Category: Awkard homages

Mexicans in New York are Also Tired –and Pissed– about Ayotzinapa

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JonasTrujilloGonzalez
My assignment was to remember Jonás Trujillo González, a native of la Costa Grande del Ticuí, presumably murdered on the night of September 26, 2014. Nice to meet you, ‘Beni’

I wish I had something funny to say about what’s happening in Mexico these days. But I can’t. Nobody can. This has got to be the one time in which this blog has had to put on a sad face.

Mexicans today organized a non-violent, beautiful event in New York City that served not only to express rage at Mexico’s failed state, but -more importantly- to remember each and one of the 43 students murdered in Guerrero. Thanks to organizers like Emilio Montez and Lorena Patiño I was given the opportunity to spend some time getting to know Jonás Trujillo Gonzalez (aka Beni), a native of la Costa Grande del Ticuí, and one of Ayotzinapa’s 43 “missing” students.

I have no idea where Beni is right now, but I’m sure he is in a better place than he was on September 26.

Here are some photos I took today in Union Square. Feel free to steal, copy, paste, share, spread, etc.

WARNING: Photography is not really my thing, so please bear with me.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

For references, read the following articles.

Drug Gang Killed Students, Mexican Law Official Says NYT

A test of Peña Nieto’s mettle. The Economist.

Le président mexicain part vers l’Asie en laissant un pays en colère. Libération

 

 

Are You Guys Ready for Liquid Doritos? I Know I’m NOT

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Screen Shot 2014-11-07 at 5.38.00 PM
CNET.COM

What do you get when you combine a bag of Doritos with a can of Mountain Dew?

Answer: The perfect post for this blog.

According to regular CNET (which is not CNET en Español) students at Kent State University recently had the opportunity to “Do the Dewitos,” which is nothing but a weird mix of Mountain Dew flavor and Doritos.

I’m not entirely sure about the veracity of this thing, but heck anything, I repeat,
A-N-Y-T-H-I-NG, is better than this thing.

Via: CNET (h/t: @gabosama)

 

Attention, Architects: Here’s Your Chance to Add some Diversity to your Next Project

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Screen Shot 2014-11-06 at 4.27.41 PM

I know squat about architecture, but apparently when it comes to architectural renderings, there is –surprise, surprise!– a serious lack of diversity, with most projects using white folks as renderings to represent people in, say, a Mexican supermarket or a Colombian coffee shop.

With that in mind, a group Latin Americans set out to create Escalalatina, an image bank, which aims to provide a way for Latin American architects to fill their renders with images of “real Latinos,” so that next time you see a model of, say, a shopping mall, instead of seeing a very white person, you could actually insert a masked wrestler, Emiliano Zapata or even Cuauhtémoc Blanco (notwithstanding the whiteness of his name) because you know you always bump into those people in the mall.

Heck, you can even go for this AWESOME ice-cream vendor:

heladosvia: Arch Daily

 

‘Emojis’ Will Soon be Browner, Blacker, Because Diversity

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BlackemojisTired of the lack of diversity in the media and pretty much elsewhere? Worry no more! Very soon, your cute yellow -and white-faced emojis will be able to adopt up to six different skin tones, from unreal, weirdly yellowish yellow to an almost-pitch black.

This added diversity comes courtesy of the Unicode Consortium, the group that governs the emoji standard, which today said it is working on an update that “addresses emoji diversity.” In a nutshell, this basically means we will soon be able to use some sort of tech tool to make our emojis more brown/black and hopefully less güeritos.

I applaud the Unicode Consortium for their diversity efforts, because even if Hispanics and/or African-Americans continue to be underrepresented in media, politics, entertainment and pretty much elsewhere, at least we’ll be more accurately represented in the very important world of chatting with our friends and family using emoticons.

I mean, embracing diversity has to start somewhere.

emoji-faceslau

Via: CNET en Español

 

Taylor Swift Wants you to Know Bodegas are Our Friends

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Taylor Swift, who recently bought a $20 million property in Manhattan, has tons of New York City vocabulary to teach you, including what a bodega is all about. (Hint: it’s a corner store, which is open pretty much all the time and -more importantly- is our friend.)

Click here or on the link below (if you dare) to learn a thing or two about this wonderful city in the words of our new “ambassador,” including how to pronounce Houston and why SoHo and NoHo are very different things.

Oh, and please don’t shoot the messenger (i.e. this blogger)

Americans Want to Trick you into Drinking ‘Nopal Water’

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What on Earth is 'True Nopal?'
What on Earth is ‘True Nopal?’

The US$5.99 ‘Cactus water’ promises to be 100 percent natural and gluten free. But let me clue you in on a little secret: We don’t really drink “Nopal water,” and even if we did, we wouldn’t pack it inside Tetra Pak and then claim it’s all natural.

Remember: Nothing lives in Tetra Pak without some delicious NaC₇H₅O₂ (aka sodium benzoate.)

Just sayin’

Photo: Laura Martínez

Get Ready for ‘Playboy Latino;’ Hopefully More Virgins on Cover

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playboylogoSpeaking of Latino spin-offs of non-Latino publications, Playboy is partnering with a Spanish-language publisher in the U.S. to launch Playboy Latino, which I believe is going to be like the regular Playboy but -ahem- Latino.

Per a press release:

Playboy Latino will be published predominantly in Spanish and will feature a mix of original content, as well as pictorials and articles from the Playboy archives that will be repackaged for a Latino audience.

I don’t know you, but that whole bit about repackaged pictorials sounds really enticing.

I just hope they live up to the standards of the great Playboy Mexico, which famously put the Virgin Mary on its cover.

virgin2

Playboy Latino is expected to come to your Latino neighborhood as soon as December. So stay tuned. I promise you guys a first-take on this thing, which I’ll read for pure informational/blogging reasons, of course.

Unshocking Revelation: Sofía is ‘Variety Latino’ Top Latina

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SofiaNumberOne

No Hispanic Heritage Month would be complete without a list of the most influential Latinos in Hollywood, so thanks Variety Latino, for putting that together.

According to Variety Latino, which is like regular Variety, but Latino, there are 20 Latinos who fit the bill as the most powerful/influential Latinos in Hollywood (uff, that’s a Latino mouthful.)

The list –which Variety says was not based on money earned– included 10 men and 10 women, among which is my favorite, retro-acculturated Latina: Eva Longoria (aka La Prieta Faya).

Number one of the list…. chan, chan! Sofía Vergara, who is richer and prettier than all of us.

Well, you have to give it to Variety Latino for not putting her on a rotating pedestal or anything.

Who Wants to Smell Like Hugo Chávez and Ché Guevara?

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ErnestoHugoPerfumesFrom the #NotTheOnion archives of this venerable blog, come the new “Ernesto” and “Hugo” fragrances, created in honor of -who else?- Ernesto “Ché” Guevara, and the late Hugo Chávez himself.

“Ernesto” is being described as having a touch of “wood,” while “Hugo” is “softer, with a touch of subtle, tropical scents.”

This is not a joke, you people. It’s the creation of a serious Cuban enterprise, Labiofam, whose founder spoke personally to my friend Andrea Rodríguez, of AP in Havana.

Now you know.

Mattel to Launch Mariachi Barbie, Because Why-the-Hell-Not?

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MariachiBarbie

I don’t know how many ridiculous Barbie posts I’ve written for this old blog (they are here, here and here). But who is counting?

In the latest marketing move, and apparently unmoved by the likely wave of criticisms, Mattel says it will launch a Mariachi Barbie edition to celebrate the upcoming Mexican Independence holiday.

I seriously think this is great, you know, perhaps we can finally match her up with her perfect companion: This guy.