Cheech Marin Brings Chicano Art to the Hamptons

By Nicole B. Brewer for Hamptons.com
Photo supplied by Cheech Marin


Known the world over as half of the iconic comedy team Cheech & Chong, Cheech Marin is a renaissance man who has transcended his career as an actor to become a children's book author, comedian, director, and renowned Chicano art collector. A week before his first scheduled visit to the Hamptons for ArtHamptons (July 13-15, 2012) I caught up with Cheech who was relaxing and enjoying a day off with his family in Los Angeles but eagerly looking forward to the visit, with a laugh he said, "I can't wait to get there!" Chicano art is close to his heart and at ArtHamptons Cheech will be, "Curating a gallery there and showing some Chicano art. The work is really great! I want to introduce Chicano art to the East Coast Hamptons crowd."

Unlike many other celebrities I've interviewed he answered his own cell phone on the first ring with a friendly voice and his famous sense of humor. He was the Cheech I had hoped to speak to, the easy going guy I knew from movies, his comedy performances, and television. We spoke about his career, dear friend Tommy Chong's battle with cancer, upcoming Birthday Bash sponsored by Hamptons.com, and his amazing art collection that began nearly 30 years ago. Cheech even took time for questions posed by the Hamptons.com Facebook Fans.

NBB: How do you define Chicano art?

CM: Ha! It comes with a side of beans and salsa. A Chicano artist takes the experience of being a Chicano, whether it's historical or sociological or class or gender, and puts his or her point of view together. To put on canvas the experience of being Chicano in this country.

NBB: You've been called one of the most important collectors of Chicano art, when did that begin?

CM: I've always educated myself about art and didn't start collecting until I got some money in the early 1970s. I got started and collected art deco stuff and when I finished with that I discovered all these Chicano painters in the mid-80s, like 1985.

NBB: Any favorite Chicano artists?

CM: I don't have a favorite, I can't. It's like trying to decide between your children. There are a lot of Chicano artists and for the last 12 years I've been doing shows and spreading the word and getting it out there. I'm excited about bringing new artists out there to the Hamptons like Carlos Donjuan. Isn't that a great name? And Werc, that's his tagging name and he's really good. Margaret Garcia is another artist. It's a really good display and it's got a lot of really beautiful big works. 


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Abandonment or Struggle? Sisyphus, Chicano Style

By RODOLFO ACUÑA

When asked what I have learned from writing about Arizona and what is going to happen in the future, I feel like the legendary king of Corinth immortalized by Albert Camus’ essay “The Myth of Sisyphus.” You remember the guy who was condemned for eternity to roll a rock up a hill.  Every time he felt that he was making progress, the giant rock rolled back to where he started.

The moral of the story, according to Camus, is the absurdity of thinking we can learn the meaning of life.  This absurdity compels us to turn to religion for answers — religious faith supposedly tells us the meaning of life without us having to find the answer for ourselves. It gives us faith that we can roll the rock up the hill even though it keeps rolling back.

For over forty-three years I have been pushing a rock called Chicana/o Studies, obsessed with the notion that we as a community can push the rock to the top of the hill. Chicana/o Studies would give a greater number of us access to knowledge that would free and enable us to solve the contradictions of American society.

Instead of reaching the top, the rock has become heavier and it has slipped back to where we started in 1969. Still we believe that we can reach the top of the hill despite the size of the rock. Truth be told, it would be easier to leave the rock behind and “make it in my own.”

But, some of us cannot leave the rock behind and getting to the top of the hill without the rock has no meaning.  How long can you live solely on memories of those you left behind?

Is the obsession of reaching the top collectively an absurdity? Will those of us who are pushing the rock suffer the fate of Sisyphus – reducing our efforts to the absurd? Isn’t having faith in Chicana/o Studies’ ability to push the rock to the top in fact having faith in the system?

It is difficult to accept that there is nothing more to life than the absurd. At some point, Sisyphus has to accept the absurdity of his faith. In this case not so much the absurdity of faith in Chicana/o Studies, education or the community but in the system’s ability to allow everyone to find the meaning of life because it is the absurdity that keeps faith in the system alive.

