"It's one of the most infamous Mexican restaurants in the country, a sprawling complex in a run-down suburban shopping plaza lampooned since its 1974 opening as everything from a Mexican Disneyland to a cultural hate crime for its forever fiesta atmosphere. The place seemingly closed for good during the pandemic, an aging relic in an era when people didn't need to imagine themselves in Mexico for an evening because Mexicans were now all around them."
"But in 2023, "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone reopened the place because the officially designated Lakewood historical landmark was a childhood favorite of theirs. They spent $40 million to return Casa Bonita to its heyday, down to freshly scrubbed fake palm fronds and restored vintage tilework while vowing to make the food long nicknamed "Casa No-Eat-A" actually edible."
"This season, Parker and Stone have upped their attacks on anti-Mexican hate by playing its trademark satire mostly straight. They've depicted Fox News as MAGA sycophants, President Trump as a lawsuit-happy despot and JD Vance as ... well, JD Vance. ICE is shown as a department so out of control that it detains Dora the Explorer and so incompetent that they hire the show's skeletal counselor Mr. Mackey, who quickly gets promoted after helping to raid heaven."
Casa Bonita is a sprawling, infamous Mexican restaurant reopened after a pandemic-era closure and long criticism as a kitschy "Mexican Disneyland" and cultural hate crime. Trey Parker and Matt Stone purchased and spent $40 million to restore the Lakewood landmark, refurbishing décor and promising to make the mockingly nicknamed "Casa No-Eat-A" food edible. South Park has long argued that indiscriminate deportation of Mexicans is morally and economically wrong, and its recent season intensifies that critique by satirizing Fox News, Trump, JD Vance, and an out-of-control ICE depicted detaining Dora the Explorer and promoting inept officials.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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