Protesters target East Austin restaurant, complain of cultural appropriation

[Beau Vine 54230]

Quote

About 50 people gathered around noon Saturday for a peaceful protest outside Lou’s Bodega restaurant on East Cesar Chavez, which some critics in social media have accused of cultural appropriation in its marketing.

The protest was organized by the Austin activist group Defend our Hoodz, which posted Friday on Facebook: “We demand that Lou’s Bodega immediately end any use of Chicano and indigenous imagery in their branding, whether on merchandise, packaging or on their website. This includes their ‘woman warrior’ tote bags, their T-shirts with ‘Bienvenidos’ on them, and indigenous patterns on hats and elsewhere.”

As protestors gathered Saturday on the sidewalk outside Lou’s Bodega, some passersby in vehicles honked in support. The window-service cafe with grab-and-go options sits at the former site of Leal’s Tire Shop, which is now operating under the name Gomez Tires on East Seventh Street. After the tire shop made the decision to move, Lou’s Bodega leased the property from the family that has owned it for decades, according to a statement released by McGuire Moorman Hospitality and Bunkhouse, the companies behind Lou’s Bodega.

The business kept and restored many of the building’s well-known Aztec murals and added a new one of a female warrior. “Some of the branding for Lou’s Bodega is an extension of the preserved murals and we only hope to draw awareness to them and celebrate them,” the statement said.

McGuire Moorman Hospitality and Bunkhouse said the business has been vandalized multiple times and received threats of violence

 

“We have been, and continue to have, lengthy conversations with longtime East Side residents and community leaders,” the companies wrote. “We treat social media as a marketing platform and clearly use it to promote our business, not a place for people to promote hate or make threats. We believe face to face conversations are the ones worth having – real discussions that lead to growth and better understanding.”

East Cesar Chavez Street has seen numerous longtime businesses depart and new ones launch in recent years. Last spring, a University of Texas study revealed that about 74 percent of longtime East Austin residents in the study area held negative views of the rapid changes. Some of their concerns included a feeling that new restaurants are unwelcoming, didn’t cater to their tastes or were not priced for them.

Defend our Hoodz added on its protest event page that Lou’s Bodega “added insult to injury by turning the beloved Chicano murals on Leal’s into their ‘branding opportunity.’ ”

Indigenous activist Louis Moncivias, 53, said he has lived in Austin since his birth and saw both of his grandmothers’ homes outside downtown Austin seized under eminent domain. He was livestreaming the protest Saturday on social media.

“These are our lands, these are our cultural regions,” Moncivias said. “To see all the people moving in here. ... They are all moving in from failed cities.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TwiceHorn 31483]

I'm not sure what to make of "cultural misappropriation."  It can be exploitative at times, at others it's either respectful or mostly neutral. Usually, when a culture borrows from another, as in food or language, it's a bit of an honor, really, and probably leads to greater appreciation of the "donor" culture.

This seems to conflate gentrification with cultural misappropriation.

This:

Quote

“These are our lands, these are our cultural regions,” Moncivias said. “To see all the people moving in here. ... They are all moving in from failed cities.”

Strikes me as utter bullshit.

Edited January 27, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[Clintonaldo 2574]

I love it. Run them out of business and then bitch about lack of business. 

[RoundRobin 828]

Failed cities?  Like Chichen Itza?

[Beau Vine 54230]

Quote

The chimes began on Tuesday evening. Texts and screenshots of social media posts about Lou’s Bodega, a trendy new east side concept from Larry McGuire and Liz Lambert, the indomitable king and queen of Austin hospitality, began popping up on phones across Austin. 

Earlier that day, McGuire and Lambert opened their latest collaboration — the duo’s second — to the kind of fanfare that Austin’s elite really only bestows on the culinary scene anymore. Gone are the days when a new record is cause for celebration. Chefs are the new rock stars, and there is no golden god bigger than the Austin-born McGuire. 

When McGuire’s McGuire Moorman Hospitality and Lambert’s Bunkhouse Group announced they were collaborating on Lou’s Bodega in 2018, the story was covered by media outlets across the city, CultureMap included. The chef behind some of the city’s best (and priciest) restaurants teaming up with the hotelier behind the city’s most fabulous (and priciest) hotels is the kind of buzzy news that garners pageviews and can save a humdrum week. In the headline, we slapped quotations around the word “bodega,” which, in retrospect, was literally the least we could do.

