(Unas de) Mis Favoritas Peliculas en Espanol – Some of my Favorite Movies in Spanish

Bienvenidos a my first bilingual blog post (Spanglish more accurately). Antes de nada, perdoname – estoy bien floja y no voy a poner bien los acentos porque mi spellcheck no es biligue.

Hay muchas peliculas buenisimas de todos los paises de Latino America y para mi ha sido un gran placer conocer la gente y la tierra y la historia de los hispanohablantes por su cinema. Aqui comparto una peliculas que me encantan. Seguro que me faltan muchas! Favor de poner sus recomendaciones y comentarios abajor – gracias!

Yes, I have a minor in Latin American studies, listened to a lot of Manu Chao in college, studied in Cuba and now live here in LA where I go to an unusual number of Latin American film screenings with my USC alum cinephile boyfriend. You should be able to deduce all of that from this blog in general and, especially, this list of movies. I have undoubtedly left out some great ones – please put your recommendations and comments below!

Happy watching! Que las disfrutes….

Thrillers, intrigue and terror

• Abre tus Ojos – The movie upon which Vanilla Sky was based. The original is quite wild so you can only imagine the state of my head several years later when there was Penelope Cruz speaking English giving me intense deja vu and Tom Cruise running around…?!?! Americans – you need to learn to deal with subtitles. Stick with the original.
• El Secreto de Sus Ojos – Buenisima. Gano un Oscar! Ya…vete a verla!
• The Devil’s Backbone – Guillermo Del Toro – te quiero mucho, especialmente despues de este evento. And yes, that is German in photo #3 getting a signature from his idol.
• Pan’s Labyrinth – Mas Guillermo. Bien trippy.
• Bajo la Sal – You like CSI? This is better.
• El Traspatio – A nice transition to this next section since it is terrifying, but all too real – based on the countless murders of women in Ciudad Juarez.

Raise Your Social Consciousness

These are the movies where an audience member raises his or her hand and says: “Why doesn’t anyone show the positive side of our culture?” In fact, that happened at the Miss Bala panel at USC. The amazing lead actress said: “This is is real. This is how Mexico is right now.” Sooo….when you’re in the mood to be depressed but more enlightened…

• El Norte – La primera pelicula en espanol que vi en toda mi vida. Mi maestro del sexto grado nos enseno la peliculas – tuvimos que tener permiso de nuestros padres. La recuerdo mas que cualquier otra cosa que paso en el sexto grado. Me di cuenta de que yo no sabia nada de las historias de los mexicanos que habian llegado a vivir en mi pueblo.
• The Maid – So familiar. Chilean, but could be Mexican – so aptly captures a very particular dynamic in the homes of Latin America.
• Sin Nombre – Did you know that thousands of Central Americans illegally cross the border into Mexico? And that terrible, terrible things befall them? A beautiful and heart-renching film.
• Miss Bala – The Mexican Oscars are called the Ariels.
• Maria Full of Grace – Columbian drug trafficking. Ya viste Traffic? Y Blow? Pues, mejor que veas esta pelicula.
• Even the Rain – A recent episode of Bolivian history I didn’t know. You will notice that Gael Garcia Bernal films are all over this list. Well, he brings it – what can I say? This is just another great film with him!
• A Day Without Mexicans – Humor is the best social commentary. If I had a book club, I would just have us watch stuff like this.

To warm the cockles of your heart

• Viva Cuba – una historia increible de una amistad entre dos ninos que recorren toda Cuba
• No Se Acepta Devoluciones (Instructions Not Included) – #1 best Spanglish jokes. A Mexican party boy suddenly finds himself a father of a half-American baby girl – trust me: You do not know where this movie will take you. You will laugh. You will cry. Me encanta esta pelicula porque trata del intercambio de cultura entre los estados unidos y Mexico y como poco a poco empezamos a entendernos (o no).
• Bajo La Misma Luna – All of these movies have some element of immigration now that I think about it…
• A Better Life – Te quiero Demian Bichir.
• Real Women Have Curves – A great film with a great star (American Ferrera) based on a great play by Josefina Lopez – Angeleno friends, you should get over to the theater she founded – Casa 0101 and see her latest play – Trio Los Machos wherever you can…

High-brow and Indie-ness

• Nada – Cuban film, black and white…you just feel that you are cooler watching it.
• El Ambulante – This guy is a character and a half…and he’s real! This is a documentary!!!
• Enamorada – Guau. Cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa es un genio. Mexico at its most beautiful. This movie truly stands the test of time.http://youtu.be/hJstApoo1U4

Para los que no entienden ni papas – SEE THESE IF YOU REALLY DON’T SPEAK A WORD OF SPANISH…OR ANY LANGUAGE
Great news – there are some good movies with basically no dialogue!

• Suite Habana – An ode to the city – con esta peli La Habana te va a robar el corazon
• Soy Cuba – Sort of the same thing…except surreal and Soviet. No me crees? A ver…

 

Pura Diversion/Pure Pleasure

Guaranteed good time, nuff said.

