Memorial Weekend has now passed us by, and this Cruel Summmer has just begun to spread its wings and flex its talons....For those of you that enjoy good Rock en Español, you should have learned by now that Cafe Tacuba is one of those quintessential Mexican bands that need to be heard LIVE to be truly appreciated....
And what better way than to see them perform LIVE and for FREE in the heart of Mexico City = the ZOCALO this Sabado June 4th @ 8:30pm. Mark the date, water your plants, take the metro, leave your car...and prepare your ears for some good ol´ fashion summer concierto! !Queremos Rock!! !!Que nos pasa, que nos pasa!! !!Queremos Rock!!
Yours truly will be next to the giant Mexican flag in the center of the
Zocalo...send me a text if you are able to get past the other 100,000 people next to me! I deserve it, you deserve it, we all deserve it.
For those that ask...¨Cafe who?, please do yourself a favor and re-enter the
21st century by reading Cafe Tacuba´s history below...
http://www.cafetacuba.com.mx/english/historia.html
Todo comenzo en un garage de Satelite...
¨Parece guión de algún programa de televisión de esos que pasan en cable sobre el rock & roll, pero la verdad es que así fue y además me gusta decirlo, todo comenzón en un garage, en el garage de una casa de Satélite para ser más exactos, en donde 4 amigos que se habían conocido por la escuela llamados Rubén, Quique, Joselo y Meme, realizaron sus primeras tocadas para presentar el grupo y pasar un buena noche de sábado bailando. Era un buen comienzo, y la verdad para mi una historia que inicia así, no puede ser una mala historia de rock & roll.
¨Han pasado más de 10 años desde entonces. Eran finales de los ochenta y Café Tacuba parecía tener el combo necesario para lograr hacer y sonar un buen rock: una guitarra, un bajo, una batería, potencia y libertad, solo que esta vez su caso no era así. Su combo musical era diferente al de los demás.
¨Eran un grupo que alternaba con grupos de rock y tocaba en bares dedicados al rock pero no seguían los mismos lineamientos ni las mismas estructuras. No usaban batería y se caracterizaban por mezclar su música con diferentes ritmos folklóricos mexicanos.
¨Nunca habíamos visto a un grupo como ellos. Ahí estaban después del garage tocando por primera vez en el escenario del Hijo del Cuervo en junio de 1989; a partir de este momento comenzaron las tocadas por el circuito de antros que existían entonces, El 9, El Tutti Frutti, Rockotitlán y El LUCC. Fueron muchos fines de semana así, de sudor, cerveza y rock and roll oyendo a The Cure, Los Smiths, Stone Roses, The Clash o Violent Femmes. Esos grupos con los que crecieron los cuatro mientras seguían trazando su carrera sin detenerse a imaginar en donde estarían parados el día de hoy....¨
martes, mayo 31, 2005
martes, mayo 17, 2005
Es Chido Ser Naco
In Mexico, the term "naco" is commonly used to label someone who has few financial resources, education, and poor taste in fashion. This term is used loosely by affluent kids known as "fresas" (literally strawberries), to describe their less fortunate counterparts.
Importantly, the use of the term can be extremely offensive to most people. Although the term is also used within groups of friends to make harmless fun of one person, the term takes a sharper and more malicious tone when used against a complete stranger.
In a country like Mexico, where scarce financial resources are disproportionately concentrated in wealthy circles, the mere attempt by an outsider trying to fit in by purchasing new clothes and material objects can result in a public chastize resulting in being labeled a "naco."
But most of the term's subscribers know little of its origins.
The term is in fact a shortened version of the word "totonaco," which means indigenous person. One can easily trace the historical evolution of the present term from the racism that Spanish colonizers felt towards the indigenous communities they ruled. In this way, the Spanish colonizers concocted a social map of Mexico, where only the light-skinned European descendants were worthy of being full intregated members of society. On the other hand, the handful of social climbers from the indigenous communities in Mexico walked a fine line littered with broken glass, where one misstep could result in being labeled a "naco."
Today, many of the indigenous communities and their descendants in Mexico have wised up. The countermessage is that in fact, it is cool to be a naco ("es chido ser naco"). In this way, some of these historical outsiders to Mexican society are turning the tables on the established elite by denouncing the negativity associated with being labeled a "naco," and instead embracing it as a term of humor and pride.
With this said, the question will remain on the table:
Is it cool to be a naco?
Es chido ser naco?
Importantly, the use of the term can be extremely offensive to most people. Although the term is also used within groups of friends to make harmless fun of one person, the term takes a sharper and more malicious tone when used against a complete stranger.
