as a stab at permanence, but this one is a chimera, changing day to day, holding its shape for a few weeks at a time. The first batches of corn husks were collected into pumpkin bales to make room for the next round of growing, though the word on the street is that the crops came down because frisky locals were filming good ol’ fashioned smut under the 15 foot stalks, leading to the moniker “Not a Porn Field.” A few years ago I myself made a (pretty clean) movie here when the tract was all daisies, and the stock I used, Kodachrome Super 8, has gone the way of the blossoms. Everything on earth is a wildflower. Yet my real concern is for the animals. Though enclosed in a covered pen at night and guarded by cameras, people have tried to sneak the creatures out. An LAPD source informed
COME ENJOY
Olivia Chumacero and her friends at The Anabolic Monument. Photo: Aleja Sierra
OregelFilms Fundraiser Live music, art auction, raffle prizes, and delicious appetizers!!! All for $20.00
Work for 2010, Proceeds will go to finishing the One Man Show and Film Festival Submissions. Come support indie Filmmaking!! “It’s Never Too Late!” Time 8 pm to 2:00 am (Saturday, February 6, 2010) Place: Señor Fish in Downtown L.A. 422 E. 1st Street Los Angeles, Ca. 90012 (213) 625-0566 RSVP (626) 200 8484 lizgonzalez33@yahoo.com
Limited Edition Prints by Jaime “Germs” Zacarías available at $150 October/November 2009 Cover Art: Chingadasos y Putasos, 2009 Contact Brooklyn & Boyle 323.780.9089 or mail inquiries to: gatux007@gmail.com
Continued on page 13
January 2010
BROOKLYN & BOYLE
9
Introducing Corazón del Pueblo by Iliana Carter
B
oyle Heights is a place rooted in uprooting. From the seeds planted with the love and the labor of so many immigrant hands through the years, come the blossoms of barrio art that sprout constantly within this neighborhood. Today galleries, teatro, film and poetry are nearly as visible as are the ventas de ropa on the front lawns. Some have even see fit to call what is happening now a cultural renaissance, with our barrio arte in the stages of bloom. While it has deep historical roots, this beautiful resurgence of a community’s creative spirit is also at the center of a conflict. It entangles us within our own neighborhood. Just as family members misunderstand one another at times, but remain tied by a profound sense of love, the independent art movement and the working class realities of Boyle Heights and the greater east side—though living side by side and born of the same blood—remain separated by a barrier that many fail to recognize. Contrary to popular belief, the east side does not reflect a single, unified culture. In fact, that idea lends itself more often than not to stereotype and caricature; one in which all residents have just crossed the deserts of the border, dusted themselves off, and traded in their sarapes, huaraches and sombreros for lowriders, tattoos and a membership to the United Farm Workers union. The truth is much more complicated and nuanced. Seated in a cozy spot inside one of the new art spaces along 1st Street in what more privileged people are beginning to call the “arts district,” one only needs to look out the window to see a mother rushing her children to some unknown location; people missing the buses that shuttle them to downtown and Westside service and factory jobs, a señor in his wheelchair selling semillitas at all hours of the day and night, with his daughter at his side. One might think that only glass separates one side of the gallery from the other, but the truth is that the cultural divide runs. On both sides, we are brown; we are most likely working poor, artist or not; we come from the same blood, and share much of the same history, but we are nonetheless held apart. The starker reality of workingclass people is one of survival. Life consists of work—working to pay the bills, feed the children, keep a clean home and stay alive. There’s hardly anytime time for music, unless you count Saturday morning stereos placed while the house gets tidied, or at a child’s birthday party. Art, theater, poetry... “that’s for rich people,” for people who have 10
time to spend on such “nonsense.” But barrio art, created by artists with the same working-class backgrounds as those who feel this way, know that this art, our music, our poetry is born here and would not exist without it. The struggle to survive and pay the bills is innately tied to the need for expression through creativity. Our art honors our mothers and fathers, our abuelitas and abuelitos, the workers of this land, and the man who sold us semillitas for so many years. We have to bridge the distances. Artists and working families in Boyle Heights are now faced with a common enemy —one that smiles gently at you when it rips the roof from over your head and pulls the rug out from beneath your feet. That enemy has a name: gentrification. When big business and Westside-hipsters arrive, the rents will be raised, forcing out working families, small businesses and barrio artists alike. This is a fact. We have seen it happen in Echo Park, Highland Park, the Mission in SF, Harlem in NY—the list goes on and on. We must work together in order to change this. As a result, a we have formed a new collective to operate and maintain the space formerly known as Brooklyn & Boyle. Christened Corazón del Pueblo: An Arts, Education and Action Collective, this not-for-pofit, volunteerrun group aims to bridge our divided community in a positive and reciprocal manner. With respect to the needs of the neighborhood, we aim to create programming that will benefit workers and artists alike. (As a side note, we recognize that we are all both artists and workers. All who identify as artists must work and sell the fruits of their labor, and all workers have artistic talent—be it as a seamstress, a cook, or a comedian within one’s own apartment walls.) Accordingly, our goal is to provide a space that fosters the creation of art by and for our community as a whole, to educate one another, and to allow for grassroots organizing when such political action is necessary. Programming for the months of January and February is scheduled to include the following, ESL classes, community organizing classes, cooking and nutrition classes, dance, art, writing classes The space will continue to present visual art exhibitions as well as up-andcoming musical acts and spoken word artists from throughout the city. For information on how to volunteer, or to enroll in classes in 2010, contact us at corazondelpueblo@live. com. We may be found on Facebook as well. 2003 E. 1st Street, Boyle Heights, CA 90033
