La Cultura Cura....



Poetry, 
Art, 
Film 
y mas..

 

Latina filmmaker Lourdes Portillo is one of the most prolific Latina filmmakers in the country.  She most recently released her film, Senorita Extraviada, about the mass killings of Mexicanas in the El Paso/Juarez area on the U.S./Mexico border.  Before that, Portillo directed Corpus, about Tejana singing star Selena (check your local PBS stations).  But Portillo has been contributing to Chicana cinema history for many years.  As Fabulamag writes, "Born in Mexico in 1944 and now living in San Francisco, Portillo has offered images and investigations of Chicano and Latino subjects that have been misrepresented or entirely ignored by mainstream media.  She has told the tales of the those who, like herself, exist along la frontera, the border between cultures, languages, and representation.  A sample of her filmography includes La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), a portrait of the Mexican holiday that both celebrates the dead and examines a people's passionate affair with death; The Devil Never Sleeps (1994), the murder mystery investigates Portillo's own relationship with her patia: Mexico;Despues del Terremoto/After the Earthquake (1979), is the story of the Nicaraguan revolution; and Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (1986), a film that chronicles the public attempts of Argentine mothers to bring the military regime to accountability for los desaparecidos, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award." (--from Fabulamag interview)

drinkcultura.com was a site dedicated to the work and memory of the esteemed Chicano artist, comedian, and cultureworker Jose Antonio Burciaga.  The site offered a collection of Tony's work and offered a tiendita of his publications; a percentage of the site's profits went toward  a healthcare fund for Chicana/o artists and cultureworkers.  Unfortunately, this site has been discontinued.

Meet poetry/performance artist, "La Tejana Tongue," Tammy Gomez.  Tammy's site includes her poetry, music, interviews, and show information in her native Austin.  In a recent interview, Tammy said: "When I am asked to perform on that level I am more of an educator and journalist--a street journalist, not so much of an entertainer, not so much in your face because it's fun and cool--like MTV; so I'm straddling different areas and my material reflects that I feel like I have many roles and it sometimes gets complicated and I don't feel as free as  someone who writes only one type of thing--not that that's mundane."  Tammy is also working with a new comedy group, yoni verse. 

Visual & Performance Artist Monica Praba Pilar's website includes selections from her various art projects, including this beautiful project on Altares, and The Healing Fields. 

Lysa!!! Esa mujer  is on the move!  Chicana roquera Lysa Flores has just released her first album, Tree of Hope, with the independent record company, Bring Your Love Records.   Lysa was born and raised East Los Angeles, and  began her musical career when she joined the Longfields as a vocalist and guitarist. She gained her first stage experience opening for such acts as Dave Alvin, The Muffs and Firehose.  She has performed along with Rage Against the Machine, she performed at the Olympic Auditorium for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and the EZLN and Zapatista struggle.  She has also toured with Semaphore / Big Pop recording artist El Vez as a support singer, dancer and guitarist. See her Star Maps bio for more on her background.  As well as acting, she serves as musical director (see below) for the film's soundtrack which features the song "Beg, Borrow and Steal", written and performed by Flores.  Be sure to check out Lysa's website for her new album and tour information.  Here's another lysa fan.

Aztlannet.com is a new collection of artists and cultural workers on the net..go and you'll be browsing for hours and hours.... 

Check out this short blurb on the work of Cubana actress/comedian Marga Gomez.  She has a new CD out titled Hung Like a Fly featuring a live performance at Josie's Juice Joint in San Francisco.  Her most recent projects have taken a more dramatic turn, however.  Her one-woman performances, Memory Tricks, the "tragicomic story of Marga's relationship with her mother--from her mother's flamboyant days as a showgirl to her present catastrophic illness."  She continues her autobiographical drama with A Line Around the Block.

  Don't miss marisela norte's word.  marisela's work really establishes/presumes a chicana feminist critique and affirmation of self through her powerful and creative performance work.  this album is a spoken word performance album which she wrote while riding the #18 bus  through east l.a. on her way to work every day.  Check out the beautiful cover art too, "Mistress" by Diane Gamboa. 

Silencio=muerte is a collection of roc en espanol by different latino and latinoamericano bands including los lobos, cafe tacuba, los fabulosos cadillacs, mellow man ace, los pericos, king chango, cibo matto, ruben blades, and even melissa etheridge.  The album is part of the Red Hot Collection which gives proceeds directly toward AIDS education, this one to Spanish language communities around the world. 

Check out Miguel Arteta's film, Star Maps.  Hard to describe, but this story of a dysfunctional Latino family really hits home, more so for me than the squeaky-clean brave hero families of Mi Familia (sorry, Mr. Olmos).  The film also has an excellent rock en espanol soundtrack by Lysa Flores and Gustavo Santoolalla.  My new favorite song "Beg, Borrow & Steal" by Lysa Flores plays during the closing credits of the movie.  Keep an eye out for the multitalented Lysa; she costars in the film as the sanest member of the family; y esa mujer canta like you won't believe.... 

