Lalo Alcaraz is an American cartoonist most known for being 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 in the history of American comic strips. Alcaraz was born in 1964 in San Diego, California, and grew up on the U.S.–Mexico border, giving him a dual outlook on life. He attended San Diego State University, where he received his bachelor's degree "With Distinction" in Art and Environmental Design in 1987. In 1991, Alcaraz earned his master's degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. A leading figure in the Chicano movement, Alcaraz formerly contributed political cartoons for LA Weekly from 1992 to 2010. He co-hosts a radio show on KPFK called the "Pocho Hour of Power". Alcaraz is also the "Jefe-in-Chief" of POCHO.COM, a website specializing in "Ñews y Satire."
Career
In addition to the daily strip, Alcaraz has published four books. Alcaraz is also an active speaker on the college circuit. He is represented by The Agency Group in Los Angeles. He is also the creator of "Daniel D. Portado", a satirical Hispanic character who in 1994 called on Mexican immigrants to return south—"reverse immigration"—as a response to the controversial Proposition 187. In 2012, Daniel D. Portado returned to the headlines as a result of Mitt Romneys call, during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, on illegal immigrants to exercise "self-deportation." He also contributed a work of art to the 2008 Obama campaign called "Viva Obama". Alcaraz recently taught as a faculty member at Otis College of Art & Design. Alcaraz was also Consulting Producer and Writer on the Seth MacFarlane–executive produced animated show Bordertown, which ran one 13-episode season on Fox. It featured the first animated Mexican-American or even Latino family on primetime American television. Lalo Alcaraz also served as producer along with Gustavo Arellano on comedian Al Madrigal's TV special for Fusion, Half Like Me. Alcaraz also consults on films, including Pixar's Coco. He is also a TV animation producer and consultant on The Casagrandes on Nickelodeon. Alcaraz is also a performer, voicing an angry mariachi in Pixar's "Coco" and has portrayed a Mexican bounty hunter named "Royce Vargas" in the Bill Plympton/Jim Lujan animated feature film, Revengeance.
Activism
In response to the Walt Disney corporation's attempt to trademark Dia de Los Muertos for the Pixar film set in Mexico, Coco, Alcaraz helped lead a social activist campaign which eventually led to Disney's abandoning the idea. In particular, Alcaraz's "Muerto Mouse" criticized the Disney campaign with the byline "It's coming to trademark your cultura." In 2015, Pixar hired Alcaraz to consult on the newly titled film, Coco.
