Metalachi takes the pumping, undeniable, brass-winded sounds and haunted soul of Mariachi and combines forces with metal songs. Out of Los Angeles, and composed of classically trained musicians, this isn't a schlock shop enterprise.
It makes me feel proud, simply because of the specific time we're in right now. It definitely takes a lot of courage for kids my age to represent their culture. Anthony Benitez, an 18-year-old violin student born in the United States to Mexican immigrants, expressed how the academy provides a meaningful outlet for cultural expression amid punitive immigration enforcement affecting Latino and immigrant families across the country.
It is a dance tradition, but it's very much culturally rooted. It's also for many, if not all, the people involved, a spiritual practice. But even in different (dance) groups that hold to different ways of being, we still collaborate together - we still work together to uplift the culture.
Homeowner Richard Segovia said the decision to remove Chavez's image came quickly. Segovia, who described himself as a longtime advocate for women and a supporter of young artists, said he contacted the muralist he works with immediately after a New York Times investigation detailed the allegations. UFW cofounder Dolores Huerta claims to be a survivor of Chavez's alleged abuse.
Some look like the unhappy heart from the Un Verano Sin Ti album cover, and others take the form of the singer's original logo: a white bunny with crossed-out eyes. "We start with a basic image, but as you build the piñata, you find so many different ways to add more detail, texture and spark," Bustamante says. "When you present the piñata to a child on their big day, and you see their huge smile, that's the best part of the process."
Artist Ayelet Gal-On does not just paint; she builds, layering oil, acrylic and plaster on canvas. Gal-On's signature subjects for "Taken by the Wind, Swept by the Light," her upcoming solo exhibition at Gallery 9 in Los Altos, are white dresses that appear to hang on a line, defying the stillness of the canvas. "I love the process of playing with color," says the artist.
The only thing most people know about epiphytes, if they know about them at all, is that they're rootless. That's not quite true - they develop highly specialized root systems adapted to wherever they land. In Epiphytic Elucidations at Patel Brown Gallery, Calgary-based artist Marigold Santos takes this fact as more than a metaphor. The exhibition uses epiphytes - plants that grow on other plants without harming them - as a framework for the expansive ways diasporas form through material labor.
This is the site of the Florida state historical marker commemorating Arthur Lee McDuffie, a Black insurance broker and former US Marine whose 1979 beating death at the hands of Miami police ignited one of the most consequential uprisings in the city's history. A plaque unveiled in February 2024 at the site of his attack finally acknowledged the violence that fractured McDuffie's skull and the community-wide outrage that followed.