Lou’s Bodega, the owners said, would take over the old Leal’s Tire Shop on East Cesar Chavez, on the corner of Chicon Street. Leal’s had recently moved over to Los Gomez Tire Shop on East Seventh Street, leaving behind the bright yellow building and its near-iconic murals. The murals would stay, the owners decided, eventually becoming the inspiration for the restaurant’s branding and social media.

Over the past few weeks, the roll-out for Lou’s began, mainly on Instagram, and included sneak peeks at its branding which was heavily influenced by the Aztec iconography left behind in Leal’s murals. It felt off, a little uncomfortable, but nothing was said. That would come later.

Less than 24 hours after opening the doors, the social media backlash began, led in part by a local activist group. Despite McGuire and Lambert's seemingly equal partnership, the vitriol was mainly directed towards Lambert, but that’s another issue to be dissected at another time.

Scrolling through the comments, some critical, some complimentary, there was a pattern emerging in the language, the claims to East Austin, the outrage.

"As a fourth generation East Austinite, watching the changes in the neighborhood have definitely been tough," wrote one commenter on Instagram. "But grossest of all are these vapid appropriations of culture and history for the purpose of lining white pockets."

"This was delicious. These haters are crazy — majority of the east side welcomes new business and food options," wrote another commenter, inciting a fury of replies.

 

Lines were being drawn. It was the same feeling that permeated Austin after Byron Carter was shot, or when the Jumpolin piñata store was torn down just a few blocks away from Lou's, or when the local PR firm was called out for naming itself after a song about lynching.

There is a pattern that emerges when you watch the cultural conversation day in and day out. You know when the tenor shifts, when the collective sense of bemusement turns to dread. Dread because, once again, we missed the point. Eyebrows raised, we failed to say anything because that’s not what you do in elite Austin. We don’t call out appropriation because most of us are white, or we’re guilty of doing it ourselves, or we’re just too starry-eyed to realize what’s happening.

As the “blueberry in the tomato soup,” Austin has afforded itself many concessions. The idea that we’re different, weirder than the rest, has manufactured a collective sense — especially in Austin’s elite creative community — that we’re all in this together.

That kind of support can be magical, but it also means we often fail to think critically and, in turn, to criticize. When you can afford to eat at an MMH restaurant (which I do, often), you don’t really think about what it means to drive down Cesar Chavez and see an old mural depicting an Aztec god now being used to sell $22 rotisserie chickens. You see it and think, “Cool. That’s my kind of place now.”

It’s so much easier that way.

Lou’s Bodega isn’t the ignorance of a few people, but rather the collective whitewashing of an entire group of people, the same people who cultivate this New Austin culture, who comment on it; who study it; who package it, and ship it off, and make money on it. The great irony is that the same people who moved to Austin because it felt different have made it homogenous — just like Brooklyn; and Portland; and Washington, D.C.; and Nashville; and Detroit, and so on and so on. (And, yes, there is even greater irony in someone who does many of these things writing about it now.)

There are no two people more powerful in Austin hospitality — and perhaps the city — than Larry McGuire and Liz Lambert. This elite status may not have been the motive when McGuire opened his first restaurant or Lambert renovated her first hotel, but the winds have shifted, and here we are. Discussions must be had, a new tenor must be set, and perhaps Lou’s Bodega will serve as a lightning rod for that to happen.

But, of course, it will be easier if we don’t.

Lulz.

What would all of these crybabies have done if they had just painted over the murals?

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

I’m pretty sensitive to issues surrounding economic and opportunity inequality. However, blaming one restaurant for operating within the current system doesn’t really address any of the underlying issues. It’s intellectually lazy. Let’s talk about why minorities are being forced out of the east side in favor of white people than can pay more. It’s an education gap that is followed by and income gap. We can work on ways to fix this but it’s not going to be about one restaurant taking over a tire shop. It’s going to be about pk-12 education supports and affordable options for college.

[Neonmoon 38129]

Cultural appropriation complaints are mostly dumb

Only Mexicans can make Mexican food? Only Southerners can make Southern Food? Only Japanese can make sushi? That’s stupid. 

[cactusflinthead 27598]

 I'm trying to think what I have seen called cultural appropriation. There seems to be a growing list. I don't know if the Asian people training Latin people to cook their recipes think one second of whether they're giving away their culture. Was Curtis Loew giving away his culture to a redneck white boy? 