In a country like Mexico, where scarce financial resources are disproportionately concentrated in wealthy circles, the mere attempt by an outsider trying to fit in by purchasing new clothes and material objects can result in a public chastize resulting in being labeled a "naco."
But most of the term's subscribers know little of its origins.
The term is in fact a shortened version of the word "totonaco," which means indigenous person. One can easily trace the historical evolution of the present term from the racism that Spanish colonizers felt towards the indigenous communities they ruled. In this way, the Spanish colonizers concocted a social map of Mexico, where only the light-skinned European descendants were worthy of being full intregated members of society. On the other hand, the handful of social climbers from the indigenous communities in Mexico walked a fine line littered with broken glass, where one misstep could result in being labeled a "naco."
Today, many of the indigenous communities and their descendants in Mexico have wised up. The countermessage is that in fact, it is cool to be a naco ("es chido ser naco"). In this way, some of these historical outsiders to Mexican society are turning the tables on the established elite by denouncing the negativity associated with being labeled a "naco," and instead embracing it as a term of humor and pride.
With this said, the question will remain on the table:
Is it cool to be a naco?
Es chido ser naco?
lunes, mayo 16, 2005
Mamitis: Diagnosing the Latin Momma's Boy Sindrome
Last Tuesday, May 10th was a traffic inspired nightmare in Mexico City. Most workplaces allowed their workers to leave at 2pm, so that they could spend a nice dinner afternoon and evening with their mothers. The 10th of May (el 10 de Mayo) is a very important holiday in Mexico. Despite being a country ruled by men and bathed in machismo, mothers here are worshipped and idolized. It is part of the Mexican people's identity, always clutching to the skirts of its patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, who in essence serves as the country's holy mother.
It is from this conditioning, of always being respectful and nostalgic about one's mother, that brings us to the term "mamitis." Mamitis is best explained in the following article by Dane Schiller. Please read, enjoy, but most importantly, feel free to pass this article on to those brothers, cousins and friends that are chronic participants of this notoriously common mother/son dance. Maybe one day some pharmaceutical company will listen to the pleas of thousands of Latin daughters-in-law! Maybe America has a similar condition, as evidenced by the recent release of the Jane Fonda-Jennifer Lopez's movie titled "Monster-in-Law."
For some, it's always Mother's Day
Web Posted: 05/08/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Dane Schiller
Express-News Mexico City Bureau
MEXICO CITY — Arthritis, gastritis and hepatitis are known worldwide, but you have to spend time around Mexican mothers spoiling adult sons to witness another infamous ailment — mamitis.
While it's not an illness, it is regarded as a pain, at least if you read advice columns or overhear wives and girlfriends complain how it stops their men from becoming responsible adults. Mamitis (pronounced "mameetees") is slang for a man's overwhelming dependence on his mom, sure to be on full display for Mother's Day, which always is celebrated on May 10 in Mexico. It might be considered a variant of "mama's boy" but mamitis is different — it is widespread, steeped in Latino culture and leaves a man's sense of machismo intact.
It's not even a fight-provoking insult, necessarily. Some men see doting on their mothers, and being doted on in return, as their duty. "It is a lifestyle," observed Miguel Angel Hernández, 30, a department store salesman.
Mamitis sets in like this: An aging mother spoils her son by cooking, washing and ironing for him — forever. The son treats his mother as the reigning queen in his life. He sees her as an ideal woman to which no one can measure up — with the
comparisons often at his wife's expense. "They do what their mamas say and she treats them like babies," laughed Martha Cuellar, 33, a magazine vendor. "That is why I got a divorce; she even told him how to raise our kids."
Dolores Prida, who writes the "Dolores dice " column for Latina magazine, said mamitis destroys relationships. "Mamitis is a serious disease that can sour the milk of human kindness," she said. "Funny thing is, every woman has the cure at hand — she should raise her son keeping in mind that one day, he will be another woman's husband, not another woman's spoiled child."
Her blunt advice: "Let the dishes pile up in the sink and serve him menudo on a paper plate. And buy him disposable underwear." Men afflicted by mamitis compare women to their mothers on everything from their wardrobe to their enchiladas, said Roberto Bermudez Sánchez, a sociologist at Mexico City's national university. The married women take a back seat, "but there can be the hope that when (the mother) dies, she will be able to take her place," he said.
