Masa Revolution crew Martin Espino and Victor “victor-e” Mendoza rehearse the traditional Mexican Aztec Dance with Liliana Curioca at an art studio in Long Beach. Martin performed at the Tulipanes Festival in Holland, Michigan for the last six years. This time, he invited along these two special guests to take the sounds of Ancient Mexico to this annual Latin Art and Film Festival.

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• Friday, September 13
• MEXIKA “Sounds of Ancient Mexico” tours Michigan
• 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
• TULIPANES FESTIVAL, Holland, Michigan, USA (MAP)
• Martin, victor”e” and Liliana will be there for just one day at a huge auditorium playing 3 shows for kids in the day, and a special adult show at night

A man dressed as a chicken was among the artists showing off their latest creations during the first Latino Comic Expo. The daylong event drew several hundred kids– of  all ages– to the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach.

More than 50 artists and vendors set up their books, DVDs, and posters on rows of tables inside a sun-drenched space at the rear of the museum. Hundreds of fans turned out to buy comic books, get autographs, and attend workshops. Sharon Nicholls drove 35 miles from Pasadena to the coast with her eight-year-old son, Elias.

“He loves reading La Cucaracha in the L.A. Times on Sunday mornings, so I guess the hook for him was the chance to meet Lalo Alcaraz.”

Alcaraz created La Cucaracha, which has gone on to become the first nationally-syndicated, politically-themed Latino daily comic strip. Fellow cartoonists Richard Padilla and Javier Hernandez teamed up, brainstormed the idea of showcasing Latino creators, and did the legwork to make it happen.  That includes lining up personal appearance from established artists: Lalo Alcaraz, Jim Lujan, and Roman Montes de Oca– and dozens more.

“The first Latino Comics Expo is a one-stop shop of movies, comics, and books based on Latino themes,” says Hernandez. “There are pop-culture references as well, like Lucha Libre, Aztec Mythology, and Mayan history.”

L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe recognized the expo’s cultural value. Just days before the event, Knabe presented co-founders Ricard Padilla and Javier Hernandez with a certificate of recognition.

“El Muerto” film screening, 2007.

Hernandez garnered worldwide recognition as the mastermind behind the comic book superhero turned movie, El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie/The Dead One.  The film adaption of the Mariachi musician with a skull face starred Wilmer Valderrama and premiered at the San Diego Latino Film Festival in 2007.

Hernandez is also the Main Title Animator for Masa Revolution: The Backstreet to The American Dream.  The independent documentary for theatrical release establishes that street food in L.A. derives from street food in Mexican and captures the strife as this once marginalized industry, which was born in LA.. and built on the backs of immigrants, becomes a global phenomenon.

Latino Comic Expo co-creators Hernandez and Padilla hope to take the show on the road: Chicago, Miami, Texas.  They say even Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Brazil would likely draw enthusiastic crowds. Spanish sir names or not, the co-founders say their event is for anyone with an eye for Latino art and themes.

LA Weekly and Bill Esparza’s first street food event ended on a tremendous high note. Check out these posts about it.

Masa Revolution was booth #18. We had La Guerrerense from Ensenada to our left and Zip Car to the right. It was the perfect day for an outdoor event: classic SoCal warm without the heat being overbearing. We ceased the moment to promote the film and spread the word about our current efforts to build our sponsorship team.

Thanks for hookin’ it up, Bill Esparza! And thanks to all those groovy folks who stopped by!

Masa Revolution: The Backstreet to The American Dream is an independent documentary for theatrical release about how the booming food truck scene builds community. It also covers the history of the industry and highlights Los Angeles as a model for the world in the street food revolution. The full-length feature chronicles the trials, confrontations, and turf wars as the food truck movement began to explode in Los Angeles in 2010. It captures the smell of Carne Asada- curbside, the taste of truffle-aioli sauce, and the flavor of fresh Maine Lobster, as well as exposes some other unsavory stuff.

Check it out!

Here’s a sneak peek at the forces behind Masa Revolution: The Backstreet to The American Dream. I’ll keep it short, because the video speaks for itself.

It starts by introducing each person involved in the project, and ends with photos of us at our crew meeting in Burbank on May 2nd, 2013. Credit for capturing   the creative process goes to Project Photographer Jorge Neri.

Enjoy!

Call it a batcave, or maybe a carwash. Officially, commissaries are the type of place that few people know exist, although they’re a key ingredient for food truck operators hungry to stay in business across Los Angeles County. Jorge Neri goes behind the scenes at a commissary in Sun Valley and unwraps its roll in health department regulations.