I think cultural appropriation is going to happen whether we like it or not. Whether it's a good thing or bad or both is on a case by case basis. 

 

[cactusflinthead 27598]

I don't care if you prefer the melting pot analogy or the salad one of Carter. We're going to mix together like it or not. 

[DaysOff 7951]

There's a Cesar Chavez now? Is that near 19th?

[Murfdogg21 4412]

The real reason Jerry Seinfeld got that Baboo guy deported was over the cultural appropriation of his mexican restaurant. The nerve!

 

#notanothertaco

[Murfdogg21 4412]

8 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Cultural appropriation complaints are mostly dumb

Only Mexicans can make Mexican food? Only Southerners can make Southern Food? Only Japanese can make sushi? That’s stupid. 

You would not enjoy the Mueller neighborhood Facebook and Nextdoor groups. We have monthly group meetings with titles such as “how to teach your children to cope with white guilt and privilege”

Recently, one (white) lady wanted advice on a piñata shop for her son’s birthday party, and another (hispanic) lady wanted recs on a Henna art painter for her daughter’s party. Both got torn up for their cultural appropriation and teaching the children it is ok to culturally appropriate!

[TwiceHorn 31483]

8 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

 I'm trying to think what I have seen called cultural appropriation. There seems to be a growing list. I don't know if the Asian people training Latin people to cook their recipes think one second of whether they're giving away their culture. Was Curtis Loew giving away his culture to a redneck white boy? 

I think cultural appropriation is going to happen whether we like it or not. Whether it's a good thing or bad or both is on a case by case basis. 

 

Hell, nah.  Curt got paid to play that ol Dobro (a Slovak-American invention btw).

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

9 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

It helps foster divisions and antimosity toward races and cultures different than our own.

That's the point.  It's animosity though.  Unless you're not wanting to appropriate another culture's way of spelling that though...unless antimosity is something I haven't heard about yet.

[Beau Vine 54230]

11 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

I’m pretty sensitive to issues surrounding economic and opportunity inequality. However, blaming one restaurant for operating within the current system doesn’t really address any of the underlying issues. It’s intellectually lazy. Let’s talk about why minorities are being forced out of the east side in favor of white people than can pay more. It’s an education gap that is followed by and income gap. We can work on ways to fix this but it’s not going to be about one restaurant taking over a tire shop. It’s going to be about pk-12 education supports and affordable options for college.

But it's much simpler to boycott a single restaurant.

[FORTY NINE TO ZERO 2652]

what a shitty world me live in 

[Pato del Muerto 52501]

Just now, Xian said:

what a shitty world me live in 

Yeah, the whole world behaves like this

[RDCanecutter 26446]

Indigenous activist

Louis Moncivias, 53

'Ey Louie, you bettair be part-French, because eef you're not you're a fucking posair weez zat name hawn hawn hawn.

[Knoxtnhorn 5976]

These people would be really pissed if they ever turned the channel to Top Chef or the Food Network.

Edited January 27, 2019 by Knoxtnhorn

[RDCanecutter 26446]

Quote

former site of Leal’s Tire Shop, which is now operating under the name Gomez Tires on East Seventh Street.

OK, csb that you AAA-calling avocado-toast eating boys ain't gonna believe, but here goes:

A couple of years ago there was a Mexican (when I say Mexican, I mean Mexico) paint crew working across the street. They left one guy there to work, and he couldn't leave because his truck had a flat. I went out there and talked to him, turned out he didn't know how to change a tire.

So I taught a Mexican guy how to change a tire.

I guess it's not weird. He might have been a sociology professor or piano teacher back in Mexico. But it was unexpected.

But now I'm thinking-- cars weren't invented in Mexico. They are European in origin. If Germans or at least white Detroiters didn't march on Leal's or Gomez's tire shop, were they wrong?

Edited January 27, 2019 by RDCanecutter

[Guest]

You're American, motherfuckers.

All your cultures belongs to us, right?

 

As far as taking people from other failed cities/ countries; that's pretty much the baseline of our very heritage.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

I muther fucking hate people a lot !!  Cultural appropriation ???  Jesus just take me now.

[Brisketexan 105147]

I don’t GAF bout the murals or any of that shit.
It’s the $22 for a gotdamn roasted chicken that gets my goat. Fucking hipsters think that if they slap enough adjectives on something (“slow roasted, individually curated, free-range, Slappy Creek farmed, Rock Island Red hens”) they can double the price. $22 chickens. $5 tacos. Fuck that shit. I’m going to Pollo Regio.

