Nat'l Hispanic Heritage Month (9/15-10/15)

Maybe Sofia Vergara should speak for US Hispanics

Crystal Quintero, the Mexican Buddhist (WQ)

The growing Latinx (Latina and Latino combined) population, popularly referred to as Hispanic (descended from Spain) is too big to be contained in one month. So we take up two, the second half of September and the first half of October.

It might have been better to claim November with its mass celebration of el Dia de los Muertos or "the Day of the Dead," which is quickly becoming the new Cinco de Mayo, the American celebration of "Mexican Independence Day."

Of course, Independence Day actually falls not on the 5th of May (cinco de mayo) but on Sept. 16th (el Grito de Dolores, "Cry of Dolores," which being a place rather than a person called Dolores, should perhaps be rendered "Shout from Dolores," a word that literally means "pains" as in birth pangs) at the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month. What do most Americans want, fanatical popularity or technical accuracy?

If "we are what we eat," can I be Mexican by eating real Mexican food?

(Business Insider) How one chef is fighting to preserve a cooking tool as old as civilization itself | Still Standing: the hand-mill or metate ("mealing stone," quern-stone for grinding ingredients)

What if I want to eat like a real American from the Americas?

Look at the Native women in their native land using their own metate (quern), Palestine 1900

Plant-Based Mexican Recipes for Healing

More than a cookbook, Decolonize Your Diet restores what "traditional" Mexican food means by reaching back through centuries of history to reclaim heritage crops as a source of protection from modern diseases-of-development. It was compiled by partners, California professors, and co-authors Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel.

When Calvo was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, they both radically changed their diets and began seeking out recipes featuring indigenous, healthy, vegetarian Mexican foods.

Did Mossad bring Mexico under Jewish rule?

This led to the promotion of a diet rich in plants indigenous to the Americas (amaranth, maize, beans, squash, greens, herbs, and seeds) and a passionate idea that Latinxs in America, specifically Mexicans, need to ditch the colonial garbage, synthetic, artificial, and toxic fast food and return to their own culture's food roots for physical health and spiritual fulfillment.

This vegan and vegetarian cookbook features over 100 colorful recipes based on Mesoamerican cuisine and also includes contributions from indigenous cultures throughout the Americas. It is a winner of the International Latino Book Award for Best Cookbook. More

What's National Hispanic Heritage Month?

Presidenta Sheinbaum, deja me. I'll do the talking for the 65 million U.S. Hispanics, okay?

First flag of the Mexican Empire of Spain

Mes nacional de la herencia hispana is observed annually from September 15 to October 15 in the United States of America ("America" being a big continent, much bigger than the powerfully hegemonic USA) for recognizing the contributions and influence of Hispanic culture to the nation's achievements, culture, and history [1, 2].

(Big Smiles Daily) Prehispanic mole w/ Zapotecan chef Abigail Mendoza

Hispanic Heritage Month 2026: What makes being Latinx special?

History

What have Mexicans ever done?

National Hispanic Heritage Week was established by legislation sponsored by Democratic Rep. George Brown Jr. of Los Angeles and signed into law by Democratic Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 [3, 4, 5], taking place on the week including both September 15 and 16th [6].

In 1988, the commemorative week was expanded to a month (September 15 to October 15) by legislation sponsored by Rep. Esteban Torres (D–CA), amended by Sen. Paul Simon, and signed into law by Republican Pres. Ronald Reagan [3].

September 15th was chosen as the starting point for the commemoration because it is the anniversary of the Cry of Dolores (early morning, Sept. 16, 1810), which marked the start of the Mexican War of Independence.

Hispanic Heritage Month: Celebrating culture, traditions, and history

The original Mexican flag (1821) had no snake

In 1821, this resulted in independence for the imperial New Spain Colony, which was actually a viceroyalty (known in the Native language, which has never been Spanish but rather Nahuatl and the Nahuan/Aztecan family of languages as Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl, but first called the "Kingdom of New Spain," now the United Mexican States or United States of Mexico, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, the Mesoamerican country's official name, and the Central American nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua), which became the Federal Republic of Central America.

