Category: San Jose

the mystery of the mexican soda

I am a big fan of Jarritos, a Mexican soft drink. The bottles are pretty, the soda has real sugar instead of corn syrup, and, best of all, there is a pineapple flavored Jarritos.

My local Safeway carries Jarritos, but they rarely have any pineapple flavored ones. Safeway keeps the Jarritos on one of the bottom shelves in the non-white people food aisle, the aisle that has “Hispanic” food next to “Asian” food and the Kosher items.

The Target closest to my house also carry Jarritos. They too keep them among the Hispanic food.

Yesterday Dan and I were across town in the southeastern part of San Jose. We were in Target, and I remembered to look for the Jarritos. In the Hispanic aisle they were not. Instead, I found them among the soda, in the drinks aisle.

So, in neighborhoods where mostly white people live, Mexican soda is categorized as “Hispanic food”. In a neighborhood where more Mexicans shop, Mexican soda is a soft drink.

I can’t help thinking about what would happen if the Jarritos where to live next to the Pepsi in my uppity small town Safeway.

alviso, calif.

Bayside Canning Co.

I’ve been doing a lot of photography lately, and haven’t had much time for anything else, between that and my actual job. This is from Alviso, a neighborhood in San Jose that used to be a town of its own. It’s five minutes from high-tech Silicon Valley, yet it’s like another world. This building used to be part of the Bayside Canning Co., closed since a long time.

never ever read the comments if you want to keep your lunch

I read this story about the aftermath to the hate crime last fall at San Jose State University, and I think how hard can it be to get it right at a campus that is predominantly non-white, in a city, and a county, and a state, that is predominantly non-white. But then I read the comments, and I realize exactly why. Grown-ups are racist, and why would college age kids be any different?

an extended family

My friend Steve is making a movie with his wife, and their family. That may sound mundane enough, but whole point of the movie is to question and expand the concept of family: The project An Extended Family connects families who used the same Northern California sperm bank, and the same sperm donor, some 15 years ago. Right now they’re in the middle of raising funds through Kickstarter, and the link for their page is here. Watch the video. It’s wild.