The failure to make progress in pushing the rock to the top has nothing to do with Chicana/o Studies, Mexican Americans or our failure to push the rock up the hill. It is possible to make it to the top alone but impossible to make it as a community.

Ironically, the rock ruts a path that makes it easier for a few to reach the top; unjustly those who have abandoned the rock benefit from the sacrifices of those pushing the rock.  For them, it matters little if they make it to the top of the hill without the rock and less that their desertion potentially permits the rock to crash down into the gully.

From my point of view, what gives life meaning is the struggle to make it up the hill collectively. This is how all progress has been made. As long as there has been humanity, people have struggled for the truth. The answer to the meaning in life is hope for a better and a just world. Without struggle life has no meaning.

You may ask what is so hard about pushing the rock to the top.  It would not be if everyone pushed the rock until the end. But it is easier said than done. Society or should I say those who control the system protect themselves by exerting social control through popular culture, mass media, ideological divisions, religion, and fear. Education becomes part of this “invisible hand” that makes absurdity seem rational.

This brings us to Sisyphus’ dilemma in Arizona. Many understand the absurdity of believing that the system will protect the rights of Mexican Americans within the state. But they also believe in the Constitution and in the myth of “equal protection.”

The system, however, is not constructed to protect the rights of the poor but the privilege of those who benefit from it. Today more than ever Supreme Court decisions such as “Citizens United” give the rich uncontrolled access to power – making the rock even heavier.

In Arizona, the rock is heavier because it is a state without laws and bought public officials. The absurdity of the struggle struck me as I learned more about the interests behind the anti-immigrant hysteria and why it is important to the Kochs, ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), the prison industry, the gun lobby and other special interests to erase the memory of Mexican Americans left behind.

The few who have fought back are paying the price. The teachers of the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American Studies program have been fire, not because they were not doing a good job teaching students, but because they were too effective.

Making the rock even heavier — a million dollar civil suit has been filed by the Tea Party with the support of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horn for defamation against TUSD Mexican American Studies Sean Arce and José González.

Meanwhile, Arizona lawmakers are attempting to nullify the U.S. Constitution. This is so even though Arizona receives back $1.30 for every dollar it sends to Washington –contrast this to California that gets back 79 cents.

The rock gets even heavier when the weight of the Democratic Party is added. The so-called Party is too timid to fight back and the Blue Dog Democrats cringe in fear of the Tea Party, the Minutemen and their corporate “sponsors.”

For the past forty years, Arizona has defied a federal court order to desegregate the TUSD and it has avoided compliance.

Worse of all “the system” has bought off many of those who had pushed the rock in previous struggles.  Tired of struggling they abandoned the village.

In spite of the absurdity of his belief that he can push the rock to the top of the hill, Sisyphus is not absurd.  He realizes that if he lets go of the rock it could roll back and crush him or even worse tumble down and wipe out the village.

Sisyphus has no other choice but to struggle. Abandoning others pushing the rock up the hill would be abandoning his memories, abandoning his values. These are choices we all have to make.

I was once told that I could make it by changing my last name. I was light enough that I could pass. My first thought was, what about my sister? My cousin? They had the nopal plastered on their faces. Besides I loved who I was and that meant pushing the rock up the mountain.

RODOLFO ACUÑA, a professor emeritus at California State University Northridge, has published 20 books and over 200 public and scholarly articles. He is the founding chair of the first Chicano Studies Dept which today offers 166 sections per semester in Chicano Studies. His history book Occupied America has been banned in Arizona. In solidarity with Mexican Americans in Tucson, he has organized fundraisers and support groups to ground zero and written over two dozen articles exposing efforts there to nullify the U.S. Constitution. 

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Inaugural Imperial Valley Festival and Artist Showcase

Ernesto Yerena is shown with some of the political art he has created during the Inaugural Imperial Valley Festival and Artist Showcase at the Imperial Valley Mall in 2011. Click photo to enlarge.

