CAHUN YOUR ENTHUSIASM (6)
By:
January 20, 2026
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… anti-fascist art! Series edited by Josh Glenn.
LALO ALCARAZ
We are familiar with the English satirical painter, engraver, cartoonist, and writer Hogarth (1697–1764); so much so that satirical political illustration is to this day referred to as “Hogarthian.” But in this neo-fascist moment, we should all be much more familiar than we are with Lalo Alcaraz, a Chicano Hogarth — whose political cartooning punches back, day after day, against those American politicians who’d blame our society’s problems on immigrants.
Born in San Diego to immigrant parents from Sinaloa and Zacatecas, Alcaraz would go on to found The Chicano Secret Service comedy troupe, serve a lead writer for the ’90s TV variety show Culture Clash, and write and produce the Chicano-centric animated series The Casagrandes and Bordertown. He was even hired to consult on Pixar’s Coco after he singlehandedly stymied Disney’s plans to trademark Dia de Los Muertos.
Alcaraz’s most crucial work, these days, is his long-running nationally syndicated daily comic strip La Cucaracha, and his political cartoons for CALÓ News. In his broad humor, one discerns a blend of José Guadalupe Posada, the 19th-century Mexican master of the satirical broadsheet; Al Jaffee, Mad Magazine’s master of snappy answers to stupid questions; and Garry Trudeau, whose Doonesbury continues to hit above the Mendoza line with regard to the American political scene. A few years back, he won the Herblock Award, which honors those editorial cartoonists who get to the heart of the American political zeitgeist.
My friend Lalo’s cartoons strike an array of targets — but I want to focus on his ongoing inscription of Mexican American history in the American public consciousness. His art is always in a political vein, but unlike other pundits, this semiotic wizard always has his sights firmly in sync with our various and diverse Chicana/o and Latina/o barrios. His wise, scintillating revelations regarding the perceived specter of immigrants invoked by American neo-fascists is incisive and demands notice.
The following cartoons appear with the artist’s kind permission.
CAHUN YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Mark Kingwell on ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON | Lynn Peril on ZAZOUS | Judith Zissman on DIE GEDANKEN SIND FREI | Annie Nocenti on MEDIUM COOL | Mike Watt on FASCIST | William Nericcio on LALO ALCARAZ | Josh Glenn on THE LADY VANISHES | Carlo Rotella on INQUIETUD | Heather Quinlan on CASABLANCA | Adam McGovern on HEART OF GLASS (Mad Jenny) | Matthew Battles on WOODY’S GUITAR | Carl Wilson on PALACES OF GOLD | Ramona Lyons on UPRIGHT WOMEN WANTED | Lucy Sante on CAMOUFLAGE | Adelina Vaca on TBD | Tom Nealon on THE BARON IN THE TREES | Nikhil Singh on PARIS PEASANT | Mandy Keifetz on THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED | Gordon Dahlquist on THE CONFORMIST | Alex Brook Lynn on WHY WE FIGHT | Gabriela Pedranti on THE ETERNAUT | Heather Kapplow on ANTI-FASCIST PASTA | Marc Weidenbaum on (WHAT’S SO FUNNY ’BOUT) PEACE, LOVE, AND UNDERSTANDING | Peggy Nelson on PUPPETS | Sonia Marques on CARNATIONS AGITPROP.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!