[Helobious 9454]

There are plenty of white-owned businesses in San Antonio and south of here that do shit like this to try and appeal to hispanic customers. I've always thought it was cool. I guess because my parents told me about times back in the day where businesses actively tried to deter hispanic customers or make them feel unwelcome. How could you not be happy to see the opposite of that nowadays? For example this is one of my favorite commercials of all time:

 

[RDCanecutter 26446]

15 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Fuck that shit. I’m going to Pollo Regio.

Ingrato.

 

[RDCanecutter 26446]

20 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

I don’t GAF bout the murals or any of that shit.
It’s the $22 for a gotdamn roasted chicken that gets my goat. Fucking hipsters think that if they slap enough adjectives on something (“slow roasted, individually curated, free-range, Slappy Creek farmed, Rock Island Red hens”) they can double the price. $22 chickens. $5 tacos. Fuck that shit. I’m going to Pollo Regio.

Nonononononoooooooo-- you offer slow roasted, individually curated, free-range, Slappy Creek farmed, Rock Island Red hens to hipsters, available exclusively through your delivery service (hipsters like to limit human interactions to their phones) for 22 bucks plus $5 tip/environmental surcharge, and then when you get an order, THEN you swing by Pollo Regio, pick up their chickens, and deliver them to hipsters.

[clapclapclap 9000]

10 minutes ago, Helobious said:

There are plenty of white-owned businesses in San Antonio and south of here that do shit like this to try and appeal to hispanic customers. I've always thought it was cool.  

Of course you're cool with cultural appropriation, you were a New York Yankees fan while growing up in Texas.

Edited January 27, 2019 by clapclapclap

[Armybrat 40850]

2 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

OK, csb that you AAA-calling avocado-toast eating boys ain't gonna believe, but here goes:

A couple of years ago there was a Mexican (when I say Mexican, I mean Mexico) paint crew working across the street. They left one guy there to work, and he couldn't leave because his truck had a flat. I went out there and talked to him, turned out he didn't know how to change a tire.

So I taught a Mexican guy how to change a tire.

I guess it's not weird. He might have been a sociology professor or piano teacher back in Mexico. But it was unexpected.

But now I'm thinking-- cars weren't invented in Mexico. They are European in origin. If Germans or at least white Detroiters didn't march on Leal's or Gomez's tire shop, were they wrong?

Lol. My son was in Home Depot getting some more tiling supplies  for an ongoing job when some vatos started asking him about what kind of materials to use for certain applications. They  had noticed he was wearing his well worn knee pads and figured he was a better information source than a chick wearing an orange apron.

[RDCanecutter 26446]

Just now, Armybrat said:

Lol. My son was in Home Depot getting some more tiling supplies  for an ongoing job when some vatos started asking him about what kind of materials to use for certain applications. They  had noticed he was wearing his well worn knee pads and figured he was a better information source than a chick wearing an orange apron.

My mostly-Scottish electrician dad assumed a similar high-priest-of-construction role thanks to 50+ years on building sites.

If you think about it, if you see a Mexico-Mexican crew nailing shingles, framing houses, stuff like that, they probably learned it after they got to the US. They don't build houses the same way down there.

[Helobious 9454]

37 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

Of course you're cool with cultural appropriation, you were a New York Yankees fan while growing up in Texas.

Sorry for exercising my right as an American to support a successful business. 

[Loco 3752]

14 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

Only white English men can own gun shops?

Heh, while I'm certain the vast majority of gun shop owners are white men, it's just as stupid to say they should be the only one who own guns shops because white English men wrote the 2nd Amendment.

on the other hand...Vanilla Ice

[Armybrat 40850]

Charlie Pride says gtfo.

[burntorangebongos 10714]

17 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

I'm going to see a family tree, with documentation and a 23andme genetic test from Moncivias to determine if he is genetically and historically capable morally of speaking for Aztecs. He better come back 100% Aztec heritage, or he is culturally misappropriating via unethically speaking for a culture of which is in not appropriately his ancestors/heritage. If he 100% Aztec, I'm excited to see his business plan for his own place which will surely be a success. If not, maybe he should stfu and get a fucking hobbie.

I think he was talking about East Austin Mexicans, not Aztecs.

The place sounds cool, I now want to check it out.

[UTGrad98 2276]

Why the hell is everyone trying to turn me into a Republican. 

