El Varrio Little Town, Vickies Town, Varrio Horseshoe, Etc. I would see the names of these notorious gangs on the fences and walls in my neighborhood as a kid in San Jose, California. I lived in a neighborhood called Seven Trees and for the most part was a peaceful place. My memory of the way the older dudes used to dress and hang out by the liquor store across the street from my house inspired me to draw this little vignette.
In between entertaining my parents I rendered this tugboat. I’m not sure what is on this barge but it looks important. From what I can figure is that it needs to be powered by motors. Regardless of this I love nautical machines.
Over the last month I’ve been doing research for this graphic novel about my father’s childhood growing up in a work colony in Greeley, Colorado. My goal is to make it look and feel like Colorado in the 1950′s. I am scouring the internet and looking into books to find images to get a better sense of the history in this region. I’m looking at maps and trying to get a greater idea of what it was like in Northern Colorado during the middle of the twentieth century. I’m also concerned with fashion and what buildings looked like to make the backdrop more authentic. Most of all I am interviewing my father and his family to document their story.
I did get a chance to contact a woman named Sarah L. Brooks a school teacher that hosts this wonderful little website about the history of Greeley.
I also read this great book called The White Gold Laborers by Jody and Gabriel Lopez. This is a story of the Spanish Colony a private housing project built by The Great Western Sugar Company for Spanish/New Mexican/Mexican laborers to keep them from living in Anglo populated Greeley in the 1920′s.
The images of the Stoop Laborers and the Colony house in this blog post are drawings I made from the photo illustrations in “The White Gold Laborers” to get a better idea of how the comic will look.
My grandfather raised roosters for fighting. He passed away a while back but I still remember his ranch and all the different kinds of roosters he had. I decided to use this theme as a way to make a mock up for a comic and to see if I could actually do one. I made four pages and I’m very happy to have done this because it gave me a lot of hands on experience on how to actually make one of these books. I have to admit it is quite hard but I am looking forward to working on a much more extensive story.
Incidentally I got a chance to see Daniel Clowes here in a book store in SOHO last week. He has to be one of my favorite comic book artists.
I am fascinated with the the way protests actually work and how the police respond to them. Many years ago I had a chance to see a protest and 
understood that when the police responded they were reacting
and acting against the performance of the protest. To me it made
apparent that the act of protest is intrinsic in the act of policing people.
Anyhow The protest at Occupy Wall Street is interesting. I went down to check out the space and to see what people are doing to organize and maintain their civil disobedience in this little park near Wall Street.
Oddly enough I was there on Columbus day during a festival/street fair. The police made sure to keep the protest from spilling into the festival by placing barricades on and along Wall Street and boosted police presence in the area.
I walked into Zuccotti Park to see how the space was
organized. I found that there is a library with books and even spotted LP’s( It would be cool to have a mix of records and selected recordings of the protesters) and other media to select.
A kitchen is located in the middle of the park with a Speed Rack full of kitchen supplies and dry goods on hand. A dish washing station was operated by two
people. They used a special gray water system from plants, rocks and a system of buckets and compost to deal with the waste water from their cooking and dish washing.
There was some music being played in the park by a loose group of performers and there were lots of different organizations present in the space. Many protesters were sleeping and others were busy keeping the space clean by sweeping around the park.
I witnessed their voice intercom service that seemed to work as a way to 
communicate with the rest of the park protesters. They would repeat the news that was relayed by the person next to them and then send it forward to the next person as a way of getting news out without an intercom or loud speaker that they are apparently not allowed to have.
It’s very interesting to see how the police are dealing with the space. People are not allowed to block sidewalks and the police seem really uneasy about the whole protest. They constantly tell people along the sidewalk that they need to move on and to keep the traffic flowing. As long as you are not blocking the sidewalk you are allowed to be there. It all hints at how precarious this space is as a place that is allowed for such a protest. I immediately ask myself when will the police just get tired of them and kick them out? I also feel that there are forces not seen that are keeping the protesters from being moved out of the
park. Apparently the mayor and the owner of Zuccotti park among others are allowing this protest to happen.
Known as the Zhiguli within the former Soviet Union, the Lada VAZ-2101 is a small sedan still seen on the roads today. When I lived in Kazakhstan these vehicles were very often private taxis. I made this little painting for my nephew as a tribute to his love for cars.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14564585
The above link is a recent article about the Lada in Cuba.
Soon after I moved to New York from Oakland, California I contacted Vera and Mirem of the Edible Schoolyard in Brooklyn to see if I could volunteer some of my time down in the garden. My goal is to get my hands dirty and get some sunshine, connect with nature(believe it or not there is lots of nature in NYC!), get to know the folks and the neighborhood here at this new garden/classroom project.
I spend once a week pulling weeds, turning compost listening and learning about how this garden develops. It’s only been around for a year but day by day there is something new. It’s really exciting to see how the combination of community, teachers, gardeners, activists, friends, and children all work together to start a wonderful garden space where there once was pavement and cars.
The garden is situated in a tree lined neighborhood called Gravesend at Public School 216 on Avenue X near Coney Island. The character of the neighborhood is Italian, Jewish, and pretty much anyone from the Soviet Union. Here you can find Italian delicatessens making hero sandwiches with mortadella next to Russian markets selling Central Asian Uzbek flat breads and Vodka.
This is an image of white shirts arresting a protester here in New York City
This is a drawing made from a photograph by my friend, and collaborator Diana Sanchez. The dog is named Bruno and he was the yard dog for Speed Pickney’s auto shop in Oakland, California.