Article courtesy of the Imperial Valley PressWritten by JULIO MORALESPhoto by JOSELITO VILLERO

When Calexico resident and lifelong artist Sergio Gaytan said he thinks of muralists, the three Mexican greats of the early 20th century spring to mind — Diego Rivera, Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco.

Like theirs, his own art often incorporates representations of iconic cultural images, social issues and historical events for effect, Gaytan said.

Yet he feels there isn’t much of a clamor to see such imagery in public spaces anymore, he said.

“Muralism is not as strong or as powerful as it used to be,” Gaytan said.

While Gaytan’s artwork has yet to be affixed to a large-scale public project, neither has he had the opportunity to make a living as an artist, instead working for about 20 years with Imperial Valley College’s counseling office before his recent retirement.

These days Gaytan continues to draw and paint and doesn’t shy away from using imagery that may offend, he said.

In that respect Gaytan cleaves close to the ethos of the Mexican muralists as well as their Chicano counterparts, who used art to examine their identity and history as well as speak out about social issues — often in a controversial way.

A combination of street art and community activism, the Chicano murals of a generation ago were seen as a way to rally and unite the community, decorating space and using it to educate the public, said Eva Margarita Nieto, professor of Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge.

“That period was intense,” Nieto said, adding that the energy that existed in the ‘60s and ‘70s is not as commonly found in contemporary artists and muralists.

Locally, the vestiges of the muralist movement are still visible in some Valley locales, but locals also speak of an equal number that have fallen to time and indifference.

“You used to see a lot of (murals) around the Valley,” said Calexico Arts Commission chairwoman Hildy Carrillo.

The local drive to produce art in public spaces was akin to a “movement,” Carrillo said, noting that a sense of hope also accompanied the popular medium of those bygone days.

In the past, Carrillo said that artwork that celebrated “our roots,” commented on the Vietnam War, or honored field workers, were the norm.

As of late, she said that she hasn’t “seen any mural around here that catches my attention or says anything.”

The Arts Commission is in the process of cataloguing the murals within the city, she said, adding that the commission is also open to funding public works. Yet such an effort may also require the help of Calexico City Council and grant writing.

While the Valley is not lacking for artists, gallery space, instructors and performance artists, Carrillo said the scene still needs lots of support.

“We don’t really have public art,” she said, noting that Mexicali has a thriving public art scene.

But local efforts are afoot. A grant-seeking proposal that would unite various arts agencies throughout the Valley is also aiming to have a small mural adorn the J. Lowe Gallery at Imperial Valley College, said Carol Hegarty, IVC humanities department chairwoman.

And, officials are considering having another Cesar Chavez mural adorn the new Campesinos Unidos building in Brawley, executive director Jose M. Lopez said.

But devoting oneself to creating public art, many said, hardly pays the bills.

As someone who was highly attuned to political issues, the civil rights movement and Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers movement, the late Domingo Ulloa produced numerous works that captured the spirit of those turbulent times, his daughter Martha Ulloa-Sanchez said.

Yet her father made a career as a house painter, she said, and is widely referred to as an “undiscovered master” in art circles.

The late Ulloa spent many decades in the Valley, where he often painted pictures depicting the struggles of farmworkers. Several years prior to his passing, the Assembly honored him in 1993 as the “Father of Chicano Art.”

“He voiced opinions through his artwork,” Ulloa-Sanchez said.

And as many contemporary Chicano artists have found, praise is hard to come by in an environment where their work is constantly being compared to those pioneering artists that exhibited an activist streak. Yet tastes and opinions keep evolving regardless of what the so-called experts may have to say, Nieto said.

T-shirt art seems to have picked up the torch and become something of a preferred and easily accessible medium, Nieto said. It is not uncommon to find Latinos producing and wearing T-shirts that often contain a deeper message and evoke important social commentary.

“T-shirts are a class-breaking type of clothing,” she said. “It’s just another kind of public space.”