[gmr548 16580]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

It’s the $22 for a gotdamn roasted chicken that gets my goat. Fucking hipsters think that if they slap enough adjectives on something (“slow roasted, individually curated, free-range, Slappy Creek farmed, Rock Island Red hens”) they can double the price. $22 chickens. $5 tacos. Fuck that shit. I’m going to Pollo Regio.

15 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

I’m pretty sensitive to issues surrounding economic and opportunity inequality. However, blaming one restaurant for operating within the current system doesn’t really address any of the underlying issues. It’s intellectually lazy. Let’s talk about why minorities are being forced out of the east side in favor of white people than can pay more. It’s an education gap that is followed by and income gap. We can work on ways to fix this but it’s not going to be about one restaurant taking over a tire shop. It’s going to be about pk-12 education supports and affordable options for college.

These are the correct answers.

[Guest Lobo]

I wonder if the Phoenicians get upset when they see protest signs about cultural appropriation?  

[Deej 76797]

"Melting Pot", my ass.

[Deej 76797]

Just now, BurntEyes said:

I see nothing wrong with you choosing to have buttsex with all manner of races and cultures.

Are they protesting that too?

 

Buttsex doesn't result in a melting pot, so...no.

[achooloco 1072]

14 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_pot

It's a dumb fucking term.

It helps foster divisions and antimosity toward races and cultures different than our own.

agree 100%. and logically it's only a couple steps removed from being anti-miscegenation. fucking academics just trying to substantiate themselves by trying to apply bullshit to the real world. At least in most cases; I'd guess it only really applies in very few cases. And in those it should be rectified, but every other bs case? fuck'em.

[Longhorn Al 440]

I'm white and got pushed out of Austin.  My parents moved away.  I moved to Kyle.  My aunt and uncle will move to Bastrop soon.  It's just too expensive to own in Austin for us.  But we're not going around protesting.  Our family has been in Austin as long or longer than those in this article.  Things change.

With that said, I don't blame that last guy for having an axe to grind.  I'd be pissed too if my grandmas' houses were taken by imminent domain.

[ChickenSandwich 9836]

When do they march on Torchys?

id join if they include the tortillas in the protest. 

[ChickenSandwich 9836]

Could probably make a quick buck off the protest group by renting a Tortilla Tim mascot for the protest at 125/hr. Capitalism baby

Edited January 27, 2019 by ChickenSandwich

[TornACL 7698]

First they came for Lou's Bodega, and I did not speak out, because I have never eaten at Lou's Bodega... 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

2 hours ago, Lobo said:

I wonder if the Phoenicians get upset when they see protest signs about cultural appropriation?  

Well they did discover America

I guess unless your name is Adam that you're not allowed to do anything

Edited January 27, 2019 by NeverMarryAStripper

[RDCanecutter 26446]

3 hours ago, Lobo said:

I wonder if the Phoenicians get upset when they see protest signs about cultural appropriation?  

Yer gonna have to post that in Hieroglyphics and Cuneiform too, oh yah, that's the law in Canada.

[InkaUtexas 25950]

38 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

You should be proud you got pushed out of Austin due to financial factors. White Guilt Moose out front should have told you. We really should give all of Texas back to the Mexicans which it belongs to and let them deal with the Californians.

Or, you know, give it to the native tribes that "owned" it before, or perhaps even the CroMagnons.

[Kyle 207]

1 hour ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Well they did discover America

I guess unless your name is Adam that you're not allowed to do anything

That's what I do not really get about the whole indigenous people bullshit. I think most everyone agrees America has no indigenous people since everyone came here from somewhere else. It seems really privileged and hateful of some of these so-called fake indigenous people to basically come to America and then want to close the door to everyone else that came after them.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

3 hours ago, Deej said:

"Melting Pot", my ass.

Mmmmmmmm, loved the melting pot. Great restaurant that is no more. Fuckers were stealing cuisine from all over the world...and I liked it.

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

1 hour ago, BurntEyes said:

You should be proud you got pushed out of Austin due to financial factors. White Guilt Moose out front should have told you. We really should give all of Texas back to the Mexicans which it belongs to and let them deal with the Californians.

Or, you know, give it to the native tribes that "owned" it before, or perhaps even the CroMagnons.

White Guilt Moose Lager.  Perfect name for my next project.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

And my Vietnamese Texas fusion restaurant Pho-Que takes a huge step backwards.