BROOKLYN & BOYLE January 2010
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La Cocina Íntima
Decking the Halls with Tamales by Antonia De La Torre
A
h, nothing says Navidad like the ters, always in a good natured way. After smoky smell of tamales steaming they had finished the first step, the masato plump perfection. I used to filled hojas were passed on to my Mom think that tamales were only made durand her sister-in-law, Lenore. My Aunt ing the Yuletide because they were small Lenore was a gringa, but knew the drill packages that contained delightful little pretty well. They would draw from their treasures. The fun part was unwrapping large mixing bowl—the heart and soul and then eating them until you reached of the tamal—stew-sized chunks of pork a blissful state of fullshoulder, cooked ness. It wasn’t until I in the lovely chile was much older that I sauce that had taken realized families made two days to make. tamales for special Anaheim and New occasions other than Mexico chiles which Christmas and was had been soaked, shocked that there boiled, cleaned and were places you could ever so carefully go to buy them! Every ground in a food mill; family I knew made the magical mix of their own tamales – cominos, ajo, cebolla and if you didn’t make and other spices addthem, you came over ed to make a velvety to help. As a reward and smoky blanket for your contribution, over the tasty pork. you could take some Then it was my time home. Everywhere to shine: my Mom you went, there would look at me would be un tamal Holiday tamales: no place like home. and I would carefully de dulce that you drop two black olives would gulp down with chocolate, or else into the messy mezcla as she added there’d be those someone had brought the raisins. We didn’t fold our tamales; from Arizona or Texas that you would instead, we would secure the ends with have to sample. December was a delicorn husks or cotton twine, a job done cious time of the year. by my Grandpa or my Uncle David. I loved Tamale Day. It was usually the Grandpa Pancho, in his best ‘tamale second or third Saturday in December, inspector’ mode, would bark out “Hey, generally before the celebration of La those are too big!” or “ Ma, I don’t think Virgin de Guadalupe and Las Posadas. there’s enough color in the masa.” He Every family has their own style of tawould count out the number of tamales, males. My family, coming from Sonora, and would calculate how many dozens would make pork tamales, on the larger could be made from the amount of masa size, and filled with a couple black aceitu- that had been purchased, and apportion nas and pasas –olives and raisins. I asked them accordingly to everyone. Then off my Abuelita why we made them this way, the tamales went, straight to the freezer and she said she didn’t know, that was where they would keep until Christmas how her mother had made them, and be- Eve. sides, they tasted pretty good. Ok, I went Over the years, as sisters passed with it. My very first assigned task was on or daughter-in-laws became former to put the aceitunas in the tamales. For members of the family, I and my cousin a 5 year old, that was pretty heady stuff. took their places in the tamale assembly Around the kitchen table, a makeshift line. I got to be a pretty good tamalera, assembly line was set up. My Grandpa and I was blessed that my Nana Chana Pancho would lug in an institutional sized shared the super secret family recipe metal olla filled with the freshly washed with me. My Mom was a little peeved hojas, corn husks. I watched as my Nana about that, but finally, Chana relented, Chana and my Tia Abuelas would grab and in the old “a little of this, this much an hoja, make sure that the ridges were of that” style, my Mom got the recipe facing outward, and in the most graceful out of her as well. I’ve experimented of movements, thrust a tablespoon into a few times with green corn tamales, the masa preparada. They would spread green chiles and jack cheese, chicken the masa on the hoja in two or three tamales with green chile, and sweet quick flicks of the wrist, like a magic tamales with cinnamon and cloves. It’s wand dancing on rusty cloud, and would always fun to try something different, but chatter about everything and anything. the original brings you to that special They shared their history, which was place of heart and home. Tamales are a my history, of their journey during La labor of love, a delicious little bit of each Revolution by covered wagon to Tucson, family’s history, tradition, heart and soul. of songs and parties celebrated on days My palate may compare the recipe, but I long passed, of family who were not lon- never look down on anyone else’s little ger there. The conversation, always lively flavorful tesoro stored in an hoja. Givand very loud, was filled with laughter, ing and sharing – that’s what this time of often at the expense of one of the sisyear is all about.
