Sandwich Zine Vol 3 by sandwichzine

SANDWICH Vol. 3

Winter 2023

THE DECEMBER HOT LIST by Andrea Alemán

BREAKFAST FRIEND PAINTINGS FOR YOUR WARDROBE breakfastfriend.shop

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

ORNAMENTATION: WINE GLASSES

PUBLICATION: EL AMOR EN LOS TIEMPOS DEL CÓLERA

EDIBLES: HOLIDAY MEXICAN STUFFING

DECEMBER 2023 HOROSCOPES BY FERNANDO SALINAS

ARTIST: LYDIA ROBERTS

OBSESSION: BANDALOS CHINOS

ARCHIVES: NEZAHUALCÓYOTL

21 CONTENTS

photo via Canva

Note from the Editor Welcome to our December Issue! I am excited to bring Sandwich back to your lovely eyes with a fantastic curated list. I have added some fun activities and exciting sections. This is my most ambitious zine to date, with twenty-eight pages designed by yours truly. Of course, I would not be able to bring you this without some collaborations and features. Let’s dive in! To start us off, in the Ornamentation section, I am highlighting the importance of choosing cool, quality wine glasses. Under Publication, I have included a must-read book by Colombian author Garcia Marquez. Since I am releasing this before Thanksgiving, I have decided to share our family recipe for stuffing in the Edibles section. I’m sure you will love it! I have collaborated with the magical Fernie Salinas from Golden Mirror Fortunes to bring you December horoscope predictions. The Artist of this month is English photographer Lydia Roberts! I have brought back the Obsession section, highlighting the cool, Argentinian band Bandalos Chinos. Lastly, in Archives, I bring you another story from the book La Frontera: The United States Border with Mexico by Alan Weisman. I thought it would be cute to mimic an actual magazine and include a few ads. These are ads for businesses of very close friends of mine. You need to check them out! Sandwich was born out of my love for art and the commingling of oddities in life. The cover is a collage of three art pieces I saw in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the lyrics of a Bandalos Chinos song. Happy reading and Happy Holidays! With love, Andrea D. Aleman, Editorial Director

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When I moved into my first apartment, I purchased my first set of wine glasses; they were stemless and made of hard plastic. Yikes! As I have moved from place to place, I have realized the importance of owning quality over quantity. In the last couple of years, I have acquired a better sense of style for the home. I have particularly become interested in owning unique and classy glassware. Glassware can elevate your experience while drinking and gathering with friends. I have purchased my favorite glassware from thrift stores or vintage online boutiques. Flip to page 6 to see my chart of wine glasses I would or would not buy. These are my opinions and you are entitled to like the things I do not like.

WINE GLASSES

SANDWICH 05 photo via Canva

photo via Villa Object photo via Open Invite photo via CB2

photo via Slow Down Studio

photo via West Elm

photo via Etsy

photo via Anthropologie photo via Etsy

photo via Anthropologie photo via Etsy photo via Crate and Barrel

photo via Bruke Decor

photo via Anthropologie

photo via Etsy photo via Anthropologie photo via Anthropologie photo via Etsy

06 SANDWICH

BUSY BEE BOOKKEEPING Save time, money, and headaches whether it’d be one time or every month. Set up your QuickBooks or learn how to use it. Create personalized excel sheets to keep track of your books.

CONTACT

Alina Ramirez Texas-based Freelance Bookkeeper Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor @busybee.bookkeeping

photo by Luis Paternina

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PUBLICATION GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ EL AMOR EN LOS TIEMPOS DEL CÓLERA Published in 1985, Love in the Time of Cholera is one of Garcia Marquez’s Nobel Prize winners. The book is set in Colombia in the early 1930s, following the story of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. They dated and fell in love when they were young, but Fermina decided to marry a wealthy doctor. When Fermina’s husband dies fifty years later, Florentino goes to the funeral and confesses his love to Fermina once again. I’m only a few sections into the book but I am eager to find out what happens next. Garcia Marquez is able to illustrate every scene and character so vividly they live in my subconscious. I am presenting the book in Spanish because that is how I am reading it and how it was written. I enjoy reading in Spanish because it unlocks feelings in my soul and I learn new words.

