Al Madrigal's Pocho Quest

Since My Book Reclaiming Poch@ Pop

As it generally happens, once you complete your research and publish your findings, something new comes out that speaks directly to your subject matter. I mention Al Madrigal in Chapter 4 of my book Reclaiming Poch@ Pop because of his work on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, specifically his reporting on the anti-Ethnic Studies law HB 2281 in Tucson, Arizona.




In this video for Fusion, Madrigal touches on issues of language insecurity with regard to his inability to speak Spanish, stereotypes from outside of the Latin@ community as well as stereotypes from within Latin@ communities. When he starts interviewing Speedy Gonzalez three-quarters into the video, it kind of loses steam--but the scenes with bilingual kids, Jorge Ramos, and the first three minutes touch on more salient aspect of intracultural rhetoric.