Mamitis is found among the rich and the poor alike. It can strike daughters but is overwhelmingly more common among sons. Mexico's first lady, Marta Sahagún de Fox, filed a libel lawsuit earlier this month against a journalist who penned an unauthorized biography which contends Sahagún spoiled her children to incompetence.
Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, said idealizing one's mother to the extreme can indeed prevent some men from becoming independent and emotionally mature and may affect romantic relationships.
"Here we could have a man who could never be able to find the right woman because there is no woman on earth who would measure up to (his) mother's personal attributes," she said. Guadalupe Sosa, 58, a social worker with two adult sons, said mamitis is a form of power. "It is a way of controlling them," she said. "You give them all they want, and they do what you say."
Raquel Dergal, 50, an elementary school teacher, admits she fought hard to stop a mamitis relationship with her son. "I now understand what is most important for my son is his wife and daughter," she said. Her son still visits daily. She was brought to tears as she said that she now accepts that another woman can love her son as much as she does.
The mamitis relationship is hinted at in the song, Despedida, written near the beginning of World War II. It relates the thoughts of a soldier headed to battle.
The lyrics tell of a man bidding farewell to his buddies and his girlfriend, but goes, "It breaks my heart to leave behind my mother."
It is from this conditioning, of always being respectful and nostalgic about one's mother, that brings us to the term "mamitis." Mamitis is best explained in the following article by Dane Schiller. Please read, enjoy, but most importantly, feel free to pass this article on to those brothers, cousins and friends that are chronic participants of this notoriously common mother/son dance. Maybe one day some pharmaceutical company will listen to the pleas of thousands of Latin daughters-in-law! Maybe America has a similar condition, as evidenced by the recent release of the Jane Fonda-Jennifer Lopez's movie titled "Monster-in-Law."
For some, it's always Mother's Day
Web Posted: 05/08/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Dane Schiller
Express-News Mexico City Bureau
MEXICO CITY — Arthritis, gastritis and hepatitis are known worldwide, but you have to spend time around Mexican mothers spoiling adult sons to witness another infamous ailment — mamitis.
While it's not an illness, it is regarded as a pain, at least if you read advice columns or overhear wives and girlfriends complain how it stops their men from becoming responsible adults. Mamitis (pronounced "mameetees") is slang for a man's overwhelming dependence on his mom, sure to be on full display for Mother's Day, which always is celebrated on May 10 in Mexico. It might be considered a variant of "mama's boy" but mamitis is different — it is widespread, steeped in Latino culture and leaves a man's sense of machismo intact.
It's not even a fight-provoking insult, necessarily. Some men see doting on their mothers, and being doted on in return, as their duty. "It is a lifestyle," observed Miguel Angel Hernández, 30, a department store salesman.
Mamitis sets in like this: An aging mother spoils her son by cooking, washing and ironing for him — forever. The son treats his mother as the reigning queen in his life. He sees her as an ideal woman to which no one can measure up — with the
comparisons often at his wife's expense. "They do what their mamas say and she treats them like babies," laughed Martha Cuellar, 33, a magazine vendor. "That is why I got a divorce; she even told him how to raise our kids."
Dolores Prida, who writes the "Dolores dice " column for Latina magazine, said mamitis destroys relationships. "Mamitis is a serious disease that can sour the milk of human kindness," she said. "Funny thing is, every woman has the cure at hand — she should raise her son keeping in mind that one day, he will be another woman's husband, not another woman's spoiled child."
Her blunt advice: "Let the dishes pile up in the sink and serve him menudo on a paper plate. And buy him disposable underwear." Men afflicted by mamitis compare women to their mothers on everything from their wardrobe to their enchiladas, said Roberto Bermudez Sánchez, a sociologist at Mexico City's national university. The married women take a back seat, "but there can be the hope that when (the mother) dies, she will be able to take her place," he said.
Mamitis is found among the rich and the poor alike. It can strike daughters but is overwhelmingly more common among sons. Mexico's first lady, Marta Sahagún de Fox, filed a libel lawsuit earlier this month against a journalist who penned an unauthorized biography which contends Sahagún spoiled her children to incompetence.
Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, said idealizing one's mother to the extreme can indeed prevent some men from becoming independent and emotionally mature and may affect romantic relationships.
"Here we could have a man who could never be able to find the right woman because there is no woman on earth who would measure up to (his) mother's personal attributes," she said. Guadalupe Sosa, 58, a social worker with two adult sons, said mamitis is a form of power. "It is a way of controlling them," she said. "You give them all they want, and they do what you say."