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DO YOU LOVE CHRISTMAS? SCHEDULE A CHRISTMAS SESSION WITH LUIS TODAY! @ANDRADE_LUIS

photo via Canva

Holiday Mexican Stuffing

EDIBLES

Thanksgiving is not a Mexican Holiday, but in a border town like Reynosa, the American and Mexican cultures blend and this is the outcome. My grandma said we started celebrating when my uncle, who worked in the States, received a Turkey from his employer one Thanksgiving. Then, the tradition began to have a feast and gather with family. I grew up celebrating this holiday; I have memories of the women in my family around the warm kitchen, talking about the latest gossip while cutting up vegetables. I recall some of my aunts complaining about the tedious process of cutting up so many vegetables. I’m not sure where this recipe comes from; I heard it came from a family member in Veracruz, but I don’t know if that’s true. All I know is that it is a delicious dish that can be used to stuff chicken or turkey or, since it is cooked with pork, it could be eaten on its own. This is a personal recipe and I was hesitant to share but I’ve told myself I should not be selfish and share with you. I hope you make it and enjoy it!

INGRIDIENTS 2 lbs of pork, minced 2/3 cup of bacon, minced 2/3 cup of ham, minced 4 garlic cloves, diced 4 cloves 2 potatoes, diced 2 carrots, diced 1 apple, diced with skin 1/2 onion 4 tomatoes 2 boiled eggs, diced 1/2 cinnamon stick olives raisins salt and pepper cumin

DIRECTIONS 1. Place the minced pork with 1/4 onion and salt on medium heat, adding enough water to cover the meat completely, and boil until cooked 2. In a blender, add tomatoes, 1/4 onion, garlic, pepper, cumin, cloves, and cinnamon stick to make a sauce 3. Pour some olive oil on another pot, place ham and bacon on low-medium heat, and fry until cooked 4. Once the ham and bacon are cooked, add the sauce from the blender to the pot, simmer for a few minutes 5. Add potatoes, carrots, apples, olives, eggs, and raisins to the pot with the ham and bacon until all are cooked 6. When the pork is cooked, finely cut and add to the pot with the rest of the ingredients 7. Once all integrated, it is ready to stuff the turkey or chicken

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Buy your new home today. contact

Arturo Cuellar eXp Realtor

@arturo_realtor | South Texas

sA I

Dw H c

DECEMBER 2023

HOROS COPES BY FERNIE SALINAS @GOLDEN_MIRROR_FORTUNES

¡HOLA MIS AMORES! The last month of the year is upon us, and with it the longest nights of the year punctuated with the twinkling lights of the holiday season! What do the stars hold in store for you this gorgeous month? Let’s take a look! The skies in December encourage us to dig deep into our relationships, looking to see what words we’ve said that have hurt, that have healed, and that have been hidden. With Mercury retrograding through both Capricorn and Sagittarius, and Venus entering Scorpio, we’re called to explore all of the ways our thoughts and our hearts need the space to roam both the width of the world and the depth of our souls. Discernment, kindness, and compassion will help smooth any waters that may get volatile!

16 SANDWICH photo via Canva

Let’s see what the month has to offer for each sign: ARIES 21 MAR - 19 APR Careful there! As the Ram, you sometimes charge ahead without looking, knowing that your strength of will and determination are often enough to make anything flourish. This month, put the breaks on just a bit to hold off on hurting anyone’s feelings. You’ll be grateful you did.

TAURUS 20 APR - 20 MAY Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need this month, gentle Bull. You will feel as if you want to hide your feelings inside a deep, dark well for a little bit, but don’t keep them there. People will give you what you need, but you need to be willing to request the aid.

GEMINI 21 MAY - 20 JUN Your ambitions will be sky high this month, Gemini, with your mind soaring to find what it is that you think you want. With your ruler, Mercury, retrograding through both Capricorn and Sagittarius, however, you might find that the map to success was drawn in invisible ink. Find the key to making it happen; you just might find it inside of yourself.

CANCER 21 JUN - 22 JUL The Full Moon in Cancer will illuminate all of the ways you need to tend to your own garden, filling it with water and love and light. Let your mind wander into the night armed with self-love and compassion, and when the fog rises, don’t be afraid to take a breather. Your peace is more important than your movement.

LEO 23 JUL - 22 AUG What a dazzling light show you’re performing in this month, my fabulous Lion! I see your shining light reaching far and wide — but just like light glows, it can also cause confusion if it gets too close to our eyes. Find ways to overcome this confusion by choosing your words and actions wisely!