Recomendados Brazil Comes to the 90032 Nestled in El Sereno, Taste of Brazil comes at you all of sudden with a distinct visual force. Once you crest the hill from Lincoln Heights on Mission and the street has become Huntington Dr., there is no mistaking the bright yellow and green and blues hues rendered in mosaic tile on large sidewalk planters, on window trim and on the walls. Proprietor Margarete Ibeawuchi has created, in just a short time, a quiet get away where the sights, sounds, and culinary delights of Brazil are offered in a modest, friendly and well-lit place. While not an obvious choice for her location, the always smiling and always stylish Ibeawuchi is pleased to be part of the neighborhood. Just a scant 15-minutes from downtown, the East Side and North East Los Angeles neiborhoods, Taste of Brazil takes you to São Paulo and Río de Janeiro without all the exotic carioca, carnival extravagance. The entrees are simply yet amply prepared and the signature feijoada is redolent and filling. The pão de queijo is a delicious treat, if you, like me, are a dairy and a dough fan. In English “cheese bread” can’t communicate the delicacy of this appetizer. Tellingly, Ibeawuchi is known as simply as Margarette by the many who frequent her kitchen. Word of of the authentic and delightful dishes she and her Portuguese/ Portañol/Spanish-speaking wait staff serve up with genuine grace has finally started to filter out of the barrio. The menu, which offers appetizers that range from sausage cuts sautéed in garlic and spices to hearts of palm salad, is a genuine reflection of good Brazilian home-style cooking. The ham-andcheese bauru is perfect lunch time fare. Ibeawuchi’s seafood selections include the peixe a baiana fillet steamed in coconut milk and palm oil. For diners who appreciate the food, the place doubles as a cultural outpost. Ibeawuchi started with an import store carrying Brazilian groceries and products. For those in those who from Brazil who miss home, it will do more than suffice. For brasileiros, it is more like to a trip to your tia’s house for a Sunday night supper on your birthday. Taste of Brazil Restaurant & Market. 4838 Huntington Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90032. Reservations: (323) 342-9422.—Abel Salas
Culture Clash’s Palestine, New Mexico at the Taper Palestine, New Mexico is not what you expect at least it was not what I expected. I’ve never written a review nor do I claim to be a “critic.” In fact, when I tried to read the LA Weekly review I couldn’t finish it. I feel “critics” are often frustrated artists who have not found their voice or a platform to share it. Being an artist is a very personal experience.You bare your soul and pull out what you find, then share the results of the journey. Luckily there are venues like the Mark Taper Forum that support artists with something say. Michael Ritchie and the Taper’s support for the work of the Culture Clash is commendable. My community is grateful. Not a being critic, what can I tell you about the play without ruining the experience that I hope you will have? The play, written by Richard Montoya, opens with a soldier, Captain Catherine Siler (Kristen Potter). She is looking for the father, powerfully played by Russell Means, of her fallen comrade in arms. Her journey leads her on an odyssey of tribal intrigue and discovery. Rachel Hauck’s set design captures the mystical essence of New Mexico dynamically. Herbert Siguenza plays many characters with the unique craftsmanship that has become a signature of his performances. Something happened to me during this play. The play is about 80 minutes. but 20 minutes into the play, we meet the wife of the fallen soldier (Julia Jones), the tenor of her voice shot through me, and the tears began to roll. Something inside me opened up and I cried. Perhaps it was for all the parents, wives, husbands and children who have lost love ones in the war. Maybe, I cried for my grandmother who was disowned by her family when she fell in love with and married a Puerto RicanItalian, card shark/sailor/boxer. Maybe, I cried because my life is an expression of a culture clash, a Puerto Rican-ItalianCzech-Israeli-Jew, simply because we are all Americans and by telling the story of that clash, Richard, Herbert and Rick have once again told all our stories. I hope you see this play and have your own experience and let me know what you found.—by Rami Rivera Frankl. Rami.Rivera.Frankl@gmail.com
Moles La Tía Winner - “Best Mole in L.A.” - June 2009 Se enorgullece en felicitar a Brooklyn & Boyle por un año de servicio a la comunidad y las artes. 4619 E. Cesar Chávez Ave. • Los Angeles, CA 90022 Open Daily 323.263-7TIA (842) www.molestia.com January 2010
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CUENTO
Milena: A Short Story on Poets and Cooks, or Ode to My Mother by Roberto Leni
M
