Time is Running Out to See Accordion Wizard in San Antonio
Alex Avila | October 26, 2009 | No Comments
At Salúte’s International Bar on N. St. Mary’s Street in San Antonio, Tex-Mex Accordion wizard Steve “Esteban” Jordan still makes his Friday night gigs, even though his health continues to decline. On October 23rd, Jordan only played about half of the songs that night, with nephew Robert filling in throughout the three sets. And while Robert is a technically excellent player, the consensus among the crowd is that he was not the innovator, the musical genius, the great accordion master that created the music that he copies so well. When Robert plays, the music is excellent. But the audience can tell they are not in the presence of greatness whenever he takes the stage.
According to Azeneth Dominguez, Saluté’s owner, Jordan’s health is deteriorating. His cancer has spread and he is unable to take his medication. Not that Jordan would want anyone to feel sorry for him. He will play as long as he can. And it would probably surprise no one if this unique musical innovator died onstage, with his sons backing him up.
According to son Esteban Jordan III, one of the members of Esteban Jordan y su Rio Jordan, the new single “Carta Espiritual” should be released on their website — estebanjordan.com — later this month.
And if you haven’t heard Latino USA’s hour-long radio documentary on Esteban Jordan, see it below.
In mean time, accordion innovators like Jordan remain a vanishing breed. See this master while you can.
No Rules: The Life & Music of Esteban ‘Steve’ Jordan from NPR's Latino USA on Vimeo.
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StoryCorps Historias Launches in Washington, DC
Nadia Reiman | September 26, 2009 | 1 Comment
Thursday was the official launch of a new initiative through StoryCorps dedicated to collecting the stories of Latinos. It’s called StoryCorps Historias, and its aim is to record interviews throughout the country between friends and family members from the Latino community. The interviews collected will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress as well as in prominent Latino archives, thus forming part of an effort to record the American experience as told by the people who live it.
The StoryCorps Historias launch featured appearances by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus as well as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Many of the Caucus members were very excited about gathering Latino stories and shared some personal moments. Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard of California’s 34th Congressional District (aka Los Angeles) spoke at the event and shared a story about her mother’s childhood neighborhood where the streets were unpaved and her desires to see her community’s area improve .
Congressman Jose Serrano of New York’s 16th district (aka the Bronx and parts of Harlem in New York City) emphasized the importance of the Puerto Rican community. Other Caucus members that were present include Xavier Becerra from California, Congressman Charlie Gonzalez from Texas and Senator Tom Udall from New Mexico. Other noted speakers include United Farm Workers president Arturo Rodriguez.
To participate in StoryCorps Historias and to see when StoryCorps Historias is coming to you, visit their website here. And you can see more photos of the event below.
Here you can see StoryCorps founder Dave Isay with CPB’s President and Chief Executive Officer Pat Harrison:
Booths like this one will be traveling the country recording the stories of Latinos. People can come in and record conversations in these airstream trailers:
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A Latino-themed “Sam’s Club” in Houston
Alex Avila | August 26, 2009 | 1 Comment
There are large retail outlets in Mexico – stores like Soriana and Gigante. They often stock their rows with Mexican products and cheap Chinese imports. But despite their success, the largest retailer in Mexico in terms of sales is the American-based Walmart/Sams Club.
In fact, over the past few years, the Arkansas-based company has increasingly seen it’s domestic share of revenue shrinking, and it’s foreign revenue accounting for a greater percentage of its receipts.
One exception throughout the American Southwest is Hispanic consumers. So in an effort to reach out to this growing market, Walmart/Sams is experimenting with a Latino themed store called “Más Club.”
(Photo by Cecilia Martínez-Ávila.)
The superstore opened in Houston, Texas on August 6th and has a Sam’s Club look and sensibility. But most of the products stocked for bulk sale are, in fact, Mexican imports. Frozen veggies hail from Mexican company “Del Valle” instead of American-based “Green Giant,” for example. The butchery has associates ready to cut the custom marinade meats to order. The bakery features large, hand-made tres leches cakes.
