Tacos Replace Turkey This Thanksgiving

Turkey was not the main dish served this past Thanksgiving in our house as my family opted to go with something a little more traditional for us: tacos.

With the coming of each Thanksgiving weekend every year, families have only one thing in mind and that is cooking dinner. "It's such as big stress to worry about cooking dinner that most of us women don't even enjoy Thanksgiving," said my mom, Maricela Tafoya.

This year however, my family decided to not stress about it and find the easy way to resolve this problem which was to hire a "taquero."

A "taquero" is the Spanish name given to someone who you can hire to go to special events such as birthday parties, weddings, quinceañeras, graduations and so on, to make tacos for the guests. This is a sort of small catering business that is typical in Mexican families.

For the past years my family has always made the usual for Thanksgiving which consists of turkey, ham, pies, mashed potatoes and salads. This year however we wanted to try something completely different and bring back a little more tradition into the celebration.

The taquero arrived at our house at around 3:00 o'clock and he was scheduled to be ready and start serving from 3:30 to 5:30 pm.

He came well prepared bringing his own plates, napkins, salsas, chips, dip, rice, beans of course the many meats used to make the tacos. There was 5 different type of meats to chose from and they were pork, chicken, asada, carnitas and chorizo.

There were around 30 people gathered at my house to celebrate Thanksgiving and because of the large amount of people the taquero remained busy for most of the time. There was even a line at some points to be able to order tacos.

The drinks were provided by us and we made sure that each family that came brought some sort of dessert to share with the rest of us.

This was sort of an "experimental" Thanksgiving because it had never been done before by our family and I would consider it a success.

Republicans celebrate Democratic victory

Supporters of Republican candidate Kevin Johnson celebrated the Democratic victory of Barack Obama.

President-elect Barack Obama's victory overshadowed Sacramento Mayor-elect Kevin Johnson's celebration party in the heart of Sacramento.

Zocalo, a restaurant in downtown Sacramento, was home to the victory ceremony scheduled to take place on Nov. 4. Searchlights, banners and red, white & blue balloons all decorated the surroundings of the restaurant.

Local television news crews were gathered around awaiting the announcement of Kevin Johnson’s victory and for the long anticipated arrival of Mayor-elect Kevin Johnson himself.

People were able to find out about this event through Kevin Johnson's campaign website

As more and more people were coming in and packing the restaurant to its limit, the announcement that Barack Obama had just been elected President of the United States appeared on the television screens and took over the life of the party.

"People went crazy," said Juan Guerrero as he described the yelling, shouting and overall celebration of Obama's victory. People there were gathered to celebrate Obama’s victory rather than Johnson’s.

"This is the most historical day that I've ever been a part of," said Obama supporter Cara Di Blasio as she expressed her emotion on the victory by jumping up and down, shouting, hugging her friends and cheering.

People showed their enthusiasm and their optimism for change as Obama supporter Alex Garcia announced that he had just bought $5,000 in stocks and hopes to make money off of it in the long run.

Everyone watched Senator John McCain give his concession speech and celebrated even more when Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech later on.

Moments later the announcement was made that Kevin Johnson had won the race for mayor of Sacramento, and the night concluded with the mayor-elect giving his speech in front of hundreds.

Largest Turnout For Sac State Blood Drive

Over 800 Sac State students showed up to participate in the "Causeway Classic Blood Drive" this past Monday and Tuesday. This has been the largest number of participants up to date for this event.

Half an hour before the end of the event of Tuesday, the total amount of blood donors was 845 and the line was still out the door. In previous years, Sacramento State was only able to collect a little over 100 pints of blood each day. The goal this year was to collect 275 pints of blood each day and fortunately for Sac State they were able to accumulate over 400 pints of blood per day.

Sacramento State has joined with BloodSource in this year's blood drive which is also a competition against its biggest rival UC Davis.

BloodSource is a non-profit organization that has been committed to organizing blood drives since 1948 and today it is the source of blood used by over 40 hospitals in 25 Northern and Central California counties. BloodSource has two locations here in Sacramento and over a dozen more outside the Sacramento area.

Participants received tickets to an imax showing of "Wild Ocean 3D" and a free t-shirt for donating a pint of blood.

Ashley Repels from BloodSource recommended that participants eat a lot of food with iron and be well hydrated before donating blood because the biggest reason why people are disqualified for donating blood is low iron.

Student involvement has been a major factor in the success of this year's blood drive. Tim Gilmore, representative of BloodSource said that they have had a lot of help from student organizations.

"PR organizations, student fraternities, the Student Sikh society has been coming out, so we've had a lot of participation from both campus life and from BloodSource," Gilmore said.

Sac State Inagurates Digital Billboard

Sacramento State has presented for this fall semester a new form of artwork; an 85 foot digital billboard sign that will give the school a new landmark, more visibility, and above all; profit.

The new digital communications sign owned and built by Clear Channel Communications was erected this past summer and started operating on August 5th according to University Enterprises, Inc.

Clear Channel presented the idea to the University, paid for and created this structure and therefore they are the owners of it and not Sacramento State as some people may believe. Nonetheless, the sign features the Sacramento State logo, colors and name.

This state-of-the-art digital billboard will be used for commercial advertisements in which the University will receive a fraction of the profit.(most of the money will be It will also be used for university related messages that will promote events, and for law enforcement emergencies such as important traffic announcements but primarily amber alerts.

Sacramento State freshman Robert Garcia, shows his approval of the new sign and gives some reasons to why it was a good idea to bring this to his school. He mentions that people will be more informed of school events and that putting it in the view of drivers on Highway 50, many people will see it everyday and it will become a very effective for advertising.

