Guatemala

Best L.A. Novel Ever: If He Hollers Let Him Go vs. The Tattooed Soldier (Rebels & Outcasts Regional Final)

L.A. Weekly is determining the best L.A. novel ever by holding a tournament featuring 32 of our favorites in head-to-head matchups, until there's only one novel standing. For further reading: *Best L.A. Novel Ever: The Tournament Brackets *Best L.A. Novel Ever: More Matchups If you can get off the ... More >>

What's Wrong With Los Angeles' Latin Music Scene?

Los Angeles is known worldwide as a creative hub, and it has one of the biggest Latino populations anywhere. But on the eve of three of the Western hemisphere's biggest and most important music festivals -- South By Southwest, Vive Latino, and Coachella -- one has to wonder: Where is the L.A. Latino ... More >>

Make Us Laugh, Funny Boy!

Todd Barry

Hollywood's Urban Cleansing

12,878 mostly Latinos are pushed out by City Hall, high rents and hipsters

The Ten Best Latin Alternative Albums of 2012

It has become difficult to define what Latin Alternative is these days. The genre seems to encompass everything from traditional roots band playing an accordion to a progressive hip-hop MCs to singer-songwriters crooning romantic ballads -- and can be sung in Spanish, English or Spanglish. It's a hy ... More >>

Best L.A. Novel Ever: T. C. Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain vs. Hector Tobar's The Tattooed Soldier, Round 1

L.A. Weekly is determining the best L.A. novel ever by holding a tournament featuring 32 of our favorites in head-to-head matchups, until there's only one novel standing. For further reading: *Best L.A. Novel Ever: The Tournament Brackets *Best L.A. Novel Ever: More Matchups Set in Topanga Canyon ... More >>

Penny Marshall on Her New Memoir, My Mother Was Nuts, and How She Influenced Women in Comedy

With today's 24-hour news cycle, it isn't uncommon for the Hollywood elite to take to social media or a friendly tabloid to debunk rumors about their personal lives and well-beings. Penny Marshall took it one step more: She wrote a tell-all book. "My brother just finished his second book, so I tho ... More >>

Cafecito Organico Now Offering Monthly Coffee Classes

A few weeks ago, we suggested a few workshops where you can learn all about coffee -- roasting, brewing, tasting and so on -- and now we have yet one more class to add: This week, Cafecito Organico will host one-hour tasting classes focused specifically on comparing and contrasting several different ... More >>

Tonight at Guelaguetza: Free Oaxacan Bites for KCRW's Sonic Trace

KCRW's newest cultural project Sonic Trace, which documents the experiences of L.A. residents who have immigrated from places like Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, will be hosting an opening party tonight at Koreatown's Guelaguetza restaurant from 7-11 p.m.

Buyepongo Bring the Motherfucking Ruckus

South Central band Buyepongo is known for digging deep into the neighborhood's Latin roots and serving up a new formula for grinding on the dance floor. They're inspired by Wu-Tang Clan and manage to live up to their name, which means, literally, "to cause a ruckus." Originally formed in 2005, they ... More >>

Checking in on Francis Ford Coppola's New Italian Hotel: Palazzo Margherita, Basilicata A Pasta-Making Video

Getting the right people to run things in a new restaurant or hotel is key. And when you've got a world-famous director running things, you can bet he's gonna get his casting right the first time around. Francis Ford Coppola is no newbie to the hotel biz. His exotic resorts in Belize, Guatemala and ... More >>

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including a Trombone Collective

This week, artist and sunglasses designer Alex Israel debuts the talk show he shot in the Pacific Design Center, trombonists perform in a downtown art space, and fringe physicists reinvent gravity. 5. They're a collective, not a choir The trombone is purportedly the brass instrument with a range cl ... More >>

Cocaine Bricks Worth A Half-Million-Plus Discovered at L.A. Port

Twenty bricks of cocaine worth $585,000 was found during a routine inspection at the port of Los Angeles this week, authorities said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers picked a container randomly and, when a drug-sniffing dog alerted, discovered the bricks, which weighed 64 pounds, accord ... More >>

