Dorany Pineda

“Chicanas, Cholas, y Chisme” celebrates the stories of Latina women

By Dorany Pineda With its fourth year of sold-out shows coming to an end, “Chicanas, Cholas, y Chisme,” which translates to Mexican-Americans, gangsters and gossip, offers a series of magnificent mini-plays that are at the same time intimate, heart-breaking, powerful, hilarious and pay a fantastic tribute to the complexities of the Latina experience. When artistic director and founder of Boyle Height’s CASA 0101, Josefina Lopez, realized that the majority of those…

April 12, 2016
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Central American Studies: First program of its kind

By Dorany Pineda A new Central American Studies Program is now offered at East Los Angeles College, the first of its kind in California’s Community Colleges. The program comes after decades of talk and attempts to offer the program to the growing population of Central American students in ELAC. The population makes up 13 percentof its Latino student body. “For years there was no support from the administration,” Assistant Professor in the Chicano…

March 23, 2016
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‘City of Gold’ shines through

By Dorany Pineda Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold fell into food writing by accident. After graduating from UCLA and landing a job as a proofreader, he found himself bored with his work and decided one day that he would eat at every restaurant on Pico Boulevard. Within a year, he trekked, discovered and savored over 15 miles worth of food. Thus emerged who has now become Los Angeles’ most beloved,…

March 23, 2016
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Seattle producer drops new tape

By Dorany Pineda Jake  One’s new instrumental album entitled “#PrayerHandsEmoji” is full of eclectic sounds that merge samples of heavy bass, funky piano, horns and rich vocal orchestras. The album is mix of songs that inspire a drive through the streets of Los Angeles with the beats turned up and the windows rolled down. One of the most explosive tracks in “#PrayerHandsEmoji” titled “Lou” has a cosmic element to it. The…

March 16, 2016
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Artists celebrate empowerment

By Dorany Pineda Espacio 1839 hosted Eres Poderosa, a night exhibiting art and performances by local female creatives on Friday in Boyle Heights. In honor of Women’s History Month, Espacio 1839 brought together female poets, musicians and artists from throughout Los Angeles who use art to empower and inspire their communities. Former East Los Angeles College student, hip-hop artist and founder of the Ovarian Psycos Bicycle Brigade, Xela de la X,…

March 16, 2016
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“Embrace of the Serpent” presents 40 years of history

By Dorany Pineda Director Ciro Guerra’s Academy Award-nominated film epic, “Embrace of the Serpent” is a stunning and deeply-felt film that spans 40 years of colonial history. Set in the Colombian Amazon at the turn of the century, “Embrace of the Serpent” centers on Karamakate, played by Nilbio Torres, a shaman and one of the last surviving members of his tribe to survive the destructions of white invaders who ravaged…

March 14, 2016
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Zine presents haunting works of art

by Dorany Pineda The eerie black-and-white cover of Rebecca Peloquin’s curated magazine, published by Repel Industries, summons a rather unsettling feeling in the gut: a stack of wood lays surrounded by trees, and the word “WITCH” hovers in bold, black letters above it. What is most capturing about “Witch” is the monochromatic, black-and-white visuals within it. It contains mostly drawings and photographs of women representing the various understandings of “witch”…

March 14, 2016
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Demonstrators march to support women’s rights

By Dorany Pineda Hundreds of people gathered at the Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters on Sunday at noon in Downtown Los Angeles to celebrate and recognize International Women’s Day. Representative of organizations and collectives spoke to the crowds about the history of violence and oppression committed against women and minority groups. The masses, led by women of the AF3IRM Los Angeles Organization group in a truck, marched in unison through the streets of Downtown LA….

March 9, 2016
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Dark Horrors come alive in ‘The Witch’

By Dorany Pineda Robert Eggers succeeds in immersing the audience into the suspenseful, horror-driven world of “The Witch” in his debut feature film. Set on a farm in 1630’s New England, “The Witch” tells the story about a supernatural entity that causes a family to tear itself apart. When newborn Samuel disappears under the watch of the oldest daughter Thomasin, played by Anya Taylor Joy, despair and fear closes in on…

February 24, 2016
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