Staff Writer, Copy Editor Julio Morales can be reached at 760-335-4665 or at jmorales@ivpressonline.com.

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What Is The Chicano Experience That Becomes Art?

Photograph courtesy of unidentified source

Another great article courtesy of the Huffington Post... Gracias.

This is the second article in a series by entertainer and art advocate Cheech Marin.

There are some Chicanos who don't want to be Chicanos - they want to be Mexican-American, Hispanic, or even Spanish. The same thing happened with art about the Mexican-American experience. No one wanted it to be called Chicano.

The first time I went to San Antonio, Texas in 1972, I realized right away that Chicanos were a dominant force. They ran the place; the Mayor, the Chief of Police, even the dogcatcher. But only the young dope-smoking hippies wanted to be called Chicano.

The establishment wanted stay Mexican-American or Hispanic. They worked hard for their place and recognition and didn't want to identify with the rebels.

You have to want to be Chicano to be Chicano. The hippies took the insult and turned it into a badge of pride. "Yeah, I'm a Chicano, y que?" They also thought they invented the word and that nobody had ever called themselves Chicanos before.

Chicanos and running water are endlessly fascinating. I can watch them all day.

The whole Chicano identity issue was the motivation for something that is now a major part of my life; the collection, promotion, and advocacy of Chicano art.

My interest in art must have started with my Catholic upbringing. Art was everywhere churches with its paintings, sculptures, stained glass, textiles, and fine metalwork. It was for me a portal into another world that was simultaneously soothing and scary. It held me in its thrall and still does.

I wasn't really good at doing it, however. As a kid, art meant drawing and I just didn't have a facility for it. I thought you were either good at it or not, like you could either run fast or not, or you were either tall or not. I didn't find out until later that it was something that you could learn and some people get better at it than others.

But as a kid I decided that if I couldn't do it, I would study art because I loved it. Beginning at 11 years old, I would go to the local library and check out all the art books. Page after page, I taught myself the history of art, especially painting, and kept doing it. By the time I was able to afford art, I knew what good art was because I was studying it all my life.

In 1985, I made the film "Born in East L.A." It was my first solo work after being a partner with Tommy Chong for 17 years and at the time, I wanted to learn who and what I was as an individual. It was a journey of self-discovery that led back to my Chicano roots. I started learning more Spanish and hung around with other Chicano actors and artists. Eventually, I was introduced to Chicano artists and painters, many who were around since the mid-sixties.

But they were relatively new to me, as was most contemporary art.

As soon as I saw those first paintings in person, I realized that these artists were good. Really good. I began collecting their work in earnest.

I had always been a collector of something ever since I was a kid, whether it be baseball cards or marbles or matchbook covers, whatever. I had a mania for collecting. One of the main attributes of a collector is an obsession that becomes an addiction, and I became an addict, for sure. I was in the perfect position - I knew what the art was and I had money to buy it.

What became quickly apparent was they were not getting any deserved recognition from museums and top-end galleries. They struggled and struggled for traction -- as most artists do -- but had no champion like other commercially successful artists. It doesn't just magically happen. Maybe with my celebrity and finances I could be that champion, so I started with putting together a touring Chicano art exhibition.

Ten years later, I was struggling like the artists to get the collection shown at a national level. I did my Chicano dog-and-pony show in just about every big corporate boardroom in America. I got close many times, but no cigar.

At one point, the Army was going to sponsor the show. After all, they were the number one employer of Chicanos in the country. (Wouldn't that just have frosted the cajones of all the political Chicanos? I almost did it for just that reason.) I was about to give up until Target Corporation and Hewlett-Packard Company stepped up to sponsor the show. In fact, Target stepped up for many years to support the show and connect to the Latino community, and for that, all Chicanos are obliged to shop at Target for the next ten years. Hey, it's a win-win. They have great stuff for reasonable prices. Shut up and consume.

