Lalo Alcaraz

Who is Lalo Alcaraz?

Lalo Alcaraz is a Mexican-American cartoonist. He is 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. He is also the creator of the figure "Daniel D. Portado", a satirical Hispanic character who in the 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."

A leading figure in the Chicano movement, Alcaraz also contributes political cartoons for LA Weekly and hosts a radio show on KPFK called the "Pocho Hour of Power." He also contributed a work of art to the 2008 Obama campaign called "Viva Obama". Alcaraz teaches as a faculty member at Otis College of Art & Design.