y mother is the poet in the family. She wanted to study and attend the university but it was not proper for a lady. She was one of the first women to wear pants in her town, once it became acceptable. To this day, she remembers the cold of the winter mornings, when she had to walk long distances to attend secondary school unable to wear pants. It has always been important to her that the first poet laureate of Latin America was Gabriela Mistral, a woman. Even though my mother recites poetry every now and then, long poems in their entirety by heart, she does not write poetry herself--she has always read the poetry of others. Her food is her poetry. That is how at an early age I discovered that to be a good poet one must also be a good cook. It was her meals that taught me to read the flavors of the world. There was never an abundance of food at home, but there was always a warm meal for her ten children and my father, and for whoever else happened to be hungry and happened to come into the house. Everyone would always bring someone home, my younger sister’s new friend, my older brother’s new girlfriend, my father’s friends, my older sister’s schoolmates, the entire roller-hockey team my other brother played in. Even the dog brought some street mate for dinner now and then again. The door of the house was always left open or cracked, and every year winter came, we were unable to close it. It was impossible to shut the door which faced the sun of summer, the cold of night, the wind blowing the last dead leaves off trees my mother planted in front of the house, and now the rain and storm soon to come upon us. It was my mother who kept the door open at the house through the years. There were times when my father’s friends would stay for days and even months, if they were unemployed, living underground and hiding from the authori-
ties, or just too drunk to do anything but read, eat, drink and sleep. We were poor. For part of my life I walked around with holes in the soles
got me in trouble with the administration, but it only took one visit by my mother, with me in one hand and the note they sent me home with in the other,
of my shoes and tears in the knees of my pants. I learned to cross my legs like the Chilean intellectuals in the street cafes that spent their time imitating French poets and bohemians. But my mother never failed to come to the rescue exclaiming all power to imagination and cutting out the bottom end piece of the flowery curtains that covered the living room windows. With the same needle that she had just used to get a splinter out of my little brother’s foot, she would patch the holes on the knees of my pants that tormented my existence and were forcing me into becoming an imitator. Luckily, it was the late sixties. My pants were gray and the same pair I used to go to school with that made up the mandatory uniform in those days. The two colorful patches with flowery designs
for the objections of the powerful male administrators to dissipate. My mother seized the moment with a few words and with well enunciated rhymes, spiced with a touch of reality. When roaming the streets after school alone or with friends and wearing the gray pants, some people made fun of my flowery patches. My mother responded by telling me that it was fashionable, and that hippies didn’t dress anymore colorful than I did. In the same way that she could delicately needle together pieces of my self, she was able to do the same for the rest of the family. There was a time when my younger sister, brother, and I had to wear costumes to school. It was close to the end of the month and there was only money for food and nothing else. She managed to dress my little sister as
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a colorful flower, with a costume entirely made from pages of old magazines, some newspapers and glue which she cooked for hours. She also used that same home made glue for my younger brother’s paper-mache bear mask. An old brown blanket would simulate fur, but the trouble was she had to sew the suit together. She had the needle, but did not have enough money for a roll of thread with which to interweave the outfit. She found an old bed sheet, and one by one patiently pulled the long white threat. Right before my eyes she turned my little brother into a puffy teddy bear, tail and claws included. My costume was easy. I wanted to be Zorro, the bourgeois fighter who took from the rich and gave to the poor. My mother put me to work on the sword by giving me one of the two old broom sticks she used to kill the chickens with when they got fat enough for the big, black and round old pot. My sister and brother got second and first place in the school costume competition. I was one of thirty Zorros with swords in hand too busy to pay attention to the contest. It is likely that because of her none of my brothers and father were disappeared or killed during the military coup. I remember how she never once cried, or not in front of me, that is. With every opportunity she had she made the military man in front of her look away in shame from her stare. My mother has the courage of a poet and a gaze that would make even Borges want to run right back into his labyrinth, since he himself, was decorated years later by the head of the military junta in Chile. Her best poems are the ones she prepares day after day, when she mixes the most mundane of vegetables, an onion, a potato, a tomato, and like Neruda made odes to the palate. Neruda must also have been a good cook, because he used to say that Chilean seafood is pre-historic. Only a good cook could have known that.