Next to the bakery, Más Club cranks out some 30-40,000 fresh tortillas daily. Often, the tortillas go straight from the machine to awaiting customers. And the café features Sam’s Club staples like hot dogs and pizza slices. But you can also get tacos, tamales, barbacoa, or a plate of roasted chicken with rice and beans. There are the standard sodas, but also aguas frescas.
Analysts say rebranding a known commodity for a niche market can be risky. But if the Más Club experiment works, more stores could pop up across the American Southwest.
Listen to the story from NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered that aired August 22, 20009 by clicking HERE.
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Mothers and Daughters Applaud ‘Wise Latina’
Maria Hinojosa | August 7, 2009 | 4 Comments
It’s a question I never thought I would ask my daughter. But I loved being able to ask it.
“Yurema?”
“Yes, Mom,” my 11-year-old daughter said.
“Tell me what T-shirt you would most like to wear: one that says ‘I am a Wise Latina,’ ‘My Mother is a Wise Latina’ or ‘Sonia is a Wise Latina’?”
She cocked her head slightly and then quickly said, “I am a Wise Latina.”
Eleven years old, and this is the vision she already has of herself. It’s a pretty wonderful thing to watch that certain something blossom in a girl … one of those often fleeting moments when a girl owns her own power.
©2009 by Lalo Alcaraz
For me, the decision to wear my own “Wise Latina” T-shirt raises all kinds of issues. It makes me confront a past that I have known for decades. Deep down inside, I, like many other Latinas, struggle with my own very deep insecurities in relation to my white male colleagues. I think after witnessing history on television for the past two weeks, those insecurities have pretty much dissipated.
Sonia Sotomayor has blazed the trail. I can’t go back to thinking that way, anymore, ever.
Before, when I told people that I was a Latina, I never knew what, if any, image they might have in their mind. Everyone carries stereotypes and preconceived notions. But now when I say to people that I am a Latina, might they immediately think, “A wise Latina”?
My daughter is learning all of these lessons from Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican woman. When I was Yurema’s age, back in the ’70s, the only Puerto Rican woman I knew of was Maria (played by Natalie Wood) from “West Side Story.” I grew up on the South Side of Chicago after being born in Mexico.
My Puerto Rican Maria from West Side Story taught me that love and commitment could transcend borders and divisions. Sonia is teaching Yurema, and all of us, that intelligence and compassion (and an honest way with words) can also cross all borders: political ones, those of gender or ethnicity.
And I have learned that my own challenge now is to reach this very high bar that Sotomayor has set. I must “own” that I am, indeed, a wise Latina.
Later on the day of the T-shirt decision, my daughter hears my reaction when I read that Sen. John McCain, whom my daughter knows well because we followed the election, is going to vote against Sotomayor’s confirmation.
“What a big jerk!” was her age-appropriate response.
Then, after a pause, Yurema said, “So that means John McCain thinks Sarah Palin is a wise woman? But not Sonia? Harrumph.”
“Harrumph” is also an age-appropriate response. But the lasting impact of McCain’s decision will be much more profound than upsetting an 11-year-old wise Latina girl.
In fact, I would venture to say that, politically, there are many in the Republican Party who are convinced this was a politically unwise choice by McCain.
It’s just not that complicated. Look at the changing demographics in the United States. Then think about what happens when you vote against the first Latina Supreme Court nominee.
Maybe McCain isn’t wise enough to see that reality, so I will tell him a story about a Dominican-born, U.S. citizen cabby from my Harlem neighborhood.
While he drove down Broadway, I asked the cabby if he thought that President Obama was pandering to the Latino communities across the country with the Sotomayor nomination.
“Pero muchacha!” he exclaimed in a true Dominican style. “He is not pandering. He owes us! Everyone knows now that without the Latino vote, you cannot win the presidency. He has to deliver, politically. I am a new citizen, and I voted for Obama my first time. Just like a bunch of us Dominican cabbies. Now this is my country and my politics.”
“And is that the way you guys talk amongst yourselves? That the Latino vote is that powerful?”
“Yep, asi lo vemos. That’s how we see it! But even though we love Sonia, Obama still owes us.”
And what must Obama deliver to satisfy this very politically astute cabby?
“Imigracion! He must solve this immigration problem. Families are divided up. It is unjust. So Obama must understand that is what we want him to deliver now.”
A wise Latino with some wise advice for the president. And for McCain and the Republican Party?
