Emigdio Vasquez

Miguel Pulido Wants to Save the Fire Pits!

Is Santa Ana's Mayor-for-Life the last, best hope to save the county's beach tradition from NIMBYers?

Is Miguel Pulido the Last, Best Hope to Save OC's Beach Fire Pits?

I can't believe I'm about to write this, but SanTana Mayor-for-Life Don Papi Pulido just might be the last, best hope to save OC's beach fire pits from the idiots at the South Coast Air Quality Management District--and I'm rooting for him to do it. Excuse me while I vomit...BLECCH. I just praised t ... More >>

Emigdio Vasquez, Legendary Chicano Artist, to Be Honored This Weekend in Santa Ana with Prestigious Award

I've been a fan of legendary Chicano muralist Emigdio Vasquez even longer than I knew who he was. The Alcoholics Anonymous in Anaheim where I'd accompany my dad from my toddler years through my teens is right up the street from a supermarket that hosts his epic Memories of the Past and Images of th ... More >>

Sergio O'Cadiz: El Artist

The Mexican maestro was a popular painter in Orange County for decades. Now, his family is fighting to keep his legacy alive

The Little People's Park Riot of 1978

The scene that set the stage for Anaheim Latinos' eternal mistrust of police

Long-Lost Sketch of Historic Santa Ana College MEChA Mural by Sergio O'Cadiz Discovered

The Southern California arts community lost a legend last year when former Santa Ana College professor Shifra Goldman passed away. The historian championed Chicano murals long before others, and served as a ceaseless promoter of the OC Chicano arts scene as best exemplified by Emigdio Vasquez and Se ... More >>

Awesome O.C. Mexican/Screw Know Nothings Quote of the Day!

​I never did give a review of last month's panel discussion about legendary Chicano artists Sergio O'Cadiz and Emigdio Vasquez at the Fullerton Public Library, but it was great--over 40 people in attendance for an event promoted solely by this infernal rag. Fullerton College professor Jerry Padill ... More >>

[UPDATE: TOMORROW] Panel on Legendary OC Chicano Artists Emigdio Vasquez and Sergio O'Cadiz to Happen Feb. 29 at Fullerton Public Library

​Last year, as part of my "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!" at the Fullerton Public Library, I was supposed to do a one-on-one with legendary Chicano muralist Emigdio Vasquez, whose murals are slowly fading away in the barrios of Orange County and from the county's memory. Unfortunately, Vasquez ... More >>

[UPDATED with Songs for Shifra] Shifra Goldman, Latino/Chicano Art Historian, Dead at 85

Courtesy of the FamilyShifra Goldman in her office​UPDATE: Sept. 15 10:31 A.M.: As a reader let me know, Eric Garcia, the son of the late Shifra Goldman, released an album in tribute to his mother a month prior to her passing. The guitarist, who in the course of his musical life has lent his talen ... More >>

Announcing 'Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!' at the Fullerton Public Library: Love and Rockets, Taco Trucks, and More!

​Given the overwhelming success organizers had with lectures at the Fullerton Public Library regarding the Alex Bernal housing-desegregation case and Lalo Alcaraz, the Fullerton Public Library and Cal State Fullerton's Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies (for which I'm a part-time lecturer) ... More >>

Orange County District Attorney on Defense as ACLU Suit Against Gang Injunction is Heard

​Tony Rackauckas is at the center of a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles this afternoon against the Orange County District Attorney's enforcement of gang injunctions. The formal name of the case is American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) v. Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) Tony Rackauc ... More >>

Detras de la Cortina

Grand Central Art Center

[Year In Review] OC Weekly's News Blog, Navel Gazing, Gazes Back at 2009

Orange's Barrio Cypress Residents Fought the DA's Gang Injunction—and Won (Sort Of)

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

First Arrest For Standing In Front of Renowned Chicano Mural in Orange

Easter Sunday. A kid from the Cypress neighborhood in Orange lounges just outside his apartment building where a huge, sprawling mural by influential Chicano artist Emigdio Vasquez is painted on the exterior walls. Bring in the sirens and the Orange PD. Minutes later, you have an arrest. The crime? ... More >>

Law-Enforcement Claims Historic Chicano Mural in Orange Sensationalizes Gangs-30 Years Later

Orange Gang Cops, Tony Rack Go After Emigdio Vasquez

The fight against Orange County's historic Chicano murals has opened up a new front against the man who virtually invented the genre: historic muralist Emigdio Vasquez.On Feb. 25, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed another of his wonderful gang injunctions, this time against the O ... More >>

When Anaheim Mayors First Hung with the Mexicans

I had the pleasure of meeting former Anaheim mayor Bill Thom a couple of times at meetings of Los Amigos, the longtime Latino civil rights group he helped found in 1978. He always occupied a table near the front, a seat of honor unconsciously granted by other Los Amigos members for the gabacho polit ... More >>

A People's History Tour of Anaheim

I've known Cynthia Ward, president of the Anaheim Historical Society, for a couple of years now, and have always found her to be someone with an open mind and a passion for what's ultimately right. Ever an Anaheim booster, she's the lady who escorted Huell Howser 'round our hometown for his Anaheim ... More >>

Fading Away to Nada

Orange County’s lost Chicano murals

The Memories Fade Away

What will destroy a historic Anaheim mural first: The sun, gentrification or immigration?

No Punches Pulled

American Beauties is life, unedited

Art

Fullerton

Brown, Out!

Historic OC barrios awaiting extinction by gentrification

Now Thats What I Call Art!

At Laguna Art Museum, the song remains the same

My City Kicks Your Citys Dining Ass

Dont trust the Times or Pringle: Anaheim is OCs best dining burg

Rubedom

A visit to the OC Fair

Keep Your Faith

Richard Vargas rich symbology scares the pee out of me