My Pocho Pop Culture Book

Reclaiming Poch@ Pop: Examining the Rhetoric of Cultural Deficiency

It's been a good long while since I began this sister blog to my Academia de Cruz main blog, but it's fitting that I return to this blog for a post on my book that is a result of some of the early research I documented here. If you have any interest in any of the material in this blog, order your copy or ask your librarian to order a copy!

Now available on Palgrave.com and Amazon!

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Que Gringo el Pocho

A 2010 article by an anonymous Pocho. I enjoy the reference to Selena, a scene that I've hoped would pop up on youtube. I looked it up and I'm posting it to Academia de Cruz 'cause poch[o]tec@ doesn't like embedding for some reason.
Pocho Keen's article: http://latinopm.com/opinion/voices/pocho-keen/que-gringo-el-pocho-%E2%80%93-or-que-pocho-el-gringo-1753

Naco Pocho from mun2

A Short On Naco and Pocho

http://www.mun2.tv/watch/shorts/naco-pocho
From the accompanying information on the video:
"

In the last generation, the size of the Mexican middle class and the number of Mexicans raised in the United States have grown dramatically. These demographic shifts are transforming Mexican culture on both sides of the border. The changing use of terms like “naco” (“low class”) and “pocho” (“Americanized”) reflect that evolution.

Popularized in the late 1970s by the comedian Luis de Alba, the term “naco” is commonly used to mean “low class” but to a younger generation, it can also mean “tacky cool” in a fashion similar to the U.S. hipster appropriation of trucker hats and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Similarly, the term “pocho”, which was traditionally used in Mexico as a put-down against Americans of Mexican descent, has become a point of pride to a growing number of Mexican-Americans.

The piece went live this afternoon, it is just over 12 minutes, and it  features interviews with Lalo Alcaraz (writer and cartoonist, Pocho,La Cucaracha), Xavier El Eléctrico (dancer), Gustavo Arellano (writer and editor, Ask a Mexican, Taco USA), Penelope Menchaca (TV host, 12 Corazones), Alacranes Musical (musical group), Alex Rivera (music artist), Luis de Alba (actor and comedian, El Pirruris), Edoardo Chavarin (designer, NaCo), La Bronca (radio host), Larry Hernandez (music artist), 3ball MTY (musical group), Gloria Trevi (music artist), Daniel Hernandez (writer and journalist, Down and Delirious in Mexico City), Gerardo Ortiz (music artist), Los Tucanes de Tijuana (musical group), Edward James Olmos (actor and director,Stand and Deliver, American Me, Selena, Battlestar Galactica), Montez de Durango (grupo musical), Jenni Rivera (music artist), Duelo (musical group)."

Pointy Boots a Rascuache Style

Doc on Pointy Boots
I was listening to Ozomatli on NPR alt Latino and they referenced the pointy boot tribal movement/phenomenon that seems to stem from the rascuache make-use-of-materials-available-to-you sensibility.

<iframe width="380" height="243" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CEiMA3QtYWc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(not sure why blogger's not letting me embed!)

It was on the NPR page where I found the link to this short doc. With nearly 1.5 million views, it's interesting to see 1,500 or so "dislikes" which I might attribute to the naco-fresa distinction of what you are by what you dislike.
Some more great rascuache taking place visavi Los Pikadientes de Caborca

Pocho Handbook

Hanging in the Archives
I started this blog to supplement my dissertation writing, giving me another space to bounce pocho/pochteca/poch[o]tec@ thoughts against the virtual wall.
Fortunately for my dis, I've derelicted this blog for pages, but I did want to post on a book I ran across called the The Pocho Handbook.

It happened when I was doing some archival research at UT Austin's Benson Collection for all things pocho. In the Pocho Handbook, it begins acknowledging the chapbook-like document's status as a kind of internal document among the diverse Chicano population. The document takes a narrative form after the initial situating of what the purpose of the document is. In it, there's some discussion of the connection to the pochteca that I found helpful for my work.

The handbook reaffirms how pocho demonstrates the diversity of latinidad, rejecting the monolithic notion.

More Subjectivity of Pocho Identity

Bandolero, El Pocho Y La Raza

Maciel's text comes from a film studies perspective, addressing issues like stereotype in the cinema with regard to Mexicans and Mexican Americans. With regard to thinking and speaking about the representations of 'pocho,' Maciel draws on a comedic Mexican actor who sings a song about being neither Mexican nor American because he is pocho.This reminds me of Anzaldua's use of pocho in "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" because of the Chicano-Spanish contextualization of the definition of pocho with which she was familiar. In the book, Maciel touches on the fluidity of pocho as an identifier going between Mexicano and Chicano points of reference.

Google Book Link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=VNv1i2aoP8sC&lpg=PP1&dq=bandolero%20el%20pocho%20la%20raza&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jaiton and Rasquache

In a continuation of the Naco-Fresa divide discussion I previously touched on, I found interesting qualifying terms for what might describe the difference in the Naco as opposed to the Fresa aesthetic.
In his article "Brown: the Politics of Working-Class Chicano Style," Curtis Marez discusses the differences between "high class" and "low class" aesthetic and how music and style symbolize belonging.

Marez writes:
"The opposite of jaiton is rasquache, or "low class." Though close, this translation of rasquache does not adequately capture the word's confrontational meanings. According to Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, rasquachismo describes an in-your-face aesthetic, "the attitude, tastes or life-style of the underdog, where status is elevated with garish decoration." Rasquache "articulate(s) a stance that repudiates the Anglo experience"-and, I might add, the experiences of upwardly mobile Chicanos.19 In southern Texas, for example, musical tastes have historically divided working-class and middle-class Chicanos. While the former listen to conjunto, the latter generally prefer orquesta, a Chicano big band
music with links to American and Latin American styles. Orquesta aficionados often scorn the "crudeness" of conjunto, while conjunto fans think that orquestai s too "jaiton."20F or his part, Freddy Fender explains that he was never drawn to orquesta-its performers "thought they were too hot
shit for me."21 Just as "making do" becomes a means of affirming brown ingenuity, the rasquache character of conjunto allows working-class Chicanos to construct an alternative cultural identity as a counter to highbrow style"(123).

Marez, Curtis. "Brown: the Politics of Working-Class Chicano Style." Social Text. 14.3 (1996): 109. Print.

One the figures Marez's refers to in his discussion of working-class Chicano style is El Vez; here are a couple videos:

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QEO_AEhUg3I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The song "Suspicious Minds/Immigration Times":

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9A27qCNEEk0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

El Vez Suspicious Minds/Immigration Times