News & Features
Keker and ACLU Seek Class Action Over January Raid by Border Patrol in Central California
The suit alleges “Operation Return to Sender” was a “fishing expedition” that indiscriminately targeted scores of residents, including U.S. citizens, through racial profiling. (link to story)
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Commerce Secretary Abruptly Dismisses USPTO Advisory Committees, Surprising Members
In an unprecedented move, the Commerce Department abruptly dismissed all members of two citizen panels that advise the USPTO on patent and trademark matters. Members, all of whom were appointed during the Biden administration, said the emailed notice caught them by surprise. (link to story)
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News Publishers Sue AI Firm Cohere, Alleging Copyright and Trademark Violations
The suit filed by a coalition of news publishers from the U.S., the U.K. and Canada say Cohere’s AI products regurgitate near-verbatim stories in real time and invent false stories that are wrongly attributed to the newsrooms. (link to story)
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‘Facebook’s Descent Into Toxic Masculinity’ Prompts Stanford Professor to Drop Meta as Client
Mark Lemley said he could not “in good conscience” represent Mark Zuckerberg given recent decisions to "encourage disinformation and hate speech" on his company's platforms. A suit pending in Northern California alleges Meta infringed the copyrights of several authors by using their works to train its generative AI program. (link to story)
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Counterfeiters Ride Surge in Tabletop Games’ Popularity, Challenging IP Owners to Keep Up
Wonderbow, the independent German company behind the board game Kelp, learned the hard way that counterfeiters were tough competitors when it came to stealing IP and marketing fake products on e-commerce sites. (link to story)
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Boot Camps for Wayward Youths Offer Hope, Help, Hell
ENSENADA, Mexico (AP) — The 130 residents of the converted beach-side motel are mostly teenage and mostly American, but you wouldn’t know it by listening: No shouts, no stereos. Just the rhythmic crash of surf.
Under strict order, the youths at Casa by the Sea go about their day’s routine of quiet exercise, study, chores and, when approved, group discussion. (link to story)
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'Escort Service' or Legalized Abduction?
ENSENADA, Mexico (AP) — For a few hundred dollars, parents pushed to the edge by teens’ defiant and destructive behavior can hire “escorts” to rouse their children in the middle of the night and haul them away--in handcuffs if needed. (link to story)
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Hispanic Affairs
Mexico's real-life 'superheroes' are caped crusaders for justice
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Faster than a bolt of lightning? Doubtful. Able to leap tall buildings? Not a chance.
Mexico’s newest superhero rushes into his headquarters, the office of the Union of Electrical Workers, flustered and breathing heavily under his leather and nylon mask after jogging from his car.
Even Super Luz – Super Light – can have trouble finding a parking space. (link to story)
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Cinco de Mayo translates into a marketing bonanza
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Americans will toss tortillas and down shots of tequila today in honor of Cinco de Mayo, partying with a fervor that leaves many Mexicans scratching their heads in wonderment.
Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday, but a minor one. It marks a May 5, 1862, victory by a small army of Mexican patriots and peasants over stronger French forces, but it's not Mexican Independence Day -- a common misconception among Cinco de Mayo partyers in the United States. (link to story)
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Violence, corruption plague Mexican border city of Tijuana
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) _ On the border in northwestern Mexico, Tijuana sits between the haves and the have-nots: those in Mexico who have cocaine, marijuana, heroin and speed, and those in the United States who do not but will pay lots for it. (link to story)
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Hispanics loom large in California
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Hispanic voters, 16 percent of California's electorate and three times as likely to favor Democrats over Republicans, are poised to play an important - and perhaps deciding - role in the upcoming recall election. (link to story)
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California storms hit hard in workers' wallets
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Southern California's third rainiest season on record has delivered a huge blow to car washes, landscaping crews, house painters, and construction workers alike, hurting business owners and their paycheck-to-paycheck workers.
Dramatic footage of mansions teetering on hillsides may dominate television coverage of the storms, but for those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, the rainy season has been a slow-moving disaster.
