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Tamales for the Holidays: Ancira and El Ruisenor

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By Barbara Zaragoza

Happy Holidays from North of the Fence! And you know what that means for the South Bay: TAMALES!

It’s hard these days to go anywhere South of the I-54 without someone telling me that they are making hundreds of tamales for friends and family. It’s a Christmas tradition. Granted, most people want to make them at home with many family members participating. But if you’ve got too many things to do before Christmas Day, where can you buy the best tamales?

Tamales Ancira is my #1 pick for the best tamales in San Diego Count. They create a taste bud delight that lets you go back in time over 8,000 years ago when the Mayans and Aztecs made these delectable gems. This small restaurant, located on in western Chula Vista on Main Street, has the largest number of flavors I’ve ever found. They make their tamales fresh and by hand everyday. You can choose from beef, pork, chicken, cheese and jalapeno, picadillo, chicharron, sweet corn, beans & cheese, pineapple, nuts and raisins.
  [Read more…]

Progressive Stocking Stuffers for the Impending Trump Era

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A Handful of the Most  Important and Interesting Books of 2016

If you just can’t bring yourself to give up on the sordid consumer frenzy and go all in for a Buy Nothing Christmas, then perhaps getting your loved ones a few good books to help them navigate the dark near-future is the next best thing.

Here is my annual list of a handful of some of the most instructive stand-out books of 2016:   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: Dec 11-17

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, toons, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, and sourced writers on: Comrade Trump, the shady start to new City Council, homelessness, upcoming inauguration protests, Trump trolling Mitt, local labor opposing DAPL, Rosalia Salinas, a cabinet of deplorables, Standing Rock and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Rosalia Salinas: Bilingual Education Advocate, Educator, Leader

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San Diego Unified had what was then called a leadership list for future administrators. Thinking she would be able to have more influence if she became an administrator, Rosalia applied. While being interviewed by an assistant superintendent, she was told she didn’t qualify for the leadership list because she did not have experience north of Interstate 8. Rosalia took the moment to explain that she had no desire to be in an assignment north of 8 and that she thought those teachers north of 8 should have south of 8 teaching experience.

The assistant superintendent also explained that the second reason she could not be considered for the leadership list was that she had participated in a one-day teacher strike. She then informed him that she had no intention of applying for the leadership list.   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: One Hour From Jerusalem

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One hour from Jerusalem
there aren’t borderline personalities
speaking in Bible verses
outside airports

No religious right
to save the wronged from damnation

No television evangelists
to deliver widows from pension checks   [Read more…]

Five San Diego Protests Planned for Trump Inauguration Weekend

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The ugly reality of the Trump era is coming more into focus every day as announcements about billionaires, generals, and bigots joining his cabinet are made.

Today, in addition to my usual list of upcoming progressive events in San Diego, I’m looking ahead to the activist actions being planned for the weekend of the inauguration. In addition to local events, there are already rallies, demonstrations, and marches planned for more than 60 cities worldwide.

The local events are still not quite focused, and I expect the lineup will change over the next month. The one that looks to be the biggest will be the Women’s March on January 21st. You can read about them all following next week’s events listed below.   [Read more…]

Campsite at Border and High Number of Chula Vistans Living in Poverty

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A Few Points About Our Political Representatives

Many of our political representatives took their oath of office this week: Irene Lopez, a new trustee for the San Ysidro School District; Kevin Pike and Nick Segura as trustees for the Sweetwater High School District; Roberto Alcantar and Griselda Delgado as trustees of the Southwestern Community College board.

For residents of South San Diego, your Councilmember David Alvarez experienced a disappointment. He was not voted in as the City Council’s new President, although many had hoped for this outcome. Alvarez made this statement.

State Senator Ben Hueso introduced a bill that would fund legal representation for noncitizens facing deportation. 68% of noncitizens held in detention facilities do not have legal representation. What’s more, people detained who receive lawyers are more than five times as likely to succeed in challenging their deportation.   [Read more…]

Air Politics (Or Is It Just Gas?)

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Because America fell to a fascist coup d’etat only a few weeks ago it’s not too early to talk about how it happened.

First and above all others, the Democratic Party was a necessary player in this debacle. Loyalists will be outraged seeing that in print. After all, they’ll say, we need now more than ever to grow more united, to bond again as Democrats because… stronger together. But that mother-loving phrase failed, didn’t it? It was empty of substance, like so many others the Dems put up. No one bought it.

It’s almost pathetic to watch the defeated party grope for explanations having to do with the decrepit Electoral College and Republican gerrymandering, the FBI’s Comey striking a blow at the last minute, the Russians hacking into party emails and releasing excerpts of conversations that revealed—Gasp!—cynicism equaling that portrayed in any House of Cards episode.   [Read more…]

The Agony of Sandy Hook Continues Four Years Later

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Sane people had their hearts broken four years ago today. Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza first shot and killed his mother, then went to Sandy Hook Elementary School, opened fire and killed 20 children and six staff members before killing himself.

The massacre in Newtown Connecticut was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. It was also, as New York magazine points out, “the first major American tragedy subjected to the full force of the internet’s conspiratorial machinery in real time.”

Insane (a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction) people adopted this tragedy as the gateway into a fact-free world, brimming with conspiracy theories, and full of hatred for the victims and their families.   [Read more…]

Barrio Logan’s Marine Terminal Expansion Moves Toward Sustainability

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[Editor’s Note: Yesterday, more than 40 community members from Barrio Logan, Logan Heights and Sherman Heights attended a hearing to urge Port of San Diego commissioners to reduce pollution and incorporate community benefits into the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal Expansion plan.

According to the California Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice screening tool, CalEnviroScreen, Barrio Logan remains among the worst five percent of neighborhoods suffering from the cumulative impacts of pollution in California.

SDFP Editor Brent Beltrán was one of the speakers. Here is what he said.]   [Read more…]

City Council, Day One: New Faces, Old Politics

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“Love rescue me, come forth and speak to me,” lyrics from a Bob Dylan/U2 song, echoed across Horton Plaza as current and newly-elected city officials, including the mayor, city council and city attorney, streamed into the Balboa Theater on Monday.

The Voices of Our City Choir, most of whom are homeless, were there serving as a reminder of the inhumane practices that are the end result of years of neglect, greed, and incompetence in local government.

Speakers at the People’s Inaugural, representing the voices of the dispossessed and downtrodden, called out for Emergency Humanitarian Action, urging the Mayor to suspend the ticketing, arrest of, and stay away orders for unsheltered homeless San Diegans.   [Read more…]

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