Your one-stop shop for all things Latin/Hispanic/Mexican
… unlike racist New York lawyer Aaron Schlossberg, who once claimed to be “fluent in Spanish” but then went batshit crazy and threatened to call ICE on people speaking the language at his local deli.
Shame on you, Señor Schlossberg. You should learn from the fine lawyers of Spanish Harlem, who I’m sure are much more attuned to the sensibilities of a multicultural, multiethnic city –and the need for [true] bilingual professionals.
Photo: Laura Martínez, NYC 2018
Being Hispanic in the U.S. has become a sort of act of resistance for many of us. Not only because we have to deal with a president who launched his candidacy by calling Mexicans a bunch of rapists and criminals, but because that same presidency seems to be enabling all kinds of racist behavior towards “these people” (i.e. Latinos, Hispanics, Beaners or whatever you want to call “my people.”)
In one of the most recent of these episodes, a video went viral this week showing New York attorney Aaron Schlossberg verbally attacking deli employees for –wait for it– speaking Spanish. In Manhattan. At a deli. Imagine that!
In the video (which was first reported by Latino Rebels), we can see Schlossberg complaining aggressively to the deli’s management, saying “your staff is speaking Spanish to clients when they should be speaking English. Every person I listen to: he spoke it, he spoke it, she’s speaking it,” he says, pointing angrily at several people in the place.
The incident spread quickly across social media and made it eventually to the main media outlets, causing hilarious scenes where reporters were trying to interview Schlossberg just to see him running away as if someone had called La Migra on him.
Needless to say, Schlossberg’s tirade got Latinos very angry (and many reasonable non-Latinos, of course) but I’m happy to report that “my people” responded in the best way possible: By throwing him a Latin FIESTA right on his block, outside a posh apartment building on West 60th Street, in the heart of Manhattan.
The party, which took place on Friday, May 18, was organized by a group known as Millennials for Revolution on Facebook who invited people to show Schlossberg that speaking Spanish is not a crime and that “we will gladly educate you on our culture and language by throwing a big fiesta.”
And it was goooood!
It was only 5:30 pm but dozens of people were already gathered, listening to music, waving improvised signs and chanting things like Hablamos español! I don’t know exactly how, but I found myself joining the crowd dancing to some good ol’ Latin favorites: From Celia Cruz’ Quimbara, to Elvis Crespo’s Suavemente and –yes– several versions of Despacito. Ay!
The fiesta reached its peak when a mariachi band, organized through a GoFundMe page that has raised over $1,000, arrived on site and gave us some old time Mexican favorites, including a moving version of Cielito lindo, which had us all singing out loud.
I created the #AaronSchlossbergLatinParty hashtag on Twitter and was happy to see it was used by other users to help spread the love.
Click through this Twitter moment and ¡Que siga la fiesta!
⚡ We threw a Latin party for Aaron Schlossberg in Nueva York. It was awesome https://t.co/ocRglsnZV3 #AaronSchlossbergLatinParty pic.twitter.com/AHPTQbOxCG
— Laura Martínez ®️ (@miblogestublog) 19 de mayo de 2018
UPDATE: On Tuesday May 22, the racist lawyer used social media to apologize. The apology is lame and I don’t believe him, but here it is:
— AaronSchlossbergLaw (@ASchlossbergLaw) 22 de mayo de 2018
Paisanos BEWARE!
Next time you go to a Starbucks and order a venti, tall, mocha, latte, foamy frapuccino (or whatever the hell it is they call a coffee over there) make sure to leave some room for … racism.
In the latest episode involving the coffee chain and a non-white person, a Latino customer says that when he received his drink, it came with the word BEANER written on it –even though he clearly told them his name was Pedro, which apparently is synonym of “Mexican.”
I’m not entirely sure why, but these type of “incidents” are happening more and more frequently in this melting pot we call America. Perhaps it’s just part of the whole process of making it GREAT AGAIN. 🤔
Via: USA Today
Tired of having Colombia being portrayed as a country plagued by drug violence and prostitution, two Colombian enterprises and the Medellín City Hall have joined forces to launch The Colombian Ambush, an online campaign aimed at showing the world the real Colombia, one that has given us many great things, including “Gabo,” one of the world’s greatest writers.
The campaign will live exclusively online and is being crafted by Dallas-based Dieste. A series of videos have been directed by Simón Brand and use the typical Colombian stereotype to fight … the Colombian stereotype.
In Patrón, for example, we are presented with a scene very similar to Season I of Narcos, the Netflix sensation about the bloody era of the Pablo Escobar years. But instead of witnessing an exchange of drugs –or weapons– we see men exchanging books… books by the great García Márquez.
Watch as a very unusual patrón scolds his men for not bringing La Hojarasca.
(Oh, and while we’re at it, PLEASE REMEMBER: It’s Colombia, Not Columbia.)
Via: CNET en Español
From the Archives of I Could Not Make This Thing Up if I Tried comes Richard Carranza, the recently appointed New York City Schools Chancellor, who took a very unsual approach when discussing his new job with Mr. De Blasio and wife: He serenaded them with mariachi song María Elena.
His background is plain awesome. Per the [failing] New York Times:
At Monday’s news conference, Mr. Carranza said he had been a mariachi musician since he was about 6 years old. When he wanted to stay up late with his father and his uncles, they said the only people staying up late were people playing instruments — so he learned to play the guitar. He later worked his way through college at the University of Arizona “gigging,” as he put it on Monday.
Now you know. If running our disastrous public school system turns out to be too much for this fellow Mexican, he can always go back to serenading las muchachas. ¡Ajúa!
