Delilah Tollinchi - Latina Funk Rocker

The following was excerpted from Delilah's bio written by friend Jada Gomez:

Delilah Tollinchi is a New York City singer/songwriter with a gutsy blend of rock/blues soul, enhanced with a bit of Latin flavor. Delilah's strong spirit fuels her powerful voice and high octane live show.

Born and raised in the South Bronx, Delilah hails from a family with deep musical roots. Her father is a musician, and her uncle, Julio Colon, is the leader and singer/songwriter for Plena Luna. Actress Christina Souza is Delilah's sister.

Delilah's passion for songwriting was inspired by her granduncle Chiquitin Garcia, the famous songwriter for Puerto Rico's legendary group El Gran Combo.

discodivadelilah (15 images) - Photobucket

Latino Conan O'Brien -- Conando!

Spoofing the telenovela genre funny man, Tonight Show host, and new Angeleno, Conan O'Brien, unveiled a new Spanish speaking character -- a Latino alter ego, Conando.

The interest around the Latino blogosphere is not in Conan's comedic talents, but in identifying the Latina actor that plays the bride rescued by Conando. For example, blogger Matt Reyes of Twitteros asks, "Who's the hot bride?

Sotomayor Day 3: Wise Latina By TKO (w/an Assist From Pat Buchanan)

TKO! Game-over...Sonia Sotomayor wins. Now we'll just have wait for the vote to make it official.

Why am I so sure it's over?

Simple. The Republican's only line of attack against Sotomayor -- a veteran jurist deemed highly qualified by the American Bar Association and previously vetted and confirmed by both Republicans and Democrats -- is the anthesis of her race-baiting, facists and patronizing prosecutors inspired by the leader of the Republicans Rush Limbaugh and former Republican presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan.

Watch Cenk and Maddow rip the Buchanan for his unapologetic white supremacist campaign against Sotomayor.

It's simply beyond laughable to believe that Sotomayor is the racist, and Buchanan, the true believer in civil rights.

IMO, Their ugly strategy has backfired!

Watch how a number of Republicans will seek to distant themselves from the ugly racists of their party will now vote for Sotomayor.

Sotomayor Day 2: Wise Latina 2 -- Good Ole Boys 0

The questioning of Sonia Sotomayor began in earnest today in the U.S. Senate; unfortunately for Republican interrogators, it was a 2nd bad day. For example, Sessions of Alabama tried desperately to trip Sotomayor on issues of law that she's better informed about; and Lindsey Olin Graham of South Carolina, a fellow known for slavishly promoting John McCain's presidential bid and defending his volcanic temper, bullied on about Sotomayor's 'temperament' problem. Yeesh!

Sonia Sotomayor doesn't suffer fools lightly, but--given the high stakes and the power of her adversaries--is nonetheless forced to tolerate buffoons.

Sotomayor on Being Latina

The following passage on being Latina is from a Sonia Sotomayor's A Latina Judge’s Voice lecture (aka, The Wise Latina Speech), delivered at the California University, Berkeley School of Law in 2001:

I became a Latina by the way I love and the way I live my life. My family showed me by their example how wonderful and vibrant life is and how wonderful and magical it is to have a Latina soul. They taught me to love being a Puertorriqueña and to love America and value its lesson that great things could be achieved if one works hard for it. But achieving success here is no easy accomplishment for Latinos or Latinas, and although that struggle did not and does not create a Latina identity, it does inspire how I live my life.

Sotomayor Day 1: Score One for The Wise Latina

Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings before Judiciary Committee began yesterday. It was a good day for the smart, patient and gracious Judge and a bad day for the band of wingnuts.

While a majority of the committee are conducting themselves in a thoughtful and respectful way, the same however can not be said for five of the Republicans (Cornyn of Texas, Grassley of Iowa, Kyl of Arizona, Coburn of Oklahoma) on the panel led by confirmed racist Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard Sessions III of Alabama.

Sessions, et al., seek to: 1) tarnish President Barack Obama as someone favoring 'radical' minorities; while 2) painting Sonia Sotomayor (and LatinoJustice) as racist.

Laughable, right?

Mimicking the rants of Limbaugh, these 5 privileged White men--in full bluster--suggested that Sotomayor's views are at odds with the just and color-blind rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court.

What's weird is that these fellows are blind to their buffoonery.

