Xispas is seeking professional writers, photographers, and artists from throughout Aztlán and across the U.S., to contribute articles, reports, poems, essays, reviews, artworks and photographs to the Xispas web log. If you are inspired by the Xispas project and find yourself in general agreement with the materials we present - please consider an active role with us as a content provider. We seek writings and artworks that focus on cultural and political themes relevant to the Chicano/a community at large - sophisticated expressions that are timely, well thought out, and conceived with an international audience in mind. Writers should contact: editor@xispas.com. Artists and photographers, please contact: arts@xispas.com

Chicano rocker and singer, Danny Flores, who had a run away hit with his unforgettable 1957 song, Tequila, passed away September 19th, 2006, at the age of 77. Acknowledged as the “Godfather of Latino Rock” for his No. 1 hit single, Tequila went on to be one of the most memorable and beloved songs in pop music history. [ Read the full story ]

The LA Times reports that during the first session of Mexico’s new congress September 1, 2006, 150 opposition legislators protesting election fraud against PRD presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, seized the podium and stopped President Vicente Fox from making his state-of-the-nation address.

It was the first time in Mexican history that a president didn’t give an annual address to Congress. Protesting legislators from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) held signs that read ‘Fox, you are a traitor to democracy, the indigenous people abhor you!’ Others held up posters showing Lopez Obrador (aka: AMLO) or national hero Benito Juarez, Mexico’s two term Zapotec president from the 1800s. Some simply held small Mexican flags.

The LA Times also reported that “thousands of demonstrators led by Lopez Obrador gathered at the capital’s central square, known as the Zocalo. ‘A revolution has begun in which the people say to hell with their institutions,’ Lopez Obrador told a cheering crowd. ‘They can’t legitimize or legalize a government of usurpers, because they stole the election and the majority of the people know that.’

Lopez Obrador has called on supporters to form a parallel government during a ‘national convention’ Sept. 16, the day when Mexican independence is celebrated.” Read more about the historic blockade of the Mexican Congress and the electoral crisis, at the Houston Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News. Given that many people in the United States think Bush stole the elections, one can only imagine what would happen in the U.S. if Democrats acted like an opposition party akin to the PRD.