Intersections

The perfect quesadilla, at Bosforo *

This is the quesadilla that they serve at the bar at Bosforo, a new mezcaleria in downtown D.F. Arturo, the friendly proprietor, is usually tending bar if you find yourself on Luis Moya at Independencia one hectic mid-week evening and walk in. When I'm there, famished, I often get the quesadilla.

And when I do, I usually stop and ponder the plate before me, thinking: 'This is a quesadilla from a more perfect future.'

The house dish at Bosforo is distinctly 'pre-Hispanic.' Arturo calls it "food from Anahuac," the original Aztec name for the place we now call Mexico. The barfood at Bosforo is noteworthy because it's what we might as well call indigenous fusion.

The Bosforo crew take a handmade blue-corn tortilla, lines it with fragrant hoja santa and white Oaxacan cheese, and fill it with chapulines. On the bar, there's always a fresh red chapulin salsa, homemade, still in the molcajete. They might serve it with whatever add-on dish comes with the house's nightly special, which changes every night, or a handful of fresh kumquats or mandarin oranges.

Always a struggle deciding between the regular quesadilla or whatever dish Arturo came up with that day. I don't even inquire too deeply on what it is; I already know I won't know what he's talking about.

"Tortitas de ahuetle con ayocotes." Yes, that's exactly what I want right now.

It was an incredible meal: Tiny waterbug eggs, in small patties, served with a side of ayocote, a beautiful native bean. The bug patties were delightful, similar in texture to caviar, and probably a delicacy of equal pedigree during the Aztec Empire. Is this what Cuauhtemoc was dreaming about when Cortes had his feet placed over a fire?

Bosforo is a mellow, hoodie joint. Condesa-like airs or pretentions are out of place, meaning there's almost no serving/being-served dichotomy. Neighbors meet up here, indie zines have parties, small presses. Walk in and someone might be playing their best from Brazil or Iran.

Thankfully, if you're not looking for it, you'll miss the bar from the street. But if you are looking, Bosforo is located at Luis Moya 31 just before Independencia, half-a-block down from a new Ecobici rack.

The Bosforo mezcales that I most covet are the "espadin amarillo" and the "chocolate." It finishes with a sizzling note of cacao. An extra FYI: Tambien curan su propio pulque.

On the sound of Mexico City *

* Yeah, it's noisy. Above, Eje Central, by Daniel Perlin.

What does Mexico City sounds like, right now? Maybe, from at least two particular perspectives, a little like this. It's "The Sound of Mexico City," a mixtape I co-curated at the invitation of sound designer Daniel Perlin on the soundscape of D.F., for the Italian design and urbanism magazine Domus. Perlin led the project and mixed the mix.

Throughout, I read a portion of "Down & Delirious in Mexico City" in which I rhapsodize on the city's noise. (It's the first time I've read any section of the book for audio online publication, so I'm a little nervous right now. Will the listener/reader get this particular excerpt's sense of exaggeration, the overblown sound-pyschosis, the humor?)

In addition, there's a pretty haunting piece in there by sound artist Rogelio Sosa. It includes the infamous clip of former President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz saying he was "most proud" of his role in the crackdown on the 1968 student movement.

Perlin and I had to turn around the mix pretty quickly, but I think we managed to string together a decent sample of various musical genres that define the D.F. soundscape right now, cumbia, tribal guarachero, ska, rockabilly, hip-hop. Thank you to the artists whom I personally contacted and agreed to supply a track. They are ...

The Kumbia Queers, whose garage-y lo-fi sound captures a certain "right now" aesthetic that bridges cumbia, punk, and queerness -- particularly of the female sort. The Rebel Cats, the slick maestros of Mexican rockabilly; they play tight and sport a good look. MC Luka, one of many hiphoperos doing it big in the Gran Tenochtitlan; I particularly like Luka because he addresses transnational cholo/barrio culture -- and spits so good overall. Sonido Sonoramico, one of several cumbia bands who play somewhere in town just about every week of the year, easily in the elite of this street subculture. And finally Maldita Vecindad, true OGs of the old-school ska/fusion scene in Mexico City, which in my view operates as an umbrella for many subsequent genres and groups. They've been at it for two decades now and remain committed to a sociopolitical vision of music and its ability to liberate and build community. Respeto.

Perlin gathered the hot tracks by friends Toy Selectah, Afrodita, Sonidero Nacional, Erick Rincon & Alan Rosales, Sekreto feat. Morenito de Fuego, and Sonido Espectral.

In the near future, with more time than this project allowed, I'll be linking up more artists who I think define the sound of Mexico City as I've lived it these past three years. I'll also be posting, soon, on my "Top Ten Mixtapes of 2010."

Nos vemos en la calle, cabrones!

Diane Arbus on freaks: 'They're aristocrats'

Doon Arbus, daughter of the legendary New York photographer Diane Arbus, opens this beautiful 1972 short film on Arbus's images. Doon is phenomenal in her period Afro, her sense of empowerment, and her sharp analysis of work so intimately tied to her personal history. Please watch.

And definitely follow on to Part 2 and the rest. As Doon explains, a Japanese photographer learning English recorded Arbus in class sessions. In the film, an Arbus friend reads Diane's words "over glimpses of Diane's photographs."

Her frank thinking on the moral conundrums of documentary photography is golden. From Part 2 of the film as it appears on YouTube, and my transcript, Arbus on "freaks":

Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first thing I photographed and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore some of them. I don't quite mean they're my best friends, but they made me feel a mixture of shame and awe. There's a quality of legend about freaks, like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. I mean, if you've ever spoken to someone with two heads, you know they know they something you don't. Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.

"Freaks," in the words of Lisette Model, who follows in the video, are in the same group as "homosexuals, lesbians, cripples, sick people, dying people, dead people."

Diane Arbus committed suicide in 1971.

Turning 30 on the border *

I'm breaking a rule about posting too many photos with me in them, but who cares, I'm 30 today! They tell me 30 is when you get to say, 'I can do whatever I want,' and it finally becomes true.

