El Paso

Is There Any Good Mexican Food in England?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And what's the difference between Tex-Mex and New Mexican food?

How Can Gabacho Parents Raise a Mexican Child Well?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And do Mexican driver's licenses work in the United States?

Green Day Announce Fox Theater Show to Kick Off 2013 Tour

You know a band is huge when they list the Fox Theater in Pomona as an "intimate club date." Of course having seen Green Day at the Tiki Bar and Alex's Bar over the years, we know the true meaning of that statement. But today, the band announced they'd be heading to P-town on March 10 for the first ... More >>

Read Stick a Fork In It!

If you're still not reading our food, then you're mean

What Books On Mexicans Should I Buy This Christmas?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Special Navidad-Gift-Guide Edition: A list on the Mexican's favorite books this year

Friends Can Also Betray You

Mexicans pay in blood for America's War on Drugs

Five Tex-Mex Food Specialties That Should Go Nationwide--Or At Least to California

From chili to the combo plate, fajitas to tacos al carbón, the frozen margarita machine to nachos, Texas has long dominated the national conversation on Mexican food in this country. But that's now irretrievably changed, as California and our onslaught of regional Mexican, Korean tacos, Mission bur ... More >>

Ron Thomas at CSUF Social Justice Summit: Defend the Homeless

"Here's that beautiful picture of Kelly on the right," said Ron Thomas, as he pointed to a portrait of his smiling son toward the end of his PowerPoint presentation on homelessness at Cal State University Fullerton's eighth-annual social justice summit on Saturday, April 14. "Right here, [Kelly ... More >>

[UPDATED, FULLERTON SIGNING TOMORROW!] First Round of Book Signings Announced for Taco USA!

​UPDATE: Tomorrow, I have my first book signing for the book at the Fullerton Library's main branch on Commonwealth. 7 p.m.--see you there!ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 2: Gentle readers: it gives me great pleasure to announce the first leg of my book tour for Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. ... More >>

Ron Thomas Among Confirmed Speakers At CSUF's Social Justice Summit

One of the world's deadliest cities lies just south of El Paso, Texas: the border town of Ciudad Juarez. For nearly two decades, murder and rape have rocked the town, especially its women, leaving an estimated 10,000 unsolved and uninvestigated murders since 2007. The violence in Juarez is on ... More >>

[UPDATED, WITH SANTE FE CONFIRMED!] First Round of Book Signings Announced for Taco USA!

​Gentle readers: it gives me great pleasure to announce the first leg of my book tour for Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. I'm burning the midnight coal with both ends of the candle's oil (or however that pinche metaphor goes) putting even more street corners on the agenda, but below ... More >>

The Five Most Influential Cities in the Development of Mexican Food in the United States

​SO...my much-promised book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America finally hits the bookstores next month (April 10), and review copies are slowly making their way around the nation's newsrooms. So I might as well start giving out bits and pieces to entice ustedes to preorder the damn thing ... More >>

What Do I Do to Shut Up My Mexican-Hating Mexicna Cousin?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And do Mexicans have different words for dark skin?

Latin Alternative Explosion: Probable or Inevitable?

Sicilia WolfLatin Alternative Songstress Carla Morrison​ The music is great and the demographics are there for the taking, so is it only a matter of time before a Latin Alternative explosion occurs Stateside? Producer and songwriter Desmond Child weighed in with his opinion in a recent Al Borde pi ... More >>

IDEA Act, The DREAM Act's Recently-Introduced Cousin, Would Boost Number of Green Cards

Not this green card...If a California congresswoman has her way, a lot more people will get their green cards soon. ​Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) introduced a bill on Tuesday that would amp the number of green cards for foreign students and entrepreneurs. The students have to meet a lot of c ... More >>

Girl In a Coma

Alex's Bar

Starbucks Gets Sued by The Feds for Firing Worker with Dwarfism

Reuters reports that Starbucks has been slapped by a lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for firing a barista-in-training with dwarfism in El Paso, Texas. The barista was terminated because she asked for a stool or a small stepladder to perform her job.The feds argue that this v ... More >>

What's So Wrong With Calling Santa Ana a Latino City?

​Man, SanTana cracks me up sometimes--okay, ALL THE TIME. The Orange County Register's Andrew Galvin wrote a good piece yesterday ostensibly about efforts by Latino activists to try and persuade the SanTana City Council at this past Monday's meeting to ask its police department to stop impounding ... More >>

Five (Largely Inaccurate) Oxford English Dictionary Entries for Mexican Foods

​Last week, I reported on how the Oxford English Dictionary had just included "banh mi" into its august publication, a wonderful, surprising development. Also in the mix was "taquito," and that entry just pissed me off. Oh, I was happy that rolled, fried tacos finally received their due--but ... More >>

Five Search Features Yelp Should Add Instead of "Hipster"

​So news is going all around that Yelp added "Hipster" to its possible categories for a location's ambiance (which spelling is correct again?), and the first reaction that came to my mind is "redundant." Isn't Yelp the epitome of hipsterdom, of a sea of shallow reactions and It buzz, with the crea ... More >>

Is It Crazy to Shop in Juarez?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Plus, is the chupacabra Mexican?