Raquel Dergal, 50, an elementary school teacher, admits she fought hard to stop a mamitis relationship with her son. "I now understand what is most important for my son is his wife and daughter," she said. Her son still visits daily. She was brought to tears as she said that she now accepts that another woman can love her son as much as she does.
The mamitis relationship is hinted at in the song, Despedida, written near the beginning of World War II. It relates the thoughts of a soldier headed to battle.
The lyrics tell of a man bidding farewell to his buddies and his girlfriend, but goes, "It breaks my heart to leave behind my mother."
martes, mayo 10, 2005
La Batalla de Puebla - 5 de Mayo
This past Cinco de Mayo, my friends and I decided to have a fiesta titled "La Batalla" in Polanco. I hope those that attended the fiesta enjoyed the cinco de mayo celebration. Unfortunately, many chilangos really do not like to celebrate this holiday. Maybe the commercialization of the holiday in the United States is a turn off for them.
But for Mexican-Americans like myself, Cinco de Mayo played an integral part of our childhood and upbringing, and because of this some of us continue to cling on to it.
In most Los Angeles public school systems, especially in East Los Angeles, where I grew up, Cinco de Mayo plays a huge role. As a child, Cinco de Mayos were full of rehearsed dances, outdoor carnivals and historical reenactments. The school efforts behind the holiday really helped to cultivate and reinforce ethnic pride in the community.
So for someone like myself, Cinco de Mayo is more than just a six pack of
coronas and a sombrero, it is actually a very distinctive Mexican American
tradition, where our identity as Chicanos is embraced by a U.S.
institution, in my case, Robert F. Kennedy elementary school in City
Terrace, East Los Angeles.
For me, those institutional efforts represent the essence of multiculturalism. In fact, as a kindergarden student, I once announced our classroom's dance and skit to a crowded playground of parents and children in costumes. No one can ever take away those innocent memories of seeing my Korean American teacher selling "fruta fresca" and my elementary school colleagues dressed in elaborate colonial-style attire. Even though East Los Angeles lacks the colonial architecture of places like Coyoacan, Puebla or Guanajuato, the Cinco de Mayo holiday and celebration was a close substitute, especially for the children of illegal immigrants living a life off screen in a city obsessed with reproductions of far away sets and locations.
Cinco de Mayo in East LA is priceless.
Hence my fiesta last Friday.
For all we know, I am just a Chicano conquistador imposing my view on Mexican history on the residents of Mexico City. One party at a time.
But for Mexican-Americans like myself, Cinco de Mayo played an integral part of our childhood and upbringing, and because of this some of us continue to cling on to it.
In most Los Angeles public school systems, especially in East Los Angeles, where I grew up, Cinco de Mayo plays a huge role. As a child, Cinco de Mayos were full of rehearsed dances, outdoor carnivals and historical reenactments. The school efforts behind the holiday really helped to cultivate and reinforce ethnic pride in the community.
So for someone like myself, Cinco de Mayo is more than just a six pack of
coronas and a sombrero, it is actually a very distinctive Mexican American
tradition, where our identity as Chicanos is embraced by a U.S.
institution, in my case, Robert F. Kennedy elementary school in City
Terrace, East Los Angeles.
For me, those institutional efforts represent the essence of multiculturalism. In fact, as a kindergarden student, I once announced our classroom's dance and skit to a crowded playground of parents and children in costumes. No one can ever take away those innocent memories of seeing my Korean American teacher selling "fruta fresca" and my elementary school colleagues dressed in elaborate colonial-style attire. Even though East Los Angeles lacks the colonial architecture of places like Coyoacan, Puebla or Guanajuato, the Cinco de Mayo holiday and celebration was a close substitute, especially for the children of illegal immigrants living a life off screen in a city obsessed with reproductions of far away sets and locations.
Cinco de Mayo in East LA is priceless.
Hence my fiesta last Friday.
For all we know, I am just a Chicano conquistador imposing my view on Mexican history on the residents of Mexico City. One party at a time.
lunes, mayo 02, 2005
hold the mayo
The month of "Mayo" has arrived. I can't believe that I have been living in Mexico City for 8 months now. In two months, my Fulbright will be over and I will begin my physical and psychological journey back to Southern California. I am actually looking forward to returning to the West Coast, to spend more time with my family and SoCal friends.
It's nice to have had the opportunity to travel these last couple of years, living in Philly, NYC and DC, but it's also refreshing to finally return to the city that saw me grow up. In this sense, returning to Los Angeles represents closing the circle of my academic trajectory. Ever since I left LA when I was 15 years old to head off to boarding school, I have been on the road. After my Fulbright in Mexico, I hope to finally let the dust settle. I look forward to rejoining the millions of Angelenos in their morning commute to work. But more importantly, I look forward to answering people's questions with regards to future plans with a simple..."I am in LA to stay for a while!"
