Hispanic, celebrating heritage

From Sept. 16 to Oct. 15, Americans are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Five Central American countries celebrate Sept. 15 as Independence Day. In addition, Mexico has its Independence Day on Sept. 16 and Chile its own on Sept. 18. Since Hispanics now make up the largest minority in the United States, we are honored to be able to share in their celebrations of events that are important in their culture.

Hopping on the band wagon, the Stars and Stripes newspaper, on Sunday, Oct. 3, devoted no fewer than six articles in it's 24-page "Scenes" supplement to "Hispanic Heritage: Celebrating culture, style and entertainment."

The article that first caught my eye was entitled "'The Cockroach': Comic bites at politicians' Hispanic strategies." I don't know anyone who isn't repelled by a cockroach, least of all me; so I read on.

It was about Lalo Alcaraz, creator of the popular but controversial comic strip called "The Cockroach." My first thought was that there must be a connection with "La Cucaracha," a Mexican song about the Model T jalopy owned by Pancho Villa. Even though that connection was never made in the article, I'm not convinced it isn't true.

Cuco Rocha, the protagonist of the strip, is "a Chicano [Mexican-American] hipster who happens to be a human-sized cockroach. Just as a cockroach is obnoxious, so is Cuco. He's obnoxious because he is "militant, self-righteous and mad." And he and his jalapeno-hot political satire are crawling into millions of homes via national syndication on daily comic strips.

In Cuco's version of a popular Mexican bingo game, U.S. presidential candidate Kerry is "Juan Kerry, 'el Valiente'; and President Bush is 'El Ex-Borracho' [the former drunk): now thankfully hooked on Jesus and extended vacations."

On his office wall, Alcaraz has a poster of Che Guevarra over which he has pasted a picture of Bush and put underneath the words "Freedumb Fighter."

His main point is that candidates courting the Hispanic vote may put on a sombrero and play mariachi music while not bothering to find out what the Latinos actually think and need and want. It's easy to see why he's controversial with us gringos (non-Latinos); but even the Latinos are protesting about the strip, considering it "racist to suggest that the roach speaks for Hispanics."

An article called "Beyond the glamour: Latina musicians willing to express themselves" hit a sympathetic chord with me.

I'm not presently up on the latest Latina divas, but I've always loved music with a Latin beat, and some of my favorite singers over the years have been Latinas like Linda Rondstadt, Gloria Estefan, Vicky Carr and Ana Cani. Latino bands dating back to Xavier Cugat and including Perez Prado, Trini Lopez and Desi Arnaz have all played that lovely music. My all-time favorite Latin composer is the late Cuban, Ernesto Lecuona.

I've recently discovered the Buena Vista Social Club, a Cuban musical group consisting of aging musicians who play all the old songs I love from the '40s.

The article "Beyond the Glamour" was mainly about a Colombian singer, Andrea Echeverrí, and a Mexican, Ely Guerra.

Their headliner performances at the recent Latin Alternative Music Conference demonstrate that Latina musicians have broken free of the glamour mould that still shapes the images of many female performers."

According to the article, they and several other Latina musicians of their generation "express themselves with a freedom that shatters old ideas of how women 'should' behave on stage."

Echeverrí was quoted as saying, "We are artists with heart and mind open. I believe that machismo is something from, perhaps, past generations, or a people who still have their minds a bit closed."

Guerra says, "Physical beauty and talent aren't in conflict Š in the music industry for women, they want to reduce us to pieces of meat Š. But in the end, music is super sacred, super far from such things."

Another article heralded Sonia Manzano, a.k.a. María, who "has helped many Hispanic children feel at home on Sesame Street and in their everyday lives." The Puerto Rican has also written a children's book called "No Dogs Allowed."

A large picture of a mouth-watering display of whole-wheat quesadillas took up half of one page while the recipe took up the other half. With some of my favorite foods among the ingredients - chicken, mangoes, papaya and jalapeno Jack cheese - the Culinary Institute of American must have had me in mind when they created that one.

Tying the theme in with the main audience of the newspaper was an article called "Double duty." It was about an Air Force Staff Sergeant named Miguel Avilan, of Peruvian heritage, who represents more than 63,000 people of Hispanic origin who are on active duty with our armed forces.

He recently received a plaque from his last duty station in San Antonio, Texas. It was from the Inter-American Air Force Academy for teaching Latin Americans from 18 countries American democratic values, human rights and military resource skills.

Gavilan is quoted as saying he has "the soul of a Peruvian, but the strength of an American."

A sixth article was entitled "Brush of Beauty" and extolled Monica Ramírez, the founder of Zalia Cosmetics, a new line designed especially for Latinas.

The Latin ladies are flocking to the stores that carry this line, since it uses colors that blend better with their olive complexions than do the traditional pink hues. With names directed at the Latina market - lipsticks called "Red Rum" and "Tango," and eye shadows such as "Café con leche" and "Sangría" - the lines appeal to Hispanics and promise Zalia's sales to "reach an average of $150,000 per locale in their first full year of operations."

I say "Well done, amigos and amigas."

Hamilton was a Searcy resident until moving to South Korea at the end of August.