Mexican Pop Singer Kalimba Jailed on Rape Charge

 Twenty-eight-year-old Mexican pop singer Kalimba Ibar, former member of band OV7 and the singing voice of Simba in the Latin American film version of The Lion King, was jailed on rape charges on Jan 20. According to the Associated Press, Kalimba was deported from the U.S. to Mexico after ... More >>

The Mexican Hamburger of Denver: America's Greatest Mexican Meal

​I was in Denver recently, partly to research my coming book, partly to debate former congressman Tom Tancredo on immigration, but really to finally taste the Holy Grail of Mexican-American cookery: the Mexican hamburger. Behold its cheesy, mixed-up glory above, and click after the jump to discove ... More >>

Should Mexicans Move Back to Mexico?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And do Mexicans cabrones and Argentine carajos hate one another?

Free Moral Agents Announce Tour to Support 'Control This'

Mary Bell/OC Weekly​As we mentioned a few months ago,  Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, Long Beach-based, Grammy-award-winning keyboardist for Mars Volta, is now taking some time off Mars Volta to focus on Free Moral Agents.As Ikey expanded his 2002 solo project into a full band five years ago, he corral ... More >>

Five Authentic Mexican Dishes That Would Make Rick Bayless Scream, Or: For an Aztlanista Approach to the Question of "Authenticity" in Mexican Cuisine

Chico's Tacos in El Paso: The Most Mexican Restaurant in America​Rick Bayless came to and left Orange County last week, and none of Weeklings were able to attend, busy as we are with our normal lives (Dave, Edwin, and Shuji, their 9-to-5s; me, skinheads and pedo-priests). Sucks, because the battle ... More >>

Bright Eyes Releases 'Coyote Song' For Sound Strike

Andrew Youssef/OC Weekly​"Coyote Song," which Bright Eyes recorded for the Sound Strike, is out today. Created to support the coalition of artists who are boycotting Arizona after it passed the controversial SB 1070 bill, the song is for sale on the Sound Strike site for $2. Proceeds go to the Flo ... More >>

Juarez's Children

Drugs, death and fear in the murder capital of the world

¡Ask a Comida Critic! How Can I Get Hatch Chiles in OC?

​Got this one from an amiga on Facebook:Where can I get Hatch chiles in Orange County? Not the canned stuff, but fresh from this year's harvest?The best option is to make the 12-hour trek to Hatch this weekend, when the Hatch Chile Festival will bring thousands to the tiny town and the scent of fr ... More >>

Asylum Denied

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum.

Badlands: From Ground Zero of the Immigration Crisis Along the Mexican Border

Tougher border enforcement in California and Texas has spelled disaster for southern Arizona

Mexican-Hatin' is Sweeping the Nation!

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And everybody has a different, not-so-endearing nickname for the Brown Menace

NarcoTunes

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, this is your Mexican regional music on drugs

The Crucifixion of Juarez

On the front line of the U.S. war on drugs, a Mexican city bleeds to death

TONIGHT: Free Moral Agents kick off November Tour at the Prospector

​Three and a half weeks ago, we mentioned that Long Beach avant rockers Free Moral Agents (featuring keyboardist Ikey Ownes of the Mars Volta) are going out on the road with El Paso band Zechs Marquise. We all found that they hadn't booked any hometown show dates yet. Excuse ou ... More >>

Free Moral Agents Announce Tour, No California Dates Yet

​Yesterday, it was announced that Long Beach psych-rock jam artists Free Moral Agents (pictured) are hitting the road with their El Paso compadres Zechs Marquise. Their tour, which starts November 7 in ZM's hometown, is set to run for about three weeks at this point, with dates to be added shortly ... More >>

Tomorrow: Blank Blue and Zech's Marquis at The Prospector

Finding a place that serves mind-bending psychedelics and stiff drinks in the same  building on a Tuesday night is undoubtedly a fortunate find. That is of course unless your a regular at The Prospector. In that case, you know that anything's possible at the monthly event Wildest Dreams Come Tr ... More >>

Spring Breakers: Forget Cancun, El Paso Is Where It's At!

ZereshkEl Paso: Better than Cancun?The pages of Navel Gazing have long narrated the increasingly crumbly and futile efforts by OC's loose network of immigrant haters to work Americans up into a fit of rage over illegal immigration. But this latest effort by the usual suspects (Barbara Coe, CCIR, the ... More >>

Orange County: A Personal History: The Reviews

[¡Ask a Mexican!®] More Shameless Self-Promotion (Buy Gustavo's New Book!)

[¡Ask a Mexican!®] A Gabacho In Front of a Mexican Tourist Trap Deserves the Reconquista His Wallet Gets

[¡Ask a Mexican!®] Stay Home and Watch 'COPS' With Your Traditional Mexican Woman

¡Ask a Mexican!®

"The quickest road to assimilation is a six-figure salary and a blonde from Wellesley."

Greetings from an asshole in El Paso

Howdy, y'all! I write to you today from El Paso, Texas, where I've been acting in my friend Zach Passero's movie WICKED LAKE, playing a character named "Half-Idiot." Considering my distinguished stature as a writer and critic, it may or may not surprise you that my character is a compulsively onani ... More >>

Saturday's Headlines & Surprises: Pampering Predators

To Catch--and Pamper!--a Predator: Where the hell is Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC? Why do I ask? Well, in Orange County, authority figures--particularly cops--nabbed for outrageous sexual conduct either get re-elected, promoted or pampered. The latest example is Jason David Rosewarne. The marr ... More >>

!Ask a Mexican!

Do you drive this way in Turd World Mexico, too?

!Ask a Mexican!

'Sensenbeaners'

Yoo Doo Right

Dungen: One man, one band, one monument

Heir Guitars!

Weekly and Sam Ash Guitar giveaway winners!

Accidentally Legit

Inside Americas most ostentatious, alternative music fest