Check out Chicana/o poetry, literature, and the visual and performative arts at this beautiful and substantive website of the Center for Latino Arts in San Jose, California

See a great selection of Chicana/o and Mexicana/o artwork by new artists at Galeria sin Fronteras

Carmelita Tropicana (written by C.T., directed by Ela Troyano) Carmelita Tropicana is a short feature film which portrays an event-filled day in the life of its Latina performance artist Carmelita Tropicana. La Tropicana's experiences, as a single woman and lesbian supporting herself as a building "super" on New York's Lower East Side, are embellished with humorous monologues and a novella-style melodrama, with fantasy musical production numbers.  Also look for Ela's new film, Latin Boys Go To Hell, a "classic love story," and Once Upon a Time in the Bronx

The Art of Resistance, Susana Ortiz's film, distributed through CinemaGuild, offers a compelling analysis of the role of Chicana/o artists in the Chicano movement.  The film includes interviews with Amalia Mesa Bains, Esther Hernandez, Jesus Trevino, and others.  Get your school's library to order this beautiful film now! 

Tejana singer Tish Hinojosa rocks the tex-mex border in both English and Spanish.  An amazing singer, songwriter, and guitarist, her work ranges from soft rock to traditional Mexican ballads.  She's written a terrific corrido to Chicano scholar/professor Americo Paredes on her Frontejas album; her latest is Sonar del Laberinto.

The greatest Chicano rock band ever, Los Lobos de East L.A., featuring Cesar Rosas, David Hidalgo, Louie Perez, Conrad Lozano, and Steve Berlin.

They're just songs sung on a dirty street
Echoes of hope lie beneath their feet
Struggling hard to make ends meet
--"The Neighborhood," 1990 
 
 

Galeria de las Americas, Latino-American and Chicano Artists 

Always provocative, entertaining, and brainy, if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, don't miss the annual Women of Color Film Festival at UC Santa Cruz, usually in early May. 

Salt of the Earth, now on a CD-Rom, distributed through Organa. (7/30/98--temporarily unavailable...will keep you updated.  Check your library for the film!)

CyberVato Homepage by Guillermo Gomez-Pena et al (The Shame Man and El Mexican't Meet the CyberVato) Where critical anthropology meets performance art 

Stanford's amazing Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano (Professor of Spanish & Portugese) has pulled together this gorgeous collection of work by Chicana artists throughout the United States, including Carmen Lomas Garza, Yolanda Lopez, Delilah Montoya, Santa Barraza, Unfortunately, you have to go to Stanford to access the entire database (her research team is still working out the copyright issues), but here's a sample of work and a description of the Chicana Art Database Project. 

Pocho Productions provides critical humor and razor-sharp analysis of racism in the U.S. in this beautiful, new-and-expanded website.  These guys have an absolute gift for satire, and for painfully reminding us not to take ourselves that seriously.  They used to have a really great collection of anti-racism resources, but I can't seem to find it anymore.  ??

  Follow Me Home, a great film written and directed by Peter Bratt, starring Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order), Jesse Borrego, and Alfre Woodard. "By weaving together spiritual and musical traditions of Native, African and Latin cultures, the film tells the story of four artists and their journey across the American landscape to paint a mural depicting the images of their ancestors on the White House."  Alfre Woodard is the only female character....but if you can "bracket" that, this is a beautiful film with a powerful discussion of racism, identity, community, and spirituality....it's also wonderful to see men of color portrayed with care and complexity.  This is an independently produced and distributed film working its way across the country, so keep your eyes pealed.... 

  Still my favorite Chicano director ....(and these boys?  hubba hubba)....check out Robert Rodriguez' first big-budget action flick, Desperado with Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas. A film graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Robert's first full-length film was El Mariachi, a terrific action flick financed for a mere $7000 on his and his family's credit cards. The video version includes his film short, Bedhead, which stars his brothers and sisters. Since Desperado, Robert has hooked up with Quentin Tarantino on the most recent Hollywood productions, From Dusk til Dawn and Four Rooms. Here's a site with more about Tejano director Robert Rodriguez Rumor has it he and co-director/wife Elizabeth Avellan are working on a new horror film....we'll keep you updated.... 

Classic Chicano theatre....
under the direction of Luis Valdez, Teatro Campesino has grown from a handful of part-time actors on the back of a pickup truck in the fields to this sophisticated multi-faceted theatre production company. If you're interested in the history of el teatro, be sure to check out Yolanda Broyles-Gonzales work on Teatro history.  Soon I will add a bit of commentary here about the marked lack of a Chicana feminist component/analysis in Teatro's work.... 

CreArte, a beautiful website