• Casi Divas
• Saving Private Perez – 10x mas chistoso que “Casa de mi Padre”
• Rudos y Cursi
• Un Cuento Chino (Chinese Take-out)
• Chico y Rita
• Nosotros Los Nobles – El DF que yo conozco. Estaba muriendo de risa.

Un Toquecito de History

• Arráncame La Vida
• Cabeza de Vaca – Not fun per se…a bit like eating your vegetables, but more accurate that whatever Columbus films are around.
• In the Time of the Butterflies – A powerful story of a family living under the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic
• The Mission

?Como se dice “50 Shades of Gray?”
It’s cool how you’re pretending like you’ll see any of the high-quality films above, you sex-crazy people…Pues, ya vas con tus peliculas sexi y/o romanticas.

• Like Water for Chocolate
• Y Tu Mama Tambien
• City of God
• Mancora
• Pedro Almodovar films – don’t necessarily belong in this section. Try one, if you like it, pues, you have many more to enjoy…

Beans on shaved ice and chile on fruit

Shaved Ice + Azuki Beans

Sometimes I feel like when I moved to LA, I actually moved to a different country. Several countries, actually. Good thing I’m not running for President because at this point I am completely out of touch with middle America, at least culinarily speaking. I eat “meat and potatoes” literally once a year – when my boyfriend and I commemorate St. Patrick’s day with a special meal (note that neither of us are of Irish descent).

I’ve always been a California girl – I literally do not remember a time in my life when tacos, pad thai and sushi weren’t part of my basic diet. Since moving to LA, my eating has only gotten more adventurous.

I’m referring, of course, to dessert. This is where it becomes evident that people from different cultures don’t just eat different food; we actually have different palates.

A Love Letter to CicLAvia

My love for Ciclavia is a passionate love that defies words. I feel a bit like the people who were at Woodstock and now say things like, “You just had to be there.” That sounds like hyperbole, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Ciclavia is a spiritual experience. You not only experience your own familiar city in a completely new way, but you have that experience side by side with thousands of fellow Angelenos from all walks of life. Whatever stereotypes you might have about what a typical “bike rider” looks like – put them fully and completely aside. Ciclavia is, quite simply, LA on a bike. Imagine driving on the 10 freeway or the 5 – but everyone is on a bike instead of in a car. There are no barriers between us.

Cruising peacefully for a Sunday afternoon earlier this month took on a special poignancy in the wake of the bombings in Boston. I believe in my head that most people in this world are good, loving, caring people – when I participate in Ciclavia, I feel it in my heart.

See what Ciclavia feels like in my short video (overlook shakiness at start). And yes, it really was that quiet.

Scenes from Ciclavia to the Sea, April 2013:

• Three old guys sit drinking beer in their garage, watching the bikes go by. When I bike past them again three hours later, they’re still there. Just another Sunday afternoon.
• The sounds of praise drifts out of corner Iglesia Pentecostal – a man in black pants and tie steps out with a bemused expression.
• The sound of a young child’s voice belting out karaoke floats through the windows of a corner apartment building.
• Two bikers go rogue and cut off the route – a middle-aged black man in full biking regalia complete with neon orange shirt and a middle-aged white mom in beach shorts. “I’m riding with my home boy,” she comments. He grins as they as they disappear into the neighborhood.
• A girl and guy hipster with shades, skinny pants and ironic t-shirts blast some old-school Snoop Dog from a huge stereo affixed to the back of their bicycle built for two.
• A 5-foot man on a makeshift stage blasts cumbia and salsa from giant speakers in front of a Salvadoran restaraunt pushing pupusas. According to his neon sign, he’s El Tremendo.
• Two Rastafarians sing along to Bob Marley outside their pan-African thrift store calling to passerby to check out their wares.
• A chubby 8-year-old Latino boy runs to catch up with his dad, carrying a white trash bag as big as he is. They’re collecting cans and bottles along the route.
• A paletero with a huge straw hat strolls between several ladies grilling hot dogs on small carts next to the bike repair tent. The air smells of pork and jalapenos and the onions make your eyes smart.
• A transvestite in coveralls is perched on top of a double-decker bicycle. “How do you do that?” someone exclaims.
• A low-rider bicycle club hangs out by a gas station. I’m envious of their shiny bikes with their twisted chrome handlebars.
• A fit man outfitted entirely in spandex is pulling a neon yellow cart for kids behind his bike – a small gray dog pops its head out, its ears blowing back in the wind.
• A little boy pedals past sporting a fuzzy pink mustache.

Where our water comes from, why your water bill is going to go up and some one-liners from water people

“California’s water situation is like a bald man with a beard – it’s all there; it’s just not distributed right.” – MWD representative

Like most Californians, when it comes to water, I simply don’t think about it that much. I just turn on the tap and fresh, potable water comes out. Then I get a bill with a bunch of random line items with inscrutable descriptions and I pay it. And then sometimes they tell us it’s a drought so I try to be a good citizen and I don’t clean my sidewalk with a hose and I give my neighbors the stink eye when they do. And that’s about it.

Well, I now have no excuse for total ignorance. Over the past 10 months, I have been a part of Leadership LA and through this program, I recently had the opportunity to spend the day at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWP) and see our local water infrastructure up close with a tour of the Joseph Jensen Treatment Plant in Granada Hills.