Just WATCH:
Via: New York Times
It took longer than I most of us wanted, but the awesome Millennial Lotería is finally on sale. It’s not cheap and apparently there won’t be tons of sets available, so you’d better hurry if you want to put your hands on these little wonders.
As creator Mike Alfaro told MiTú in 2017, “he remembered [the lotería cards] from his childhood but was shocked at how outdated they were, so he took the opportunity to create a parody version of the timeless game.”
Click on the gallery below to get a taste of this beauty –and start saving, my friends…(all images by Mike Alfaro.)
Via: Millennial Lotería
From the always-creative #SpanishFail Texas signs and advertisements, comes the “Corazon [sic] Latino Dance Fitness” in Austin, where you can go dance until you lose not one, nor two, but 20 “bolas!”…
Or, did they mean “bolsas?” 🤔
#ItsLbsNotBls
Hat tip: @SaraChicaD
These señoritas are hotter than hot, and they will be available for your viewing –and dancing– pleasure the night of December 31, 2017 at El Zapateo Latino, a Parisian Latin bôite in the heart of the Quartier Latin.
Oui, oui… ¡ajúa!
Photos: Laura Martínez, Paris, Dec. 2017
Hialeah High School is offering free ‘Inglish’ lessons, which is, like, great. But why not other languages? How about Frinch? Jerman? Espanich?
That would be so great!
This image, which has been doing the rounds on the Internet, couldn’t find a better home than this blog, which has dutifully documented the birth of Hispanic cheese; the deliciously weird tortilla-flavored chocolates; the Mexican Coca-Cola and even a Hispanic lettuce to go with your Hispanic tuna and your Hispanic mayonnaise.
I have several questions about this display, including: Where is the uña de gato?; shouldn’t the sign read “Hispanic drugs” as in several (not one) drugs… Shouldn’t it be “Drogas hispanas” and not “hispánicas”… Oh… and can the creator of this display come forward? I’d like to thank him/her personally.
Thank you for your cooperation.
I don’t mean to ruin their bilingual, toasted Christmas-y spirit, but the folks over at this Starbucks in Chicago would be well advised to spend some time on their Spanish-language copy –or just stick to English if they cannot find one Spanish speaker in a city that is 30 percent Hispanic.
Hat tip: Marco López
Americans from all walks of life took to the streets Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017 to protest Donald Trump’s cruelest decision to date: To kill DACA, a program implemented by the Obama administration that granted undocumented children protection from deportation as well as permits to be able to work legally in the US.
The decision sparked nationwide protests, including one outside the Trump Tower in the heart of New York City where dozens of protesters were arrested. Among the brave — and most hilarious — protesters was the woman above, who had a clear message for Donald Trump (or rather his Twitter handle.)
Photo via: @NYSYLC
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure you are aware that Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai was in Mexico this week as part of a larger “humanitarian” world tour.
On Thursday, while in Mexico, Malala spoke at the Technological Institute of Monterrey in Mexico City and met president Enrique Peña Nieto, who proudly tweeted a picture of the meeting.
Sooner than you can say “infraschorchor,” Mexicans took to Twitter to do what we do best: To mock our fearless leader.
Here are only a few of the tweets that made my Thursday –and still are helping me get through Friday.
IT’S MALUMA NOT MALALA
EL MEJOR 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/SFzHySUySc
— Risco (@jrisco) 1 de septiembre de 2017
LET’S SING ALONG
– Entonces, mira, después de que yo canto “Malala” tú dices “Lalalong, long long li long long long”. pic.twitter.com/X03FaZIoDC
— 👺 Tanooki Kamikaze (@zomwalruss) 1 de septiembre de 2017
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH… EYEROLL
– …
– 🙄 pic.twitter.com/0ZOvhnvrmj— Edgar G Pichardo 💡 (@ElDeCreativo) 1 de septiembre de 2017
IS IT CHRISTMAS YET?
—¡¿CÓMO QUE NO SALES EN LA PASTORELA?!
— pic.twitter.com/vbTsxFc3Jp— fernando delaflor (@F3rn) 1 de septiembre de 2017
OUCH
“Aquí todas las mujeres tienen derecho a la educación. Mientras lleguen vivas a la edad adulta. Pero bueno, me estoy desviando”. pic.twitter.com/VZlcj91cp7
— Hara Kitty (@InfantaSinalefa) 1 de septiembre de 2017t
THURSDAY
Jueves con sed de la malala. pic.twitter.com/ru4i83hFAR
— fernando delaflor (@F3rn) 31 de agosto de 2017
OUCH II
Ella estuvo a punto de perder la vida por querer ir a la escuela.
Él plagió su tesis y es incapaz de nombrar 3 libros.@Malala y @EPN pic.twitter.com/2cCADgg8MO
— OSWALDO RÍOS 🌐 (@OSWALDORIOSM) 1 de septiembre de 2017
KEEPING HER DISTANCE
Malala pidió no acercarse mucho a EPN porque cree que la #corrupción es una enfermedad contagiosa en México. pic.twitter.com/5G63OX4jAI
— Guruchuirer (@guruchuirer) 1 de septiembre de 2017
Remember that nonsensical trend of putting “eñes” where they don’t belong just to make something look — and sound — more authentic?
Well, it looks like American salsa makers, media giants and Hispanic journalists organizations are not alone in this thing. As it turns out, local farmers markets is New York City are on it as well.
¡Ay carambiña!
Photo: @Saltasolt
Click on the gallery below to see what I’m talking about and repeat after me: ¡Coño, aprendan a usar la eñe!
