"Dead empires have all the best stuff. A living empire, meanwhile, is less appealing, because it looks like the United States." is one of those sentences that is gonna live with me for a long time!! you nailed it.
also i believe I heard once the image you described on the back of the booth, the Aztec warrior holding the unconscious maiden is meant to be depicting the legend of Ixtacihuatl and Pocopatipectl, though that might have not been true!!
I'm curious as to how you reconcile the American desire for an ethnic identity with a sense of oppression. As a trans person, I've been think more and more as an escape from my American identity. I know it includes German, one of the WASP-y identities from the British Isles, and a Native American background from my triple-great-grandmother, but that is all I have so far while I've been saving up for a DNA test (Ancestry.com has already been marked off my list). This desire has been motivated not only from a rejection of America but as a rejection by America of me. I've heard lots of chatter from those who proudly call themselves American decry being transgender as a foreign, almost alien "plague" that must be wiped out, and while I know that in the technical sense I am an American, I have to reckon with the approaching fact that I am not allowed to be American. Anything but American.
One time about a decade ago, largely against my will, I ended up on an excursion around Westchester, which ended with dinner at a Mexican restaurant that used to be a Chinese restaurant. The way you could tell was that, as a way of redecorating, they partially painted over a mural of pandas eating bamboo, so that all the pandas were wearing sombreros. I think it was somewhere in or near Croton. Haven't thought about that place in years but this post brought me back.
From the description of a version of la pieta on ASU's campus:
New Mexican Artist Luis Jimenez completed this 10-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture in 1987. The most famous pieta by Michelangelo, depicts Mary cradling Christ's crucified body, but in this Jimenez work, a kneeling Native American cradles a dead woman. The subject is taken from Mexican mythology and refers to the popular legend of two Mexican volcanoes. "It's a Romeo-and-Juliet story of two lovers turned into volcanoes by the gods: the active one is the grieving man; the dead woman is the dormant one," states Jimenez. "It is the most common image along the low rider vans and on restaurant and barrio murals." For the ASU dedication, he also wrote, "The Southwest Pieta addresses lost possibilities and lost opportunities for understanding each other through prejudice and lack of communication."
"O’Cquaintances" is too good
Nothing like a good fusion restaurant to induce severe diaspora dysphoria
omg
"Dead empires have all the best stuff. A living empire, meanwhile, is less appealing, because it looks like the United States." is one of those sentences that is gonna live with me for a long time!! you nailed it.
also i believe I heard once the image you described on the back of the booth, the Aztec warrior holding the unconscious maiden is meant to be depicting the legend of Ixtacihuatl and Pocopatipectl, though that might have not been true!!
But were they Irish soda bread churros?
This is excellent restaurant reviewing
No I am Czech-Mex and this is the first time I’ve seen it write by someone other than me thank you king.
This is incredible. I applaud you from my dubiously sourced phone in the message t-shirt I bought off instagram!
longtime reader thrilled about this shout-out to my hometown
As soon as I read the words “Irish Mexican cantina” I knew I was in for it
This was sublime!
Loved this piece!
AMAZING
I'm curious as to how you reconcile the American desire for an ethnic identity with a sense of oppression. As a trans person, I've been think more and more as an escape from my American identity. I know it includes German, one of the WASP-y identities from the British Isles, and a Native American background from my triple-great-grandmother, but that is all I have so far while I've been saving up for a DNA test (Ancestry.com has already been marked off my list). This desire has been motivated not only from a rejection of America but as a rejection by America of me. I've heard lots of chatter from those who proudly call themselves American decry being transgender as a foreign, almost alien "plague" that must be wiped out, and while I know that in the technical sense I am an American, I have to reckon with the approaching fact that I am not allowed to be American. Anything but American.
One time about a decade ago, largely against my will, I ended up on an excursion around Westchester, which ended with dinner at a Mexican restaurant that used to be a Chinese restaurant. The way you could tell was that, as a way of redecorating, they partially painted over a mural of pandas eating bamboo, so that all the pandas were wearing sombreros. I think it was somewhere in or near Croton. Haven't thought about that place in years but this post brought me back.
From the description of a version of la pieta on ASU's campus:
New Mexican Artist Luis Jimenez completed this 10-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture in 1987. The most famous pieta by Michelangelo, depicts Mary cradling Christ's crucified body, but in this Jimenez work, a kneeling Native American cradles a dead woman. The subject is taken from Mexican mythology and refers to the popular legend of two Mexican volcanoes. "It's a Romeo-and-Juliet story of two lovers turned into volcanoes by the gods: the active one is the grieving man; the dead woman is the dormant one," states Jimenez. "It is the most common image along the low rider vans and on restaurant and barrio murals." For the ASU dedication, he also wrote, "The Southwest Pieta addresses lost possibilities and lost opportunities for understanding each other through prejudice and lack of communication."
“building a brand on dissatisfaction with everything is itself American”… Idk, that sounds pretty French to me