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Raza Tag

Rest In Peace Ricardo

I just heard about bro Ricardo Padilla’s passing and I just wanna say a few words. I met him at the first Latino Comic Expo in San Francisco (2012). I remember being amazed, floored, and inspired at the event he and Javier created. Never in my life had I been to an event dedicated to giving Raza their shine in comics and arts like this. And then there was Ricardo who greeted me with a handshake and a warm voice. He invited me to table there not long after even though I hadn’t yet made a comic. I’m still taking baby steps. Ever since then he would always smile , extend warmth and just make me feel welcome. At home.

When I read the news today I was shocked, saddened, and in disbelief. Not because I knew everything about him personally or went to every expo. But because however brief it was, we had a connection. And I feel like many of us in the comics, storytelling, animation, or arts scene really did too.

I want to express my condolences of course, but really I want to say thank you Ricardo for being so kind, affirming, and for pouring your heart into creating a safe and loving community space for all of us. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but it takes countless unpaid hours, days, months, and years to build a community like the Latino Comics Expo. It takes drive, research, organizing, follow through, determination, generosity, and so so much love. I think the warmth I felt is love. From Ricardo and all thee kind people he and Javier brought together. And I’ll forever be grateful. Sending so much love, my condolences, and thanks to Javier, Rosalind, Sophia, and the whole Latino Comics Expo family and extended family. I’m honored to have known you and I honor you.

Official statement from Latino Comics Expo

April 12, 2024
in General
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#tbt-Characters from “Stand and Deliver”

I loved the film Stand and Deliver as a kid and still think it’s a ground breaking film showing Raza of all kinds learning and studying mathematics. Instead of feeling foreign to math Jaime Escalante makes you feel like you were born to learn it. “You burros got math in your blood” Edward James Olmos says in the film. For a large group of Brown people who were kept out of high paying jobs, building generational wealth, and power by design-learning calculus was and still is revolutionary. It doesn’t solve everything by any means, but Jaime’s legacy lives on. Have you seen the film? Whats your fav part?

Check out these other characters:

Ana Delgado– The Nerdy math wiz
Angel from Stand and Deliver played by Lou Diamond Philipps
Tito-rocker/ladies man
If you like my “fan art” character work please check out some collages of characters I’ve made in the past: Check it out
My name is Robert Liu-Trujillo and I’m a kids bk author/illustrator from the Bay Area. Peace!
One more, here’s a sketch of Jaime Escalante
April 7, 2022
in General, Ilustration
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Raza Sticker

Yo, just made a sticker with this image I illustrated back in 2016. You can cop the sticker and read a bit about it
Here’s the original post (editied) that I wrote with this image which was created for Inktober in 2016.

August 25, 2020
in General
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Inktober 2018 – Brown Berets

Founded in the 1960s, the Brown Berets are a community founded organization from California who organized around issues such as farmer workers rights with UFW, in solidarity w/ African Americans against police brutality, for access to education, retrieving stolen land, and to gain political power . Inspired by the Black Panther Party (Oakland) they formed a unit if mostly Mexican American high school and college students. They’re part in the movement for Brown people’s rights was in response to decades and hundreds of years of theft, murder, exploitation, and more by police, the US government, and by their local city officials who would of loved to sweep their righteous demands under the rug. The group still exists and were extremely powerful in organizing Brown people and for calling folks trying to deny their African and Indigenous blood (in order to look and be more white) to be proud of their heritage and identity. Their work moved beyond the voting ballot and they still work for the people today.

Sources: Chicano! Documentary, Wiki, Life,
If you dig this check out: Berta Caceres 
October 5, 2018
in General, Inktober
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Inktober 14 – Raza

EDIT 2020 


New sticker with the phrase “RAZA” which means meany things to different people. Simply put, it means “The People”, gente, your folks, your family, and for many people it means a mixture of races/peoples that make up one. People who come from Indigenous, African, and European blood-mixed together through conquest, slavery, and some many other factors. I first heard the term “La Raza” from MC Kid Frost from LA, then from my Chican@ studies teacher Maestra Luna in high school. Often in protests or you’ll see the term because this is a group of people who both know their whole identity and have had it erased. Some people call themselves Indigenous, Hispanic, Latino/a, Spanish, or Latinx. Whatever term you use just know the story behind it.

José Vasconcelos came up with this term in 1925 in his piece “La Raza Cosmica”. What I wrote below is not actually correct. But I keep it on here because…growth.

Raza. Simply or more complexly meaning “the race”. The human race? Not really. More like the race of Latinos, the mixture, pride, love, and history all in one. I don’t know the root of the word and where it came from but I remember the first, second and most recent time I heard it. The first was from an MC known as Frost from L.A. (I grew up in Northern Cali-hanging mostly w/ African American kids until jr. high and high school) The second was from a beautiful teacher that I had a crush on in high school named “Ms Luna” who described it with a smile. Mot recently I heard it in the lyrics of Bay Area MC Deuce Eclipse in the song “Que Pasa?” Can you remember the first time you heard this term? I know its more of a west coast thing, but I’d call myself Raza any day over “Spanish”. I might have some traces in my blood but I am not Spanish.

Want a sticker of this? LINK

October 21, 2016
in General, Inktober
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Character 114 – Angel (Stand and Deliver)

Whats “Cal-Culus” ? This character is “Angel” who is not what he seems. You might see thug or cholo, and that is part of his character. But in the film we get to see so much more of who he is. In the late 80s a film called “Stand and Deliver” gave me a gift. As a child watching this film I recognized some of the characters, but didn’t know so many of them.  This is a rare portrait of latinos in East LA at the time. In Hollywood films Latinos were and still are tropes, stereotypes, and tired shells of characters if they are seen at all. Most of the time Raza are invisible in film, but in “Stand and Deliver” we get to see a variety of nuance, layer, and subtlety because the teens in Mr. Jaime Escalante’s class were not one type. They were jocks, nerds, princesses, rockers, thugs, students, and kids who could not be categorized. If you have never seen the film, or if you haven’t seen it since you were a kid I recommend re-watching it. The genius portrayal of a Bolivian math teacher who challenged and inspired a generation. The effects of his work to teach algebra than calculus are still being felt.
If you like my “fan art”, please check out my collage of characters.
Did you see my version of Ana Delgado?
August 2, 2016
in General, Ilustration
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