This past weekend, we had a reshuffle of flatmates in my apt here in Mexico City. Amy, our Scottish flatmate from Glasgow, is finally becoming a full-fledged "uptown girl" as she is permanently relocating to Polanco. In her place, Jeff is moving in from his former place on Insurgentes, a major city transportation artery.
After having some amazing pescadillas (shark meat tacos) at La Cueva del Cangrejo in Coyoacan, I drove to the Plaza Mexico in hopes of catching the Sunday afternoon bullfight. To my dismay, there are no more bullfights in Mexico City until mid-June. Fortunately, I will still be in Mexico City by then, so I can plan to attend a bullfight then.
So with the bullfight plan scratched, I headed to the House of Leon Trotsky Museum on Rio Churubusco 411 in Coyoacan. But after getting lost around the surrounding neighborhood (partly because of the incorrect signs leading to the house), I arrived with only minutes to see the entrance lobby. The museum closes at 5pm. So I plan to return to this museum sometime next week. The museum is only about 4 blocks from the Casa Friday Kahlo museum in Coyoacan.
After the Leon Trotsky museum kicked me out, I decided to drive to the Miguel Angel de Quevedo metro station....where the Ghandi Bookstore is located. Once there, I purchased my weekly fix of international affairs in the form of The Economist magazine. I also purchased a spanish language version of Truman Capote's "Un Arbol de la Noche."
Tonight, I am expecting three friends from LA. I am picking them up at the airport. I am hoping that they all have a great time in Mexico City.
To all those in the city, my flatmates and I are hosting a Cinco de Mayo party this Friday, titled "La Batalla." The celebration will be in Polanco. Come one, come all. Although Cinco de Mayo is not exactly acknowledged in Mexico as it is in the States, my fellow Fulbrighters and I are making the effort to ignite some traditional celebratory value to this holiday. Feel free to help us in our quest this viernes social. Ciao!
It's nice to have had the opportunity to travel these last couple of years, living in Philly, NYC and DC, but it's also refreshing to finally return to the city that saw me grow up. In this sense, returning to Los Angeles represents closing the circle of my academic trajectory. Ever since I left LA when I was 15 years old to head off to boarding school, I have been on the road. After my Fulbright in Mexico, I hope to finally let the dust settle. I look forward to rejoining the millions of Angelenos in their morning commute to work. But more importantly, I look forward to answering people's questions with regards to future plans with a simple..."I am in LA to stay for a while!"
This past weekend, we had a reshuffle of flatmates in my apt here in Mexico City. Amy, our Scottish flatmate from Glasgow, is finally becoming a full-fledged "uptown girl" as she is permanently relocating to Polanco. In her place, Jeff is moving in from his former place on Insurgentes, a major city transportation artery.
After having some amazing pescadillas (shark meat tacos) at La Cueva del Cangrejo in Coyoacan, I drove to the Plaza Mexico in hopes of catching the Sunday afternoon bullfight. To my dismay, there are no more bullfights in Mexico City until mid-June. Fortunately, I will still be in Mexico City by then, so I can plan to attend a bullfight then.
So with the bullfight plan scratched, I headed to the House of Leon Trotsky Museum on Rio Churubusco 411 in Coyoacan. But after getting lost around the surrounding neighborhood (partly because of the incorrect signs leading to the house), I arrived with only minutes to see the entrance lobby. The museum closes at 5pm. So I plan to return to this museum sometime next week. The museum is only about 4 blocks from the Casa Friday Kahlo museum in Coyoacan.
After the Leon Trotsky museum kicked me out, I decided to drive to the Miguel Angel de Quevedo metro station....where the Ghandi Bookstore is located. Once there, I purchased my weekly fix of international affairs in the form of The Economist magazine. I also purchased a spanish language version of Truman Capote's "Un Arbol de la Noche."
Tonight, I am expecting three friends from LA. I am picking them up at the airport. I am hoping that they all have a great time in Mexico City.
To all those in the city, my flatmates and I are hosting a Cinco de Mayo party this Friday, titled "La Batalla." The celebration will be in Polanco. Come one, come all. Although Cinco de Mayo is not exactly acknowledged in Mexico as it is in the States, my fellow Fulbrighters and I are making the effort to ignite some traditional celebratory value to this holiday. Feel free to help us in our quest this viernes social. Ciao!
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