'Down and Delirious' at The Echo

Music and unique bits of style aren't exactly new things one sees at ... but a book reading?

That was the case Thursday night, as writer Daniel Hernandez addressed a mixed crowd of book, music and culture lovers at the release party for Down and Delirious in Mexico City. It is the first book for Hernandez, a contributor to the Echo Park-based literary journal Slake and La Plaza, the Latin America blog for the LA Times. Slake's newest issue features an excerpt from the book.

One of the people in the crowd was a 30-year-old Echo Park resident who was originally from Mexico City and recently took at trip back there. He asked that his name not be published for this story.

"When I was there, it was amazing to see how things had changed, in this place where I was born," he said. "In some ways, through reading his blog and hearing about this, I feel he did the same thing ... I wanted to come here and hear his take on it."

The book is an eclectic tour of Mexico City's musical and social subcultures, filled with tales ranging from wild nights out (where Hernandez recounts drunkenly cursing out a cab driver, accusing him of running up the fare - apparently a legitimate concern with Mexico City cabbies) to his struggles with being seen as what he calls a "Mexican gringo." Natives pick apart his accent, and he tells the crowd how he is instantly asked what part of the U.S. he's from -- few, if any, assume he's actually lived there for three years.

“The disadvantages are obvious. They can tell you’re not a native, and sometimes that can lead some people to try and get extra money out of you. Those were very isolated incidents," Hernandez said in an interview before the party. "People see you as a native foreigner, an outsider. But the advantages can be that you have a little more liberty, less of the hangups ... I can go in and and look at things from my American eye. It’s about Mexico City, and what's going on there reflects so much about what Mexico is going throught right now."

Following Hernandez's readings were musical performances from Crazy Band, Sister Mantos, DJ Lengua and DJ Total Freedom. "That's the reason I'm here," Hernandez told the crowd. With the book finished and released, he plans get some rest and "let the book take on a life of its own."

The editors of Slake plan to be at at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday for a reading.