Cindy Reyna, Model and UC Santa Barbara Student, Faces Deportation

Updated at the bottom: She was arrested on suspicion of DUI. First posted at 1:58 p.m. Immigrants' rights activists are coming to the aid of Cindy Reyna, a UC Santa Barbara student and sometime model who they say was arrested and now faces deportation despite being a potential DREAM Act student. T ... More >>

Alleged Daughter-Drowner Lorna Valle Denied Psychiatric Help Because She is an Illegal Immigrant, Cousin Says

The cousin of Lorna Valle, the mother who allegedly tried to drown her two daughters in the bathtub of a converted garage in South Los Angeles yesterday, says she was denied treatment at a hospital because she was an illegal immigrant. Valle's one-year-old daughter passed away en route to the hosp ... More >>

Hollywood's 10 Most Memorable Coffee Quotes

In honor of National Coffee Day, we've compiled a list of Hollywood's 10 Most Memorable Coffee Quotations. Why memorable movie quotations, and not, say, quotations from your favorite novels? Because we live in L.A. Duh. Turn the page.

Granito: How to Nail A Dictator Review

L.A. County's Private Property War

Jonathan Gold's Pico Picks

Ask Mr. Gold: Top 10 Pico Boulevard Eats

Anne Fishbeinthe invisible restaurant critic​ Dear Mr. Gold: Have you published a list of the 10 best places for L.A. street food and/or "dives"? I'd like to tour them on bicycle, so if they are concentrated in one general area, that would be best -- and hopefully a slightly more urban area l ... More >>

Dining Below the Line: Could You Eat on $1.50 a Day?

Just_[von]Bernard/Flickr​How about $1.50 for five whole days? Charity group Global Poverty Project, an international non-profit organization campaigning to end Extreme Poverty, asks you to find out as part of their Live Below the Line campaign. Through this initiative they hope to help America ... More >>

Robert Watson, Rhode Island Republican Leader Who Joked About Pot Users, Caught With Marijuana, Cops Say

East Haven Police / Providence JournalUnder the influence of weed?​Dear righteous right-wingers: We're sorry you haven't learned your lesson by now. But it seems clear to us there is some divine retribution aimed straight at your heads. Every time you call out gay people you end up being caug ... More >>

Obama en Español: U.S. President Tours Latin America, Talks Chilean Miners, His Own Stellar Immigration Policy (Really?)

The Daily BeastBarack and Michelle, lookin' the part​Updated after the jump: The president makes his last stop in El Salvador. If there's one thing our POTUS can do, it's talk. Barack Obama could talk himself out of Guantanamo Bay through a thick swatch of duct tape. In perfect form, he tur ... More >>

Rock Out With Your Doc Out

Can a Gabacho Become President of Mexico?

The Thursday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

SapphireBlue22stack of newspapers​What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections mid-week. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is free ... More >>

Music Picks: Amy Kuney, Whispertown, the Civil Wars, Jake Bellows, Plan B

Also, Thom Bresh, Pictureplane, James Intveld and others

Jones Coffee Roasters Update: No More Ghetto Alley Bánh Mì & Democracy

A. Scattergoodthe new Jones Coffee Roasters​ Back in August, Jones Coffee Roasters moved -- lock, stock, espresso machines and Probat roaster -- a few blocks down Raymond Avenue in Pasadena. And, for a time, while the Jones family outfitted their new digs, the baristas pulled shots near the b ... More >>

Grinding Justice

Operation Streamline Costs Millions, Tramples the Constitution, Treats Migrants Like Cattle, and Doesn't Work

Red: Classiest. Comic. Book. Movie. Ever

Helen Mirren will cut you, and other awesome old-people things

Top 10 Solo Projects by Guest Blogger Big Search, a.k.a. Matt Popieluch of Foreign Born and Fool's Gold (Also: an Exclusive New Big Search Song)

Matt Popieluch (Big Search, Foreign Born, Fool's Gold) writes on his favorite solo projects.​Guest blogger Matt Popieluch is not only the lead singer in Foreign Born and riddim guitarist for Fool's Gold, but an "artist gone rogue" in his own right. He's celebrating the release of the debut alb ... More >>