This is me at the Monte de los Olivos cemetery in Tijuana this morning. Came with my mom and cousin Alan to visit our muertos on my arrival from Mexico City. That's the imposing Cerro Colorado in the background. The wind is strong, the hot sun. Many memories here, bitter and yet also sweet.

Tijuana is as clean, modern, and orderly as ever. We had breakfast at La Espadaña -- fast becoming a custom for us when I come home on early morning flights -- and then I crossed the border on foot. The heart always quickens as I stand in line; obese people, people whose skin has seen too much sun-and-meth cocktail, ancient tattoos, drawling English, AMERICA!!

The customs agent was kind of enough to say, "Happy birthday!" after scanning my passport. It was the only time, I thought, that the border-crossing experience has made me smile genuinely.

More photos from Monte de los Olivos are here, here, and here.

It's very warm up here/down here. I've slept all afternoon and I want more of it. Have no plans tonight except family and a certain date with any icy local beer. I appreciate all the kind wishes. Thank you.

On home: A mural's meaning in National City *

Here's an essay that went up on Friday at Zocalo Public Square titled, "A Piece of Home in a Lost Mural." In it, I relate my search last year for an old mural that I remember from my childhood, at the National City Public Library (the old one, not the one pictured in that link).

From the piece:

When I finally arrived to check it out, the library was shut down, the 1970s-style brown-on-brown building locked and unused. It turned out National City had built a new library a few years back, down the way in Kimball Park. When I walked over to see if the mural was there, I couldn’t find it. I asked around, spurred both by reportorial instinct and by a more personal desire I couldn’t quite identify. No one knew what I was talking about. But I needed an answer.

My curiosity about the state and status of this mural sparked connections that otherwise would likely not have happened with two men whom I now admire greatly, David Avalos and Juan Parrino.

Avalos was persistent and active in our search for the library mural; without his tenacity we would not have found it. In a long series of email correspondence, Parrino was crucial in illuminating the history behind the mural, how it was conceived and executed. As I describe in the piece, the library mural was created collectively by National City youth.

"In effect they had made fundamental movement towards becoming empowered citizens," Parrino wrote me, referring to the teens who participated in the project. "By empowered I mean their sense that they had the ability to achieve purpose and by citizens I am not referring to legalistic terms of documentation status, but rather to being engaged members of society with entitlement to defend, demand, and demonstrate for their civil and human rights."

Avalos is still active in the South Bay community in San Diego and teaches at Cal State San Maros. (Here's a mention of some of his work in the U-T in 2007.) Parrino is now an organizer at United Teachers Los Angeles. Here are images of the four panels, provided by Avalos. I do not recall the order in which they were hung. I am uploading them labeled as they were sent to me. Panel 1, Panel 2, Panel 3, Panel 4.

Last we heard from the city, officials are hoping to re-display the mural in a public setting in the near future. I'll keep you updated.

* Thank you David, Juan.

Bicentenario blues?

Above, a representation of the Templo Mayor adorning the walls of the buildings on the west side of the Zocalo. I took this on Friday during a stroll around Centro for a post at La Plaza, on Mexico's bicentennial of independence. At night it is lit up and looks incredible.

It's on this Wednesday night, September 15, starting at 6 p.m. with a parade choreographed by Ric Birch, who put together Olympic ceremonies at Barcelona in 1992 and at Sydney in 2000. Then there are performances on three stages by Kinky, Lila Downs, Espinoza Paz, Los Tigres del Norte, and many others. I feel a bit of excitement in the air finally, but maybe I'm just projecting.

After all, I don't have to cut across Reforma everyday and have to suffer it being shut down for three days.

The New York Times and the Associated Press both go long on the grim mood in Mexico in 2010. The A.P. quotes a priest at a shelter for Central American migrants in Oaxaca, and left me nodding: "I think that nationalism isn't much help any more. ... I think what we need is new humanism, that places value on the individual human being."

Meantime, or quickly down the road, maybe we could use a real audit on those millions of pesos being spent on the party. As ever, I'll be here to witness and keep my mind open and deliver myself to the fiesta, without resistance. Relatives are coming into town as I type, so things should get suitably saucy, soon.

* More later.

Journalism warning labels *

Above, a sample from "Journalism Warning Labels," by Tom Scott, a UK comedian, who ... maybe should try teaching at a major American j-school?

Scott explains: "To be fair, newspaper journalists have far too little time to do far too much, particularly with the steady collapse of print circulations. If a story breaks just before the deadline, they may just copy it: but it seems only fair to require labelling in a case like this."

Ouch. Now imagine if you picked up your paper and it was covered in these labels. An experiment in ultimate transparency? Scott's other work is impressive. Check it out here.

* Thank you, Michael!

Japanese Mexican girls

From a Southern California strip mall near you, above, "Japanese Mexican girls," by artist Shizu Saldamando, via FB. Can I get a pose, too? Check out some of Shizu's work here. A personal favorite are the romantic embraces in "18 With a Bullet."

* Previously, "Stay Gold: New work by Shizu Saldamando," "Tacorice: Wearing the L.A. look in Tokyo," and "Scenes from a manga convention in Mexico City."

Book imagery, considered *

I'm choosing images to go with each chapter in the book. The process is a lot harder and more complex than I thought it would be, aesthetically, thematically. What is the image supposed to do?

The end product will be a mix of images by professional documentary photographers, photos I've taken myself, original illustrations, and at least one painting. There are 15 chapters in the book, an introductory note, and an Afterword.

Above, a shot I'm considering by William Dunleavy, a young photographer from New York who spent a good chunk of time in 2008 documenting a band of punks from the outskirts of Neza, on the outskirts of Mexico City.

I hung out with Will a lot while he was here and met his punk crew a couple times, but I can't find them anymore, and I have a gift to deliver to them that Will left with me. I'll still be searching ...