On a Chula Vista street behind a rock and brick supplier, about two dozen men chatted in Spanish and sipped coffee while hoping to catch a day's work. Many said they normally work construction jobs, but most sites are closed due to the saturated ground. (link to story)
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Community Mourns Loss of Seven of its Members
NYSSA, Ore. (AP) - A sad song on the AM radio station fills Carmen Rodriguez's bakery, the walls lined with shelves of yellow andpink frosted Mexican sweet bread.
"This life," a man sings in Spanish,"is worth nothing." The rich mariachi guitars swell as the man cries,"Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay."
Time has moved slowly in this dusty farming town on the edge of the Snake River since the day Sylvestre Perez and six other family members left for work. For his wife, Alejandra, and the others left behind, it hasn't moved at all. (link to story)
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Los Lobos: Bridging fame and obscurity
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The five members of Los Lobos walk out onto a Los Angeles street for an impromptu photo shoot, causing some drivers to stop and gawk and a few fans in the predominantly Latino neighborhood to admire from a distance. Then the band decides to pose around a fruit cart, but the Mexican immigrant who runs it is skeptical. He’s never heard of them.
This mixture of fame and obscurity is typical for Los Lobos, who despite strong critical acclaim have never fit into the kind of format that attracts radio play and widespread popular appeal. (link to story)
Arts Features & Reviews
Arts Feature: 'I have grown up as a person,' says Juanes
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) It was a few months ago, Juanes recalls, when his oldest daughter, Luna, wondered why people stop him to take his picture, ask for his autograph, or simply call out his name as if they were good friends.
“Papi?” the 4-year-old asked him, “Who are you?”
It’s a question that Latin America’s biggest rock star asked himself in the time that he wrote and recorded his newest album, “La Vida Es Un Ratico,” or “Life Is a Moment.” With the launch last week of his concert tour, Juanes says everything is different from his last tour in 2006 — especially himself. (link to story)
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Arts Feature: Writer Victor Villaseñor says school destroys natural genius
Oceanside, Calif. (AP) - In his talks to students, Victor Villasenor likes to ask, “Who here is a genius?”
If it’s a class of kindergartners, everyone’s hand shoots up, he says. If they’re in second or third grade, a few are bold enough to say yes. But once they’re out of elementary school, he says, there are no more geniuses. (link to story)
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Arts Feature: Women set rhythm in Latin rock
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Anyone concerned that traditional machismo would stifle Latin American women who want to rock need look no further than Colombia's Andrea Echeverri and Mexican songstress Ely Guerra.
Their headliner performances at the recent Latin Alternative Music Conference demonstrate that Latina musicians have broken free of the glamour mold that still shapes the images of many female performers. (link to story)
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Book Review: Kerouac's 'Mexican Girl' brought to life in 'Mañana Means Heaven'
As Jack Kerouac described her, she was "the cutest little Mexican girl" who happened across his path at a bus stop in Bakersfield, Calif., and became "Terry" in his classic novel, "On the Road." In reality, Kerouac scholars knew she was a woman named Bea Franco, but despite many efforts over the fog of years, none could find her. Until now. (link to review)
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Music Review: Rodrigo y Gabriela find magic on new album
Wielding only acoustic guitars, Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero conjure a mix of influences to create a sound that might only have been dreamed up by classical guitar great Andres Segovia, if he'd been born listening to Santana and Metallica. (link to review)
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Music Review: Bad Brains weld a wicked pink/dub creation
There should be a warning label on the Bad Brain's new album: "Caution: Contents are Volatile." The first album in five years from this hugely respected punk/dub band is explosive. (link to review)
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Music Review: Spain's The Pinker Tones mix up genres, emerge with fun
If you were to have locked two musically gifted infants into a room filled with electronic instruments and an expansive record collection of pop music from the 1960s through, say, 1982, you might have opened the door years later to find The Pinker Tones. (link to review)
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Music Review: Beck's 'Morning Phase' stirs a haunting beauty
It’s hard to put a finger on Beck. He can steer into many moods, as he has in the two decades since he had a breakthrough with the commercial success of “Mellow Gold.” On “Morning Phase,” his first studio album in six years, Beck takes us to an intimate, gray landscape that is haunting and beautiful. (link to review)
