FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 4 Issue Osiel Peña swept floors for Coca-Colas. He was a kid in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, watching a neighborhood carpenter turn chunks of wood into chairs, tables, doorframes. The shop owner let him hang around if he kept the sawdust off the floor. Payment came in glass bottles, preferably tall and cold. Eventually, the Cokes turned into pesos. By then, Peña wasn't just sweeping anymore. He had already been primed for this. His maternal grandfa

When Northgate Market floated the idea of a gigante concha rolling down the streets of Pasadena for the Rose Parade, it wasn’t just another pretty float — it was a dare to one of the most traditional stages in the country to make room for us. It was an invitation for Mexican-American families, from East L.A. to the Rio Grande Valley, to see something deeply familiar placed unapologetically at the center of the national gaze. Because let’s be honest: that giant pink concha was