Here's a post from Will's blog on the series, "Punks del Barrio." He writes:

In a country that teeters between the first and third world, these kids are often the lowest of the low. They are often the children of indigenous transplants to the sprawling megalopolis and live in the furthest toxic shanty towns. Through some chance they took on the appropriated identity and culture that is 'punk.' It's a scene that exists in fragmented but tight-knit families who won't hesitate to fight each other or hurl a brick at the cops. They were some of the rowdiest and most destructive people I'd ever met, and I could tell that they didn't have much to hope for. Despite that, my heart was warmed by their kindness to me, their families and loved ones. It was refreshing to experience punk without the familiar pretensions of class and race that I know in the USA.

Nice one. Thank you, Will, for sharing your images with me. And thank you all the photographers and illustrators who have generously offered to share their work through this process.

As always, process over product ... The road over the destination ... This is the best part.

* More later. ** Post edited.

In Oaxaca, tejate and tensions with the state *

Above, a bowl of fresh tejate outside the door of the Santo Tomas Xochimilco church in Oaxaca, where an old woman was handing out glasses of the maize-cacao drink for free for parishioners as we left a wedding ceremony inside. A drink for "Zapotec kings," according to MEXonline, tejate is "made of precisely toasted corn, cacao, cinnamon, and the seeds and flowers of a fruit called mamey." The flor de cacao becomes a foam and rises to the top as the ingredients are mixed together by hand, adding a wonderful texture to tejate as it travels down the throat.

It is served cold, sometimes with ice and sweetened with sugar-water. And it is delicious. Over the three days I spent in Oaxaca last weekend for this wedding of friends of friends, and for the Guelaguetza festival, I had a glass of tejate nearly every time I saw it being sold on the street.

Referring to Oaxaca as a nation unto itself is as accurate as you can get in describing the southern Mexican state. Much like Mexico City functions in relation to the Valley of Mexico and the surrounding central highlands, Oaxaca City (now Oaxaca de Juarez) feels sharply cosmopolitan for its region. All of Oaxaca's distinct regions and ethnic groups converge there, an ethnic, linguistic, and gastronomic diversity that is palpable and evident on every corner. In its food, in its civil and civic customs, in its sense of self and its relationship to the rest of Mexico and the rest of the world, Oaxaca is a fully realized society.

And all societies, of course, have their share of problems.

Daniel Lezama: A darker vision of 2010 *

Right now no one in Mexico is painting like Daniel Lezama is. His world in representational strokes is a fully resolved, fully horrifying vision of a Mexico beheaded. A brutal and naked Mexico, a carnival of cell phones and homicidal clowns, a nation in ritual rebirth. Lezama paints madness by the skin of the maguey.

That his work doesn't cause more of a stir in the public sphere is perhaps a welcome sign in this dark bicentennial year. Mexico might be drowning in its own blood, but at least the artists are still allowed to take the stains and spread them around on canvas, still wet.

Above, a detail from a Lezama (in full view: "La gran noche mexicana," 2005) at a show just inaugurated at the MUNAL. The exhibit is a blandly nationalist thing they titled "Imagenes de la Patria." Yes, the man with the microphone above is Juan Ga. One piece by another artist, in the Age of Arizona, proposes a cholo guadalupano refashioning of the United States flag. See here. It is by Adolfo Patiño, 1998, and called "Proyecto para la bandera de una colonia mexicana."

How prescient.

* Previously, "Control your magic."

** It's vacation time. Intersections now takes another breather, and will check in shortly from Puebla, Oaxaca, Tijuana/San Diego, and Los Angeles.

The work: A sicario narrates an assassination, and more

In the latest installment in a periodic series, I hustle my posting at the L.A. Times La Plaza blog. Below, recent news and notes from across Latin America, with an inevitable leaning on Mexico, per our location, and a focus on the work of LAT correspondents, per the paycheck.

I've also had two stories recently in The Times. Nice to have a byline in there again. Those links hang down after the posts noted below (and I'm only going back to early June with the posts; this is making my head heart):

Shooting of Mexican boy by U.S. border agent ratchets up tensions

DNA testing pits media family against Argentina government

Ghosts of the Pinochet regime haunt Chile's conservative president

June is shaping up as one of the grisliest months in ...

Students in Puerto Rico end long strike

High-level Mexican officials not to blame in day-care center ...

Santos wins: A vote for continuity in Colombia

'The Other Battles' -- photos from Ciudad Juarez

Argentina dispatches Mexico in World Cup -- again

'Dudus' in drag: How accused Jamaican drug lord evaded arrest

Assassination of candidate Rodolfo Torre in Mexico rattles ...

Pressure mounts on Mauricio Funes in El Salvador

Earthquake felt across southern Mexico; 1 person dead

Mexico Supreme Court orders release of 12 activists jailed ...

Mexican authorities nab suspected cartel hit man, a former ...

Mexico City, Beijing top list for worst 'commuter pain'

Hurricane Alex: 'Monterrey is beyond recognition'

Giant whale fossil found in desert in Peru

Dissident on hunger strike in danger of dying, Cuba says

Drug-smuggling sub seized by Ecuador reportedly able to ...

In Mexico, Times report on network's use of blackface ...

Jorge Videla, former dictator, faces new trial in Argentina

Cuban dissident calls off hunger strike afer 134 days

Colombia journalist denied visa for Harvard fellowship

Drug gang hit man narrates assassination of prosecutor in Mexico

As always, more here. My recent stories in the actual paper are "Mexican labor secretary defends copper mine crackdown" and "For Mexico, 'Zoot Suit' still relevant after 30 years," with an interview with Luis Valdez.

If you've made this far down the post, might as well ask, What do you think of La Plaza? What would you like to see more of, less of? How about the state of Intersections?

And speaking this blog, I'll be updating my right-bar pages soon, I promise.

* Image above, Cristian "El Cris" Rosado Mendoza, accused Juarez hit man.

Estamos aprendiedo como hacer un blog

Aqui estamos en el centro cultural con los amigos del Project Luz. Luego les explicamos mas. Estamos experimentando con hacer blogs. Acabamos de encontrar uno que se llama La Porra Ruda de Neza.