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Music Review: Los Amigos Invisibles keep if freshly fun
Dreamy, funky, sophisticated and groovy. This combination is most uncommon in the world of Latin alternative music - and that’s why the new offering from Venezuelan groovemasters Los Amigos Invisibles is so delicious. It’s rare aural candy. (link to review)
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Music Review: Jarabe de Palo reimagines its history
If there had been a love child born of Steely Dan and Santana during a tryst in Barcelona, a child who ran off with a Gypsy band and grew up strumming guitar in the romantic airs of the Caribbean, that child might sound like Jarabe de Palo. (link to review)
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Music Review: Pop-rockers Maná reignite on 'Cama Incendiada'
It's a given that pop-rock band Mana will sell out shows wherever they go, whether it's the Staples Center (where they set the mark with 11 sell-out concerts) or in their native Mexico. But what hasn't been easy for the band is keeping the energized sound that propelled them to fame with their 1992 breakout album "Donde Jugaran los Ninos?" But after several uneven albums that verged too far into sweetness, Mana has found its edge again with their ninth studio album "Cama Incendiada," or "The Burning Bed." (link to review)
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Music Review: It's hard not to like Jack Johnson
It's hard not to like Jack Johnson. What's not to like? He strikes you as the sort of guy you'd like to hang out with, slap back a couple of beers with, or strike up a bonfire with under the stars. (link to review)
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Music Review: New Spanish-pop album spotlights Jennifer Lopez's limited range
The promotional machine that is Jennifer Lopez makes much of her ability to seemingly do it all. She dances, acts, sings, designs. Her newest production is “Como Ama Una Mujer,” Lopez’s first album sung entirely in Spanish. (link to review)
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Music Review: Prettyman spins gold from heartache
It's not unusual for an artist to find inspiration in heartache. Some of the greatest songs are written from pain. What Tristan Prettyman accomplishes on "Cedar + Gold," however, is unusual because she sings from her broken heart with a voice that is absent of anger. Instead, there is both fragility and strength, retrospection and introspection, and through it all there is love. (link to review)
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Music Review: Ringwald brings genuine sound to jazz debut
In her signature roles, she was the ingenue. And while it might not be fair to compare Molly Ringwald the actress with Molly Ringwald the singer, it is hard to ignore the genuineness seen in her characters that also flavors this collection of jazz standards called "Except Sometimes." (link to review)
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Music Review: Juanes strikes new territory on new album
Much like love itself, Juanes’ new album “Loco de Amor” is deceptive. At first glance, the pop-flavored album seems as upbeat and sweet as a teenage crush. For longtime fans of the Colombian rocker, the sound is unlike the Juanes we know. But on a deeper dive, the album shows itself to be something else. (link to review)
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Music Review: Lila Downs 'La Cantina' pays homage to Mexico
It's been said that one difference between Americans and Mexicans is the way they drink: An American enters a bar to forget, while a Mexican goes to a bar to remember. Lila Downs, the iconoclastic Grammy-winning performer who grew up in the two cultures, pays homage on her new album to the music of Mexico's cantinas - an emotionally varied collection of traditional rhythms that conjure up the memories that pervade the darkened drinking halls of the country. (link to review)
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Music Review: 'Balas y Chocolate' equal parts emotion, style
Fluency in Spanish isn’t necessary to understand Lila Downs’ shape-shifting voice: It transcends language, carrying pure emotion. On her latest album, “Balas y Chocolate” (Bullets and Chocolate), the Grammy-winning Downs expresses outrage and pain over events in Mexico, her birthplace. And she capably blends traditional Latin rhythms with modern elements in an array of popular standards and her own compositions, her themes — treason, loss, death and love — woven throughout the 13 songs. (link to review)
Opinion
Where's the coverage? Why Hurricane Otis's Destruction of Acapulco Should Matter
Editor & Publisher - Nov. 3, 2023
The last message from Beto reached my phone Tuesday morning. It’s a weather forecast image showing a storm system heading toward Acapulco. It was a tropical storm when he sent it, but the forecast predicted that, when it hit land, it would be a category 1 hurricane. Beto grew up in Acapulco. He’s been through storms. A small hurricane? Not a big deal.
The forecast image on my phone screen was followed by a smiling face emoji and one word — “Otis.” (link to column)