Buena suerte, winning the next elections!
This commentary originally appeared on CNN.com.
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San Antonio Play Tackles Family, Dreams and Acceptance
Alex Avila | June 24, 2009 | No Comments
The new play titled "Miss America, a Mexicanito Fairy's Tale," runs at San Antonio's Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center presented the world premiere of “Miss America, a Mexicanito Fairy’s Tale,” on June 19. Written by San Antonio playwright Jesús Alonzo and directed by Maria A. Ibarra, the production doesn’t go “over the top” with depictions of boys in drag. Rather, it deals with deeper issues of acceptance, family, religion, and coming to terms with one’s dreams.
The story begins and ends with 9 year-old Chuy, played by actor Jaime Gonzalez, who gets caught by his macho older brother playing in their sisters room. Chuy has on his sisters Quinceañera dress and a towel wrapped around his head, pretending to be a contestant in the Miss America beauty pageant.
Actress Erica Andrews is a former Miss International Queen.
Rather than harp on the usual themes of rejection, Alonzo highlights family and relationships. In the end, the brother, played by Manuel Barraza, isn’t angry at Chuy because of his desire to be feminine and beautiful, but is concerned that he is opening himself to ridicule and cruel rejection by others. He truly seems to want to protect his brother.
Much of the production is carried by talented actress Erica Andrews who plays all the female roles in the play. Andrews was born in Mexico and is a former Miss International Queen 2006, considered one of the most prestigious beauty pageants among the transgendered.
The play continues at the Esperanza Center June 26, 27 and July 3. For information: http://www.esperanzacenter.org/ or 210-228-0201.
Listen to a scene in the play where Chuy refuses to confess to a priest and instead prays to La Virgen de Guadalupe and describes the fight he had with his best friend while they were playing “Miss America.”
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Listen to a scene where Chuy daydreams that he is a finalist in the Miss America pageant and is asked why he would make a good Miss America.
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Listen to a scene where Bobby catches Chuy playing “Miss America” in a dress. [Bleeped for language.]
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Listen to the interview with playwright Jesús Alonzo.
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Listen to the interview with director Maria Ibarra.
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BOOKS: The Life of García Márquez
Seán Collins | June 6, 2009 | No Comments
The New York Times has recently published two good pieces (an exploration of the origins of magical realism, and a book review) on Gerald Martin’s definitive English-language biography of Gabriel García Márquez titled, Gabriel García Márquez: A Life.
Janet Maslin recalls:
In a January 2006 interview with a Barcelona newspaper, Gabriel García Márquez, whose memory had begun to fail, deflected a question about his past. “You will have to ask my official biographer, Gerald Martin, about that sort of thing,” he said, “only I think he’s waiting for something to happen to me before he finishes.”
Fitting words from the man Gerald Martin calls the “Mark Twain of his own land: symbol of the country, definer of a national sense of humor and chronicler of the relation between the provincial realm and the center.”
Martin’s own writing is elegant and insightful.
“A kind of sea breeze of atmospheric moods blows across García Márquez’s work — a saline mood of unexplained and understated pathos, moods of delicate solidarity and even complicity with everything frail and cracked, a slightly morbid mood. And all of those moody currents seem to converge, in the end, on a single lush and regal emotion, which is nostalgia — García Márquez’s never-exhausted and always tender search for what he is not going to find: his own past, and his family’s, and the universe at his grandfather’s knee.”
“Unraveling the Labyrinthine Life of a Magical Realist” by Janet Maslin
GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ: A Life By Gerald Martin, reviewed by Paul Berman
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Was Cardoza The ‘First Hispanic’ Justice? Maybe not…
Alex Avila | June 4, 2009 | 5 Comments
People may not want to remember, but before he was Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales appeared to many Latino leaders as if he were being groomed to be a Supreme Court nominee. Gonzales, clearly a member of President George W. Bush’s inner circle, had been a Texas Supreme Court Justice – a post that he was elected to as a Republican.
When President Bush had two opportunities to appoint Supreme Court nominees in 2005, the “first Hispanic” rhetoric was abuzz with discussion about Gonzales. Political rumors say that Gonzales was passed over because ideological conservatives, who were the core of Bush supporters, didn’t trust him. But it was then that Latino USA producers were first questioned about a little-known justice named Benjamin Cardozo, who was on the Supreme Court from 1932-1938.
Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardoza (1932-1938)
According to his biographer, Benjamin Cardozo was appointed to the high court by Republican President Herbert Hoover because of his stellar reputation of 17 years on New York’s highest state court, considered the most prestigious of the lower courts at the time. Hoover was pressured to name an appointee of considerable reputation as Cardozo was replacing an out-going court legend, 90 year-old Oliver Wendell Holmes.
But Cardozo’s ethnicity was clearly known to everyone. He was a Sephardic Jew. And his family was from the Western Sephardim, a region today known as Portugal.
Webster defines “Hispanic” as an adjective of or relating to the people, speech, or culture of Spain and Portugal. Politically, the “Latino” label includes anyone of Latin-American heritage.
There are problems with both definitions. The “Hispanic” label alludes to European roots. So Quechua Indians, full-blooded Mayans, and any indigenous people of Latin America are NOT Hispanic. But they can be considered Latino. But a Spaniard from Spain is NOT Latino.
There are many who would not include the Portuguese under the Hispanic or Latino label, but that is clearly a matter of dispute. Under most technical definitions, Portuguese are Hispanic because they have Iberian roots. And the original Latin term Hispanicus dates from the year 1584 and means “from the Iberian Peninsula.”
However, many Sephardic Jews simply consider themselves to be “Jewish.”
It’s likely that Cardozo closely related to a New York Jewish identity and did not consider himself to be Hispanic.
The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York.
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Learning More Than English
Maria Hinojosa | May 8, 2009 | 1 Comment
I had an amazing day in Saint Paul yesterday: moderated a panel with six teen English Language Learners, kids from Ethiopia, Mexico, Hmong people, Burma and the Ukraine. The teens spoke about the experience of learning English as teens, what works in the classroom and what doesn’t.
It’s so very emotional because I wanted these kids to talk about what goes on in their heart as new Americans — all of us ended up in tears. They were speaking to school administrators gathered by the Council on Great City Schools.
One takeaway is that these young peole want a buddy system: a teen who has been there before, who arrived speaking no English a year or two before, but who is the real proof that you can do this. Also, I think most of the kids would love to have a chance to talk about their stories about how they got to this country. At one point, a student pointed out to the audience and said this was THEIR country. And then I said no, the whole idea is that this is YOUR country and you must own it. Very powerful.
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When Is a Crime a Hate Crime?
Seán Collins | | No Comments
There is nothing good about the death of Luis Ramirez. Nothing. And the aftermath of this man’s beating death has been equally bad: for his family, his community, and the young men responsible for his beating.
This week, we report on the trial in Pennsylvania.
Ethnic slurs landed along with the body blows and kicks to the head. And they signal that something more is going on. Barry Morrison writes a good piece about the killing of Luis Ramirez. “Racists ranging from neo-Nazis to Klansmen to racist skinheads have co-opted the anti-immigrant movement, turning immigrants, primarily Hispanics, into the prime target of their venomous speech and behavior.”
He reminds us that the senseless beating of Luis Ramirez did not happen in a vacuum. It sent a signal to the community of Latino immigrants in Pennsylvania and all their neighbors. As Morrison points out: “Bias and hatred infect the entire community, not just the intended target.”
Is it that extension of bias—like metastasis—into the fabric and tissues of a community that makes some crimes hate crimes?
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A Latina Justice? What Do You Think?
Seán Collins | | 1 Comment
This week, we report on the buzz surrounding Judge Sonia Sotomayor. We talk with Prof. Jenny Rivera of CUNY’s Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality. She clerked for Judge Sotomayor.
Jeffrey Rosen’s piece in The New Republic “The Case Against Sotomayor” (and his response to critics) offer some idea of the talk ongoing in legals circles about President Obama’s potential nominees to the land’s highest court.
Even when there’s talk of a short list, even in an age of leaky White Houses, it seems a little foolish to spend too much time on prognosticating SCOTUS nominees when a decision can be made an hour before an announcement. Even the short listers are long-shots. But, sometimes long-shots come through.
Just ask Mind That Bird.
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