* Foto: Del archivo de Jasmin Lopez del Project Luz del 2008.

Yes he can: Jay Electronica takes New York

* Jay Electronica at the Highline Ballroom in NYC, by Willie Davis for the NYT.

I turn on MTV Jams sometimes, in 2010, and I wonder, Is this for real? Nah, it can't be. Can it? Yeah, hip-hop can be disappointing these days. But the genre that changed the world is not without true artistry. Look at Jay Electronica, tagged in Intersections in 2008 as the "most evocative and compelling contemporary" voice in hip-hop. He's only gotten better.

From the ruins of New Orleans, an enigmatic poet-sage who tackles the demons over a beat, Jay Electronica attempted two years ago to take on the tough hip-hop purists of New York City, and ... it didn't go well. Last week, he returned. He saw, and he conquered.

From Jon Caramanica in the NYT, on that failed last attempt:

He might also have never landed on "Exhibit C" the galvanizing single he released late last year that elevated him from a curiosity to a force. On it, over creeping, languorous soul, he details the steps that led him from occasional homeless drifter to idiosyncratic savior of New York rap classicism, opening with a devastating portrait of his early years:

When I was sleeping on the train / Sleeping on Meserole Ave. out in the rain / Without even a single slice of pizza to my name / Too proud to beg for change / Mastering the pain

With its hazy yet still crisp beat by Just Blaze, and its anti-commercial, chorus-free structure, "Exhibit C" quickly became a touchstone for preservationists of an outmoded style. His hometown notwithstanding, Jay Electronica is a rapper in the New York mold, and often an impressive one, which is why it must have been bewildering to him to be filleted so mercilessly by that New York crowd two years ago. And why, on Tuesday, he appeared so gratified by the response of the sold-out audience. Jay Electronica has become a folk hero, an anachronism, a living ghost.

Incredibly, Jay Electronica is as of yet unsigned to a major record label. The rapper is visible on Twitter, however. In some ways, it is the perfect hiding place.

(Yeah, please no more MTV.)

Postopolis Report No. 4: Aztec futurisms, y el adios

* How Postopolis spread: engagement. Via Tomo.

The culture supplement Tomo has just put out its Postopolis issue. Flip through the pages here. It's a useful marker to publish my final Postopolis report, so here it goes. Sorry for the delay ...

By Saturday, Postopolis had spread, like a Red Specter contagion. People in D.F. were hearing about it, tuning in and watching the stream online, and arriving to hear the talks live. The faces of my fellow bloggers were becoming not just familiar but welcoming. And those arty concrete ladrillos were by then all-too familiar with our poor sore nalgas.

On the final day David Lida came to discuss his book "First Stop in the New World" with Jace Clayton. A couple questions centered on Lida's thesis in the book that Mexico is "the capital of the Twenty First Century." He reiterated that his argument is based on the idea that the fastest growing cities in the developing world are growing like Mexico City did, which makes D.F. sort of the mother figure to places like Lagos or Mumbai. People for the most part make their life here day-to-day, Lida said, like in so many other such cities.

In a question, Mariana Delgado of Proyecto Sonidero challenged the notion that Mexico City is post-Colonial or post-Hispanic. She said something to the effect of, 'This is still Tenochtitlán.' The exchange was so cool because it demonstrated that this question -– Is Tenochtitlán a ghost city or the city around us, actually? –- is still a relevant one in D.F. today, in the year 2010.

I like to call that an Aztec Futurism. Or from the sonidero standpoint, is that a Tropical Futurism?

Postopolis Report No. 3: 'Residues of general economy' *

* Above, Mexico City, the lake of fire, at night from the air, via Oscar Ruiz.

Before going into highlights from Friday, I wanted to point out another highlight from Day 3, the photography of Oscar Ruiz, introduced by Gabriella Gomez Mont. Ruiz informed us before starting that he's not a professional photographer and not a professional speaker, he just flies helicopters. Yet from the air, he captures breathtaking images of the astonishing scale of Mexico City. Ruiz presented them with warmth and clarity, if a bit grimly.

As the pilot discussed his aerial pictures of shanties that spring up "over night" and resort-style residential complexes butting up against slums, you could hear the wonder and slight indignation in his voice at the severe social stratification he sees in Mexico from the skies. The photos have been online for years, so Ruiz's pictures are among the first people see when they browse the Web for a window into D.F.

It was great to finally attach a name and face to the photos.

Day 4:

Friday at Postopolis drew upon the hip-hop filter of Mexico City once more, with Camilo Smith, at the invitation of Wayne Marshall, interviewing 2Phase, an OG D.F. rapper by way of Chicago, and rapper Lil T'Ko. They got down a little on the mic and talked about their trajectories. Domus, one of the Postopolis sponsors, has great photos on Facebook.

In the evening, I introduced Cuauhtémoc Medina and Mariana Botey of the curatorial collective -- "sect," they insist -- El Espectro Rojo, or The Red Specter. As we saw on Friday, the group's level of theoretical rigor is challenging, almost aggressive, which is what makes their work so sharp and intellectually seductive. They have given themselves a clear mission of pushing the limits of curatorial practice and challenging normalized ideas about how art and the art object relate to capitalist production.

From the introductory text to "Critical Fetishes: Resides of general economy," The Red Specter's current show at the CA2 Madrid (made possible, they write, by the group's "Commissariat of Public Enlightenment"):

Critical Fetishes seeks to overcome the abjectionist description of capitalism's crisis, and to expose the way in which artistic work invokes moments of anti-production, de-activates the myths of development and puts the art object into operation as an object of desire and subversion. In this sense, the show takes a position against the identification of dematerialization with de-fetishization, as the dominant critical operation, in favor of rescuing the power of contagion and dissemination of the contemporary art fetish-object.