I learned all sorts of complicated and fascinating and eye-opening stuff, but I’m going to focus this post on the most surprising things we learned and what all Californians need to know.

Where does our water actually come from?

LA is basically a desert – 89% OF OUR WATER IS IMPORTED! (Source: LA Dept. of Water and Power (LADWP) Fact Sheet 2010) That is both complete insanity and an incredible feat of human ingenuity and engineering. To our predecessors and I’m talking to you, William Mulholland, I say: I don’t totally agree with what you’ve done here, but wow. It’s not worth dwelling on it too much because we have too many problems to deal with right now to entertain the idea of having done things differently in the past…Here we are folks.

That said, we can’t keep going with business as usual. Basically, we keep adding more people while there isn’t any more water (and, in fact, might be less in the future) so our conservation impulse here in southern California is less altruistic and more “Oh shit.”

Our imported water comes from basically three places (See a map.):

The State Water Project & the Delta

Being a Nor-cal native, some of my first words as a child probably involved complaining about those damn So-cal people stealing OUR water. That is partially true. I will start our tour of California’s water system in the mighty Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which, if we were a more spiritual people, could be considered the state’s fountain of life. How essential is it?

The Delta provides water for 25 million Californians (out of 37.7M of us in total) and, more staggering, irrigation for half of all fruits and vegetables for the entire United States. It’s amazing and critical to all of California – however, we So-cal urbanites are not the #1 users. Of all the Bay-Delta water, 4% makes its way down the canal of the State Water Project for use down here. The biggest chunk goes to agriculture.

The Delta is that big flat area you see as you drive to Sacramento – all those canals, etc. – it’s where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet and it goes all the way to the San Francisco Bay. If you’ve road-tripped down the I-5, you have seen the SWP – it’s that blue stripe of a canal wending its way down the state. It’s massive – it’s also old and it’s screwing with the environment. More below.

The Owens Valley

Have you seen the movie Chinatown? Enough said. A driving tour podcast was recently produced about the Owens Valley – looks pretty sweet if anyone wants to road trip with me!

The Colorado River

The LA aqueduct was pretty great…but still not enough!!! So thirsty! So William Mulholland and the City of LA formed the MWD to build the 242-mile long Colorado River Aqueduct. Flash forward to today: the Colorado is the most litigated river in the world! And it’s in distress!

If you want to go deeper – this blog post is a really solid overview.

• Aquafornia: Where does Southern California’s water come from?

Why your water rates are going to go up

Let’s kick this off with a horror film – this is what would happen if we had a 6.4 earthquake in the Bay-Delta, something which has a very high possibility of happening.

Earthquakes, global warming causing rising sea levels and snow melt, salt water intrusion, the invasion of non-native species and loss of habitat – just a few of the major issues for the Delta. Good luck sleeping at night. The State Water Project was built in the 1960s and is in serious need of an upgrade – plus we’ve learned a lot in the past 50 years and need to mitigate some of the environmental harm we’ve already done and restore habitat.

The situation is so bad that the state legislature/governator actually managed to pass a plan – the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. All of us in California will be paying for it – here in LA, the projected cost is $5-6 a month per household. And that’s just for the Delta water we get. Don’t complain – the Bay Area residents passed a bond to upgrade the Hetch-Hetchy water system and build a tunnel under the bay that will cost them way more per capita.

And that’s just the start.

The Nexus of Water and Power and why desalination and wind power aren’t all that awesome

“20% of California’s electricity goes to moving water around.” – Jack Sahl, Ph.D. – Director, Environment and Resource Sustainability for Southern California Edison (SCE)

Jack Sahl from SCE who joined some great folks from TreePeople and Heal the Bay for a panel on Water, Energy and Environmental Sustainability in LA had lots of good one-liners that were more like Buddhist koans inviting further reflection. Chew on these:

• “It takes a lot of water to generate electricity and a lot of electricity to move water around.”
• “Electricity you don’t use is the cleanest and least expensive.”
• “Historically, we have stored water in California as snow.” (Put that in the context of global warming.)

I’m going to pause us here. We Americans have a history of looking to new technology as the messiah that will deliver us from our energy problems. THERE IS NO PERFECT SOURCE OF POWER WITH ZERO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT. It’s likely all these new green technologies will be part of the picture and they keep getting better, but any of them is not a singular solution to our problems.

Desalination sounds awesome – look at all that ocean water, all we have to do is take out that darn salt! Well, taking out the salt, much less moving all that water from sea level up the hill to us takes a ton of power…which has to come from somewhere. Wind power? The wind is out in the desert which means massive power lines for miles and miles to get the power to consumers in LA, not to mention that is incredibly inefficient because a lot of power is lost in transit. It doesn’t have the same sex appeal, but the meta approach to these problems is an overall move from a “command and control power system” to a distributed system.

And on to a final koan from Jack:

“Don’t talk about sustainability in terms of being good people – we have to be laser-focused on the value proposition.”