From Page 6 - New Comedy Central Belly Room stage where they follow in the footsteps of the comedy elite. Among the stand-up comics that have refined their material at The Comedy Store are the likes of George López, Paul Rodríguez, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, David Letterman and the late greats such as Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Sam Kinison, among scores of others who tested their chops there. Despite all of the illustrious names and the famous location on the Sunset Strip, there is grit. Debut stand-up comedy students look pale and mortified, their faces registering a palpable tension. The fear element, for them, is especially strong and just watching them work through it is rewarding, explains Adam. “What I teach is an inside job, the therapeutic value of comedy,” says Dallas, Texas-born Adam Bernhardt left for Los Angeles 21 years ago because he didn’t feel Texas was ready for him or his style of comedy. He has produced and performed as part of the “Comedy Revival” night at the Belly Room for almost two decades. The Comedy Store, Bernhardt says, was the first place he auditioned. Owner Misty Shore gave him his first break, he recalls. “I kept coming back, and she picked me up,” says Adam, who is listed on the wall as one of the Comedy Stores’ alumni. “Comedy saved my life, to me it is perseverance and it is the way we humans deal with the harsh realities of
life,” he confesses. “It is actually a mechanism in your brain, to laugh. When you are laughing you are in perspective. You are not attached, and if you reach laughter then you have reached resolve. That is what makes it interesting for me.” Liliana is fourth on stage during the class “graduation” performance. She later tells me that she was even more nervous because didn’t know she was going up fourth. Rushing the stage with purpose resolve, she launched into her own daring comedy “Let me tell you the difference between how a white girl and a Latina deals with a cheating man.” She is witty and her energy fills the room with laughter. Everyone has fear, but it is apparent that seeing someone like Liliana transform their fear into action and laughter, inspires all those in the room. Asked what advice she would give someone new to the business, she replies, “[The entertainment business] is a hard career to choose but if you love it, go for it. You have to start from the bottom up, even working for free until you build up your resume. Be humble, do not mistreat anybody who works below you or around you… stick to your Dreams. In comedy and in life, Liliana Molina has found a voice and believes that anything is possible for a person ready to face their fears. As that person, she has learned that one should “be responsible and always, always think ahead.”
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From Page 7 - Space, Time, Farmlab me a body was found in the park a few months ago, but the park staff took control of its investigation. No one knows who the person was. I guess Chinatown is still Chinatown, as Detective Jake Gittes would say. It turns out our furry friends have an expiration date, too. I was worried about weirdoes when I should have been thinking of winter. Our pals are moving to a warmer home. C’est la vie. The temporal is just that, over and over again. A few days later I return to meet Olivia. It’s dusk and the sky is a fat, saturated ochre that matches the color of the marigolds, whose flowers now frame a six-foot turquoise altar at the center of the monument. Adorned with photos, toys, and Day of the Dead skeletons, the display was the centerpiece of an ancestor honoring ceremony for the Tongva, the native people who once lived here, and whose descendants were “welcoming of a place to continue.” Lead by Olivia and her Merry Metabolic Pranksters, the all-night campfire invoked the blessing of the spirits with the scent of marigolds and the joy of reunion. The ceremonies and rituals are geared toward what Olivia terms “holding the space.” She says during the rituals you “become conscious of all that is sustaining life.” I start to get it. It turns out the land under me is a time machine. Before was LA was LA, it
was Yang Na, a 10,000 year-old trading village, whose cropland under my feet had to be reclaimed from the environmental distress of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s River Station. A placard shows a photo of the 1870’s railway turntable, but what’s crazy is that the trains – massive steam monsters that stretch out like blackened hot links on bike spokes – are dwarfed by the station itself, an amphitheater of iron girders built to last forever. Talk about impermanence. All that remains is a small section of the excavated foundations, taped off like an archaeological crime scene. The mysteries here will soon be reburied to protect them. I linger as the last red rays sink under the horizon. Closing my eyes, I can almost hear the ancients breathe. For a moment, I imagine life as it was in Yang Na, based not on clocks but events. A life guided by suns, moons, and seasons; gatherings, hunts, children, passings. After a long hot summer the harvest comes. You gather around the fire to laugh, eat, drink, sing songs of valor, and to honor all who came before you. I don’t want the magic to end. The animals, fruits, flowers. The whispers of the Tongva and the secret lives who rode the trains. The Zen garden silence. I just want the City of Angels to rest awhile in the wide expanse of green. And watch the corn grow.