Loncheras are riding the food truck tidal wave:

It’s not the kind of question you ask in public, but: Would you eat from a plain white catering truck?

While perusing the menu of a fancy green-and-orange food truck parked near Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank on a recent afternoon, a man in a button-down shirt and slacks pauses, then says, “No.”

Taquitos from Prime Time Cuisine on Wheels: Formerly a taco truck, it’s now a custom-wrapped “food truck.” (Photo by Anne Fishbein)

Another admits, “I don’t care. I just want good food!” [read on]

Check out Amy Scattergood’s blog post and slideshow on Prime Time cuisine.

At her 82nd birthday part, Dolores Huerta circulates a petition denouncing proposed adult education cuts in L.A. County Public Schools.

The woman who co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with Cesar Chavez in 1962, which later became the United Farm Workers, is being recognized with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The medal is given to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

President Barak Obama said:  “These extraordinary honorees come from different backgrounds and different walks of life, but each of them has made a lasting contribution to the life of our Nation.  They’ve challenged us, they’ve inspired us, and they’ve made the world a better place.  I look forward to recognizing them with this award.”

In addition to Huerta, The White House press release named all of this year’s recipients, including astronaut John Glenn, author Toni Morrison, musician Bob Dillan.  Huerta is the only Latina on the list.  She says she received a phone call from The White House advising that President Obama had selected her for the distinguished honor.

“To me it speaks to organization, because if we don’t have organization then we don’t have a voice,” says Huerta.  “We may be 50 million Latinos in our country, but if we’re not organized and we’re not educated, we don’t have a voice.”

The White House called just days after Huerta’s 82^nd birthday.  The civil rights activist and her 11 children threw a party at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes downtown Los Angeles.  The VIP list included several well-known Mexican artists, including Oscar Nominated Actor Edward James Olmos and “Zoot Suit” playwright/filmmaker Luis Valdez.

“We had almost 900 people for her party,” said L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina.

Huerta is an iconic and beloved figure in Southern California.  As of the 2010 U.S. Census count, half of L.A. County’s population is Hispanic.  In its latest report, the Public Policy Institute of California estimates the number of undocumented immigrants is about 900,000, or nearly 10% of L.A. County’s overall population.

Huerta’s grassroots connection with farm workers and her activism for Latinas, adult education, and voter registration resonate with many Hispanic in L.A.  Her organizing style has become the blueprint that community activists and attorneys build on to unite a wide range of blue-collar workers, including janitors, car wash employees, and the industry that’s nearest to our hearts—The Loncheros.

Huerta’s social contributions are central to the Mexican immigrant experience in Los Angeles and an important part of the history section of the film-in-production, Masa Revolution.

–Dolores Huerta will travel to The White House to receive her award later this spring.

Skrillex Heats Up The Turntable

Lines stretched for blocks in northeast L.A. last night as fans jostled to get a taste of the latest Skrillex project — a literal taste, that is, of the diminutive dubstep pioneer’s new mobile culinary lab, Grillex.

The Grammy-winning L.A. native Skrillex (born Sonny Moore) launched Grillex to minimal initial fanfare, keeping it mostly a secret until yesterday afternoon, when the truck rolled up to the corner of Echo Park Avenue at Sunset and tweets piled upon tweets, prompting a rush of mostly black-clad superfans to get their hands on his new creations.

What spurred the temporary shift from DJ to Grill-J? We asked the man himself

as he hustled and hopped in front of a pair of searing griddles.

“I figured, why not? Y’know? I’ve gotta try a new challenge right now,” Skrillex said. “Growing up, I cooked a lot at home … I mean, I spent a lot of time with a spatula and grill tongs, almost as much time as I did with decks and records. I’ve got a real passion for it, y’know what I mean? I think, like, 60% of these things fail in the first few months … might as well give it a shot.” [more]

Former snow plow sells deep-fried tacos.

The Department of Public Works is getting ready to unveil a new line of food trucks to help feed the city’s seemingly ceaseless appetite for food on the go.  City officials also hope to close the city’s budget gap.

DPW is creating 10 food trucks from former vehicles that served as part of the city’s line of dedicated snow plows.

DPW assistant director Tom Sweet says that global warming is changing the city’s plowing needs and that he and his staff saw an opportunity to re-purpose some equipment that was sitting dormant and scarfing up ever-tighter public dollars

[more].