For us, being a baller means you’re achieving in whatever field you’re a part of, and worked your butt off to make it happen. People who followed their passion and delivered, and who can help connect the dots as you think about your own path are vital.  New Futuro believes strongly that it’s important to highlight the specific steps necessary to get where you want to go. You can be a “baller” in absolutely any field, because in reality, the whole idea is about a path to success, no matter what you’re passionate about.

This week I had the honor of officially kicking off the series with our first baller: actor, musician, and Latino hero Max Arciniega.

And tune in this weekend to Poco a Poco Radio, to hear our FULL interview with Max.

My Shtreimel, YouTube Video, 2006.

“I think it is very important for each of us to have an enjoyable Shabbos experience. And to be able to in some ways personally define what that Shabbos experience entails. There’s a lot of different minhags that I think a lot different people have that not every one has. And there are certain things that we develop not necessarily because they are passed down from our father, or our mother, or your mother’s father, just because it is something that makes your Shabbos experience a little bit more enjoyable a lot these personal minhags that we all have…”

Casually citing the Chofetz Hayim and the Talmud Yerushalmi, he acknowledges both his relationship to, and awareness of traditional Jewish texts; thereby, indirectly aligning himself with a more observant Jewish community. Using humor, he offsets the implied exclusivity of those ties, by adding that he is actually wearing a woman’s hat that was purchased at a thrift store.

eruv stl is “posted as a response” to My Shtreimel. eruv stl is intended to link Berlin’s Eruv to St. Louis. In this low quality thus “authentic video blog” Loren and I drive around the Washington University in St. Louis area, with a map in hand, trying to locate St. Louis’s eruv. In the background you can hear Guns and Roses famous song Welcome to the Jungle. Loren assumes a role similar to the one of Matisyahu, a halakically informed Jew, who does not the traditional model for the other and is thereby able to communicate with the secular world.

eruv stl, YouTube Video, 2009.

I ask Loren why he thinks the eruv extends as far as it does and if he thinks that there area lot of Orthodox Jewish families living in the area. Loren tell me that the eruv has extended this far because of the Hillel on campus, and that while there are not many Orthodox families living on the streets that we are driving, that the presence of the Hillel on campus is enough to create an eruv-worthy Jewish community.

Not only does it become clear that Loren familiar with Orthodox Jewish practices and the neighboring streets, but also he is still not sure exactly where the eruv is located. Meaning that even though the eruv is present, Loren is either a) so religious that he doesn’t abide by it, OR b) he doesn’t lead a Jewish life that would involve abiding by an eruv. As the conversation continues Loren continues to distance himself from vocabulary that you would expect to come from a more observant Jew, as he casually engages in humorous banter with me surrounding the eruv.

I ask him how it felt to finally “find” the eruv, he responds that he “feels pretty good” but he didn’t feel like “it was an actual wall” – which it isn’t, so this statement is made in jest. He continues, “its like finding Waldo, Waldo had curly hair and glasses, he might have been a frum Jew [...] maybe it is a statement about jews begin such a small percentage of the population…

The Rebbe, Acrylic on Canvas, 2004.

more thesis excerpts coming soon…

Did you know that 9 out of 10 Latino teens believe that a college degree is important for success, but only 5 out of 10 think it’s possible.

Considering population shifts and graduation rates remaining constant, by 2042 the country’s overall graduation rate will decline by 22%.

A less educated future will mean: more low-paying jobs, a lower national GDP, and more national debt.

We can not allow this to happen.

I am proud to say that New Futuro was formed to solve these issues.

Offering bilingual, financial aid, scholarship, career, and networking resources to parents and students; helping Latino families achieve their dreams; New Futuro plans to change the face of Hispanic education.

But New Futuro can’t do it alone.  We need you.
Find out more at NewFuturo.com.

WHAT: Pochos and Pixels: The Art of Rio Yañez.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 11 – Friday, June 15 2012
Monday-Friday: 8:00AM – 10:00PM,
WHERE: UCSB Multicultural Center
University Center room 1504
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6050

Acciones Plásticas プリクラ collaboration with Rio Yañez (2009)

Is being half-Jewish, like being half-pregnant? Yes.

Intrigued? Want to hear more?

I have the honor of being the keynote speaker at the Half Jewish?” The Heirs of Intermarriage conference at Northwestern University, which runs from 4/20-4/22. My Friday night talk will center around the construction and the perpetuation of fractured cultural identities. On Saturday my dear friend Yoni Sarason, aka The St. Lou Jew, aka Midwest Director of Birthright Next, will be speaking on a panel with Dan Libenson, moderated by Denise Handlarski.  Come check out the conference.  Meet some lefty Jews.  Learn and mingle.

Register here.

And there is much more to come. In New Futuro 2, students will have a fully curatorial experience, where they are able to to personalize their academic journeys. Students will be able to collect and bring in all of the things they think are awesome. And New Futuro will be able to dynamically combine student’s interests with their skill sets, financial need, grade level, location, associations, and more, to provide them with ongoing college and post-college guidance.

