#american mexican

[gaywriting]

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe book review

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2012)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

""All of your instincts, Ari, all of them, tell me something. You love that boy. I think you love him more than you can bear." "I can't. Why are you saying these things?" "Because I can't stand watching all that loneliness that lives inside you. Because I love you, Ari."" (p. 349)

i've owned this book for years but embarressingly enough i didn't get around to reading and finishing it until february 2022. after hearing about it i figured i would like it and i definitely did. i have so many feelings tied to it, so ill try my best to write my thoughts here.

the story follows 15 year old Aristotle Mendoza, an american-mexican boy living in El Paso, Texas, in the 80's. he is the youngest in a sibling group of 4 and basically grew up as a single child. his mother is caring, but carying a deep scar from Ari's brother, who's in jail and Ari has never managed to bond with his emotionally distant father, due to him having been sent to Vietnam before Ari was born. Ari struggles very hard with himself, his family and his place in the universe. then one day during summer vacation, having shut himself off to everything and everyone in his life, he escapes to the local swimming pool, despite not knowing how to swim. here he meets Dante Quintana, a 15 year old american-mexican boy, with an equally special name and a very different world view, and who offers to teach him how to swim. the boys hit it off and quickly become very close friends. soon Ari is forced to face all of his demons and it all starts with Dante.

t h i s b o o k yall... i don't even know where to start asdfdgghjk this book is one of the most beautful stories ive had the pleasure of experiencing. the journey Alire Sáenz pulls us along of Aristotle and his relationship with coming to love himself and his life is such a deeply personal, emotional and wonderful thing to witness. first off this book felt to me like opening up a book an seeing a mirror. many of Ari's struggles are struggles i have experienced in my life as well and rarely have i related so much with a main character in a YA romance book. i was a little hesitant to read it since people were praising it to the moon and back, but honestly sometimes the hype do speak the truth because this book is honestly so good!

some people call this as a romance book, but it would not be the first word i would use to descibe this book (maybe i would do that with the sequel but we'll get to that one next). this book, in my opinion, is a philosophical, coming of age book that shows the reader a family of broken individuals that each have to learn how to deal with the trauma in their life, as well as how to open up and lean on each other. the fact that one of Ari's bigger pushes towards facing himself and his issues is Dante and the blossoming romance between the two is just a plus in my opinion. not every lgbt story needs to be thrown into the romance bucket, where that's all there is to the story, since that's not all there is to life.

Dante is just the sweetest little weed smoking rascal, a boy who feels every single emotion in his body like tenthfold and just wears it all on his sleeve. incapable of telling lies and so sure in himself and his beliefs. his only insecurity is his sexuality, and reading the letters he sends to Ari, about him figuring it all out and when he speaks of how he needs his sibling to be straight, is heartbreaking.

If you want to experience a psychological coming of age lgbt story with two precious boys learning to love and accept themselves and each other, despite the struggle that that life entails, then i c a n n o t recomend this book more. it was honesly one of the best books i read last year, don't let the hype scare you away and give it a try! ❤️

honestly to say im upset that i cant find a way for me to watch the movie is such an understatement. i might be going into it too optimistic and get Super let down, but as far as ive read (avoiding spoilers) people say its good, so the hype is crazy 🍿

[sperya]

(via " I Didn't Ask To Be Mexican I Just Got Lucky" Classic T-Shirt for Sale by speerya)

[dr11ft]

chicana miku 🤎

[jareckiworld]

Gabriel Orozco — Untitled (tempera, gold leaf, on linen canvas, 2023)

[hymnsofheresy]

everytime i tell europeans my favorite cuisine is texmex & sonoran they are like “American bastardized Mexican food?” and i feel like im going insane. its not bastardized. its their fucking cuisine.

[alwaysbewoke]

—Did you know that Juneteenth is also celebrated in a part of Mexico? Nacimiento Mexico was once home to thousands who escaped slavery in the US. As many as 10,000 slaves followed a clandestine Southern Underground Railroad to Mexico. ��To date, many Black Mexicans from the Texas area retrace a portion of the same route their African American ancestors followed in 1850 when they escaped slavery. —Descendants of slaves who escaped across the southern border observe Texas’s emancipation holiday with their own unique traditions in the village of Nacimiento. —Slave hunters would patrol the southern border for escapees, led by the Texas Rangers but the Mexican army would be there waiting for them (the slave hunters) to turn them away.

x

[mueritos]

happy pride to all queer children of immigrants

patreon

[toyastales]

Steak Tacos 🌮

[gael-garcia]

We finally arrived in Cuzco, “the heart of America”. Our first day in the city, we met Don Néstor, an old soul, mom, and our official guide.