The 30-day period also includes many dates of importance in the Hispanic (Spain-descended) community:

• Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua celebrate their anniversary of independence on Sept. 15;
• Mexico commemorates its independence on Sept. 16;
• Chile commemorates its independence on Sept. 18;
• the celebration day of reviled Jewish terrorist and Converso Cristobal Columbus (an Anus'i or Marrano), formerly known as Columbus Day now Día de la Raza [7]. More

What have the Latins ever done for US?

(Great Big Story) Mexico's most fascinating foods and pre-colonial traditions

Oaxaca: the most Native part of Mexico

• Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The true meaning of Cinco de Mayo

(This is History) The Entire History of Mexico

(CGTN America) Celebrating "Cinco de Mayo" in Mexico

Why most Mexicans don't celebrate Cinco de Mayo - How to celebrate the day respectfully

Cinco de Mayo isn't Mexico’s Independence Day

(History Channel) What is the true meaning of Cinco de Mayo?

Humans lived, interacted with dinosaurs

VIDEO: What really happened to the Thunderbird (160 foot Pterodactyl) photo?

(The Trend Burst) AI scans expose a terrifying secret buried in Angkor Wat (temple) stones

Dinosaur of Ta Prohm on syncretic Buddhist/Hindu temple wall in Cambodia.

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As if ancient Buddhist and Mexican proof were not enough, here comes another discovery from Brazil: Ancient rock art shows humans once knew dinosaurs:

In Brazil, humans and dinosaurs met

How could cavemen have known? Unless they...

(MSN) In a remote region of Brazil, archeologists have unearthed rock art dating back approximately 9,000 years, which intriguingly depicts scenes that seem to reference dinosaurs. Found alongside ancient dinosaur footprints, this discovery challenges our [current, scientific and therefore very slow-to-change] understanding of early human awareness of now presumed-to-be-] extinct megafauna and suggests that these prehistoric humans may have interacted with or observed dinosaurs or dinosaur remnants [individuals or whole unknown species of descendants], incorporating them into their cultural expressions. More

• The history of Buddhism in Cambodia spans a number of successive kingdoms and empires. Buddhism entered Cambodia via two different streams. The earliest forms of Buddhism, along with Hindu influences, entered the Kingdom of Funan with Hindu merchants. In later history, a second stream of Buddhism entered Khmer culture during the Angkor empire when Cambodia absorbed the various Buddhist traditions of the Mon kingdoms of Dvaravati and Haripunchai. For the first thousand years of Khmer history, Cambodia was ruled by a series of Hindu kings with an occasional Buddhist king, such as Jayavarman I of Funan, Jayavarman VII, who became a Mahayanist, and Suryavarman I. A variety of Buddhist traditions co-existed peacefully throughout Cambodian lands, under the tolerant auspices of Hindu kings and the neighboring Mon-Theravada kingdoms.
• VIDEO: Mysterious Ica Stones of Peru show humans, dinosaurs (Brien Foerster)

On the walls of the famous Khmer rock art of Buddhist Cambodia, with strong Hindu and Jain syncretism, there are stone depictions of a very famous dinosaur that was only "discovered" and made popular by the West in the last century or so: the stegosaurus.

• VIDEO: Native Americans and dinosaurs shown together in ancient cave art paintings centuries before 'paleontology'

• Dinosaur of Ta Prohm
• Angkor Wat
• Angkor Thom
• Siem Reap's other temples
• Siem Reap (colonial French town)

The dinosaurs in ancient Peru

(HISTORY) Ancient Aliens: Dinosaur Secrets Revealed in Ica Stones (S4)

Evidence from Acambaro, Mexico

Many living dinosaurs were known to humans.

Moreover, a German expat bought land in Mexico which, when he surveyed it on horseback, yielded a series of ceramic figures, more than 30,000 of them. This is the Acambaro Figures Collection. Some showed cryptids, while others showed humans on the back of dinosaurs, playfully riding them. This entire collection was deemed a hoax, as if Mexican farm hands had built a ceramic workshop and fabricated the priceless works of art. Even if that's the case, HOW could Mexican farmers possibly know what dinosaur fossils -- which had not been discovered yet and had certainly not been brought into the popular imagination like they are now with cartoons like The Flintstones (pre-Mandela Effect)?