That last one bears a little more explanation. The world is changing constantly and people and organizations aren’t always so great at changing. So even if we know what we should be doing, how do you actually get people to change? If you’re talking to a CEO of a corporation, you show him the numbers AKA the value proposition. Ditto for those government folks. Ditto for those water and power consumers – am I more likely to use less water because you gave me a magnet with a pithy slogan or because you gave me a rebate to get a low-flow toilet?

At government policy-level, Kristen James, Director of Water Quality with Heal the Bay cast it in this light:

“The environment shouldn’t always come last. It can integrate with economic needs.”

And from Nurit Katz, Chief Sustainability Officer, UCLA:

“We could be zero impact. We have enough resources and technology – the blocks are political and budgetary.”

Basically, we all have to work together and, furthermore, trust each other – across departments of government, across business, non-profit and government groups. Easier said than done, but here’s your value proposition – We have no choice. With limited resources, we simply can’t get away with the way we’ve been doing things in the past.

All this stuff can make you really depressed and frustrated. Jack Sahl put this in a rosier context, pointing out that we’re past the worst of it in a sense and we have made progress – We reached peak CO2 emissions and gas use in 2009-10 even as the population has continued to grow and that if you want to talk air pollution, the ‘60s and ‘70s were when we had serious problems. In short:

“We have had uninterrupted progress in the last 100 years.”

Go humans! We’re got this.

Don’t Try This at Home

If curiosity killed the cat, my boyfriend is convinced I am going to kill him in my curiosity-driven attempts to recreate ethnic dishes in my home kitchen.

I get plenty of culinary inspiration in LA, an eater’s paradise. You can not only find food from any country on the map, but find the best of everything.

In many parts of the country, procuring the right ingredients could be a challenge. In LA, that is little deterrent, considering I live at the nexus of Little Tokyo, overwhelmingly Mexican East LA and Monterey Park, the largest settlement of Chinese people in the U.S. The only things I’ve had trouble finding within a 2-mile radius are hummus, almond extract and blackberry-flavored kosher wine. Fish sauce and obscure dried chiles? Not a problem (Poor dear friends who live in terrible places like Vermont and Italy – I will send you anything you like!)

Pad thai, Indian curry, Yucatecan papadzules, Filipino chicken adobo – I’m all for culinary experimentation. The results fall along a spectrum between, “Wow, that was easy and delicious” to “Well worth $7 to spare me the blood, sweat and tears of slaving over that dish for three hours.” Well, I’ll save you the trouble by sharing a few of the dishes we’ve successfully integrated into our repertoire so you can spice up your life!

Go for it!

Pad Thai – it took us three go-arounds to get us all the way there, but honestly, it’s a pretty darn easy weeknight recipe. We use this recipe. What we’ve learned: Get a wok! And buy the flat noodles, not the round ones, and don’t soak them too long or they get sticky.

Gnocchi – These yummy Italian potato globules are the ultimate comfort food. It’s time-consuming to make them, but consider the undertaking your pre-dinner entertainment and queue up a good play list on your IPod. Totally doable.

Aguas Frescas – You know those big glass jugs filled with brightly-colored beverages at Mexican restaurants? The whole family of drinks is called “aguas frescas” (fresh waters) – they are essentially fresh fruit mixed with water and sugar and the possibilities are endless. Seriously, just toss fruit in a blender with some water and sugar and keep adjusting until it tastes great. I’m a big fan of agua de pepino (cucumber water) and agua de sandia (watermelon) is hard to botch. The line-up also includes three classics that are made differently – horchata (a mix of rice, cinnamon and milk), Tamarind water (it’s the brown one) and jamaica (bright red, made of hibiscus flowers). I highlight recommend making jamaica at home (pronounced Hah-mike-uh). The powdered stuff they serve at some restaurants is the pits. The real thing has an extraordinary tart flavor and it’s SO easy.  Here’s an easy explanation: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/000172.html

Filipino Chicken Adobo – I went out on a limb with this one. I’ve never been to a Filipino restaurant nor to the Philippines so I don’t know how this is supposed to taste, but I am a huge fan of the Splendid Table radio show and have yet to go wrong with any recipes from their cookbook. I took the ultimate gamble and it was phenomenal – the flavor is out of this world. Do the recipe, then buy the cookbook!

Hummus – It’s cheaper to make at home and the possibilities are endless. You really do need the tahini (sesame paste) because it makes it creamier, as does a liberal dose of olive oil. I like to roast red peppers and toss them in.

Enchiladas – We did an uber-authentic Rick Bayless recipe. I was able to do it, but it took three hours and dirtied just about every dish in my kitchen. For a quick and satisfying alternative, just use our recipe!

I have been vanquished before, but I refuse to quit

Mexican beans – This is depressing, but I cannot make beans!!! Folks, consider this a call for help, bring on the intervention! Although I have figured out one thing – when beans taste REALLY good, it’s because they have lard.

Indian curry – I’ve only tried once. It was mas or menos. I blame myself. Going to try getting a better cookbook from the library.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

Don't do it!