When I finally came back to San Antonio to open my exhibit Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge, I came back as an elder statesman of "Chicano-hood". Things had loosened up quite a bit. Chicanos were still the Mayor, the Chief of Police, and the dogcatcher, but many of them were my age or younger and grew up being Chicanos with no stigma attached. There were still those old-line viejos who answered to Hispanic, but they were mostly Chamber-of- Commerce types doing out of convenience to keep from confusing the old-line white people.

We threw the best art opening party in years. Los Lobos played and there was free beer, tequila, and food. There were many Chicano converts that opening night.

But, in true Chicano fashion, there was also controversy and it all centered on the use of the word "Chicano." Many museums were averse to using "Chicano" because of its political implication and history. It was like inviting the crazy cousins to the party. To them, Chicanos were fist-waving, placard-carrying, headband-wearing, dope-smoking protesters picketing anything with the word "Chicano" that they didn't inaugurate. They especially didn't like sponsorship, which they felt co-opted their identity to serve corporate America and enslave them to beer or whatever. There was a Chicano-wide protest against Coors, which they felt discriminated against Chicanos in their hiring practices. Now we couldn't eat grapes or drink Coors beer. Was life even worth living now?

They demonstrated against any and all events that had a cactus, an eagle or an image of Our

Lady of Guadalupe that they didn't originate or approve. Fair enough. I didn't want to be defined by somebody else outside my group, especially some establishment type and end up being lard-less "Hispanic." (Besides, a Chicano event was not considered a success unless it was picketed and protested by other Chicanos.)

So the end result was Chicanos were excluded from mainstream museums. Who needed the headache? The museums labeled Chicano art as "Agitprop folk art" and dismissed it into a handmade art ghetto that had its time and "see you later."

Then a funny thing happened. The artists kept evolving, which goes to the heart and soul of what a Chicano is.

Like its art, "Chicano" is an evolutionary term. Each generation has as much right to define what a Chicano is as any generation that came before them. One of the main aesthetic characteristics of Chicano is traditional Mexican meets contemporary America. It's where they meet, influence each other, and create something totally new. That's where Chicano identity is born. As soon as a Mexican crosses the border and establishes a home in the U.S., they are a Mexican tadpole on their way to becoming a Chicano frog.

So can a Mexican become a Chicano? Sure! I think that as soon as his or her experience and length of residence in this country outweighs his or her Mexican experience, then upon declaration: "Sas que", you're a Chicano. For example, is Carlos Santana, born in Mexico but the majority of his life here, a Mexican or a Chicano? It can be argued that he is a citizen of the world - a true Chicano expression.

In Los Angeles, inner-city Latino youths have been calling themselves "Chicanos" no matter what Latin American country they come from - Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, wherever. They have redefined Chicano as being engaged with American culture while still retaining Latino roots. They recognize it as an evolutionary step in an immigration process. Either that or they got tired of explaining that "Honduras is not part of Mexico, homes".

The academic world has a mania for codification. They would like the official "Chicano Period" to be from 1964 to around 1978, and then break it up into when the "Post-Chicano Period" and then the "Neo-Post Chicano Period" would begin.

I take a much larger view of the Chicano experience. It's still in its infancy and we still don't know what form it will take. The important development in Chicano history will be the next generation. This current wave of immigration is different than all other previous migration patterns in that it is happening in all states simultaneously. It is longer confined to the West and Southwest. There are large Latino communities everywhere - New Hampshire, Mississippi, Ohio. It doesn't matter. They are everywhere and 80% of them are under the age of 25.

The question is what are these new Chicanos going to look like, act like, and be like? When a Mexican also lives as a Kentuckian, what is that going to produce, y'all? If they are raised in the Hamptons, will they wear white or turquoise after Labor Day?

The country is about to undergo a fundamental change and it will be for the good. Latinos are bringing in a much-needed new wave of fresh energy that will propel the country forward in the years to come. They came here to work, so stop hating on them. Like those Mexican-American youth in the '60s and '70s used Chicano to revisit Mexican culture, today's Mexicano youth are using Chicano to become part of American-Mexican culture. That keeps Chicano experience and Chicano art an evolving concept.

 

Follow Cheech Marin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@CheechMarin

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What Is A Chicano?

