Sucking on a new lollypop

It was the perfect plan.

A bunch of thieves managing a country suddenly became aware that people won't suck on their lollypops anymore.

So, they negociate with one "opposition" party and buy protection in exchange of the "political control" of the country.

Then, the new government is allowed by that alliance to continue with the old corrupted practices and better yet, to innovate in the art of robbing the whole nation.

New lollypops.

New lollypops with a rotten core. Now they can't stop, and they are able to steal elections, lie instinctively and kill people. Their own people. Mafia style.

Now, with the assasination of an executive of ISOSA, a PRI legacy, an obscure "private" company built with public funds, collecting tax fees on any imported goods and generating enormous profits, common Mexicans now understand another reason why there is not enough money in their homes, why food and services are more expensive every time and almost unreachable.

And the PRIAN people hypocritically asks before TV cameras: Why are they angry?

Carlos Salinas, Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón, Marta Saghún, Elba Esther Gordillo, Francisco Gil Díaz, Luis Carlos Ugalde, Santiago Creel, Manuel Espino, Mariano Azuela.

If any of these guys openened a day care, would you trust them with your children?

Amor sin Anestesia

Seventeen years ago, I wrote a play named Amor sin Anestesia, or Love Without Anesthesia.

As a teenager I had very bad luck with girls, maybe because I was very thin, wore brackets and had very long ears. Wow, that explains!

Well, based on my own dramatic reality, Amor sin Anestesia was a real hit among my highschool mates. There was a full theatre in the debut and the play was a big success!

Several years later, in 1994, I bought my first VHS camera (a Magnavox Easy Cam). I called the original cast to record the play on video, so we could sell it to broadcast TV and then become rich and famous. Well, some of those things occured, some did not. And some of the original cast made it with the video and some didn't.

Later I will show you some of the original programs we used during the first live representations, as well as some newspaper clippings from those years.

I estimated the total cost of the production at about 500 mexican pesos ($500 US dlls.) The set was an old house in downtown San Nicolás de los Garza.

Everybody was very generous with the production. I didn't pay for their participation and I was a headache for all of them, pushing hard to get the performances exactly as I wanted.

Oh, boy, those times.

Enjoy it!

PART 1


PART 2


PART 3


PART 4


PART 5


PART 6


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

¡No contaban con mi astucia!®

I'm sorry but some of the thigs I want to write only comes in its spanish presentation. Consider this as an exception.

Thanks.


Nacho Libre es un viajesote.

Para los que vimos Napoleon Dynamite y somos ya incondicionales del director Jared Hess, pues ya le sabemos algunas mañitas y juegos que disfruta.

Claro, ahora se trata de una película en la que los estudios grandes seguramente le exigieron resultado$$$.

Aun así se las ingenió para recetarnos sus monos parados ahí nomás y las ridiculeces que hasta a uno le dan oso. Sin pasar por alto la agridulce visión que tiene de los mexicanos, y dentro de la que cabe la rica recreación de nuestras películas de luchadores, con sus caras brillosas, mala iluminación, trajes de terlenka y decorados de leopardo. Jack Black está loco y cada vez me cae mejor, logrando la capulinesca misión de gritar ¡Nachoooooo! y hacernos sentir que nuestros héroes mexicanos han vuelto.

La muy cuidada por la producción Anita de la Reguera, dios mío, qué pecaminosos pensamientos me llegan nomás de verla de monjita. Por acá dicen que se parece a Penélope Cruz y a Paz Vega, pero todos los que nos hicimos telenoveleros con las producciones de Argos sabemos la neta: Es un gran talento mexicano también en trajecito de colegiala.

El flaco Jiménez cumple con su misión: hacer que la gente se pregunte qué fregados hace ahí. Pero en general toda la película no tiene sentido, y eso nos lleva a la penosa verdad: El cine no tiene sentido. Y así sólo desmascarándolo, es que podremos conservar la cabellera dejándonos que nos aplique sus llaves.

Hispanic Marketing in the U.S.A.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.


This is about a feeling.

I'm going to be documenting what I mean by this post, but anyway, for those who live in the U.S.A. and know a little of marketing, media and Mexican culture, it is evident.

The Mexican market in the U.S.A. has been historically ignored. Yeah, I admit that it has been better attended to in the latest years, but given its fast growth and its increasing buying power, the offer from companies, TV, film industry and government is sadly poor.

Come on, if adding some mariachi sound to an ad is targeting Mexicans, that's so naive.

Putting sombreros, or mexican typing on every advertisement and celebrating 5 de Mayo with folkloric dances is far from what I think is the real mexican soul. How can you expect to send the right message to a person you are mocking?

