La Bloga: C/S: A Documentary on the Magazine and Its Creators

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

C/S: A Documentary on the Magazine and Its Creators

Con Safos Reflections of Life in the Barrio
Michael Sedano

Daniel Hernandez, Oscar Castillo, Denise Lugo, Jimmy Velarde, Diane Velarde Hernandez,
Michael O'Neill, Jose Antonio Aguirre

Johnny Roque, a pachuco at age seven, has tagged along with his invited sister, to my fifth birthday celebration. It is August 31, 1950. Out behind the garage, Johnny Roque uses a stick of charcoal from the firepit to scratch JR on the stucco wall and says “That’s me.”

“What’s that?” I ask, pointing to the “c/s” Johnny Roque adds under his JR.

Con Safos, according to Johnny Roque, means his initials are safe from being defaced. Scratch it out or smear it, Johnny explains, brings horrible consequences for violating C/S.

I’m experimental so, using my own chunk of charcoal, I smear Johnny Roque’s c/s. Proving the theory of “back at you”, Johnny smashes a nearby empty bottle on my head. I scream in pain. My older brother charges around the garage and punches Johnny Roque in the stomach then shoves him to the ground, sending him out of here. I return to the party sniffling with a full understanding of the power of Con Safos.

It is 1970, I’m home from the U.S. Army after 13 interminable months in Korea. A bookseller near East LA College shows me a magazine. It’s not a slick highly refined piece like Newsweek or Saturday Review, this is a handmade gem, la mera corazon of the community, it’s called called Con Safos Reflections of Life in the Barrio. Johnny Roque’s memory echoes as I riffle the printed pages of a completely new and different thing, a Chicano literary magazine. Along with El Espejo and Abelardo’s 25 Pieces of a Chicano Mind, it’s my introduction to Chicano literature, something that did not exist when I left the United States only a year before.

It is September 26, 2026. I’m in the Chicano Resource Center of the Los Angeles County Library (link), a few feet from the starting point of the August 1970 Chicano Moratorium march that galvanized Chicano protest propelling el movimiento to historic heights. Jimmy Velarde and Michael O’Neill are here, with a panel of veteranas, veteranos, to share the documentary on the genesis and personalities behind the historic cultural icon that was Con Safos magazine. Its life was short with lasting impact on identity and literature.

The documentary carries the name of the magazine, Con Safos:Reflections of Life In The Barrio. Librarian Daniel Hernandez watches the time because the library closes when the program wraps, and there’s so much to see and say. Hernandez is ecstatic to acquire the eighth issue of C/S, completing the CRC’s holdings of the eight issues published.

Panelists include Oscar Castillo, c/s photographer whose work hangs at the Smithsonian; Diane Hernandez acknowledges she is the only woman among the male-dominated staff. She is the widow and the emotional force supporting c/s cartoonist Sergio Hernandez, whose incisive wit and Arnie and Porfi characters embody the insouciance of Chicano satire.

Jose Antonio Aguirre

Today’s program is one in a series of conversatorios sponsored by the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. Jose Antonio Aguirre, Executive Director at Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, observes proudly outside the spotlight. The library’s monumental mosaic murals are Aguirre’s work.

The documentary weaves interviews of C/S originators—many of whom have passed to the Other Side—with fotos and restored 8mm film footage captured in staff meetings. Rich in detail and anecdotes, one of my favorite stories recalls when writer Mario Suarez protested an editor’s emendation of a single comma in Suarez’ contribution. They threw chingasos over that comma!

Jimmy Velarde with Rudy Salinas, a member of C/S founding staff

The Chicano Resource Center has a copy of the film, and right now, it’s the only opportunity for the public to view the documentary. You can read some of that history in a 2021 column by La Bloga alumnus, Antonio Solisgomez, one of the founding members of the magazine staff, who shares a thumbnail synopsis of the magazine’s history and personalities in a 2021 La Bloga column. (link)

Panelist Denise Lugo, lecturer at California State University Channel Islands, reports the university’s extensive digital collection of C/S materials includes scanned copies of the magazine itself. https://archives.calstate.edu/collections/ft848v70q

Scenes from a Conversatorio on Con Safos and Chicano Literary History