The Latest Buzz: The Birth of Coffee at the Craft and Folk Art Museum

Photo: Daniel Lorenzetti from The Birth of Coffee. All rights reserved.Woman from San Juan Atitlan​With support from Gaviña Gourmet Coffee and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, The Birth of Coffee exhibit at the Craft and Folk Art Museum takes us from the coffee industr ... More >>

Vaux Swift Birds Flock to Chimney in Downtown Los Angeles

Last Friday, people of all ages and zip codes gathered to witness the roosting of the Vaux's swifts in the chimney of an abandoned building located off Broadway and Fifth Street. The swifts have been stopping in Los Angeles for quite a few years as they migrate down to Guatemala for winter. "Birds ... More >>

Woman With Knife Felled By Less-Than-Lethal Force In Westlake In The Same Month Manuel Jamines Was Shot By Cops For Threatening Moves With His Own Knife

​It was one of the Los Angeles Police Department's most decried shootings in recent years, and it happened to a man who was drunk, wielding a knife, and allegedly threatening a pregnant woman, bystanders and cops alike. The official response from both the LAPD and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa h ... More >>

Death of Manuel Ramirez (Jamines): Charlie Beck's Peace Pipe

Guatemalan laborer would be stunned by fury over his death at the hands of LAPD

Salmonella Outbreak Prompts Food Recall for Eggs and Frozen Fruit in L.A.

eiratansey via Flickr​ The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health warned Angelenos Tuesday of two nationwide food recalls linked to salmonella. The tainted products are for certain eggs shipped from Wright County Egg company of Galt, Iowa and frozen mamey pulp fruit from COCO S.A. of G ... More >>

Seized

Inside the brutal world of America's kidnapping capital

Jones Coffee Roasters: Now, Just Down the Street

A. Scattergoodnew Jones Coffee Roasters location​ If you've been wandering around Pasadena in an decaffeinated haze for the last few days, looking for Jones Coffee Roasters and finding instead an empty roaster-shaped hole where your coffeehouse used to be, don't panic: Jones has not closed, bu ... More >>

Educating Maria

On L.A.'s Skid Row, a generational war over how to teach the American children of illegal immigrants

La Cevicheria: Blood and Clams

Ceviche to die for

An Immigrant's Heart

To survive the ordeal of escaping Guatemala, Julia needed a big Heart. But not this big

Top 10 Things to Eat at the Original Third and Fairfax Farmers' Market

Brooke Burton​Though many of our city's farmers' markets may share similar vendors and farms, no two are built the same. The Original Farmers' Market at Third and Fairfax serves as a culinary landmark, a multi-generational meeting place, and a gastronomic gateway to The Grove. In addition, ... More >>

Number Of Illegal Immigrants Decreased By One Million Since 2007

​The number of illegal immigrants in the United States was down about 800,000 last year compared to 2008, reportedly as a result of the recession and fewer job opportunities. The decrease from 11.6 million undocumented workers in 2008 to 10.8 million in 2009 was reported by the U.S. Department ... More >>

Frank Fairfield: The Man Who Wasn't There

His country blues draws more from rural Appalachia than urban California

Best of L.A.: Food and Drink

Feed Your Habit: 10 Places to get your Ceviche Fix

Like many great dishes, the operating principles of ceviche are simple: take seafood, marinate it in citrus, occasionally throw in some spice. If that doesn't sound good to you, you're probably an idiot. Living in Los Angeles and not liking ceviche is a lot like living in Germany and not liking hard ... More >>

Angel Orozco of Cafecito Orgánico: Early Arrival to the Coffee Party

Angel OrozcoSome are born into their calling, and some take time to find it. For Angel Orozco it's a little bit of both. As a native of Guatemala who immigrated to the San Gabriel Valley with his family in 1982, Orozco fully discovered coffee during graduate school at ... More >>

Fiction Excerpt: Devil Rain

From the forthcoming novel This Wicked World

Dancing Waters