Decision: Sotomayor

Sotomayor's Opening Statement

Judge Sonia Sotomayor delivers her opening statement during the first day of her confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Once confirmed, Sotomayor would be the first Latino and third woman to serve on the United State Supreme Court.

Sonia Sotomayor: A New Yorker to the Core

The New York Times describes Sonia Sotomayor as “a daughter” of The Bronx who “claims the Brooklyn Bridge as her power-walking trail, the specialty shops of Greenwich Village as her grocery store, and the United States Court House as the setting for her annual Christmas party.”

Juan Sotomayor, a doctor who lives near Syracuse, says his sister Sonia is as much a New Yorker as she is a Latina (“it’s her essence”). “I always joke that her vision does not extend beyond the Hudson River.”

Ms. Sotomayor, a high-achieving student among high achievers at a Catholic high school in the Bronx, ventured outward to Princeton and Yale. Her return to New York, in which she was filled with ambition and drive as ferocious as the city itself, fit a familiar narrative. Often, friends say this image lingers in their mind’s eye: Ms. Sotomayor poring over law books and legal papers. Some days, she has said, it is hard enough to find time to sleep.

Luis Humberto Valadez - what i'm on

Luis Valadez is a performance poet and his poems shout to be read aloud. It’s then that their language dazzles most brightly. It’s then that the emotions bottled up on the page explode beyond words. And there is plenty of emotion in these poems.

Frankly autobiographical, they recount the experiences of a Mexican American boy growing up in a tough town near Chicago. Just as in life, the feelings in these poems are often jumbled, sometimes spilling out in a tumble, sometimes coolly recollected. Sometimes the words jump and twitch as if they’d been threatened or attacked. Sometimes they just sit there knowingly on the page, weighted down by the stark reality of it all.

José García
put a thirty-five to me
my mother was in the other room
He would have done us both
if not for the lust of my fear

This new Mexican American/Chicano voice is all at once arresting, bracing, shocking, and refreshing. This is not the poetry you learned in school. It owes as much to hip hop as it does to the canon. But Valadez has paid his academic dues, and he certainly knows how to craft a poem. It’s just that he does it his way.

i anagram and look and subject to deformation and reconfiguring . . .
it ain’t events or blocks that ahm jettisoning through this process
it be layers of meaning, identity, narrative, and ego that gets peeled off
i can only increase my own understanding

Read Excerpt

A Little Guajira Invented the Cappuccino!

Who invented the Cappuccino?

Capuchin friar Marco d'Aviano (circa 1683) is given credited, but I'm not so sure.

Supposedly, sacks of Turkish coffee were captured when the Romans repelled the Muslim invaders. However, the soldiers found straight up espresso was too bitter for their palate. Friar d'Aviano's heavenly brainstorm was to add frothy milk and sweetner to the black brew. Thus was borne the Cappuccino -- and the metrosexual Romano!

Far fetched? I think so.

Los Romanos reigned for centuries as the baddest of Europe -- a ruthless and fearsome killing machine, but to drink coffee these lords of war needed sugar and frothy milk? Hmmmm. (On 2nd thought, perhaps it's true. After all, while some men drank Scotch, Rum, Vodka and Tequila, Romans preferred syrupy and fruity concoctions, e.g., Amaretto, Sambuca and Cianti.)

A more plausible story? How about a little Guajira Cubana -- Carrie's abuelita -- as creator of the Cappuccino! Y Por Que No?

Watch the video!

Coffee (café) is a Health Drink

Seriously, cafe as a health drink. Si!

As per WebMD -- Coffee: The New Health Food? Plenty of health benefits are brewing in America's beloved beverage. -- coffee may lower your risk of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, colon cancer, lift your mood, treat headaches and even lower your risk of cavities.

It's a miracle drink!

So drink your cafe as if your health depends on it. But make sure it's good cafe because bad coffee is an insult, a waste of money, and potentially harmful to your salud.

Problem though is that most U.S. coffees ought not be classified as cafe. What the average Americano consumes may be more properly tagged as a coffee derivative, blackened water, a coffee simulation, Starbucks, a beverage everyone pretends is coffee, but NOT Cafe.

Verdad, no? Be honest.

Typical coffee (store and coffee shop brands) are almost always stale, chemically treated, de-caffed or caffeine spiked, poorly roasted, and born from poor quality beans. Bad coffee - no health benefits.

Price coffees are some of the biggest cafe impostors.