From the Huffington Post

This is the first article in the Huffington Post a series by actor, director, and art advocate Cheech Marin.

Who the hell knows?

To me, you have to declare yourself a Chicano in order to be a Chicano. That makes a Chicano a Mexican-American with a defiant political attitude that centers on his or her right to self-definition. I'm a Chicano because I say I am.

Photo from www.cheechandchong.com

Click photo to enlarge

But no Chicano will agree with me because one of the characteristics of being Chicano is you don't agree with anybody, or anything. And certainly not another Chicano. We are the only tribe that has all chiefs and no Indians. But don't ever insult a Chicano about being a Chicano because then all the other Chicanos will be on you with a vengeance. They will even fight each to be first in line to support you.

It's not a category that appears on any U.S. Census survey. You can check White, African-American, Native-American, Asian, Pacific Islander and even Hispanic (which Chicanos hate). But there is no little box you can check that says Chicano. However, you can get a Ph.D. in Chicano Studies from Harvard and a multitude of other universities. You can cash retirement checks from those same prestigious universities after having taught Chicano Studies for 20 years, but there still no official recognition from the government.

No wonder Chicanos are confused.

So where did the word Chicano come from? Again, no two Chicanos can agree, so here is my definition what I think. In true Chicano fashion, this should be the official version.

The word "Chicano" was originally a derisive term from Mexicans to other Mexicans living in the United States. The concept was that those Mexicans living in the U.S. were no longer truly Mexicanos because they had given up their country by living in Houston, Los Angeles, "Guada La Habra," or some other city. They were now something else and something less. Little satellite Mexicans living in a foreign country. They were something small. They were chicos. They were now Chicanos.

If you lived near the U.S.-Mexican border, the term was more or less an insult, but always some kind of insult. In the early days, the connotation of calling someone a Chicano was that they were poor, illiterate, destitute people living in tin shacks along the border. As soon as they could get a car loan and could move farther away from the border, the term became less of an insult over the years. But the resentment still lingered.

Some ask "Why can't you people just all be Hispanic?" Same reason that all white people can't just be called English. Just because you speak English or Spanish does not mean that you are one group. Hispanic is a census term that some dildo in a government office made up to include all Spanish-speaking brown people. It is especially annoying to Chicanos because it is a catch-all term that includes the Spanish conqueror. By definition, it favors European cultural invasion, not indigenous roots. It also includes all Latino groups, which brings us together because Hispanic annoys all Latino groups.

Why? Because they're Latino and it's part of their nature. (Aren't you glad you asked?)

So what is a "Latino?" (It's like opening Pandora's box, huh?) "Latino" is refers to all Spanish-speaking people in the "New World" - South Americans, Central Americans, Mexicans, and Brazilians (even though they speak Portuguese). All those groups and their descendents living in the United States want to be called Latinos to recognize their Indian roots.

Mexicans call it having the "Nopal" in their face, that prickly pear cactus with big flat leaves that Mexicans eat, revere, and think they look like. When you go to Mexico and walk down the street in Mexico City, it's like walking through a Nopal cactus garden. Nopal is everywhere.

For Latinos who don't want to be so "Nopalese," there's always "Mexican-American." Or the dreaded "Hispanic" that should only be used when faced with complete befuddlement from the person asking what you are.

Because I am the only official version of what being Chicano is, I say Mexican-American is the politically correct middle ground between Hispanic and Chicano. Like in the song I wrote to be sung by a Chicano trying to be P.C. "Mexican-Americans; don't like to just get into gang fights; they like flowers and music; and white girls named Debbie too."

All those names made it confusing for me growing up. I lived in an all-black neighborhood, followed by an all-white one, and other kids in the always called me Mexican in both neighborhoods.

It never bothered me until one day I thought to myself "Hey, wait a minute, I'm not Mexican." I've never even been to Mexico and I don't speak Spanish. Sure, I eat Mexican food at family gatherings where all of the adults speak Spanish, but I eat Cheerios and pizza and hamburgers more. No, I'm definitely not a "Mexican." Maybe I was "Mexican-ish," just like some people were "Jew-ish."