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Students at Los Angeles Academy of Arts and Entertainment Learn Art of Business by Rami Rivera Frankl
POESÍA HOLLYWOOD ON TOP OF WOMEN bright blooming teeth rosy red cheeks long lanky legs firm full rump mysterious marauding eyes focused camera clicked captured image telling all other american women you are worthless useless until your bed sheet motions mimic an unending line of
Andrés Jaramillo speaks to LA Academy of Arts & Enterprise. Photo: Rami Rivera
S
peaking to a classroom full of predominantly Latino 15 and 16year-olds, Andrés Jaramillo says, “Entrepreneurship gives you the opportunity to make money and do what you love.” On a pleasant, cool LA afternoon, the guest speaker has gotten the room’s attention. Tired backs begin to straighten and there is a growing swell of energy moving through the youthful crowd. As if stirred by a wave dreams, these students have questions and an opportunity to get real answers. Hands shoot into the air. “Why go to college?” Andrés asked the students, “Party, study, and sports,” answers the mild mannered Colombian raised ex-professor of mathematics turned successful businessman. The students are laughing but Andrés’ message isn’t all fun and games, “When you are an entrepreneur, you are the last to get fired but also the last to get paid.” Established in 2005 with 27 6th graders, the Los Angeles Academy of Arts & Enterprise (LAAAE), a truly unique charter school, now boasts a student body of 380 students from the 6th through the 10th grade. LAAAE’s remarkable surge in enrollment reflects the local neighborhood, with an ethnic
mix of 91% Latino, 6% African American, and 3% Asian. The school focuses not only on art and business, but the business of the arts. Just across the street from the once drug-and-gang-infested Lafayette Park, the public charter school was authorized by the Los Angeles Unified School District and is partly the fufillment of a vision developed by filmmaker, entertainment industry veteran and businessman Moctesuma Esparza. A lifelong entrepreneur, and arguably one of the most prolific Chicano film and television producers in the business, Esparza has served on various boards of directors in various capacities including those of the New American Alliance, Los Angeles County High School for the Performing Arts, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the Planning Commission of the National Museum of the American Latino. Esparza is also currently the CEO of Maya Cinemas and Maya Entertainment Group, Inc. “My dream is that in 20 years, our graduates will be the arts and business leaders of Los Angeles,” Esparza says about the academy he helped to build. Working in tandem with an inspired
grand premier sexual performances where the male’s head is hidden where the female’s head is below her belly button mind lurid sensuality wanton creativity praised voluptuous starlets in scenarios that define promiscuity in terms of clothed vs unclothed mascara body well oiled slimmed trained to share everything shimmer shake please male whims into naughty trances like don’t you wish you were here on top on top of any woman’s body who is the woman next to you attack who is the woman inside of you don’t resist act like a movie star paramour give smile don’t let up Squeal delightedly flash bulb inter-course lying in silk mattresses pretense springboard life cardboard caricature designed fashioned clothed to maintain a desirous
Continued on next page
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in any situation
From Page 14 - The Art of Business
disrobed discourse
one male two three male four lit up as an angel or a whore
celluloid grotesque
mother image changed daughters trained for wanton womanhood socially chained box office sexual freedom giving healthy beings shattered diseased self-images supposedly cooing wooing another between sheet director tussle titled every woman Maverick tossing a bra nylons shoes dress only a sense of commotion at best mad wild temptress nightlife docile mistress purr painted unspoken talent told in pin board poses 4 bucks a shot rollicking attractive hips remember that figure calling for a man to pull the trigger lecturing women may have intelligence but not a lot of common sense only legs count actresses must imitate sensuous caress legs held high hair a mess then factor sex into lifetime success crushed between male ordered diligence talking down femininity as if it don’t mean a damn light man crew man make-up man screenplay man director all manhandling flesh advertised billboards attempt to sell the rest yes yes yells the director perform yes for coke n candy cream dreaming audience don’t stop seamy bedroom sweat pant yield let your body get hot and wet climb past being matinee’s part time finger pop become Warner’s MGM Columbia Paramount’s idolized madam a sacred symbol for cinema masses breathing hard did you see her innocent glance big breasts taking off her pants showing clear view female censored benefits from profit management
