Silver City, NM- On Thursday October 8, Lalo Alcaraz, an artist most famous for his political cartoons, came to Western New Mexico University to speak with students and community members about his new show, Bordertown, and raise awareness on the immigration issues presented in his show.
Alcaraz was invited to WNMU by Guadalupe Cano, a public figure in the Silver City Community and a fan of Alcaraz’s work ever since she saw one of his comics featured in The Alibi, one of Albuquerque’s newspapers, about 17 years ago. She was able to contact Mr. Alcaraz over Twitter and secure his visit to Silver City as a part of WNMU’s Chicano Conference event.
In addition to his work as a political cartoonist, he had also been working on getting a show on the air that discussed race and immigration issues in the United States. Mark Hentemann, one of the producers for Family Guy, contacted Alcaraz in 2013 to tell him that after pitching Alcaraz’s idea for years, he had finally gotten a script for it.
“I can’t count how many times I’ve been rejected,” Alcaraz said. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
Alcaraz has high hopes for his new show and the impact that it could have on American culture. Throughout his presentation he called Bordertown “huge” and “historic”.
Alcaraz said, “The U.S. is changing. Latino’s are a huge part of the demographic now, and we love TV and movies!”
Alcaraz has been screening the show across the country and said that while the response has been generally positive; he has still received some push back. He mentioned that even people at FOX are a little nervous because they are afraid that people might react violently or negatively toward the show.
In response to this, Lalo said, “I never worry about offending people because I will probably offend them anyway. I just hope that I’m not offending them for the wrong reasons. We are not making fun of the people being deported, we are making fun of the government policies that allow these things to happen.”
Alcaraz adds that he thinks the show will more successful than previous attempts of shows trying to shine light on these issues. “My whole philosophy about cartoons is how they trick you into thinking about heavy topics.”
Lalo concluded the night by saying that these screenings are a way to show communities that they are trying to do a good thing, whether or not people watch the show.
Bordertown will be premiering on FOX in January 2016 on Sunday nights.