These thoughts all ran through my mind when I chased down an alley by five young African-American kids. "Yo, Messican!" they called out in their patois. I stopped in my tracks and spun around. "I'm not a Mexican!" I shouted defiantly. They stopped too, then stared at me. The leader spoke, "Fool! What you talking 'bout? You Mexican as a taco. Look at you."

"No,", I said. "To be a Mexican, you have to be from Mexico. You're African-American. Are you from Africa?"

"N--. You crazy. I'm from South-Central, just like you."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" I said. "Did anybody knock on your door and ask you did you want to be African-American?"

"Hell no! The social workers don't even knock on our door, they too scared," he said, cracking everyone up.

"Then why you letting people call you whatever they want? What do you want to be called?" I asked.

He looked at the others, thought about it for a few seconds and then said proudly, "I'm a Blood."

"Ooo-kay," I said making it up as I went along. "Then you're a Blood-American."

That seemed to go over well. They all nodded. "Yeah, we Blood-American."

"Well, then go out and be the best Blood-Americans that you can be. Peace, brothers, I got to blow." I walked away and so did they. Self-identification saved the day. Yet, I still was dissatisfied with what I wanted to call myself.

When I got home, there was a party going on. A bunch of relatives had come over for dinner and everybody was sitting around gabbing and drinking beer. My Uncle Rudy was in the middle of a story: "So, I took the car into the dealer and he said, 'Yeah, the repairs gonna run you about $250.' Two-fifty? Estas loco? Hell, just give me a pair of pliers and some tin foil. I'll fix it - I'm a Chicano mechanic. Two-fifty, mis nalgas."

And that was the defining epiphany. A Chicano was someone who could do anything. A Chicano was someone who wasn't going to get ripped off. He was Uncle Rudy. He was industrious, inventive, and he wants another beer. So I got my Uncle Rudy another beer because, on that day, he showed me that I was a Chicano. Hispanic my ass, I've been a Chicano ever since.

 

Follow Cheech Marin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@CheechMarin

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The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation Announces Photography Grant Call for Entries

The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for International Photography announced today that it is again seeking entries for outstanding work in social documentary photo reportage. Photographers around the world are encouraged to submit entries focusing on lives and populations ravaged by war, famine, poverty, religious persecution, political oppression, forced migration and other social injustices. The winning submission will be awarded a grant of US$5000 to be utilized for the production or completion of a social documentary project.

"This year's call follows an incredible first season. We received nearly 200 entries representing some 45 countries including, surprisingly Iran and Myanmar, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa and Saudi Arabia," said Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, himself a recognized documentary photographer and the Founder and President of the foundation. "Our ultimate goal is to support both emerging photographers and the causes they cover. This annual grant will be awarded to the photographer whose body of work and vision and heart best exemplifies humanity on the move."

Last year's judging took place at the Swiss Reinsurance Company offices in London at the Gherkin. The 2012 submissions will be evaluated in two rounds with finalists being judged in Paris by a renowned international panel of photographers and foundation trustees. The grant winner will be announced in July 2012. Submission details and entry rules can be found at www.mrofoundation.org under "Grant 2012." Entries must be submitted no later than May 31, 2012.

About the Foundation The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for International Photography is a 501(c)(3) Not-for-Profit Organization committed to positive social discourse in underrepresented communities throughout the world by encouraging emerging and established photographers working in developing nations to keep their lenses fixed on the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Headquartered in New York, with a presence in Paris and Zurich, the foundation is a charitable trust serving the international photographic community through exhibitions, publishing, grants, education and other curatorial projects.

Established in 2010, the foundation aims to encourage a new generation of photographers, armed with only a camera and a vision of a better world, to take to the streets every day and document humanity on the move. For additional information, please visit www.mrofoundation.org.