—David F. Díaz
Board of Directors and the leadership of Executive Director, Sabrina Bow, Esparza says together they are collectively breathing new life into the downtown community. Andrés Jaramillo, like Esparza, is no stranger to entrepreneurship and business. In 1988, at the age of 18, two years after a scouting mission at 16, Andrés founded Brilliant Farms and built it into the largest distributor of roses in Southern California and the third largest flower wholesaler in California. He is currently the CEO of Don Pedro’s Meat, a manufacturer of Hispanic foods, and he is CEO of Fifth Axiom, an entrepreneurial development and investment firm. Andrés has degrees in Mathematics and Applied Math from USC and is interested in the advancement of entrepreneurial and free-market based solutions to society’s problems. Through his relationships in the business world, he was introduced to The Pillars, a non-profit organization that connects diverse professionals with schools and youth organizations seeking role models and speakers. Today, Andrés fields questions from students who are primarily interested in the arts. He gives direct, inspired answers. “Knowledge of business makes you doubly successful as a filmmaker, singer and artist,” he explains. One student asks about how being Latino has af-
fected his success in business. “First thing to do is forget you are Hispanic. If you are in business then your job is to add value,” he replies. This does not mean, however, that he is not proud of his culture. In fact, he explains, the Hispanic market in the U.S. is almost as big a market as all of Mexico in buying power. Look for the trends and base your business decisions on analysis of the market place, he advises. Three key points, he concludes in response to a question about what skills the students should learn as new entrepreneurs are “negotiation, learn how to sell, and keep expenses low.” He goes on, “Everything is a negotiation and don’t be afraid to ask for a better grade but be prepared to have good reasons.” When Jaramillo is done, the students respond with enthusiasm and applause, perhaps contemplating the possibilities for their own futures. The students erupted into even louder applause, when Andrés makes a pledge to consider any business idea from within the class of students. If he likes the idea, he will give the student a loan of $500.00 in startup money for their business. Andrés Jaramillo’s talk and pledge are a step forward in making sure that LAAAE yielding the next generation of future entrepreneurs to emerge from often overlooked barrios just west of downtown Los Angeles.
pete navarro attorney-at-Law celebrates one year of arte y cultura in the pages of
brooklyn & boyle n and congratulates the
corazón del pueblo
arts, education & action collective
on a successful launch
nnn 714 W. OLYPMIC BLVD. LOS ANGELES, CA 90017
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NOW OPEN!!!
Zocaloc and PMI proudly salute
Brooklyn & Boyle Magazine
our partners in Eastside arts promotion. Still here after one year!
Corazón del Pueblo
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Tuesday, Feb. 2, 7 pm
Playwrighting/Screenwriting
w/ Josefina López ( Real Women Have Curves )
Saturday, Feb. 6, 1 pm
Arts 4 City Youth Free Workshop Multi-media with Lilia Ramírez
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 4 pm
Arts 4 City Youth Free Workshop Spoken Word/Poetry with Bus Stop Prophet
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 7 pm
Playwrighting/Screenwriting
w/ Josefina López ( Real Women Have Curves )
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 8 pm
Flowers of Fire: Poesía/Open Mic open mic sign ups from 7:30 pm - 8 pm
Thursday, Feb. 11
Arts 4 City Youth Free Workshop Spoken Word/Poetry with Bus Stop Prophet
Coffee & Lunch Specials! Art Exhibit! Call for more information or stop by! BROOKLYN & BOYLE January 2010
Thursday, Feb. 11 One Love: A Celebration of Black & Brown Unity Through Words & Pictures