Almost every piece of Spanish written text for Hispanic readers has an entire universe of mistakes, syntaxis faults, grammatical errors and strange words, that even Mexicans need a translator to understand what in the world they are trying to say.

TV?

Eventough nearly every Mexican home in the U.S.A. turns on their TV from dusk 'till dawn, it's funny to hear them say "look at what they made for mexicans!". They automatically step aside from the supposed effect the content of TV shows, series and soap operas should have in them because it's something they can't relate to.

Speaking of Hispanic radio is different. Radio is the loyal companion during those hard working hours to people in the fields, construction sites, kitchens, and factories. Spanish radio approaches real people with more flexibility and freedom thorough their music and heroes, featured in the way they used to back in their hometowns.

Remember Spanish radio was the promotor of the gigantic immigrant marches this year.

But unfortunately radio has limited resources, and its audience is reduced to male adults in most cases.

Hispanic Newspapers?
At least in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, the leading newspaper, Al Día, is an appendix of Dallas Morning News, and reflects its interests and editorial position. Abundant in typos and lacking of relevant local personalities.

There is much to do. But the first thing is getting feedback about what people really want to say. When media contents as well as marketing concepts (many times both are mixed up) become an echo of what real people feel, and not just a desk decision, many things will change, incluiding relationships between Hispanics and Non-Hispanics.

What do ya think?

Mex News

For those who want to be up to date in Mexican political matters, and unterstand a little spanish, I have an exercise:

Open your web browser and go to these links:

http://www.elnorte.com/
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/

This way you will have the two ends of the mexican news spectrum.

On one side, you have El Norte, a conservative-corporate owned newspaper from the northern city of Monterrey, Mexico.

And at the other end, there is La Jornada, a leftist-cooperative owned newspaper from Mexico City.

You don't have to read thoroughly both papers, just stare at the headlines and enjoy.






Anyway, if you are very interested in really getting into the mexican situation, then read the interiors. In the case of El Norte's web site, you must have a password, by paying a suscription fee. La Jornada's site is completely free to visit, incluiding its vast archives.

Both newspapers have interesting backgrounds. Founded in 1938, El Norte developed by 1984 a modern way to display notes and pictures, leaving behind annoying "breakable" notes (continued in page 35) and adding appealing photographs and simple illustrations to explain complicated notes.
I worked as an illustrator in El Norte from 1993 to 1995.

La Jornada was founded in 1984 by talent from other newspapers during an obscure age for information in Mexico. Giving an independent and not condescending style to its contents. Because of this, La Jornada is frequently attaked by different federal and local governments.

It's interesting to compare different features of each newspapers:

-The nature and extension of the headlines.

-The different treatment and the page that is assigned
to the same issue. ¡Amazing!

-The digested, tiny, marketingly correct text notes fron El Norte against the extense, deep treatment of the notes in La Jornada.

El Norte has four exceptions: Editorials from Mexico City's journalists Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa, Elena Poniatowska and Carlos Monsiváis, and a weekly section dedicated to Proceso, Mexico's most important analysis magazzine. Those are strong assets that give credibility to this monster of the editorial industry in México, that also founded Reforma, one of the biggest newspaper based in México City.

Later I will comment on specific arcticles on each newspaper, but now, I'm going to show you my latest comic character, Jackey the Jackrabbit.

Just like me, Jackey lives in the city of Forney, Texas, and he is now outside his natural environment. Jackey was inspired in a real jackrabbit I saw on my front yard. The poor animal seemed fearfull and it was obvius that its home was destroyed by the enormous machines digging and smashing the former open country behind my backyard.

In the first cartoon, Jackey shows us the importance of saving water. Texas is having the worst drought season in many years.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.


Well, I made it. My first blog in English. I hope you can enjoy and understand it!!

A donde iraaaaaan...

Pues así con Las Golondrinas me despido de una etapa de mi vida y de este blog.
Me casé, me mudé a Texas, Mi hijito cumplió dos años y me compré mi primer pantalón talla 34.

Por ello, a partir de ahora voy a escribir este blog en inglés y voy a tratar de darle más continuidad.

No crean, la cosa en México me sigue interesando mucho y sigo paso a paso los acontecimientos, el conteo, las marchas, las transas del IFE y todo eso. no me pierdo a Carmen Aristegui ni a El Weso por W Radio.

No veo tele porque no tengo y comprar un aparato es una de mis prioridades menos prioritarias. Por cierto, me tocó ver por acá a Nacho Libre. Qué viajesote.

Estén atentos de La Boda, mi próximo cortito grabado en Villa de Santiago, N.L.

Los dejo con la nueva animacioncita que postié.