Press Contact: Michael Palmieri, 917.720.5769

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UCR professor Juan Felipe Herrera sworn in as California Poet Laureate

Written by Eric Gamboa for the University of California Riverside Highlander

Click photo to enlarge. Click header to go to original article.

University of California Riverside Professor Juan Felipe Herrera will be California’s first Chicano Poet Laureate, upon senate confirmation. On March 21, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Herrera, whose work focuses on the Chicano experience—a subject that holds special significance to Herrera since he was the son of migrant farm workers. “No one is more worthy than Juan Felipe Herrera, both for this distinctive honor and for the task at hand as the California Poet Laureate,” proclaimed UC Riverside Chancellor Tim White in his weekly email. Within a week of the appointment, Herrera traveled to Sacramento where the governor swore him in.

Herrera currently serves as the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair at UC Riverside’s Creative Writing Department. “I want to thank UC Riverside for such a great community of support. All the students here inspire me greatly. This award is for all the young writers who want to put kindness inside every word throughout the state, because kindness is the heart of creativity,” stated Herrera in an article by UCR Today.

According to Herrera’s personal website, the renowned poet has published 24 volumes of work including theater, children’s books and young adult novels. Herrera, a graduate of UC Los Angeles and Stanford University, has received dozens of highly prestigious awards and has seen much of his work been turned into plays and musicals. “Many poets since the 1960s have dreamed of a new hybrid art, part oral, part written, part English, part something else: an art grounded in ethnic identity, fueled by collective pride, yet irreducibly individual too. Many poets have tried to create such an art: Herrera is one of the first to succeed,” noted a New York Times review of Herrera’s work, as quoted in the governor’s press release.

The position of California Poet Laureate was created in 2001 and is primarily shaped by the California Arts Council. The council, which consists of 11 experts in fields such as the arts, education, and community development, are tasked with selecting candidates who would best promote and serve as an advocate of poetry in the state of California. Following his senate confirmation, Herrera will begin his two-year term and his tasks will include providing six public readings and completing a cultural project with the goal of exposing poetry to individuals of all backgrounds.

According to the California Arts Council website, the criteria for selecting the Poet Laureate depend on the achievement of scholarly excellence, the size of published work, the reputation of the poet and the willingness to partake in the cultural project. The Poet Laureate position has been vacant since September 2011 and was last held by University of Southern California Professor Carol Muske-Dukes.

“This honor reflects what we have had the privilege of seeing up close ever since he joined our distinguished faculty: namely, this remarkably gifted poet’s unique ability to connect—through his art and teaching—with everyone, regardless of their cultural or educational background,” stated Andrew Winer, chair of the Department of Creative Writing, in the UCR Today article.

Herrera’s recent accomplishments include being elected to the Academy of American Poets’ Board of Chancellors and receiving the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry.

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MEChA organizes march in Chico, California for César Chávez Day

Article courtesy of ChicoER.com

 Photo of César Estrada Chávez by Jesús Manuel Mena Garza

The memory of farm labor activist César Estrada Chávez was honored Saturday with a march through downtown and neighborhoods near the Chico State University campus.

About 40 members of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán gathered at City Plaza during a break in the rain. Some used whistles to raise awareness as the group traveled down Main Street, chanting, "What do we want? Justice."

Student Stacy Rios said the march for César Chávez Day was to honor the hard work of the man who formed the National Farm Workers Association with Dolores Huerta. The group later became the United Farm Workers union.

Rios said it's unfortunate that some students in the community misunderstand the holiday, or even believe it is a Mexican holiday. Some students have used the day off from classes to dress up in Mexican costumes and attend theme parties.

Juan Guzman, director of MEChA, said he believe it's more ignorance than disrespect for the work of Chávez, who worked for farm laborers of all countries of origin.

"It's more for people as a whole," he said.

Letters were sent to bars and student groups to help educate people about the meaning of the holiday.

Saturday afternoon in the student neighborhood, there were a few groups of young people walking and wearing sombreros. At one point during the march, the MEChA students were chanting "Long Live César Chávez," alternating between English and Spanish. One man yelled, "English, please," as the group marched by.

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