What up, Latinopians! Last week Latinopia’s founder, the Barrio Dog himself, was riding on the bus with the librotraficantes banned book caravan. Riding with the Barrio Dog was Michael Sedano who reported on the exciting week in la bloga. The exciting week included stops in El Paso, Mesilla, New Mexico, and Albuquerque before finally landing in Tucson, Arizona to deliver boxes of books written by Latino authors to Latino high school students. These are books that have been banned by the Tucson Unified School System and taken out of the school libraries. Hay que barbaros! The caravan, instigated by Tejano Tony Díaz, was a historic demonstration of people power–Latinos across the Southwest united to stand up for their first amendment rights. About as American as you can get! Watch for filmed reports on this historic struggle coming to you in the weeks to come on Latinopia.com!
This week we highlight another historic event and yet another attempt to censor the Latino voice. Your Tia is talking about the 1932 whitewashing of a mural painted by Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siquieros called “América Tropical.” Here’s the lowdown. Siquieros was asked to paint a mural on the wall of a building in Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles. The theme was to be “Tropical America. ” The shop owner who commissioned the mural got more than he bargained for when Siquieros created an image so powerful that the mural was soon whitewashed and kept from public view. What was that image? Check out this week’s excerpt from the classic documentary “America Tropical,” made by filmmaker Jesús Treviño was back in 1971.
Also this week, we have the trailer for a new drama by Latino filmmaker and director Gabe Torres titled “Brake.” This is an exciting action adventure that is released this week (March 23rd) in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. So go out and see this film and support this talented director!
Bueno, as my Tia Braulio likes to say, “Nothing to it, but to do it!” Check out this week’s videos and enjoy!
OOXX Tia Tenopia