• Ica stones of Peru show dinosaurs in recent times
• Waardenburg Syndrome produces blue eyes without contact lenses
• Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Mexican Buddhists: DNA results are in

Mexican movie star Salma Hayek is Latina beauty

What's a modern Latino, Chicano, Mexican American to look like? (pinterest.com) | Pin it

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Nearly all Mexicans are "blends" or Mestizas

There's a Mexican Buddhists? There are many Mexican Buddhists, not only today but in the past when there were many more.

See A Narrative History of Buddhism in America by American Rick Fields (Shambhala Publications) for a more recent history, but Edward P. Vining's An Inglorious Columbus is the classic anthropological and historical study of who arrived on the shores of Alta and Baja California in ancient times.

• American Edward P. Vining, who lived until 1920, was a writer, railroad executive [1], and author of An Inglorious Columbus (1885), in which he argued that Buddhist monk Hui Shen was originally from Afghanistan (Gandhara), traveled to China and Mexico, and created pre-Columbian Mexican culture and religion. More

Castas: Spanish racism in Americas

It was Buddhist missionaries from Afghanistan led by Chinese monk Hwui Shan. Vining published his massive text in 1895, yet Americans today are surprised to hear anything about it. Buddhists were in the Grand Canyon from ancient times, along with Hindus or Atlanteans (those from Atzlan?) or followers of a more universalist blended world religion of the past, long before Christian hegemony and the activities of the Catholic Church, its pope, and rapist-priests accompanying soldiers, killers, and slavedrivers to make sure the Vatican got its cut of the booty as it decreed a Doctrine of Discovery to cover them legally in Europe.

Jaw-dropping MEXICAN ancestry and DNA results revealed

Richest man in the world Carlos Slim's family

(Mysterious Origins) Before the arrival of the Spanish (European) invaders in Mesoamerica in 1519, Mexico and Central America [including Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize, and Guatemala (allegedly named after the Buddha Gautama, meaning "Gautama's Garland," seeming to reference the Buddha's mother Queen Maya Gautama, according to Fields, 1981), perhaps related to the entire "Maya" civilization that would have been revolutionized by the influx of ancient Chinese and Afghan/Gandhari technology and art] was home to some of the most advanced civilizations in the world, including the Indigenous/Native American Maya, Aztec, Zapotec, Toltec, and Mixtec peoples.

Buddhism arrived in US, Mexico before Christianity

These civilizations built great cities and empires that amazed the Spanish, developed sophisticated writing and calendrical systems, and engaged in extensive trade networks.

However, the Spanish onslaught, led by the infamous Conquistador Hernán Cortés, resulted in a dramatic transformation and ruin of the region.

The collision of these two civilizations — indigenous Mesoamerican societies and Old World European imperialists — resulted in the creation of modern Latino identity, a blend of Indigenous and Spanish bloodlines.

Brutal colonization brought a foreign language (Spanish), an odd religion (Catholicism), and customs (mass rape, hegemony, racially based chattel slavery) and a reshaping of political and social structures, often at the expense of Indigenous autonomy.

The conquest nearly wiped out these Native groups, but indigenous cultures proved remarkably resilient, influencing everything from language and cuisine to spirituality and artistic traditions.  #mexico #panama #guatemala #centralamerica #mesoamerica

SOURCES

• sci.news/genetics/native-...
• livescience.com/archaeolo...
• fau.edu/newsdesk/articles...

AMAZING FACTS: An Inglorious Columbus: or, Evidence that Hwui Shan and a Party of Buddhist Monks from Afghanistan Discovered America in the Fifth Century, A.D. (Edward P. Vining, 1847-1920)

• How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (Rick Fields)
• Mysterious Origins, Feb. 9, 2025; Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Mexican Buddhist Cholos of Bangkok

The threat of cancel culture kills free expression

The Google Corporation (Alphabet, Inc.) is mad at us for daring to run an AFP story on the "Mexican Buddhist Cholos of Thailand."

