La Vida Yaya

Denise and Margaret Sometimes it pays to have connections, be an insider, rub elbows with the elite especially here in LA/Hollywood. It's all about who you know and naturally, I know a lot of people who are very well connected. Well all that networking finally paid off this week! My dear friend Laura from Beverly Hill . . . I mean, San Antonio is promoting a new product. We met back in college at USC, and by that I mean high school in Texas. Ok so we were on the flag team and lost touch after high school but we DID find each other again in LA! That part is true. Turns out we are both in PR and were promoting an event that her client was participating in. Small world huh? Lucky for me, we kept in touch and many, many, years later, she sends me a box full of free sandwiches courtesy of Raybern Foods ! SCORE! Aside from being a fatty, I'm also a foodie so consider this my first official food blog. The loot When she first pitched me the idea of sandwiches I wasn't v...

RocioMarron. Photo by Berkeley Gray Photography. It is with great enthusiasm and a motherly pride that I write about my dear friend Rocio Marron who recently launched her first solo album! Veteran of the Latin and pop music scene, she's played with major recording acts Marc Anthony, Josh Groban, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cuban bass legend Cachao, Los Lobos, and others. You may have also seen her on this year's season of American Idol and The Voice performing with the finalists. We met in college where she was studying music. I would follow her to her gigs and met her wonderful family and friends. As an original member of my favorite group, Quetzal , she introduced me into this great world of LA Chicano music. Rocio spent a year writing and recording the album inspired by her family and personal experiences. “For years, I’ve enjoyed playing and interpreting other people’s music,” said Rocio. “Now I had the chance to write the music that had been inside me waiting to be rec...

Nothing is more inspiring than a woman who trailblazes through a man's world with such style and grace as this sultry diva of rhythm. In the manly world of salsa music, she shows the boys that the pulse of the earth is no more ingrain and natural than to woman. This week's Latina Fashionista is passionate Cubana percussionist Melena Born in Havana Cuba, Melena has mastered the traditional rhythms that have traveled from Africa to Cuba, to the dance floors of America. Her Afro-Cuban sound is a conversation of melodies which she plays with fierce passion. Melena is a multi-talented percussionist who is at home on congas, timbales, bata drums, and shekere. She exemplifies the sound of legendary players from the past, to the modern sound of today. Let's take a look her her glitzy performance outfits. If you want to leave no doubt that you are the star of the show, you can't go wrong with a shimmering fringed sexy number like this one. The more she shakes that...