Immigrant Punk

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Slithering, the beautiful and deadly viper lures you in with seductive hypnotizing undulations to strike with deadly accuracy. Stalking, the panther gracefully moves through the bush and then, --- without warning, --- pounces; claws unfurled leaving you wondering what just happened. Alternately beautiful and abrasive, Immigrant Punk is on a mission. Back and forth between singing and spoken word, English and Spanish, a music attempting to bring two worlds together, Immigrant Punk is an apropos expression of our times, resonating back to us our cordial and uneasy relationships. Feel the raw refined power of Immigrant Punk - My Baby Robot

In the short block between Pearl and Olive, a patch of grass and tables were set up with food trucks purring nearby. This was the scene downtown Dallas, where three blocks of parking spaces were reserved and converted by locals in the name of a "more lively, active and community-oriented place to live, work and play." - Dallas Observer

In the short block between Pearl and Olive, a patch of grass and tables were set up with food trucks purring nearby. This was the scene downtown Dallas, where three blocks of parking spaces were reserved and converted by locals in the name of a "more lively, active and community-oriented place to live, work and play." - Dallas Observer

In the short block between Pearl and Olive, a patch of grass and tables were set up with food trucks purring nearby. This was the scene downtown Dallas, where three blocks of parking spaces were reserved and converted by locals in the name of a "more lively, active and community-oriented place to live, work and play." - Dallas Observer

How do you help four
struggling students
from Yaxunah, Mexico,
stay in school and on the college track?
In Denton, you put on a
show.
Lorena Swan, the benefit
coordinator of the University
of North Texas Anthropology
Student Association, is doing
just that. She recruited local
bands Anonymous, Immigrant
Punk and Ryan Thomas
Becker’s Last Joke to join her
trio — Lorena and 2 Dudes —
for a benefit concert Sunday
night at Dan’s Silverleaf.
The student association
hopes to raise at least $700 to
help support four Mayan students who are part of a UNT
partnership in Yaxunah, led by
Grace Bascope, an adjunct
medical anthropologist who
works in the Mayan region of
Mexico.
The residents of Yaxunah
live off the milpa — corn fields
— and small government
grants. Swan traveled to
Yaxunah to work with
Bascope’s program.
In one of the Yaxunah communities Bascope works with,
four young people are making
sacrifices to travel to school. If
the four students want to complete college, they’ll need help.
One of the students plans to be
a doctor, and another hopes to
practice veterinary medicine.
Two plan to teach, Swan said.
“I knew I didn’t just want to
go down there and help as a
tourist,” Swan said. “I wanted
to be involved on a more longterm basis.
She recruited bands with a
broad audience in mind.
Immigrant Punk is a rap-folk
act fronted by Rocio Aranda.
Anonymous is Denton musician Will Frenkel’s project with
Andrew Wahlert. Ryan
Thomas Becker’s Last Joke is a
rock outfit made up of Becker’s
school friends and fellow
musicians.
Details: Admission is a suggested donation of $5 to $10.
The show starts at 7 p.m.
Sunday at Dan’s, 103
Industrial St.
— Lucinda Breeding - Denton Time

How do you help four
struggling students
from Yaxunah, Mexico,
stay in school and on the college track?
In Denton, you put on a
show.
Lorena Swan, the benefit
coordinator of the University
of North Texas Anthropology
Student Association, is doing
just that. She recruited local
bands Anonymous, Immigrant
Punk and Ryan Thomas
Becker’s Last Joke to join her
trio — Lorena and 2 Dudes —
for a benefit concert Sunday
night at Dan’s Silverleaf.
The student association
hopes to raise at least $700 to
help support four Mayan students who are part of a UNT
partnership in Yaxunah, led by
Grace Bascope, an adjunct
medical anthropologist who
works in the Mayan region of
Mexico.
The residents of Yaxunah
live off the milpa — corn fields
— and small government
grants. Swan traveled to
Yaxunah to work with
Bascope’s program.
In one of the Yaxunah communities Bascope works with,
four young people are making
sacrifices to travel to school. If
the four students want to complete college, they’ll need help.
One of the students plans to be
a doctor, and another hopes to
practice veterinary medicine.
Two plan to teach, Swan said.
“I knew I didn’t just want to
go down there and help as a
tourist,” Swan said. “I wanted
to be involved on a more longterm basis.
She recruited bands with a
broad audience in mind.
Immigrant Punk is a rap-folk
act fronted by Rocio Aranda.
Anonymous is Denton musician Will Frenkel’s project with
Andrew Wahlert. Ryan
Thomas Becker’s Last Joke is a
rock outfit made up of Becker’s
school friends and fellow
musicians.
Details: Admission is a suggested donation of $5 to $10.
The show starts at 7 p.m.
Sunday at Dan’s, 103
Industrial St.
— Lucinda Breeding - Denton Time

When you talk to Rocio Aranda, you can’t escape her eyes. They are intense with a penetrating stare. Aranda is one serious woman.

