Lalo Alcaraz, La Cucaracha, and Politics

Because my precious Boondocks has been out of the papers for years and the TV show lacks the current news satire that I so desperately need, I turn to Lalo Alcaraz semi-regularly. What initially drew me to him was the Mexican-American artist's Beandocks series, an Afro-Latino version of The Boondocks with Huey and Caesar discussing politics and current events. Sure, it's not really funny compared to Aaron McGruder's Boondocks, but it's something! Unfortunately, we can't wake up every morning and read the rantings of an angry black kid in the newspapers like we used to, but this ain't the worst.

Anywho, upon discovering Alcaraz's homage to The Boondocks, I began reading La Cucaracha online at gocomics.com. From what I can tell, the series relies too heavily on it being 'new' and accessible to the growing Latino population in the United States. Indeed, with a name like cucaracha and mostly Latino (Mexicans, to be precise), the series often features some rather lame or generic 'ethnic humor' or repetitive references to anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant, and racist comments from Republicans. Unlike Aaron McGruder, Alcaraz is seemingly incapable of poking fun at the insanity of the two-party system of two parties with remarkably more in common than one would think. 

Though I still enjoy some of his work, Alcaraz must move beyond simply criticizing Republicans (it's not like Republicans are the only ones who hate brown people in America, wake up!). Ultimately, without a deeper analysis of the structural issues plaguing US society, Alcaraz can be seen as a run of the mill liberal Latino invested in the Democratic system. Yes, you can and should mock and deride and call out Republicans, but without doing the same for Obama and the Dems, La Cucaracha becomes explicitly pro-Democrat. It's like watching MSNBC, they spend so much time criticizing the Republicans without any real substantive critiques of Obama, thus falling into the trap of the two-party system.

Moreover, if Alcaraz watches the television version of Huey Freeman, he would know Huey was rightfully skeptical of any change in the US racial order occurring because of Obama's election. I wish his Beandocks characters could shift to a more radical political orientation and eschew some of the preconceived notions of US politics of today. You know, think outside the box and look to 'radical' alternatives to the status quo. Even if part of the reason we laughed while reading about the black nationalist and socialist views of Huey (or his conspiracy theories, such as an anti-Santa concoction linking him to the War on Drugs, spying, and alien technology), at least McGruder provided some radical perspective in mainstream newspapers that, such as in the 2000 election, led to Huey endorsing Ralph Nader, or, in other cases, criticizing the Democrats for running weak candidates in 2000 and 2004 (as well as generally lacking spines and pursuing similar policies as right-wingers).

In case we forget, Huey also quite ostensibly advocated for socialist and black nationalist perspectives on racial inequality, the media, capitalism, protecting the environment, and education. Alacaraz, on the other hand, offers simpler satire on issues such as the emphasis on testing and other 'education reform' initiatives that hinder learning for Latino schoolchildren. Huey is by far a more interesting, progressive, and captivating voice in the history of American newspaper strips than anything in the oeuvre of Alcaraz. However, Alcaraz does do something innovative with such an open and out pro-Latino, Mexican-centered comic that is not afraid to call out racism and xenophobia. It's refreshing to see that necessary voice in the comics so Latinos, now the largest 'minority,' are not silenced in the black-white racial dichotomy folks like myself tend to focus on. If only the series featured some characters who were not Mexican-Americans to illustrate the diversity of the 'Latino' experience in the US. I suppose one could say that the Afro-Latino Beandocks kinda does that, right?

Alcaraz, to his credit, demonstrates how race is much bigger than blacks or whites in the US, and clearly reveals his allegiance to a sometimes poorly conceived notion of a broad people of color alliance that is generally tied to Democrats, liberals, and the left. Of course, such a belief ignores the plethora of evidence of conservative-leaning Latinos, such as Cuban-Americans or many 'white Latinos' (Latino is really a 'race' if you read US Census data), but the naive idealism can be comforting and unity among people of color is generally a goal I admire. We face similar struggles, might as well come together if we can to promote our mutual interests, at least to the degree cross-racial collaboration can be fruitful. Certainly the question of Afro-Latinos is of special pertinence to African-Americans and other folks of African descent, and could perhaps be one of many bridges to foster solidarity between Latinos and blacks.

All things considered, I will continue to read Alcaraz semi-regularly. His liberal presence with a Latino emphasis contributes to the diversity of political opinions in the media (even if it's not quite as revolutionary as I would like) as well as the significance of  Every once in a while he will make you laugh, as in the above strip during the recent government shutdown. The Republicans, Tea Party supporters, and many folks in general don't know a thing about the Affordable Care Act, but if you label it Obamacare, it becomes this evil act of socialism or slavery. I don't care for Obama or the black misleadership class, but it's hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the right and the white backlash against the First Black Prez.