Political cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, who has been described as perhaps the most prolific Chicano artist in the nation, will be on the Western New Mexico University campus as part of the Raza Alumni Reunion for Homecoming 2015.
On Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 p.m., Alcaraz will give a presentation at the Global Resource Center on campus. He will speak about his experience as a writer and then premiere the first episode of Bordertown, an upcoming American adult animated sitcom. The premiere will be followed by a Q&A opportunity.
In November of 2013, Alcaraz was announced as a writer for Bordertown, created by Family Guy writer, Mark Hentemann, with Seth MacFarlane as the executive producer. Since then, Alcaraz was named a consulting producer for the series and he has traveled around the country promoting the series with special showings of the first episode. The 13-episode first season will premiere on Fox in January of 2016. It is the story of two families living in a Southwest desert town near the United States-Mexico border.
Alcaraz is the author of the comic La Cucaracha, the first nationally-syndicated, politically-themed Latino daily comic strip. Launched in 2002, La Cucaracha has become one of the most controversial American comic strips. Alcaraz has produced editorial cartoons for the L.A. Weekly since 1992 and also creates editorial cartoons in English and Spanish for Universal.
His work has appeared in many national newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, the Village Voice, the L.A. Times, Variety, Hispanic Magazine, Latina Magazine, Mexico’s La Jornada and Germany’s BUNTE. His work has been featured on CNN, the CBS Evening News, ABC, NBC, Univision, Telemundo, PBS, Al-Jazeera TV, NPR, Air America Radio and on Spain’s Radio Nacional de España.
Alcaraz will give the keynote address for the WNMU Chicano Conference at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, October 9, in the Global Resource Center Auditorium. Alcaraz’s visit is sponsored by Dennis Luna, CEO of Luminari, LLC and Mark Valenzuela of George K. Baum and Company.