Perhaps the algorithm did not like the use of the word Mxn or gngstrs or maybe it's the combination of the two terms too close together. They don't tell you; they just cloak it behind a censorship warning.

But this is an amazing phenomenon showing American hegemony and its unintended consequences.

Imagine traveling to Asia and seeing all these homeboys and homegirls straight outta Los Angeles standing around, all tatted up, with lowriders, the de rigueur fashions, and gesturing to each other as they smoke, drink, and presumably g*ngbang. lol. You'd never imagine you were in Japan, but you would be.

It would be a sight, the Chicano Movement spread to Asian Buddhists with a fashion sense. How did it go from LA to Tokyo to Bangkok? Much of it has also spread to strange midwestern states in the USA, but that's due to drugs and dealers.

It is all supposed to be Nuestra Cosa, y'know, an L.A. thang. Y'all wouldn't understand, just as so much of what goes on in the South is a [Confederate] thang.

Inside Chicana Lowrider Culture - on the mean/fashionable streets of Los Angeles, Cali 🇺🇸🇲🇽

The Chicano/Mexican Cholos of Buddhist Bangkok | Coconuts TV Exclusive

B Real and Cypress Hill, Los Angeles g*ngbangers and Latino rappers with their fresh track "Crazy"

• Buddhism in Thailand (Siam, Southeast Asia)

(Coconuts TV) Coconuts TV Exclusive [is nuts and has] weird, wonderful, and real stories from Asia. Subscribe: bit.ly/CoconutsTV. There's a curious new trend that has emerged in Bangkok, Thailand [LA's parallel city in Asia, both sharing a very long name and both being about the same size, two megalopolises.] Young Thai men [and females, too] are dressing up like Latino gangsters. Most of these guys say they are motivated by their passion for the "gangster" lifestyle and clothes [but the more recent ones have gotten into the world-fanmous lowrider car culture, probably due to rap videos glorifying it]. Coconuts TV met up with three [faux Theravada Buddhist] "gangs" -- Balcony Pain, Fratez, and D Sixty -- for a photoshoot and to learn more about the quizzical phenomenon. #cholos #bangkok #thailand Music: Down AKA Kilo - "Lean like a Cholo"

• Coconuts TV, March 20, 2014

Mexican Buddhist Cholos of Thailand

WARNING: Graphic use of recreational cannabis (ganja, weed, pot, dope, marijuana, Maryjane, etc.)

Oh, is this why Cypress Hill likes "Fat Happy Buddha" (actually not the Buddha but Budai) so much?

• SHOCKING VIDEO: Meet Thailand's 'Chicano' [Mexican-style gangster] community (AFP, 3/19/22)

Meet Thailand's 'Chicano' Buddhist community

(AFP News Agency) AFP (Agence France-Presse) is funded in whole or in part by the French government. [Did some Thai people just get back from Tokyo, Japan, or Los Angeles, California?]

Dressed in baggy t-shirts and jeans, with bandanas and wraparound sunglasses only partially obscuring their intricate tattoos, Thai Buddhists can now be seen gangbanging on Bangkok's sweaty gangland streets, celebrating a fusion of their own Buddhist and Mexican American (Chicano) culture each weekend.

But while the Chicano Movement in the US began as a political and social force aimed at battling oppression, its Thai interpretation is focused more on its aesthetics and cool style.

The dangerous goings on of gangbangers in LA and the Mexican border

Interested in licensing this video investigation? [We don't need no stinking...] Get in touch with AFP 👉 u.afp.com/UBbQ N.B.: AFP’s services and content are for professional use only [so no horsing around with yellow or amateur journalism.]

• AFP, March 19, 2022; Cypress Hill (LA Latino gangster-rappers); Pfc. Sandoval, Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What can be done for the dead? (Merit)

Día de Los Muertos Ofrenda Exhibition LA Philharmonic | Lily Martinez/LA Phil

Is La Virgen Guadalupe Kwan Yin? (Sleigh Bells)

QUESTION: Can meditation cultivate merit (punya) to transfer to the dead?

ANSWER: Yes, intensive sitting meditation is one way to cultivate skillful qualities like stillness, silence, calm, peace, serenity, contentment, joy (piti), bliss (sukha), and insight (vipassana) through fourfold mindfulness (satipatthana).