VIRGO 23 AUG - 22 SEP Wisdom comes from experience and practice, and this month your wisest course of action is to let the experiences slide on by and to practice patience. You might find yourself irritated when your routines go awry or your rituals are disrupted, but instead of losing your temper, remember that you can always sweep up a mess in a jiffy, but you can’t always repair a relationship as quickly.

LIBRA 23 SEP - 22 OCT Relationships are key to making your life as beautiful as you’d like for it to be, and this month you will find yourself plunging into the deepest, darkest corners of those relationships. When your friends want to tell you a secret, or your lover wants to whisper a mysterious invitation into your ear, follow your heart and go as deep as you can.

SCORPIO 23 OCT - 21 NOV Hiding your feelings is second nature to you, as you don’t know just how deeply you can trust those around you. This month, it might get even harder to figure out what people are thinking — they might not even know themselves! Find some grace in your heart for those around you, even if you can’t show it all the time. It’ll make the month that much smoother.

SAGITTARIUS 22 NOV - 21 DEC The New Moon in your sign this month is enhancing your natural optimism and joie de vivre and giving you a boost to all of your endeavors. Take advantage of this goodness by planting the seeds you’d like to see sprout in the new year with extra care, and letting the warmth in your heart incubate them beautifully. You’ll find they sprout just as soon as you need them!

CAPRICORN 22 DEC - 19 JAN As the sun moves into your sign towards the end of the month, things start to get clearer. Your words and thoughts seem to have extra oomph, with an ability to articulate what it is that you need in the most transparent way. Take advantage of this by setting clear boundaries and only letting the things you desire come to you.

AQUARIUS 20 JAN - 18 FEB Be on the lookout for shakeups and shakeouts this month, Water Bearer! This month, you’re going to find yourself needing to set some expectations for those around you, ensuring they don’t overstep their bounds. You also may find yourself in sticky situations as things might not go to plan when you set these rules — give yourself some wriggle room, just in case.

PISCES 19 FEB - 20 MAR You are not unused to the mystical and the murky, finding your way through all waters no matter how deep. This month, use your considerable powers of empathy to help navigate any situation that seems to get too hot — you may be called to cool things down with a few kind words. Trust your spirit.

TAROT CARD OF THE MONTH 8 OF WANDS I typically advise slow, careful movements any month where Mercury does the retrograde dance, but this month the cards have signaled that even if we move slow, things are going to move fast! WIth Jupiter stationing direct right before the new year, things that seem off or out of place at the beginning of the month will fall into place by the end. Just like the wands flying through the air in this card, all of the things you put into motion will end up finding a spot to land. Make sure you’re putting the right energy into the universe — it will find its way back to you, corazon!

L Y D I A

R O B E R T S

aRtIST

photos via lydia-roberts.com

Lydia Roberts is an English artist and photographer. According to her site, “the root of her interest lies within image making that remains unaffected by time, with the human form emerging as a reoccurring motif.” The photos I have included are part of her Morocco, Turkey, and Cuba series. I discovered her work a few years ago; I was intrigued by her lines and her overlapping haziness. SANDWICH 19 photos via lydia-roberts.com

photos via lydia-roberts.com

BANDALOS CHINOS

OBSESSION

photo via @bandaloschinos on Instagram

my favorites in no particular order

MI FIESTA VÁMONOS DE VIAJE DEPARTAMENTO SIN SEÑAL DEMASIADO UNA PROPUESTA EL CLLUB DE LA MONTAÑA ME ESTOY ENAMORANDO SIN VOS NO PUEDO SÚPER V BAILANDO LENTOS NO, NO, NO TU ÓRBITA PARANOIA POP LA FINAL TEMA DE SUSANA NUNCA ESTUVE ACÁ ISLA KILÓMETROS DIJE TU NOMBRE LOS PUNTOS 22 SANDWICH

