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Las Monthly Ondas June Edition: Taco Shop Poets Dream of Sugar Skulls

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Read Tacos. Eat Poetry.

By Brent E. Beltrán

Has it already been twenty years since a band of guerrilla word slingers thought to share poetry with taco shop patrons? Apparently so, as the Taco Shop Poets are back in poetic motion for a gig at The Front in San Ysidro.

Founding Taco Shop Poets member Adolfo Guzman Lopez told me “it’s been 20 years since the idea for taco shop poetry was put in motion. We’re presenting the group’s 2011 book Sugarskull Sueños at the Tijuana book fair and what better place to reflect on our personal journeys as Mexican Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, cuarentones, border vatos, and fathers than a homegrown community space in San Ysidro.”

Originally started as a large, loose knit group of mostly Chicano and Latino raconteurs the Taco Shop Poets almost singlehandedly helped recreate the California spoken word poetry scene. They eventually whittled themselves down into a tight collective of border bards that have toured the nation and beyond. Their influence on the Chicano poetry world can still be felt today even though they’ve been relatively dormant the past few years.   [Read more…]

Richard Montoya’s Federal Jazz Project Hits a Strong Note for San Diego

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By Victor Payan

San Diego-born playwright Richard Montoya has been on a prolific hot streak for the past several years. His expert mix of weight and whimsy have made him a favorite of local audiences, and his latest play, Federal Jazz Project, is yet another winner.  A collaboration with local jazz master Gilbert Castellanos, Federal Jazz Project delivers a verbal and musical tour de force that digs into the dark underbelly of World War II-era San Diego and provides a fascinating history tour of America’s Finest City.

Fans of local lore and lovers of great jazz should rush out to see Federal Jazz Project before it concludes its World Premiere run at the San Diego Repertory Theatre this Sunday at 2pm.

Federal Jazz Project shines on many levels and features some brilliant writing by Montoya.  Stellar live music by a Castellanos-led jazz quintet and strong performances by a capable cast round out the story of Kidd (Joe Hernandez-Kolski), an idealistic impresario, whose hopes of launching the careers of two singing and dancing sisters named San Diego and Tijuana, played Lorraine Castellanos and Claudia Gomez, are thwarted by the guardians of San Diego’s military-industrial complex.   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan’s Las Monthly Ondas May Edition: Cinco de Mayo is Not Mexican Independence Day

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By Brent E. Beltrán

Cinco de Mayo commemorates El Día de la Batalla de Puebla (The Day of the Battle of Puebla) where in 1862 a ragtag Mexican army lead by General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated a much superior and better equipped force of the French army. Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. It’s not even a significant holiday in Mexico except in the state of Puebla where the battle took place.

After the great liberal Mexican president Benito Juarez decided to stop paying Mexico’s foreign debt for two years to help it’s near bankrupt national treasury France’s Napoleon III, pissed off by this move, decided to invade and build up it’s empire.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – GOP’s Lincoln Club Smear Campaign Suggests The “R” in Republican Stands for Racism

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By Doug Porter

Voters for the upcoming City Council runoff elections got a familiar sounding piece of mail this week. They’re getting campaign literature crafted by and credited to the Lincoln Club of San Diego, making many of the same claims made in the primary by the shadowy PAC calling itself San Diego County Voters for Progress and Reform.

Never mind that these claims have been debunked. Never mind that the group behind the original mailer tried (and failed) to fool voters into thinking the propaganda was somehow from the City of San Diego by putting an official looking logo at the top.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Koch Brothers’ Coachella Failure-fest Set for this Weekend

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By Doug Porter

This weekend (Apr 28-29) hundreds of business executives and wealthy conservative donors will descend upon the Coachella Valley, hoping to forge a strategy to turn last fall’s drubbing of conservative candidates into future victories. I imagine the crowd will be considerably different from what locals have seen over the past two weeks.

Since 2003 billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch have been hosting regular retreats at luxury resorts seeking to focus the resources and energy of wealthy and politically ambitious conservatives in the US.

Their latest invitation-only gathering, originally scheduled for January, was postponed.   [Read more…]

“Everything Comes from the Streets” Documents Lowriding in San Diego Premier

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Registration Required

A new documentary that traces the origins and history of lowriding in San Diego

by Alberto López Pulido

“Everything Comes From the Streets” feature the lives and voices of the pioneers of the lowrider movement in the borderlands of San Diego and Tijuana that brought forth a unique Chicana and Chicano lowrider aesthetic and expression.

This documentary challenges past interpretations of the California Lowrider Scene that has been dominated by lowrider history from Los Angeles and instead highlights the importance of Jacket Clubs, Car Customizers, the U.S.-Mexico border, Women, the Chicano Movement and the establishment of Chicano Park in the history of Chicano San Diego that brought forth a unique lowrider story and movement for California history and the American Southwest.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Mission Valley Hilton Hotel Management Tactics Prompt Employee Hunger Strike

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Employees and the community supporters at the Mission Valley Hilton will be engaging in a five day hunger strike starting today in protest of a decision by the property’s new management company to dismiss nine long term hotel workers.

