The queer, DACA-led southwest-side group addresses community needs around food, health and public space.
Tag: Latinx
Posted inArts & Culture
Sweat equity, radical politics, and gentrification
Before Pilsen welcomed gallery spaces and Little Village became La Villita, the city’s Mexican population fought to make their voices heard and for places to live. Georgetown University historian Mike Amezcua chronicles this decades-long struggle in his compelling Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification, published in February by University of […]
Posted inMusic
Seven more doors into Chicago in Tune
Chicago in Tune is a difficult festival to describe, since it includes basically all live music happening in the city from August 19 till September 19. How that looks to you depends heavily on which shows are on your radar. The Reader has provided you with a number of assists: a show calendar spanning the […]
Posted inMusic
Mexican Institute of Sound electrifies traditional Latin rhythms
Camilo Lara, who makes music as Mexican Institute of Sound, is hardly the only Latinx artist to meld traditional rhythms with contemporary electronic dance genres (Colombian group Bomba Estéreo, Ecuador-based producer Nicola Cruz, and fellow Ruido Festers Los Amigos Invisibles immediately come to mind). Lara is one of the most high-profile, though; he’s done production […]
Posted inNews & Politics
COVID’s invisible victims
The narrative that young and previously healthy Americans are the “new” pandemic patients is an erasure of Latino victims.
Posted inMusic
Buenört Collective spread their hot revolution across the Atlantic
Chicago-based party incubator and microlabel Buenört Collective release the new album by Spanish band El Sombrero del Abuelo.
Posted inBest of Chicago
Chicago’s Latinx musicians rolled with the pandemic’s punches
New projects kept coming from A Flor de Piel, the Los Sundowns, Lester Rey, Gabacho, ÉSSO, and others.
Posted inFilm
Netflix’s new series doesn’t do Selena justice
Part one of Selena: The Series attempts to capture Selena’s artistry, but fails to bring full nuance in all areas of production.
Posted inMusic
Tatiana Hazel knows she was meant to shine
Chicago native Tatiana Hazel has been on a journey that merges fashion, visual design, and music since she was 13 years old, when she began posting videos of herself singing and playing acoustic guitar on YouTube. Now in her early 20s, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has developed a solid following while deepening her talent for […]
Posted inMusic
Xibalba plunge into new depths of metal and hardcore on Años en Infierno
Named after a Mayan term that roughly translates to “place of fear,” Southern California trio Xibalba have been blending strains of metal and hardcore for nearly 14 years. They’ve increasingly leaned into their Latino heritage (they sing in both Spanish and English) and their death-metal influences, while expanding into new moods and song structures; on […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Breaking the stereotypical Latino storyline
A new bilingual podcast puts a microphone to the local Latinx community.
Posted inMusic
La Armada transform adversity into community
Anticolonialist hardcore band La Armada discuss their journey from the Dominican Republic to Chicago and the inspiration behind their new EP series, Songs of the Exiled.
Posted inMusic
The Sor Juana Festival shares vintage vibes for cruising in hot rods, warm summer nights, and nonstop dancing
Rockabilly probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when somebody says “Latin roots music,” but several generations of artists on both sides of the southern U.S. border have taken doo-wop, boogie-woogie, and early rock ’n’ roll to heart. The music—and its associated hot-rod imagery—has long connections to the Mexican American community (particularly on […]
Posted inMusic
The tallest hat in the afterlife on the gig poster of the week
This week’s featured gig poster was created by local artist Chema Skandal.
Posted inArts & Culture
[PHOTOS] Fiesta del Sol
Last Saturday, Josué Briones photographed Fiesta del Sol, a festival held July 26-29 along eight blocks of Cermak Road. What started as a block party celebrating the building of Benito Juarez High School in Pilsen back in the 70s has grown into an annual fundraiser organized by Pilsen Neighbors Community Council. Fiesta del Sol features music, community […]