That’s a result of her devotion to changing the world — even from her little corner in Denton. And her goal is to do that through her music as Immigrant Punk.

Aranda could be the first musician to mix her Mexican heritage of folk music with a kind of hip-hop laced with a spiritual optimism as a woman and gay. She’s punk and traditional. But that lack of definition may be her best asset.

“I write about anything you can think of that inspires you,” she says.

Born in Mexico, Aranda settled in Texas with her family at age 14. By then, she was already writing her own poetry, but soon discovered The Doors, Rage Against the Machine and music she had never heard of: Hip-hop.

“I started doing music [at age 19],” she says. “I wrote about things that relate to my life. But I would also cover songs by Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z, Mana that were like parallel realities to my life. Those self-made, something-out-of-nothing lyrics were poetry.”

Those influences melded with her love of Mexican music and experience playing with other bands. Her songs are minimal in delivery: She raps over a djembe drum — that’s it. But Aranda invites other musicians to play with her and is always changing the sound. The lack of consistency and even glossy production is strangely part of her music philosophy. Immigrant Punk isn’t just her moniker —it’s her musical lighthouse.

“The djembe is an efficient, affordable way to do my music,” she says. “I’ve been learning to rap and now I write my music that way. It’s my plan to have different instruments all the time but with my lyrics. And I want to give my music out for free.”

No lie. She records her live performances and then gives out the CD free of charge. Her first “album” debuted in March. She’d rather sell her merch for funds to keep doing music, but she sees the work as a gift to give back.

“My target audience is the individual who has the desire to grow,” she says. “People who still dream and have moved forward and are now in this fabric of America. I wouldn’t call it a struggle because it’s beautiful to want something.”

In Denton, Aranda is surrounded by a happening music scene where she finds a jukebox of inspiration by the different bands and artists. But she wouldn’t mind hitting the Dallas venues and even playing more to the community, even though her work tackles more about her identity as an immigrant to Texas more than her sexuality.

“It’s clear I am lesbian and very proud to be,” she says. “I’m blessed. I never had a negative response from my family or friends about my sexuality. It’s one of the factors that drive me to do positive things. I feel a sense of responsibility as far as our time right now.”

But her spirituality drives Aranda ... though she’s not of the Bible-thumping Christian rock variety. She just sees her work as part of something bigger.

“Sometimes I wonder if art is just the language of God speaking through people,” she says. “I hope my audience can go away feeling like they’ve seen something fresh, not through me but in the lyrics to remember ‘This is a new day —this life is an opportunity.’”

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 30, 2010.

© Copyright by DallasVoice.com
Link: http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/publish/article_12798.php - Dallas Voice

Where do you call home? Denton, Texas
Get Real with Us… I am a Mexican immigrant who moved to the United States for a better life. I fronted several bands across Texas and Mexico before starting my solo project Immigrant Punk.
Immigrant Punk records are all live. The recordings you will hear are real time, real show. I do that because I invite different musicians to share the stage with me each show. I record it. Print it. And give it to the people. Free. Being an immigrant, my music is strongly influenced by Mexico and by the United States. Being a lesbian, my music is strongly influenced by the hunger to liberate the suppressed and encourage diversity.

Link
http://cherrygrrl.com/real-grrl-rocio-aranda/

- CherryGrrl

Immigrant punk was so many things balled into one. She was Zen, she was intense. At times angry and then flipped to sweet. She drummed with an accompanying Spanish guitar and it was both lush and mesmerizing. - Rich Lopez from Dallas Voice

Immigrant punk was so many things balled into one. She was Zen, she was intense. At times angry and then flipped to sweet. She drummed with an accompanying Spanish guitar and it was both lush and mesmerizing. - Rich Lopez from Dallas Voice