THIS WEEK ON LATINOPIA: MARK GUERRERO’S CHICANO MUSIC CHRONICLES RETURNS WITH LOUIE AND LENCHO, TOM WALDMAN AND DAVID REYES’S EASTSIDE HEARTBEATS, OLGA GARCIA ECHEVERRIA ON “LINGUALISTIC ALGO” AND DANIEL VALDEZ ON THE MAKING OF THE MOVIE LA BAMBA.
What up Latino-Opians! This week Mark Guerrero brings us another podcast of legendary Chicano music performers. This month he visits with Louie Mendez and Lorenzo “Lencho” Martinez, both of whom have excelled as a duo and also separately performing with the likes of Flaco Jimenez and The Texmaniacs. This is another provocative interview podcast guided by Mark Guerrero, musician and musicologist as he delves into the careers of this dynamic duo. Check it out!
Also this week we revisit the performance of Eastside Heartbeats. This is an original musical about life on the Eastside written by Tom Waldman and David Reyes and performed at Josefina CASA 0101 theater in 2016. Lots of good music and fun!
And also this week we feature Chicana poet Olga García Echeverria as she captures a humorous look on Chicano language code-shifting in her poem “Lingualistic Algo.” Her reading was captured at the 2010 Flor y Canto festival at USC.
Finally, we know that the movie La Bamba was directed by legendary film and theater director Luis Valdez. But what is not so well known is the behind the scenes story of how the movie La Bamba originated as told by actor/musician/composer Daniel Valdez, who wanted to make the story of Ritchie Valens’s life into a movie for decade before it finally came to completion. Without Daniel’s persistence the movie might never have been made.
Enjoy your week on Latinopia!