Postopolis DF was The Red Specter's first public "apparition" in Mexico City. The "Critical Fetishes" show is slated to come to the Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico later this year. Some of the artists include Santiago Sierra, Miguel Calderon, Francis Alÿs, Teresa Margolles, Fran Ilich, and Vicente Razo. (More then.)

Now, here are a few highly recommended recaps of the week by fellow Postopolis bloggers: Regine Debatty of We Make Money Not Art on Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, and Nicola Twilley's exhaustive and enlightening talk with Rachel Laudan on Mexico, maize, Maseca, and Wal-Mart.

Pull-quote:

And the third thing that happened, finally — this really took place in the seventies and eighties — is that the company now called Gruma (Grupa Maseca) discovered a way to take the wet, alkali-treated maize, grind it, dehydrate it, and put it into packets. You've seen those packets in the grocery stores, I'm sure. By the 1970s, five percent of the maize for tortillas in Mexico came from Maseca. By the 1990s, it was fifteen percent. Maseca now has plans — whether they'll pull it off, I don't know — to take over all the tortillerias in the country.

More there, worth the whole read.

** Update: If you enjoyed Carlos Alvarez Montero's presentation of his photo work from Day 2, he'll be presenting the full version of his short documentary "Our Lady of the Bronx" at Club Atlántico in Centro, tomorrow Wednesday. I'll be moderating a Q&A with Carlos and Ali Gadorki will be playing tracks. More info here.

Postopolis Report No. 2: Highlights from Days 2 & 3 *

* Bloggers hard at work at Postopolis DF, via Tomo.

Postopolis DF finished on Saturday at about 10:00 p.m., after five days and 60 presentations, a bunch of parties and meals, and more information, ideas, and intersections at play than I believe most of us participating could handle. It was overwhelming, in the best possible sense. But that also meant that many of us barely had time to blog while absorbing the talks at El Eco (nice new site, by the way), and I apologize for not being as attentive as I should have been in this area.

I also missed a few talks that I really wish I could have seen live, but life and work call constantly in D.F. So now I'd like to offer a quick digest of highlights from the week, in parts. Check out Report No. 1 for the first bit of Post-processing. My Report No. 3 will appear on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Once more, what an amazing week.

Day 2:

Discussing the hip-hop subcultures of Mexico City with Wayne Marshall, Tomás Brum Alvarez of Rayarte, a D.F. graffiti magazine, broke down the lack of public space and media outlets in the city for hip-hop nacional. While doing so, he made a pointed dig at the old guard at El Chopo, whom he argued are resistant to incorporating hip-hop into the scene there. He referred to himself jokingly as a "choposuario," and then said, no, he's an "artesángano."

Couldn't help laughing out loud. "Choposuario" is a compound slangism that describes the graying old rockers who still guard El Chopo like it's some kind of countercultural holy grail (which it is), but also connotes a kind of nostalgic delusion for the old days of the tianguis -- which is now almost 30 years old. But artesángano was totally new to me. Sángano is another slangism that describes a lazy figure who leeches, or hooks others into doing his will. So what's an artesángano? An artesano, artisan seller, who hustles without shame? Whatever its intended meaning, I'll definitely be using it when inspiration strikes.

(Hip-hop is of course present at El Chopo, but mostly on the periphery. Across the street from the Saturday market, on Mosqueta, Plaza Peyote is there to meet all your Mexican hip-hop needs. It's where kids pick up CDs, fliers, T-shirts, magazines, sneakers, spray can caps, and so on.)

Day 3:

On Thursday I talked about human rights in Mexico City with Eréndira Cruzvillegas, former Special Speaker for Freedom of Expression at the D.F. human rights commission. I don't have a specific quote to share from Eréndira's brisk talk but, man, I certainly think it wowed and impressed those of us who were present for it. She spoke fiercely and passionately about the lack of opportunity for young people in the marginalized urban expanses of Mexico City, the kind that most visitors never see. Her perspective provided an alternate window from which to view the metropolis.

Shouts went out to the kids in the GAM, whom Eréndira said were critical to the drafting of an accurate -- and politically explosive -- report on the News Divine tragedy. Ms. Cruzvillegas is now the secretary of the permanent commission at the D.F. legislative assembly, but she remains an active advocate for human rights wherever she might be needed. Right after our talk, she had to leave early to go see someone behind bars who needs her help.

(Trivia: Eréndira is sibling to the Kurimanzutto artist Abraham Cruzvillegas.)

I enjoyed the talk by Jorge Legorreta, former borough chief in Cuauhtémoc and an expert on the D.F. water supply, in conversation with Jace Clayton. What a numbingly grim assessment for the future of water in a city founded on a lake. Water reserves are dwindling, infrastructure is notoriously bad, quality is low and generally uneven, and on and on. Most ominously, he predicted a "great flood" in Mexico City in the next few years, recalling the history of the catastrophic flood of 1629, which killed tens of thousands and didn't clear out until four years later, in 1633.

(Previous posts in Intersections on water in D.F. are here, here, here, and here. And here's a feature on the D.F. water crisis I did last year, for FSRN.)

The evening highlight from Day 3 for me was the presentation by Greg Berger, the Gringoyo, who was introduced by Ethel Barona Pohl and Cesar Reyes. As I said in the Q&A, when I first saw Berger's site, I wasn't immediately sure that it was satire. That's how good it is, and that also says something about a) my naïvete, and b) the pop power of gringo stereotypes in Mexico.

Go in there and check out his mini-doc on the swine flu scare from last spring. It is incredibly effective political activism, fusing humor, wit, and agitation. Brilliant stuff. (My work on the swine flu feargasm of 2009, here and here.)

* Image above, Storefront's César Cotta, left, and Niki Nakazawa, book editor at Arquine. ** Coming up, Postopolis Report No. 3., soon.

Postopolis Report No. 1: Ali Gua Gua, and M of Michoacan *

* Audience at the opening of Postopolis DF, via Tomo.