In a time when communication and advertising has become an important part of our lives, Sacramento State University has taken a step to stay up to date by making profit through advertising as well as providing the community with a genuine piece of artwork.

The sign is 85 feet tall by 48 feet wide and has a double-sided message board with the latest in LED technology that eliminates glare and light leakage which were some of the problems associated with previous digital billboards.

For more information, this website is dedicated to this new digital sign and includes all the information and details about it.

Service Workers Struggle to Make Ends Meet

Jesus Tafoya, a bartender who works in Chevy's Fresh Mex Restaurant in Tracy said he is struggling this year because he is working fewer hours, has fewer customers and is making less money due to the financial crisis in the U.S.

Tafoya has been working at the Chevy's in Tracy since February of 2005 and in the three and a half years that he has been working there, he says that this is the worst that he has ever seen the restaurant when it comes to customers.

"The restaurant has never been this slow or empty," Jesus said.

Because of the budget crisis, he said that spending has become more limited, and that there is greater pressure when it comes to paying bills and buying necessities. "It makes you want to look for another job, and find opportunities somewhere else," Tafoya said.

As a result of less customers going to the restaurant, Jesus said that management has cut their hours drastically and even sent home some of their employees early. Bartenders not only make money hourly, but also from tips from customers. Most of the times, Jesus says, he makes more money in tips than from his paycheck. Or at least he used to. "People are getting cheaper", he says. With people having less money to spend nowadays, they are trying to spend it wisely and therefore have been leaving fewer tips than what was accustomed, he says.

Jesus said that the restaurant is doing what it can to keep the people coming in, which include mailing out coupons to Tracy residents as well as having promotions such as "Happy Hour" where margaritas and appetizers are only $3.

Brandon Hewitt, a jewelry store salesman, prices for gold and diamonds have gone up because of the economic crisis. This results in an increase in prices in jewelry and less people purchasing these. This affects him personally because he works on commission and he said he does not make as much money as he did before when people used to shop more for jewelry. "It's affecting my pocket," Brandon said.

Mario Guzman, a car salesman for a Toyota dealership in Fremont, said also that the automobile market is in decline. He said that people are hesitant to buy cars because the economy is bad and sometimes he has to settle for making only minimum wage when he doesn't sell enough cars.

West High School Stadium is Inagurated

Merrill F. West High School's football stadium in Tracy was finally inaugurated Friday night after a long anticipated wait.

The West High wolf pack got the opportunity Friday night to show off to their hometown crowd their brand new stadium which will be used to host their home football games as well as soccer games.

The inaugurating game was a preseason match between the West High wolf pack and Oakdale High School. Although the game was not scheduled to start until 7:30 pm, the anxiously waiting home crowd were already filling up the grandstands by 5:00 pm.

Hundreds of fans dressed in navy blue colors to show their support for the home team continued entering the stadium awaiting for that first kick-off which would put into use this long awaited project. There was no doubt that the bleachers would fill up and tickets would sell out, as they did.

West High came out victorious in their home opener beating their rival with a score of 24-17 and it was an overall success in which a new stadium was inaugurated and the school finally had the chance to give the crowd an exciting home game.

West High school has been labeled a"California distinguished high school" for several years now but until this past weekend, they had not had a single football game at home; always having to play at their rival's football stadium, Tracy High School. But now that has changed and West High School now has the pride of saying that they have their own stadium.

Mexican Independence Celebrated in Downtown Sacramento

An authentic Mexican celebration took place with mariachi music, dancing, decorations, genuine Mexican food, plenty of people.

"To its maximum capacity" is how you could describe Saturday night's Mexican independence day celebration at Zocalo's restaurant and bar in the heart of Sacramento.


The place was so packed it makes one wonder whether the fire departments maximum occupancy limit was being respected. The maximum number of people allowed in the restaurant is 300.



The wait in line can be considered the only drawback of this event as hungry and anxious customers had to stand in line for over two hours just to get in. The festival was scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm, which was the time that the Mariachi started playing.



But it would all be worth it, once inside you could finally get to feel the party environment and ambient firsthand. Customers would still have to wait inside for a table to open up and be seated.


Red, white and green balloons adorned the walls and ceiling, music filled the entire restaurant. Unless you were seated down at a table the only way you could move around was by forcing yourself through the wall of people, pushing and shoving was not only allowed but necessary at this time.

Being that Zocalo is a Mexican-style restaurant, this event had to be prepared and organized to the standards of an authentic Mexican "fiesta". The restaurant would remain packed until customers were forced to leave at approximately 2:00 a.m.

Fraternities Prepare for a New Semester

Fraternities are hard at work at Sac State during the first two weeks of the semester to recruit new members and stay alive.

For Greek organizations, these can be the two most important weeks of the semester because this is how these organizations grow bigger and live longer.

Rush week is all about recruitment for fraternities and sororities and it is crucial for them because this is the only way that they will stay alive on campus.

During rush week, every organization gets to display their booth and show off their recognitions such as trophies and awards as well as photo albums to new students who are interested in joining.

Each organization personalizes their own booth to show a little bit about themselves, who they are and what they represent. Fliers are handed out inviting students to their upcoming social events and their fraternity parties.

Each organization does what they can to advertise themselves to students and get as many people as they can to pledge for them.

By the end of Rush Week, all of the booths are taken away and the campus resumes its normal "look" that will remain until the next semester's Rush Week.