Food from the Yucatan- I actually fell in love with the district regional cuisine of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico through an amazing restaurant I used to frequent when I lived in Mexico City. The fragrant sopa de lima was bewitching, the papadzules surprisingly tasty (how do you coax egg and ground pumpkin seeds into that?!) and the cochinita pibil had depths of flavor that couldn’t be equaled. Needless to say, we tried to make papadzules and sopa de lima and it was the most disastrous dinner ever (We went out for burgers). I might try again if German didn’t have PTSD from the last go-round.

Mole – Haven’t tried it, why would I?! Just look at a typical list of ingredients and instructions and you’ll know why. And with Guelaguetza so close, well…

 

On my hit list

Sushi – And German thought my other attempts could kill him…bra ha ha!!

Tamales – I have a Sunset mag recipe I haven’t done for years, nor tried out on German. He’ll be the judge..

Chiles en nogada – a phenomenal and very unusual seasonal recipe from Mexico. I will first attempt to find a restaurant here in LA that serves it, but I may have no choice but to make it myself…

Korean beef – German and I saw a cooking demonstration on one of LA’s obscure public TV channels – Korean beef has that yummy sweet flavor, you will never guess what’s in the marinade – Asian pears!! We were shocked. I’ve gotta try it.

Los Angeles Through the Viewfinder

Great swaths of Los Angeles are downright hideous. Being from Sonoma, a place that is ridiculously gorgeous, this complete lack of natural beauty and human disregard for aesthetics initially wore on me.

There is a particularly bleak patch on the I-5 between my house in Boyle Heights and where my boyfriend lives in Norwalk. You pass the Citadel, an outdoor mall with an Eqyptian theme, which is epically garish and the “Destiny Inn.”

Then the smell hits you, a smell so sickly you can’t help but think it’s causing you cancer (I’m pretty sure it’s coming from Vernon). For the next few miles through Commerce, it’s nothing but ugly industrial buildings cluttered with an ungodly amount of billboards, punctuated by chain restaurants and one huge casino. There isn’t even enough dirt on the side of the road for weeds to grow. Even better, there’s often bumper to bumper traffic through this stretch so you have plenty of time to take in the vistas. And don’t even get me started on the “LA River” (picture the last scene of Grease).

Fortunately, my boyfriend happens to fully embody a classic Angeleno quality – imagination bordering on the delusional. I see what’s there, he sees what COULD be there. To illustrate using a “location” from our Halloween Back to the Future photo shoot:

And all those ugly spots I pass daily? I regularly spot them in TV dramas and car commercials, re-envisioned through the viewfinder by people like my boyfriend. The recent movie, “In Time,” was filmed entirely in ugly spots near my house. Yes, it was supposed to be an impoverished, dystopian wasteland, but let’s not take the shine off of it…

LA ugliness as seen in the movie "In Time"

The LA River in the movie "In Time"

Just to hit this point home, I’ll share a couple of videos of the I-5 freeway. This video was made by tourists on the way to Disneyland in Anaheim (0:50 – “Sign says we just entered downtown Burbank. Is this what you call beautiful? Because I sure don’t think so!”). And this was made by an Angeleno.

Los Angeles looks like a different place when you have a camera in hand. I’m going to be sure to keep mine on me.

Prehistoric Weirdness and Footnotes to History

Portland’s unofficial slogan is “Keep Portland Weird.” Yes, Portland can be weird at times, but it is a place that is actively trying to be weird. LA, however, is a place that is better described as bizarre – and it doesn’t even try.

In Portland, you might see someone with crazy face piercings, wearing a clown suit, riding a two-story bike cobbled together by hand and playing a harmonica. And maybe they’re in the middle of transitioning from a man to a woman. Pretty run-of-the-mill weirdness. In LA, you will encounter things that are more profoundly strange.

I am talking about the La Brea Tar pits, of course. There you are, on the excessively hip westside of LA. You hit up the pastrami at the famous Canter’s deli and top it off with dessert at that one really hip bakery that has amazing gluten-free cakes that cost about one-month’s salary. Then you mosey down past LACMA, which is featuring a really fantastic exhibit about a designer whose name you don’t want to say because you’re not actually sure how to pronounce it. And there you will find a bubbling pit of prehistoric tar.

 

“La Brea Tar Pit” literally means “The Tar Tar Pit.” Also, it is not actually tar – it is an “asphalt seepage.” But whatever it is, it is definitively there, smack dab in the middle of LA’s urban center, filled with fossils of prehistoric critters, the teeth of saber-toothed cats and mastodon bones. One point for nature.

LA is assertively man-made. It’s fashion and film and music and point-of-view are completely freed from the tethers of reality. Nature and history are not notable influences – they are largely forgotten in so many ways. But what keeps LA bizarre is the way nature and history aggressively pop up in the middle of all of this city’s fancy-pants fantasy.

I remember visiting Descanso Gardens up towards Pasadena. The gardens are a lovely place, as you might imagine, built by newspaper baron Elias Manchester Brody. They have a famed camellia forest that is just huge with tons of massive bushes with beautiful blooms in pink and red and white. Wandering around the gardens, I found a sign in the main house with a little history on the property. It described the rise of self-made man who went from rags to riches through hard work and a knack for tapping into business opportunities. For instance:

“In 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Boddy found himself with a business opportunity that was surely ambivalent at best. All along the west coast Japanese-Americans were being sent to internment camps to wait out the war, leaving businesses behind. Boddy acquired thousands of camellias from Francis Uyematsu, a successful local nurseryman, buying his entire stock. “

Just a footnote in one man’s life and in the history of a pretty place – but clearly a life-defining event for another man.