Following weeks of protests, including a sit-in where 20 people were arrested, employees at the Mission Valley Hilton Hotel were elated last month after hearing that their jobs would not be eliminated as part of a takeover of the property by Evolution Hospitality/ Tarsadia Hotels.

What they didn’t know is that the new managers would subject all the employees to immediate E-Verify background checks. Nine long term workers are now facing dismissal as soon as next Tuesday. Those employees believe they are being targeted for standing up for their rights as immigrant workers.   [Read more…]

Nay to Hate and Yea to Culture at ECC

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Board meetings are usually not my cup of tea. But I attended one, not too long ago, at the Educational Cultural Complex (ECC) and as I sat there, anticipating data reports and budget considerations and other matters that might lead me to want to cop some Z’s, I experienced a few moments that absolutely captivated me.

Like, all of a sudden, from behind me, during a section of the meeting that highlighted “Community Connections,” I hear a woman walking towards the stage belting out:

“They call it stormy Monday

but Tuesday’s just as bad.”

And the next thing I know my shoulders are gliding from side to side and my head is doing likewise and my size 14 feet are patting along with my fingers that are popping to the beat and right away three more singers got me leaning forward in my seat with:

“Wednesday’s worse and Thursday’s also sad.”

Oh, such sweet music from my past. For a moment my mind began to stray to times when I had my moments up there where those singers stirred my spirit in song.   [Read more…]

It Almost Always Rains on the Second Day of the San Diego Latino Film Festival (in Otherwise Sunny Southern California)

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By Mukul Khurana

It’s true! As long as I can remember, it has rained in normally sunny San Diego. This year was no different. The weather forecast predicted rain at around 10:00 PM. On the dot, on the way to the opening party at Café Sevilla it started raining heavily. O.K.—so it might not always be the second day…

But that didn’t stop hard-working Lou Diamond Phillips, Sergio Arau, and Yareli Arizmendi from making appearances and mingling. As the San Diego Latino Film Festival celebrated it’s 20th year in 2013, the party kicked off another great year of Latino films, art, and music.

As we wrap up 11 days of culture, it is a good idea to reflect as to what two decades of the festival have brought us. A lot has happened from the days of a student film festival held at the University of California San Diego.   [Read more…]

Award-winning film “Greedy Lying Bastards” pulls back curtain on corporate-funded climate denialism

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Pay no attention to the Koch behind the curtain

By Eclectablog / Daily Kos

Greedy Lying Bastards is a new documentary released to theaters this past week that reveals the intentional, corporate-funded deception campaign that has shaped our conversation about climate change in profound and dangerous ways. While it’s long been known that the fossil fuel industry — “Big Oil” — has been throwing up a smokescreen (pardon the pun) to confuse the debate over the existence of human-caused climate change, Greedy Lying Bastards picks up where Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth left off to show us just how deliberate and well-funded this effort has been.

The film has already won numerous awards including the 2012 Burbank Film Festival, the Eco-Award at the 2012 Boston Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2012 United Nations Film Festival, 2012 Bahamas International Film Festival and 2012 Costa Rica International Film Festival.   [Read more…]

Filly Brown at the San Diego Latino Film Festival: A Hero’s Journey to Authenticity

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Including interviews with Lou Diamond Phillips and Gina Rodriguez

by Alejandra Enciso Guzmán

The San Diego Latino Film Festival is celebrating it’s 20th consecutive year of hard work and film screenings from all over Latin America in the United States. A remarkable effort–small or low budget films which often depend solely on word of mouth, get the opportunity to receive an important amount of exposure during the festival, and even, maybe, a distributor. Such was the case of the Cuban film Juan de los muertos (Juan of the dead) a dark humored comedy that was a part of the 2012 Latino film festival and earned the Goya Award, the premier film award in Spain, as well as ‘Best foreign picture’ and other prestigious international awards.

Filly Brown, a hit from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, was a much anticipated premiere for the community. The big names in the cast include Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, late singer Jenni Rivera and rising star Gina Rodriguez as Filly Brown. The film follows Filly Brown’s trajectory as an amateur rapper from inner city Los Angeles who seeks to enter the world of hip hop stardom with her striking lyrics.   [Read more…]

“I Am a Man” at the San Diego Rep

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A few of us actors got together on a Monday night to rehearse playwright Omayo’s drama, “I Am a Man,” in preparation for dramatic readings of the piece at the San Diego Repertory Theater on Monday, March 18th, and Tuesday, March 19th at 7:00 PM. The San Diego Rep is presenting the drama in collaboration with the Vagabond Theatre Project.
Each evening’s performances support “The Mountaintop,” a play by Katori Hall, which has been pleasing theater goers for weeks now at the Rep. It’s a must see about Martin Luther King’s last night before he was taken from us in Memphis.

Our play keeps Martin’s spirit alive as it is based on the travails of the black sanitation workers who, back in February 12, 1968, staged a wildcat strike backing their demands for equal pay, better working conditions and recognition of their union.   [Read more…]

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