Bandalos Chinos is an indie-pop, rock, Argentinian band. According to their Spotify bio, the band started in 2009, with the current members being Goyo on vocals, Nicolás on bass, Iñaki on guitars, Salvador on keyboards, Tomás on guitars, and Matías on drums. I was first introduced to Bandalos Chinos in January 2022 with their hit single Vamonos de Viaje. I liked the song so much I had to find out who they were and discover their other music. In a few weeks, they became my favorite band, replaying their “This is Bandalos Chinos” playlist on Spotify. In November of 2022, when the Spotify Wrapped was released, they were my top artist of the year, with four of their songs in my list of Top Five Songs. Earlier that month, I had the opportunity to see them in concert in Monterrey, Mexico. The last time I visited Monterrey was in 2006. I knew I would regret not seeing them, only being 3 hours away from the city. I traveled with my mom and sister, which led us to rediscover a forgotten city. The weather was perfect, and the culture felt like home. At the concert, I sang all the songs I knew. I did not know the entire setlist, but I was thrilled to be there. My sister and mom were surprised at how much I liked their music.

from the stage as we chanted. Unfortunately, they did not play the song. Regardless, we still had fun and sang until the end of the concert. Throughout both nights, I would try to take myself away from the moment to realize what was happening; I was seeing my favorite band sing my favorite songs. I would think to myself how lucky I am to have this opportunity. I would put my hands on my cheeks in awe of the experience. I listen to their music almost every day and listening to their music live was surreal. I look back at the recordings from both nights and find myself with similar feelings. If you are seeking a groovy and excellent band, check out Bandalos Chinos. You will not be disappointed at the quality of their music and lyrics.

It’s been two years since I started listening to Bandalos, and a year since I saw them in Monterrey. Spoiled me was able to see them two nights in a row this October in their US tour. This time, it was as if they looked at my Spotify and decided to play my favorite songs. I knew the entire setlist, all the lyrics, all the sounds, all the humming; I knew it all. I was thrilled when I saw Tema de Susana and La Final on the setlist. The first night, in San Antonio, we were second row; it felt like a very intimate concert. I think because I could not see the other people behind me. I danced and sang my heart out. At some point, I thought I was going to cry. The second night in Austin, I was toward the back, near the bar. Before the concert started, I saw some band members walking among us. They seemed in a hurry. I always get terrified asking artists for photos. I don’t want to invade their personal space. That night, I realized that people did not know all their songs, and perhaps I was a big fan for knowing all the songs. I went to the concerts with friends, and my friends in Austin were also big fans; they knew most of the songs. At one point we moved toward the middle-front area of the floor; one of our friends liked the song El Temblor, so we started chanting “El Temblor! El Temblor! El Temblor!”. I could see how Nicolás, on the bass, smiled photo via @bandaloschinos on Instagram

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archives

NEZAHUALCÓYOTL

MATAMOROS, TAMAULIPAS, MEXICO, 1986 Text from La Frontera: The United States Border with Mexico, by Alan Weisman

Nezahualcóyotl, the Aztec poet-king, once advised, “When you have nothing to eat, sing.” “So,” sighs Jaime Garza, who does look a little emaciated, “while we go hungry, we sing. We dance. We paint.” In 1970, when he was twenty-two, Jaime Garza began Matamoros’ Instituto Regional de Bellas Artes in the ruins of a 150-year-old military hospital. On budgets that seemed impossible then, the relic slowly became functional. Infirmaries where heroes died from trying to keep General Zachary Teylor’s men out of Matamoros became classrooms and studios. Chamber musicians played in the courtyard where final bugle notes once sounded for the first martyrs in the 1846-48 MexicanAmerican War. Those impossible budgets are now recalled with great longing. During these critical times, the Instituto is simply broke. Oils, brushes, canvas, sketch-pads, strings for instruments - who can afford them when the peso buys one- twentieth of what it used to? The Instituto supposedly receives government funds, but Mexico has little to spare for the arts these days. “We need sewers before we need more culture,” they tell Jaime in the presidencia municipal. “Without culture,” he replies, “you would never have had sewers in the first place.” Beauty being irrepressible in Mexico, in some places even poverty has a sweetness about it. The Instituto’s courtyard is shaded by rubber and banana trees; the arches of its portico rest on pillars inlaid with Puebla tiles depicting wildflowers and bluebirds. Piano chords drift through the open windows, providentially harmonizing with scales picked by guitar students in the garden.

