Chicano artist and writer Lalo Alcaraz joins CALÓ News

Award-winning Chicano visual artist and writer Lalo Alcaraz will join CALÓ News to create new and exclusive illustrations for the Latino news media site. 

“I’m so excited to join a top news platform serving Los Angeles and Southern California, especially one that reports so intensely about our Latino community,” Alcaraz said. “It has also been a long time goal of mine to staff at a news organization that would allow me to do local L.A. and regional cartoons. We need to be represented in newsrooms in proportion to our numbers. CALÓ News is that place. Stay tooned!”

Alcaraz is author of “La Cucaracha,” the first nationally syndicated and politically-themed daily comic strip.

On June 12, he was recognized by the city of Los Angeles for his work. 

“Lalo Alcaraz is not just a cartoonist, he has dedicated his career to elevating the stories that capture the diversity and political consciousness of the Latino experience in the United States,” said councilmember Imelda Padilla, who authored the resolution. “Through his powerful artwork, biting satire and unwavering commitment to social justice, he has become a beacon of truth across the nation.”

Since publishing his first “La Cucaracha” strip in the L.A. Weekly in 1992, Alcaraz has used storytelling to challenge stereotypes, celebrate diversity and shine a light on the Latino / Chicano community, eliciting either laughter or anger, sometimes both, depending on whether one was on the receiving end of one of his penetrating gibes.

Along with his daily strip, published locally in the Los Angeles Times, Alcaraz has worked as a cultural consultant on Pixar’s “Coco” and as a writer and producer of “The Casagrandes” and “Bordertown,” has exhibited his artwork in galleries and museums and written and/or illustrated graphic novels and comic books. He's also the founder and jefe-in-chief of POCHO.