To be a fan of salsa music in New York during the ‘60s and ‘70s was to witness an explosion—a growing diversity of Latinos came together to create a new kind of Latin music that was no longer dependent on Cuban exports and reflected the gritty reality of living in the city. At the center […]
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What’s happening in Ferguson, Missouri right now is being called the end of the post-racial era, hopefully, the beginning of a new mass movement, but at the same time it has such disturbing echoes of the past that it feels like we haven’t gotten anywhere at all with this issue. Mike Brown, an unarmed black […]
Read moreOriginally published at City Limits’s Bronx Bureau site: By Ed Morales The Democratic Party primary held on June 24th for the 13th Congressional District was a contentious one, pitting the Dominican-born challenger Adriano Espaillat against Harlem’s native son, incumbent Charles Rangel, for the second time in two years, and the political fallout was predictably intense […]
Read moreSi te quieres divertir Con encanto y con primor Solo tienes que vivir Un verano en nueva york –El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico Every year for 15 years now, New York has hosted the Latin Alternative Music Conference, a four-day affair that celebrates and promotes emerging Latin music that diverges from traditional genres like […]
Read moreMade it over to the last day of viewing for Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety,” the now-famous (or infamous) installation at the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The night before I overheard a heated discussion about it at the Blitz the Ambassador show at the Brooklyn Museum, and of course, it had been a buzz […]
Read moreThe mass media of news and entertainment is ideally a reflecting pool where society can revel in its own image, but Latinos in the US have to look long and hard to see themselves, and when they do, it’s a distorted picture. The lack of consistent and accurate portrayals of Latinos and their lives on […]
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From the Just Because We Seem To Be Obsessed With Deconstructing Ads Doesn’t Mean They Don’t Carry Potent Messages About Self and Other Department: This latest Taco Bell ad for their new unhealthy product, the “quesarito” was so intriguing I had to view it several times. (The spot is called “Imagine.” Poor John Lennon.) It […]
Read moreThings have taken a turn for the worse in Iraq. The conflict is being portrayed as a re-emergence of radical islamic insurgency. But the distorted “nation building” process the US initiated with its 2003 invasion and occupation has resulted in the inevitable: a civil war and possible three-way partition of the country. Back in 2006 […]
Read moreThe defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is a clear signal that American national politics is in a self-destructive spiral of extremist fear-mongering that has brought about a dangerous creeping paralysis. While his primary defeat is characterized by several pundits as a victory of “grassroots” Tea Party organizing, it is a distorted spectacle where […]
Read moreWhat do I love most about Puerto Rico? I guess it’s the cocos. They’re like my head. Hard. Then again, there are the plátanos. They stain my skin. In a good way. Anyway, I’ve gotten some bugging from certain social media interests to compile my own list of songs that make me “Happy” about being […]
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ED MORALES 