LA likes to forget that it was once a desert where wild animals roamed, a Native America village, a Spanish/Mexican colonial settlement, so many things it now no longer remotely resembles. But you’ll find that past in the footnotes. You just have to look.

P.S. The story of Francis Uyematsu is even more extraordinary than I could have imagined on my own – check out this LA Times article for more. 

And we’re live… Halloween Photo Shoot 2011!

I’ll be the first one to say it: Our Halloween photo shoot got completely out of control this year. What started two years ago as an hour-long black and white photo shoot in my living room (German was  gangster, I was a flapper) has now reached a new level of insanity with multiple locations, not to mention historical costumes and some Photoshop magic. This new level of craziness is a combo of two major factors: 1) How do you top “I Love Lucy”?! and 2) German is a huge Back to the Future fan.

How far were we willing to go to fulfill our artistic vision? Barstow, CA, my friends. This is the sort of place where people ask if you are on your way to Las Vegas or Los Angeles because Barstow is NO ONE’S terminal destination. Besides “patch of desert outside Barstow,” our locations also include: “Calico ghost town,” “railroad track near Norwalk,” and “Heritage Park,” which is nestled in an industrial park in Santa Fe Springs.

Was it worth it? You be the judge – we hope you have as much fun looking at our photos as we had taking them! Now taking suggestions for Halloween 2012!

See the whole photo shoot on Flickr.

If you missed last year’s shoot, here’s I Love Lucy – 2010.

 

THE MOST AWESOME MUSIC EN ESPANOL EVER!!!!!!

I’m a lousy fan. I’ve always been completely baffled by the urge to take photos with famous people or ask them sign stuff. I’m a cheap skate so I’m unlikely to buy everything a musical artist has ever released, much less load up on merch. That said, there are some musicians that I truly love, whose songs I listen to over and over again. I’m starting to feel bad for being such a lackluster fan so I think it’s time I do what any good fan would do – start gushing.

My journeys in Latin America have not only exposed me to a ton of great food and super people – I also had the chance to listen to a ton of great music, much of which isn’t well-known among my people (AKA white American people). I think it’s time I start spreading the word.

I put together a playlist on Youtube for some passive listening – guaranteed to spice up your work day – and below are some notes about some of my favorite artists. I tried to pick one song for each, which was tough. If you like someone, go deep – all of these folks have tons of great music.

I’ve divided this into three sections. The first is music that, if it weren’t in Spanish, would be pretty similar to some of the great rock we have in English. This is an easy first step for gringos into a very deep pool. This is followed by musica tropical, which has a completely different flavor that is 100% Latin, but quite palatable to Americans. This is the stuff of salsa dance classes. This is followed by some extremely Mexican music that I now love, but that might take Americans a little while longer to learn to love…Enjoy!

Rock – Gateway Drugs

If you like rock in English, try rock en espanol! All these artists are so rocking, you either won’t care you don’t understand a word or you’ll be inspired to learn Spanish.

Sabanas Frias – Mana

I don’t care if they’re overplayed or too pop or they sold out or whatever else cool people complain about, I’ve loved Mana since the first time I heard any of their songs. I particularly love Sabanas Frias for the section where everything just breaks down into rhythm. I also never get tired of Oye mi Amor and Mariposa Traicionera…

A Dios Le Pido – Juanes

Juanes is a Colombian hit machine. I saw him in concert at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City – what a performer! Camisa Negra is probably his biggest hit, but I really like the words to this song, which is like a prayer: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/dios-le-pido-i-ask-god.html-0

Octavo Dia – Shakira

Pretend Waka Waka and She-Wolf never happened. I invite you to meet the Shakira I fell in love with in the early ‘90s. This video is conveniently subtitled so you can see the depth of the lyrics. Shakira in English will never equal the talent of her earlier music in Spanish.

Lamento Boliviano – Enanitos Verdes

The “green dwarves” are just simply a heck of a lot of fun and this song is a classic – “Here I am, drunk and crazy!”. If you like them, you’ll probably also dig los Hombres G.

Andar Conmigo – Julieta Venegas

Probably the best thing ever to come out of Tijuana. It was super tough picking a favorite song of hers – I also love Te Voy a Mostrar, El Presente, Limon y Sal and Eres Para Mi is super fun. If you like Julieta, you’ll also love…

Controlar – Ceci Bastida

Also from TJ, used to perform with Julieta and has a great, original style. Check out the full interview/performance with KCRW. http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb110111ceci_bastida

Eres – Cafe Tacuba

Another classic Mexican rock group, straight out of Mexico City. If you thought you’d gotten a grasp on this whole Spanish language thing, just watch Chilanga Banda and you’ll figure out pretty quick that Chilango is another language entirely.