Diarios de motocicleta (2004, Walter Salles 🇦🇷🇨🇱🇵🇪)

Walter Salles: The little boy in Cuzco, we found him in the streets, or he found us. He came to us and asked if we wanted to know a little bit more about the city and offered himself as a guide. So we said, “Yes, but can we bring the Super16 camera along?” And he said, “Bring whatever you want.” And there it was. That scene, everything is Take 1. Nothing was repeated. (src)

[agelessphotography]

Basket of Light, Flor Garduño, 1989

[weepingwidar]

Anna Ortiz (Mexican-American, 1979) - Luna (Moon) (2022)

[pjharvey]

the fact that trump is somehow still up for re-election and everyone is acting like he is a normal candidate and he's out here spouting like 1800s levels of racism and has a dozen rape allegations is crazy. stupid ass country.

[hotvirgin]

[thelcsdaily]

Steak Fajitas with Grilled Onion and Peppers

There's not much else on my mind when I develop a craving for beef fajitas till I eat them.

Mesquite wood was used for cooking. In addition to providing a very strong and unique flavor, mesquite also yields the hottest cooking coals. At home on the backyard barbecue using a mix of mesquite bits and charcoal briquets that can be purchased at any hardware store.

If you can, I suggest looking for sun-dried chile powder because it's a huge improvement. Consider the flavor difference between sun-dried tomatoes and oven-roasted dried tomatoes to understand that this is sweeter and less bitter than the usual mechanically dried chile powder. Internet sourcing is fairly simple.

After taking the vegetables off the grill, they should still have a lot of bite; you want the soft tortillas, crisp toppings, and tender meat to all have different textures. Sprinkle with fresh lime juice.

As Americans, we tend to look at Mexican food as nachos, which is not Mexican food really - they don't eat them.

- Anthony Bourdain

[theamericanpin-up]

José Bribiesca Ruvalcaba - "Ritmo" - 1940's Calendar Illustration - Mexican Artist - (1915-1959) - American Pin-up Calendar Collection

[eowynstwin]

More (perhaps controversial) takes about the 141, this time asking what kind of artists they’d be (because I have a BFA and dammit I insist upon using it):

Soap’s tried a LOT of disciplines but always came back to painting. He’s an abstract expressionist and puts his whole body into his work; throwing paint across a monumental canvas, or moving pigment around with huge wedges he’s got to hold in both hands. His works are overwhelming, explosions of color and movement, so much happening in one place all at the same time that looking at them feels like looking at a bomb going off. (He’ll indulge in some figure drawing but mainly for fun with his hookups.) Think: Jackson Pollock.

Gaz is a portraitist with an uncanny ability to reveal his subjects’ personalities. He works almost exclusively in oils, in a style that blends academic painting with Impressionism, and spends days with his subjects, getting to know them on a level nearly as intimately as a lover, drawing them out of themselves into a state of honesty that’s both fragile and cathartic. Somehow he can translate the truth of a person onto canvas in a way that can be either comforting or brutal. Every piece of his manages to make the viewer wonder how he could know so many people so well. Think: John Singer Sargent.

Price is a stonemason and bronze sculptor. He works at a 1:1 scale and most often depicts figures in some sort of dramatic motion; dancing, flying, reaching into the distance, or with wind-tossed clothes or hair. The best way to describe his work is romantic, in the classical sense; he reveals moments of powerful emotion, uninhibited by propriety, such that his work feels like it could sweep you away. Price is an artist in love with something he hasn’t found yet. Think: Luo Li Rong.

Ghost works almost exclusively with metal. He learned to weld and never wanted to do anything else afterwords. His sculptures are constructed of raw, sometimes dangerous-looking pieces of steel, scraps he scavenges from construction sites himself and puts together with no plan other than to stop when it looks finished. His work is not always intimidating, though; sometimes, his favorite things to put together are weird-looking benches that he will deposit in unfriendly parks with nowhere to sit. He’s gotten fined more often than he remembers for it. Think: Julio Gonzáles.