Evelia Coyotzi: dreaming in spite of the American story
Part I: “We always try to take care of each other.” In the year 2000, a century was born. The international space station hosted its first crew. The Supreme Court awarded George W. Bush the presidency. And a young mother made the journey from San Sebastián Atlahapa, Mexico, to New York City, leaving her two-year-old…
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Netflix’s ‘Mo’ explores life as a Palestinian refugee in America
“We carry on,” proclaims Yusra Najjar to her son, the eponymous Mo in Netflix’s new episodic dramedy. The line, which lands near the beginning of the season’s eighth and final episode, would be hackneyed, were it not for what follows. “That’s what we do, us Palestinians. We carry on,” concludes Yusra, capping a laconic monologue…
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‘Brown Girls’: a courageous and confused debut novel
“‘Brown Girls,’” we say, formally, jutting chins and clearing throats. Sound educated: “‘Brown Girls’ by Daphne Palasi Andreades is about nostalgia, is about inter-generational trauma and immigration, is about racism and sexism and the internalization of both by Brown girls growing up in Queens, New York. ‘Brown Girls’ is about the multiplicity of identities contained…
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The homespun ecstasy of eating at Evelia’s Tamales
The maladies of modern haute cuisine – high prices, pretension, authenticity as artifice – are particularly acute in a time of inflation, when costs are way out of proportion to value. In recherche restaurants, authentic meals are plated on fine china, eschewing the paper cups, plates and boats of their more democratique counterparts. Menus are…
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‘Decision to Leave’: not a reason to stay
A packet of wet wipes. A carry-on sized bottle of hand lotion. A tube of indeterminate lip balm. A chainmail glove. These sundries sound like preventive measures for covid not crime, but in “Decision to Leave,” a new movie by Park Chan-Wook, one of South Korea’s preeminent directors, they become ameliorative studies of unrequited love…
‘The Boys’ will be boys
“Hughie, you’re a good lad,” says Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), a merry murderer, to Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), the beta-male braveheart leading Amazon’s superhero satire, “The Boys.” Butcher is complimenting Hughie on his refusal to accept recompense from Vought International, a company that manages A-Train, a fiending Flash that vaporized Hughie’s girlfriend for the sin of stepping…