An amazing start to Postopolis DF at the Eco on Tuesday. The event kicked off in high spirits with introductions by the Storefront crew, despite the rain clouds (mercifully) sitting themselves upon Mexico City. Each invited blogger then introduced their site and work. Nicola Twilley of Edible Geography nlightened us with her food esoterica, including "disaster wine." Regine Debatty of We Make Money Not Art opened our minds to the weirdness of her native Belgium. (If the Dutch-speaking part separates from the French-speaking part, who keeps Brussels?)

Check out the day's coverage here. Video of my introduction is here, by Jesus Chairez.

Once the invited presentations got underway (Remember, in the "Ponzi scheme" of Postopolis, as Joseph Grima describes it, organizers invite bloggers they find intriguing, bloggers invite guests whose work intrigues them, and the conversations start), we listened to Fernando Romero quickly discuss the major projects undertaken by his firm LAR. Will they ever build that border bridge museum? Less and less likely, tragically.

Then I had the pleasure of introducing Ali Gadorki of Kumbia Queers and Las Ultrasonicas.

The most insightful moment for me was when during the Q&A, a young guy in the back offered his perspective: He is from "provincia" like Ali, he said, and is surprised at how, as he sees it, Mexico City kids tend to remain strictly within their tribal boundaries, while non-Mexico City natives who live here are more open to going to different tocadas during the week. Punk one day, rockabilly the next, migrating between hip-hop and reggae and so on on any given night. "Es una multicultura."

It might have been a generalization, but his remarks definitely resonated with Ali and others in the audience.

Earlier today, I introduced Carlos Alvarez Montero and his documentary work on transnational cholo subcultures, including his project "Covers (Adapt & Adopt)." Questions focused on Alvarez's "M of Michoacan" photo series, documenting migrants who return to Mexico after absorbing classical urban Chicano dress from the North. "How do you approach them?" came a question, regarding the photographer's practice.

Carlos said it's fairly easy getting cholos or other subcultural adherents to agree to have their photo taken. When people consciously adopt a certain set of dress codes, merging and mixing them, they're looking to be documented. It's the point, he said. "It's vanity."

* Keep up with the invited blogs and the main Postopolis page for all the updates. Intersections updates again on Friday.

** Post updated.

Intersections at Postopolis: Punks, cholos, and your rights *

* Above, Califas byka culture, via Mexico, in the Bronx. By C. Alvarez Montero.

And just like that, Postopolis DF is set to start. Tuesday June 8 is the opening day of the free offerings of talks and interviews at the Eco museum, until Saturday, June 11. Check out this previous post for all the details. And check out the whole schedule at the main Postopolis site, where all the events will be streamed live.

I'm so impressed by the line-up and the ability of the many organizers to make this come together. Now here are my guests. I think they reflect general concerns in my own work: subcultures, bilingualism, transnationalism, youth, modes of violence, modes of resistance, justice, contemporary art, and the wide giant scope of human sexuality. The urbanism of D.F. is the unifying glue.

On Tuesday, I sit down with Ali Gadorki, an OG figure in the Mexico City punk/alternative scene. Ali is a founding member of the ground-breaking all-female band Las Ultrasonicas (previously blogged here) and now leads the Kumbia Queers, another all-ladies group Ali created with a set musicians from Argentina. Ali is also known as Ali Gua Gua, her DJ handle. We'll be discussing the history and development of punk in Mexico City, queers in punk, women in punk, and everyone's new fixation: crate-digging for cumbia from the streets and the south south south south.

Keep reading ...

Postopolis, coming soon to D.F.

* Above, outside the San Hipólito chapel on Palm Sunday, 2010.

I'm excited to announce my participation as a co-curating invited blogger for the upcoming Postópolis DF, June 8-12, at the El Eco Experimental Museum in the Colonia San Rafael. The event is free, open to the public, and promises to be a fun and enriching time.

What is Postopolis?

The multidisciplinary "encuentro" (as I've been describing it to friends here) originated with the Storefront group in New York, as a way for designers, architects, urbanists, artists, and bloggers to meet and discuss trends, movements, and issues in the lived environment and culture of a specific city. Postopolis New York was followed by Postopolis L.A., and now the event arrives in Mexico D.F. It is co-sponsored with Tomo, the cultural supplement in the daily Excelsior, and Domus magazine. 

So how does it work?

Storefront asks local and international bloggers to join the event as co-curators. Each blogger in turn invites up to five local figures -- artists, designers, architects, etc. -- for 15-minute interviews. Then there is food, screenings, and events at night. For Postopolis DF, the invited bloggers are myself, representing Intersections, Wayne Marshall of Wayne & Wax, Cassim Shepard of Urban Omnibus, Nicola Twilley of Edible Geography, Ethel Barona Pohl of DPR Barcelona, Regine Debatty of We Make Money Not Art, Gabriella Gomez-Mont of Toxico Cultura, Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa of Tomo, Sam Jacob of Strange Harvest, and Jace Clayton a.k.a. DJ Rupture.

Take a look at some of the announcements each blogger has made, referring to the guests they've invited to be interviewed. I'll be announcing mine in a future post.

The whole affair is being organized collectively -- entirely on email, in fact, which has led to some animated discussions and an occasional overlapping of contacts. The way I see it, the organic quality of this process is a sign that Postópolis DF is going to be one-of-a-kind, interesting for anyone who stops by.

So stop by!

* Here's the Facebook page ... More later.

An imaginary bridge at the border

Above, a rendering of a proposed border bridge museum by Mexican architect Fernando Romero. The museum, designed by Romero's firm LAR in 2000, would link El Paso and Ciudad Juarez over the Rio Bravo. Take a good look at the structure and the scale of imaginary humans besides it ... and imagine.

With the U.S.-Mexico border looking more and more these days like a locus of hate and division rather anything else, Romero's museum vision feels like it landed from another planet. There's a discussion of it here in Metropolis magazine.

Romero's new Soumaya museum design, however, will see the light of day soon in Mexico City. The new Soumaya will house the art holdings of Carlos Slim, world's richest man, and, Business Week notes, the architect's father-in-law.