There is no money, but art is a mystery that sometimes ignores the facts. Jaime is hard pressed to explain it, but the Instituto is awash in a torrent of inspiration. Paintings lean against walls, dry on gallery floors, clutter the music salons and the dance studio. Sculptures of wire and fiberglass, collages of feather and straw, triptych folding screens and ceramic creatures engulf his office, the secretary’s cubicle, and the hallways. In the airy workshops, two of his artists, Lorenzo Rivera and Daniel Maldonado, direct students to model and draw, all the while sketching more overflowing ideas. In his teens, Jaime Garza left Matamoros to study painting and design in Mexico City. He learned that the capital’s art community

considered border culture irretrievably pocho- literally, bleached white by the glare of its proximity to the United States. He returned anyway, to inhibit the cutting edge that exposes the nerve endings of two cultures. Resolving the border’s natural tensions became his aesthetic fascination. Surrealism meets Mexican folk traditions in the work lining these walls. Shadows of Mayan pyramids streak in deliberately different directions’ shinning automobiles levitate through desert skies; wizened Indian gods parade in modern dress. The influences of Mexico’s genius muralistsRivera, Siquerios, Orozco- interlock with European impressions, New York experiments, and Oriental spells.

Class struggles share canvases with unconstrained humor. Jaime speaks proudly of Matamoros artists who have gone on to exhibit and perform in Monterrey and Mexico City. Reaching audiences in the United States is a different matter. His secretary hands him an invitation to take a folkloric ensemble to Brownsville. Dance shoes now cost 5,000 pesos a pair - “How can we afford to take twelve bailarines for a fifteen-minute show?” She shrugs.

Then there’s the migra: They know nothing about music. He’s been through this: no visas for dance groups, because they might be taking jobs away from Americans. “We’ll have to go through the consulates,” he tells her, knowing that can take months. These are just technical difficulties. The less penetrable questions deal with identity, the fragile membrane enveloping an artist’s consciousness. “Imagine being a Mexican child and waking up to Captain Kangaroo every morning. How does that relate to who you are?” Garza strokes his trim beard with the temples of his sunglasses, darkly recalling his puerile confusion. It’s a border koan; he has no idea what the answer is, and senses that to try solving it would be an error. He runs a designing studio a block away that creates dresses for fiesta queens, coming-out gowns for quinceañeras, and folkloric ballet costumes. Amid yards of crinoline, a man and two women add sequins, ribbons, and lace while watching the Yankees play the Texas Rangers on a black-and-white TV. Upstairs, where Jaime lives, canvases line corridors so narrow that a viewer must plaster himself against the wall to see them. Sculptures, ranging from indigenous to inexplicable, have overtaken the living room.

An immense charcoal portrait of a young man, flattened under glass, forms a kitchen tabletop- nowhere else to put it. The bathroom walls are paintings, some executed while Jaime was in the shower. Out on the balcony, grinning papier-mâché skeletons and giant skulls await completion for a forthcoming Day of the Dead exhibition. Jaime Garza is part of a border culture that transcends the kitsch of the curio shops, creating medleys of rancheras, polkas, mariachis, tropicales, rock and roll, and Rodgers and Hart in fertile accompaniment to the rhythms of creative minds. But he knows the threat inherent in living on a double edge. Distractions like VCRs, Calvin Klein, and plastic garbage sacks tempt relentlessly. Fronterizos exchange birthrights for dollars.

thinner. Women go crazy attaching gray polyester sleeves over and over, never learning how to make the whole blouse. Fluoride factories that no city in the U.S. will accept come here. Companies pull out overnight if they feel like it. The people have no say in what happens to them.”

From his balcony, Jaime Garza watches the people of Matamoros emerge from their wooden and concrete houses as the temperature cools with the twilight. Little boys on roofs call down to others playing with soccer balls. Women converse quietly in doorways. The border artist has to content with a nagging obsession that he must justify himself to Mexico’s interior, even as the frontera is its “Now U.S. corporations come right across the line of defense against an impending cultural rout. Looking line. They take our energy but leave nothing. down at his city, Jaime realizes that the very poverty that The maquiladoras haven’t donated buildings, threatens their art is ensuring that no one will confuse them with their affluent American neighbors. He picks up a parks, or anything else. General Motors papier-mâché skull, contemplates it under the pale light of squeezes Mexican brains and pays vassal a streetlamp, and then goes to find some paint.

wages for the privilege of inhaling paint

photo by Jay Dusard via La Frontera: The United States Border with Mexico

LORENZO RIVERA SALAZAR, JAIME GARZA SALINAS, AND DANIEL MALDONADO NÚÑEZ, ARTISTS

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