Un, Dos, Tres, Go – Belanova

Yes, they’re muy pop, but they’re also super fun! And c’mon, Rosa Pastel has plenty of social commentary.

Frio – Ely Guerra

I’m probably not hip enough for Ely Guerra – she is just way too cool! Also, this song is ridiculously sexy, even beating Plastilina Mosh’s flirty Pervert Pop Song – “Punish me, I know I’ve been bad…” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN0u3mzAwj8

Agua – Jarabe de Palo

This song makes me cry – in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, if I hear it before work, driving around town, whenever. It’s beautiful and has such heart-felt lyrics. Here’s a version that conveniently shows the translation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAdAOm5YaJI

El Matador – Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

These are guys are super fun. I think Calaveras y Diablitos is the best song ever for cruising around town – it makes life seem like an absurd adventure.

Me Gustas Tu – Manu Chao

I have a minor in Latin American studies. Therefore I am, of course, a fan of Manu Chao, the ultimate darling of left-learning college kids with a thing for Latin America. He’s a hippie-ish nomad who sings in Spanish, English and French. This is the best song ever for people learning Spanish.

Tropical

First of all, I am not doing justice to la musica tropical here…Cuba alone could have its own category considering they invented salsa. If you love that Caribbean flavor, also try out some bachata and merengue from the Dominican Republic, cumbia from Colombia and maybe even some reggaeton (think Daddy Yankee “Gasolina”). You can find lots of great stuff listening to Batanga online radio: www.batanga.com/ or by going to a Zumba class near you!

Los Infieles – Aventura

My love of Aventura started as a guilty pleasure, but now I’m ready to own it. These guys make me swoon with their bachata. And artist who is still in the guilty category? Pitbull (Please pronounce this PEET-BUHL), though he really hit it home with Bon Bon.

Quizas, Quizas, Quizas – Ibrahim Ferrer & Omara Portuondo

I could have picked basically any song by Buena Vista Social Club to stand in for beautiful classic Cuban music. This is a double whammy since it’s a fantastic song performed by two fantastic artists. These two are part of the BV Club, but please go deep and listen to everything else they’ve ever done, their talent and presence are phenomenal.

La Vida es un Carnaval – Celia Cruz

INDOMITABLE. “Ay, there’s no need to cry, because life is a carnival,/ It’s more beautiful to live singing./Oh, Ay, there’s no need to cry, For life is a carnival/ And your pains can be alleviated through song.” – They can, if you’re singing, Celia. Celia also does a cover of “I will survive” that is as good as, if not better than, the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoSCQWxyMTA

Crossing over…

Bidi Bidi Bom – Selena

Que descanse en paz. If you’ve seen the movie starring Jennifer Lopez, then you know Tejano superstar Selena was murdered by a crazy fan at the tender age of 23, a huge tragedy. Selena was one of the first Mexican artists to “cross-over” with her huge hit “I Could Fall in Love,” which is still getting play on the light rock stations. American people, it’s time for you to cross over the other way and recognize the amazingness of Selena. I picked this song so you could see her perform live. I also love Amor Prohibido – if you find yourself selecting Como la Flor at the next karaoke night, your conversion to Selena fandom will be complete.

Muy Mexicano

Some of Mexico’s most beloved artists…

El Rey – Vicente Fernandez

It’s appropriate that Vicente Fernandez’s most famous song has the lyrics “And I’m still the king.” You really are, Vicente. This man is a classic of Mexican ranchera music. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, I think you’ll find it hard not to sing along to “Volver Volver,” which is played without fail at every fiesta precisely at the moment that everyone has had one shot of tequila too many.

Los Dos Plebes – Los Tigres del Norte

This band is BEYOND HUGE in Mexico, but might not be terribly palatable to the American ear…You know when you hear Mexican guys blasting polka music out of their trucks?…yeah, it’s that music. Just give it a chance folks…And be sure to see Bajo la Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon), a great movie featuring a cameo from these guys. Another fun song of their’s – La Puerta Negra.

Tu Carcel – Marco Antonio Solis

Tu Carcel was the song that made Marco Antonio famous – Si No Te Hubieras Ido might be the one to make him immortal. This Michoacano turns out hit after hit after hit – I love that he’s got a mix of slow and high-energy songs – un gran artista!

Paloma Negra – Lila Downs

Lila Downs is a contemporary artist that sings really old, really Mexican songs. Beautiful music and I love the Oaxacan influence – check out her stunning clothes in this clip. I also love that her dad is an English-Scottish guy from Minnesota. Viva la fusion!

Rata de Dos Patas – Paquita La Del Barrio

Your man cheated on you? Coming off a rough break-up? The prescription for that is Paquita La Del Barrio. About 90% of her songs are about how men are complete heels. To quote this one “Rat with two paws – yes, I’m talking to you…Are you hearing me, you useless man?! How much I hate and despise you!”

Viva LA!

Just a quick shout-out to a couple of Latin-flavored acts out of LA – one veteran, the other up and coming.

Nadas Por Free – Ozomatli

Viva el Espanglish! These guys are just super energetic, wacky performers and muy LA. I find it entertaining that they were hired by the US government to be cultural ambassadors to locales in Asia and the Middle East – way to represent!