Can we meditate to help the dead?

Another way, particularly if dealing with monkey mind or a sugar rush is mindful walking to cultivate "being here now," holding attention on the present moment, the present action (walking), and slowing down to pay attention rather than operating on automatic pilot.

Yet another way is to engage in skillful action (feeding others, giving, letting go of things we cling to, offering help, compassion to alleviate the suffering of others, developing joy in the joy of others, equanimity or looking on with unbiased spreading of attention to make our love, compassion, and joy-in-others'-joy universal and unbounded).

And just when this is done, one utters the "mantra" or "prayer" or dedication of merit, bringing to mind those to whom we are making the offering:

• A Night in the cemetery: Day of the Dead
• The Bread of the Dead: Pan de muertos? World's biggest Dia de Los Muertos bread display to be set up in Tijuana (Go, gluten-free, Ghosts!)
• WOW: 12 facts that capture the vibrance of Dia de los Muertos
• Day of the Dead Sunday matinees (laphil.com)

Sharing merit in Theravada

Let's offer this help to the deceased.

To “share or transfer merits,” sincerely say: “May [so and so] receive merits from this good deed that I have done.” And to cultivate boundless loving-kindness (metta) add: “May ALL beings be free from the suffering in the apāyā.”

In both cases, we are BROADCASTING our intention of goodwill and compassion in offering help. PureDhamma.net

• NOTE: One does not lose merit by giving but rather multiplies and compounds it.

The mistake Americans make about the Day of the Dead is that it's mournful, when it's really all about life and living, food and celebrating, remembering and loving. Goths may love the look, but it's uplifting.

• Day of the Dead in Old LA: olveraevents.com
• November Guide to Los Angeles (LA Magazine)
• LA IS TOO INTO HALLOWEEN: West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval 2024 takes over Santa Monica Bl.
• Día de Los Muertos with Dudamel | Walt Disney Concert Hall (laphil.com)
• Here's how to spend November in Los Angeles
• Long Beach’s Dia de los Muertos Parade returns Nov. 2
• San Bernardino to host Día de los Muertos experience
• Los Angeles Weekend Roundup (Day of the Dead)
• Day of the Dead is truly a holiday for FOOD lovers
• At this Boyle Heights shop a little bit of community is baked into every pan de muerto ("bread of the dead")

Mahayana

The Bodhisattva Guanyin (Kwan Yin): Goddess of Compassion

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“May the merit and virtue accrued from this work adorn the Buddha's Pure Lands. Repaying four kinds of kindness above and aiding those suffering in the paths below, may those who see and hear of this all bring forth the resolve for Bodhi (enlightenment) and, when this retribution-body is over, be reborn together in ultimate bliss.” Transference of Merit (abuddhistlibrary.com)

Vajrayana

A tulku returns to help others.

In the initial stages of our journey of self-cultivation, most of us may still be inclined to transfer merit only to ourselves, our family members, and/or our loved ones. It is superior to broaden that giving to all sentient beings to make it universal and unbounded by self-interest.

Self may be the focal point of our efforts when we start practicing Buddhism. As practice deepens and our understanding of Buddhism becomes more profound, the capacity of the heart will gradually expand. This makes us more willing to share merits with all sentient beings.

The Vedic Brahmins' Cosmic Buddha Vairocana

The practice of merit transfer involves dissolving and reducing our sense of separation and selfishness, thereby cultivating boundless love, compassion, and unbiased equanimity.

The sharing of merit is most supreme, complete, and without outflows (defilements) when our mind/heart is capable of expanding giving to include all sentient beings.

A thanksgiving prayer for the (grateful) dead

To help all sentient beings be liberated from suffering and attain happiness, we generate the Bodhi mind of attaining Buddhahood and transfer our merit to all sentient beings.

We can vow to use the limited power of our vows to resonate with the infinite, compassionate vows of the various Cosmic Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and attain supreme enlightenment along with all sentient beings. More

• Dharma Drum Mountain Global Website (Special Topics)
• Dhamma-dana from the Mexican Buddhists Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly