Lalo Alcaraz

  Las Cruces is in for a real treat.  This weekend marks the 12^th annual Border Book Festival in Mesilla, and festival-goers will have a chance to meet a young legend.  Lalo Alcaraz is the creator of “La Cucaracha,” the nationally syndicated daily comic strip targeting America’s largest minority, Hispanics.  He is also a co-founder of “Pocho,” the acclaimed Chicano satirical magazine, which he also co-edits.

  Lalo Alcaraz has been a “comiquero” for a long time.  Growing up in San Diego, a child of Mexican immigrants, he began drawing cartoons.  As a student at San Diego State University in the mid-1980s, he began his extraordinary career drawing editorial cartoons for the college newspaper, The Daily Aztec.  In 1992, L.A. Weekly hired him to contribute a weekly comic strip.  According to his website, “it was in the very first installment that Cuco Rocha, Lalo’s O.G. political hipster cockroach character, was born.”

  I was first introduced to his work in the late Nineties, as a student of Chicano Studies at the University of New Mexico.  During that time, “Pocho” was at the top of its game as the cutting-edge voice on Chicano/Latino issues, and I was immediately impressed with Alcaraz’s work.  I began checking the magazine’s website regularly for new installments of “La Cucaracha.” 

  In 2001, Alcaraz claims he “finally tricked United Press into syndicating” the cartoon.  Today “La Cucaracha” runs in more than sixty newspapers a day, including the Los Angeles Times, the Denver Post, the Houston Chronicle and the Chicago Sun-Times.  United Press is the same service that syndicates Garfield, Doonesbury, Calvin & Hobbes, Cathy, Ziggy and dozens more. 

  In 2004, he released an editorial collection of cartoons on immigration, entitled “Migra Mouse,” and later that year he published the first collection of “La Cucaracha” cartoons.  He also illustrated the book “Latino USA: A Cartoon History.”

  Aside from his work as a self-proclaimed “cartoonista,” Alcaraz is also wholly committed to increasing Latino representation in the mass media, and is constantly working toward that end.  He served as a staff writer on the Fox comedy sketch show “Culture Clash.” He co-wrote two feature-length comedies, “Taco Truck: The Movie” and “Lowrider,” and is currently developing a Latino-geared animated series for what he calls “a major children’s cable channel.”  If you haven’t heard of Lalo Alcaraz, it isn’t because he isn’t trying. 

  Alcaraz’s inclusion in this year’s Border Book Festival seems both auspicious and timely.  Immigration reform is the hot-button issue of the day, and Alcaraz has become one of the nation’s loudest voices on the issue.  “Migra Mouse” was nothing if not an astutely perceptive, satirical cry for immigration reform, and this year’s festival theme, “Re-Imagining The Border,” seems tailor-fit to Alcaraz’s work.

  Alcaraz will be giving a talk, followed by a Q & A session, this Saturday from 11am-1pm.  And from 3-5pm, he will offer and hands-on cartooning workshop.  Both events cost $7 and will be held at the Pool House at La Posta in Mesilla.  For more information or to order tickets, log on to www.borderbookfestival.org. 

  Do yourself a favor.  Don’t miss this rare opportunity.

-From Pulse
   April 20, 2006