La Santa Cecilia

I think you have to see them live to really get how great these folks are. They do awesome Spanish covers…they also do the old-school Mexican stuff and maybe a little klezmer. What’s not to love? http://www.lasantacecilia.com/

Please stop making 4th graders build models of the California missions

If you attended fourth grade in the state of California, chances are good that you built a model of one of the 21 Spanish missions stretching from San Diego to Sonoma. Chances are also good that you remember almost nothing important about the missions’ critical role in California history nor the painful and fascinating story they tell.

Model of San Carlos Borromeo, posted by dlofink on Flickr – See the full gallery of his students’ models. Please note that even if this post calls for eliminating the mission model project, these models are still pretty awesome.

Knowing how the missions were built is, indeed, the least interesting thing about them – who build them and why is the story that is really worth learning. For example, when I was a docent at the San Francisco de Solano Mission in my hometown, Sonoma, I could have casually mentioned that the original chapel stood on western side of the four-sided complex. The more interesting tidbit that it was burned down by Native Americans revolting against Father Altimira’s tyrannical rule (yes, the man for whom one of Sonoma’s middle schools is named). My favorite thing about history is that it’s surprising – shocking even. You would think that historians would really have this pinned down by now, that we would know definitively everything that every happened and why. The reality is that the past is as expansive as the future. If you ask the question: “What really happened?” you can spend a lifetime chasing the answer.

I love California history because it is practically a telenovela – full of unexpected twists and turns and lots of crazy characters. To that end, I’d like to take all of you back to fourth grade and share some of the things you should have learned when you were instead gluing together sugar cubes and spray-painting macaroni. (If you were wondering what you were supposed to learn, please refer to History and Social Science Standard 4.2 on Page 13. Note that “Students must be able to build a scale model of a mission” is not indeed a standard. If anyone has insight into the origins of this tradition, please let me know!)

California was not empty.
It’s hard to say exactly, but there it has been estimated there were more than 200,000 Native Americans speaking more than 100 languages living in California when colonizers started showing up. You think our state is diverse today?!
Back then, everyone wanted a piece of California. The first explorers to land in California hailed from various world powers – England, Spain, Russia…Those countries’ rulers were doing anything they could to get a foothold and get control of California’s abundant resources. Spain’s approach was to found missions, with military outposts alongside them, which were supposed to become fully functioning towns.

The mission fathers were benevolent AND cruel.
It’s hard to make a broad generalization about an entire group of people. First and foremost, remember that these priests were political operatives, tasked with turning Native Americans into Spanish-speaking, Catholic citizens of the crown. They grew so powerful that the Spanish crown eventually expelled all the Jesuits from the new world, secularizing the church’s assets.
That said, they were on the front lines and anyone well knows that things look different from the frontier than they do from headquarters. I won’t discount the good works that individual priests did in their mission communities or the advocacy of those like Spanish priest Bartolome de las Casas, who was one of the few people at the time who chronicled and protested the mistreatment of Native Americans. But the priests were also spreading and perpetuating a system that did tremendous harm to California native peoples and that, too, cannot be discounted.

The Native Americans got the raw end of pretty much every deal.
If you think that slaves in the south liked having a master, then maybe you also like to imagine that the missions were happy-go-lucky places and the Native Americans were always thrilled to be there. The treatment of Native Americans is one element of mission history that is probably most disputed and I would encourage you to read different perspectives, but if the only one you’ve heard is “Spanish priests were doing God’s work to save the souls of the Natives and give them food and shelter,” please dig deeper.
Yes, many Native Americans signed up at the missions by choice. However, once baptized, they did not have the choice of leaving and were forcefully kept there and even hunted down if they ran away.
There were a lot of different factors at play – this was a period of huge change. One factor that drove Native Americans into the mission system was that the Spanish introduced livestock to California, which had a huge impact on the environment that Native Americans relied upon for their traditional hunting and gathering. There was also the devastating impact of disease, made worse by the concentration of the population at the missions, which helped disease spread more quickly. The Native American population dropped by an estimated 90 percent during this period. Please try to imagine 90 percent of the people you know dying.
Apart from life under the mission system, the period that followed was possibly worse (refer to the novel, Ramona, which is California’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin). Once most Native Americans were fully dependent on the mission economies they had build up through their labor, the Mexican government decided to secularize the missions. There was talk of splitting the land among the neophytes, but ultimately most of it went to powerful and wealthy men and the Native Americans were thrown out with nothing and ended up having to work on the new ranchos.

If you thought the Spanish and Mexicans were bad…
The Americans soon proved to be just as bad, if not worse, in their treatment of the Native Americans. Spain at least had the stated goal of preparing Native Americans to be citizens with full rights. The United States had no such intention. With the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War, the United States took over many of the former mission properties, generally didn’t recognize the land titles held by Native Americans and put the reservation system in place.

This is far from a definitive account of the history of the California missions, but I hope it spurs you to visit a mission near you and find out more. And when your child’s fourth grade teacher demands you spend your weekend building a model of a mission, I suggest you take your cue from the mission Indians and revolt.