I wrote a zine review for the upcoming print issue of L.A. Record of Santanero Zine issue #3, a publication by and about Santa Ana artists. The issue of L.A. Record will be in print in a few weeks. Here is my review:
Cover of Santanero #3
The July issue of Santanero, a new monthly zine focused on Downtown Santa Ana’s burgeoning arts district, is dedicated to The Santora Arts Building. The 84th birthday of the historic building was celebrated on July 7th during the First Saturday Downtown Santa Ana Art Walk and coincided with the release of the third issue. A locally-focused effort, each issue of Santanero compiles work from Santa Ana artists including non-fiction writing, poetry in both English and Spanish, painting, drawing, and photography. This issue features an interview with painter Dino Perez and reflections on “Birthday Gifts and Grief” by Jamie Dingman. Highlights include staff cartoonist Melina Mena Saucedo’s comic “Sour Milk Sea” and “Bastards of Young in the City,” a clever poem by Joseph Blair, composed entirely of old-school punk rock and post-punk song titles. New to the publication is a directory of weekly and special events. Created by a collective of 4 core staffers, the zine aims to unite Santa Ana’s artist community, in a city strife with a contentious political climate and an ongoing gentrification battle. Pretty fancy for a free zine, Santanero is printed full-color on glossy paper front-to-back.
Cover of Santanero #4
Issue #4 of Santanero Zine will hit the streets any day now. They are currently accepting submissions of comics for Issue #5, an all-comic issue (deadline: 8/20) and poetry, paintings, sketches, photos, comics, stories, etc for Issue #6.
To help pay for those fancy glossy pages, the makers of the zine will be hosting their first fundraising event “Santanero Sin Dinero” on Thursday, August 30th at Downtown Santa Ana basement bar The Copper Door. Raffle tickets for artwork by Santa Ana artists are being sold by Santanero staff leading up to and during the event, at $5 for the first ticket and $3 per additional ticket. Hot Santa Ana bands Electro City and The Moan will perform live [set times 10-10:45pm and 11pm-12am, respectively] and DJ Ras Sal will be playing vinyl throughout the night. A date with “Santanero’s Most Eligible Bachelor,” contributing editor Enrique Marquez Avalos will also be auctioned off. There is no cover to attend. 8pm-close, 21+. RSVP on Facebook here. and check out the flyer below. ♥ tracey
tracey hearts art 
Awesome, Thank you so much!
Thank you for the write-up!
You got it, guys! Thanks for your work on Santanero!
Tracey, I enjoyed hanging out with you and Eric of Santanero Zine at the UASA meeting last weekend. You have proved often just how dedicated you are to the Santa Ana scene despite the insane amount of political drama and unfortunate hard lined ethnic divisions that hold the creative community as a whole back. Things seem to be in a healthier state with many of our Santa Ana friends at the moment. Let’s hope it continues to be so. Thanks again.