* LAR had an exhibition last year at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.

Burlesque in Mexico City: The clown bears all *

Above, the burlesque performer Islandia doing the number "Mi verdadera vocaccion," at the old-school Centro cantina La Faena, on Friday, April 30. Islandia, born Carina Guzman in Mexico City, is part of a small burlesque troupe in D.F. known as the Burlesquineras.

Along with Islandia, two other Burlesquineras members performed -- Chichis Glam and Lupe Tequila del Sagrado Corazon -- in honor of a birthday, for troupe member Glitter, who is male. Yes, males doing burlesque. "It's all queer, post-feminist, post-everything, post-punk, especially," Islandia explains.

The troupe formed in 2007 after a visit and workshop in D.F. by a New York burlesque performer, Old Ma Femme. The Burlesquineras produce their own shows, Islandia points out. Here's coverage of one such performance in 2008 at the Hotel Virreyes, by David Lida.

Regarding the photo above, it's all about documentary accuracy. And, Islandia adds, "If you ask me, I can never resist a picture of my tits showing."

Black responses to the Arizona immigration law

* Above, new Americans, rallying for justice, by Irfan Khan, L.A. Times.

The signing of SB1070 in Arizona has sparked a wave of negative reaction across the United States and across the political spectrum, from Barack Obama on down. There are numerous calls for a boycott of the state, a pledge against the law for people of faith, and a statement from the Major League Baseball players association condemning SB1070.

Some high school seniors are now deciding against going to college in Arizona. One comment on the New York Times blog post on the topic struck me as particularly intelligent, and hinting at the root of African American disdain for SB1070.

Barbara, a Duke alumnus, writes:

When I was a student at Duke there were many male African-American students who felt like they were being profiled because of the relatively high rate of crime on campus, and the fact that a disproportionate amount of it was attributable to young black men in the community. In some cases students were held even after they proved they were students. It made their college experience a lot worse than if they gone elsewhere. It's a legitimate consideration.

It's not that I don't understand that border states face special challenges and find the lack of progress frustrating, or that I don't agree that Mexico has long shown lack of inclination to face its social problems because it has a safety valve next door -- I share those concerns. But there is simply no way to enforce this law without targeting Hispanics. I don't care if that was the intent or not, it is almost certainly going to be its practical effect.

Indeed, history runs in cycles, and the U.S. has seen far too many discriminatory and hateful laws or practices that have targeted and abused African Americans for generations. Yes, we know that African American anxiety about Latino immigration to the U.S. exists, and exists widely. But Arizona's new law burns at the boundaries of our notions of justice and fair treatment under the law, which assaults any reasonable person's sense of decency -- regardless of color.

This is why so many prominent black Americans and black organizations are standing up against SB1070. At the top of the pack, for pure inspiration, is Chuck D, the former frontman of Public Enemy, who released a special track against the bill called "Tear Down That Wall." (Public Enemy, of course, has a track that has gone after politics in Arizona before.)

A progressive new jam

* Above, your blogger, and Raul Pachecho, in Mexico City.

From my post at La Plaza, on an interview with Raul Pacheco of Ozomatli during the Vive Latino festival in D.F., about their bold and progressive new song, "Gay Vatos in Love":

Still, the song consistently challenges comfort levels among some listeners, the singer admitted. "I think people get confused, they don't know where we're coming from. Some people ask, especially in the Spanish press, 'Who's gay in the band?' So there's an assumption there."

(When reporters ask about the sexuality of the band's membership, Pacheco says he sometimes responds with a purposely blank, "I don't know.")

"For us it's a bigger issue," Pacheco went on. "We felt that [gay rights] is just another in a long line of underdogs, so I think we connected to it on that level. It was totally natural for us to take that stance."

The full post is here. Thank you for your re-tweets. I am waiting on several comments submitted to at La Plaza to get moderated and published, but the internal system over there is ... slow.

Comments here are welcome as well.

Malcolm McLaren's casket

Above, punk impresario Malcolm McLaren is lowered into his grave at Highgate cemetery in London, photographed by Olivier Zahm of Purple magazine, April 22. "An artist who all his life used to fight constantly against the Societé du Spectacle with anarchy and chaos. I love you for ever Malcolm," Zahm writes.

McLaren, former manager of the Sex Pistols and founder of the London store SEX with designer Vivienne Westwood, succumbed to cancer on April 8. He was 64.

Journalist Jess Bravin tweets of an encounter with McLaren -- covering in the L.A. Times a visit McLaren made to Cal State Fullerton, in 1990. From the article:

Possessing no talent as a writer, musician or visual artist, however, McLaren realized that only one profession seemed open to him: "Plunder. I asked myself, could I enter the world of plunder like the great masters?"

McLaren's casket reportedly carried his signature slogan: "Too fast to live, too young to die."

'New Latino Discourses' at UC Santa Cruz

Above, an image by Frank Espinosa, author of the award-winning Rocketo comic book series. Espinosa has designed for Disney and Warner Bros., and teachers Character and World Design at MIT. He is among the invited speakers at "¿Que hay de nuevo? New Latino Discourses" this Friday at UC Santa Cruz. The symposium is organized by the Latino Literary Cultures Project, headed by professor Kirsten Silva Gruesz.

We'll be breaking down comics, blogging, hypertext literature, and Spanish-language radio, all 'new' or newly rendered frontiers in Latino literary production in the United States.

A 'systems architect and biomedical mathematician,' Juan B. Gutierrez will address the subject of "The Triumph of the Giant Deaf Ear: How New Media is Changing Literary Practice." Dolores Ines Castillo, an assistant professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UC Santa Barbara, will discuss Spanish-language radio with the talk, "House Calls: US Spanish-language Radio and the Politics of Health."

I'll be discussing Intersections and the topic of "Bending Geographies: Blogging from Far and Near." I often post about topics or stories occurring in other parts of the world or within my personal geography but while I am not physically present. Why and how are the questions at hand.