For me, this is radical education at its finest.  

Poco a Poco Radio interview featuring New Futuro.

Ladies and Gents, life is good.  I am the Creative Director for New Futuro.

New Futuro provides Latino families with fully bilingual resources and tools to get students into college and beyond! We are committed to making you an education rockstar!  We will  teach you how to get into the college of your dreams with money to pay for it.  It’s all about making the right classes at the right time, knowing the right people, and getting involved with the right groups.  College is your future,  so why should it be a challenge to get there?  New Futuro will help you achieve your dreams through education! 

Read more about my #awesome creative team here.

Ben Schachter has entered a competition that asks, “Where do you give?”  Sponsored by the American Jewish World Service whose mission is “to realize human rights and end poverty in the developing world.”  Support his design by voting for him here:  www.wheredoyougive.org

Charity and Philanthopy are major parts of many religions.  Judaism gives it a unique character.  As the contest describes, “The word tzedakah (Hebrew: צדקה) comes from the Hebrew word tzedek, meaning righteousness or justice. It refers to the Jewish practice of giving money in order to help those less fortunate—using our financial resources to create a more just and righteous world.”

Schachter’s design, “Pocket Tzedek,” combines wireless technology – a debit card reader – and a traditional “pushke,” or piggy bank. Instead of dropping in coins, the donor dips his card.

Find Schachter’s design under the web interactive category on the third page at www.wheredoyougive.org/voting and vote for him every day until April 1.

I know it’s almost April, but I would be remiss if I didn’t share Rio Yañez’s 2012 crop of valentines amazingness.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of my friends and lovers! El Rio’s Valentine’s Day Cards are back in the ring to take another swing! This is the 6th year of my cards and it’s turned into my longest running project. Enjoy!

As always, please post these cards on the pages of your online friends, real life enemies, booty calls, baby daddies, friends with benefits, people you’re stalking on facebook, and people you would be stalking on Google + but don’t want to go through the hassle of signing up with a new social network. 

Sandberg’s advice to women:
Sit at the table.
Make your partner a real partner.
Don’t leave before you leave.

(photos by Claudio Gaete-Tapia)

Your favorite fame whore Elotita aka The Fat Free Elotera is back…  and this time she has taken it to a new level…  she has faked her own death… and has returned as CALAVERA ELOTERA.

Calavera Elotera in Illuminations: Día de los Muertos 2011
Curated by Rene and Rio Yañez
SOMArts Bay Gallery, 934 Brannan St. (between 8th & 9th)
San Francisco, CA 94103
Tues–Fri, 12–7PM, Sat 11–5PM, Sun 11–3PM.

Opening Reception
Friday, October 7, 2011, 6–9PM
Opening will feature music, interactive performance and the unveiling of over 30 altars and installations. The evening includes a special performance by Herbert Siguenza, of Culture Clash fame. Siguenza will perform and live paint as renowned artist, Pablo Picasso.

The exhibition continues to examine the ways technology shapes the celebration of Day of the Dead. Once again, a Flickr group enables the exhibition’s curators to accept digital photos as offerings to those who people want to honor. The public can upload their digital contributions here. Selected images will be printed and displayed as part of the exhibit.

My papi and I have a brand new BILINGUAL radio show on WLUW 88.7 FM, Poco a Poco Radio. The show airs every Sunday from 1:30-2:00PM CST and can be listened to live on the radio or online at http://wluw.org.

If you missed last week’s show (the first episode) you can listen here:

And today tune in, to hear our LIVE interview with the incredibly talented, hilarious, and inspiring Elma Placeres Dieppa (@mzelma), Director of Latism Chicago.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Latism… you should be… #LATISM stands for Latinos in Social Media.

For more updates follow Poco a Poco Radio on Facebook & Twitter

el es frida kahlo featured on Jewesses with Attitude in honor of Frida Kahlo’s 104th birthday.

A Latina “Jewess with attitude,” Maya Escobar plays with the web as a platform for engaging in community dialogue around identity and multiple identities–how they are socially and culturally constructed. She often assumes multiple identities in her performances, drawing from various existing representations.

About “el es frida kahlo,” she writes:

Frida Kahlo played with the identity that she wanted to project and the identity that was placed on her by others. Kahlo used her clothing, political affiliations, sexual escapades, and personal traumas, to create a character that informed her body of work. She inscribed her identity, painting her image over and over, constructing a mythology around her persona.

In el es frida kahlo I confront the ambivalence I experience as a result of my simultaneous obsession with Frida Kahlo and weariness towards her commodification.

What is your reaction to this confrontational piece? Do you identify with Escobar’s ambivalence towards Kahlo, her work, and her commodification in our culture?

And here we are as marketing executives in NJ.

Andria was live at Gallery Aferro and I skyped in from Chicago.

Stay tuned for more details on the performance and the results from AMerican MEdia Output‘s #targetaudiencesurvey.