Tonight, at Imix Bookstore, an independent bilingual bookstore and gallery in the Eagle Rock hood of Los Angeles, I'm excited to accept an invitation to speak and read, and see faces from the old community. Here is the Facebook event page. Now ... what should we do after??? Dub Club?

* Both events are free and open to the general public. Posting returns on Sunday.

Jodorowsky's Sunday comics

Above, a little girl asks, "Dad, What is liberty?" The father, a big man in orange, responds: "It is knowing oneself and acting in accordance with what one is." The artist is Alejandro Jodorowsky. He drew it for publication for January 14, 1968, in the Mexico City newspaper El Heraldo.

Via Fimoculous, via Technoccult, via Arthur magazine founder Jay Babcock, here's a blog that posted Jodorowsky's Sunday newspaper comics from the late 1960s. I'm eager to examine each one.

The maestro's inclination toward Zen is evident in the last posted comic, in which the speaker, driving through a heavy rain, completes the strip: "Do not allow fear to hold you back; always finish what you start."

Check out Babcock's interview with Jodoroswky here. "Energy is coming because I will die very soon," the maestro says in response to a question about how he gets so much done. "I am old. I have so many things to do, so every day I get quicker, in order to do them! I don’t want to die without doing everything I wanted to do."

* Previously, "Defend when attacked: Zen meets Mexico, D.F."

Mexico's northern border, on fire once more

* Military on the streets in Reynosa, via Gringa-N-Mexico.

Narco-related violence in Mexico is dominating the news once more. Three people with ties to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez were killed on Saturday. At least thirteen were killed over the weekend in Acapulco. And with scores dead in recent weeks, Reynosa is on fire due an apparent split between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. Things are so bad there, journalists are going missing, or just turning away from the story.

Getting a sense of what things like are like on the ground is becoming harder and harder. But there are some voices coming through.

If you can muster checking in on reality, the blog Ontobelli meticulously accounts for narco-related gun battles across the country, mostly via amateur YouTube clips. Many if not most of these battles go unreported in the mainstream press. The blog's author offers this narrated video explaining the background on the current outbreak of violence in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and all of Mexico's northeast.

For an achingly frank ex-pat account of the situation in Reynosa, check out the blog Gringa-N-Mexico, by a young woman named Lindy -- "born and raised in southern Michigan, just a little country gal" -- who followed her husband to Mexico after he was deported. In a Feb. 24 post, Lindy writes about how completely the Gulf Cartel controls the streets of her adopted city:

I guess the cartel wanted to make the citizens of the city feel better so a few days ago they made a gigantic banner and hung it from an overpass near where we live. It read something along the lines of - Citizens of Reynosa, you are safe. We the cartel so-and-so are here to do our job and we do not wish to harm any people of your city, we only want to do what we have to do and not hurt any civilians. ... How nice of them?

The kicker is when she realizes the meaning behind the acronym "C.D.G." that she spots on some police-looking vehicles.

* UPDATE: Looks like the post has been taken down. Too bad, but not unexpected. Suerte, Lindy.

** INTERESTINGLY: In the case of the consular official in Juarez who was killed along with her husband near the border with El Paso, the local NBC affiliate across the border notes that whatever the victim Lesley (or Leslie) Enriquez did exactly at the consulate has not been specified.

Robert Cason, victim Arthur Redelfs's stepfather, also told KTSM he did not know what his step-daughter-in-law did at the consulate. Meanwhile, Diana Washington Valdez in the El Paso Times quotes a former DEA agent who says he knew Redelfs, a local Sheriff's Office detention officer, "since 1990."

Speaking to The Takeaway, expert narco reporter Ioan Grillo says the Enriquez-Redelfs slaying appeared to be a "very organized hit."

However, unnamed sources in the State Department led The Washington Post to conclude that it "did not appear that the slain consular employee was involved in counternarcotics work."

Officials are saying now that it looks like a case of mistaken identity.

The D.F. scenesters *

In the current fashion-themed issue of Gatopardo magazine, where I am a contributor, readers can find the first published glimpse of my upcoming book on Mexico City, albeit in Spanish. Gatopardo bought rights to excerpt and translate my chapter on the hipster/scenester/fashionista community of D.F., as I saw and experienced it in late 2007, early 2008.

I gotta say, it's a juicy read.

The issue also features a bunch of mini-profiles on young Mexican designers working today. If you're in Mexico or anywhere in Latin America where the magazine is sold (e.g. Sanborns), get a copy and check it out! When Gatopardo.com loads up the new issue, I'll update this post.

* Above, Denise Marchebout, with a style like no other, from this post of unedited portraits at Cesar Arrellano's Diario de Fiestas.

Aftershock culture in Santiago

From my current post at La Plaza, on life in the land of earthquakes, Chile:

The city has endured two to three major aftershocks a day since the Feb. 27 "megathrust" earthquake – and then some. A 6.4 earthquake hit to the north of the capital on Thursday night, followed by up to four considerable aftershocks between midnight and breakfast time on Friday.

More were recorded on Sunday, including a 5.0 magnitude temblor off the coast of Valparaiso. And then -- almost cruelly -- two more considerable aftershocks hit Santiago before dawn Monday, one measuring 4.9 and another measuring 5.1.

In all, nearly 200 aftershocks have rattled nerves in central Chile. Inside homes and apartment buildings, fresh cracks crawl across walls. Day after day, windows and lampshades rattle, walls buckle slightly, and floors sway gently for a few seconds, as if in a lilting breeze. The effect is dizzying.

Read the whole thing here. Embedded links lead to all of our L.A. Times coverage from Santiago, Mexico City, and the most affected areas of central-southern Chile.

To get a sense of just how major this major earthquake was -- not just for Chile but for the planet -- consider this: Hard-hit Concepcion shifted three meters to the west in the quake. Santiago moved 11 inches to the west, and Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, moved west all of one inch.

Now that's a big earthquake.

* Photo above, Chilean youth cheering in support of earthquake victims at Parque Bustamante, March 6.