Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
VL at Tribeca Film Festival: The Last Ice Merchant
7:11 pm By BiancaLaureano · Arts|Culture|Ecuador|Latin America|Movies · No Comments
23 Apr 2012“Because we are poor we live working until God will take us.”
-Baltazar Ushca Tenesaca
The Last Ice Merchant follows Baltazar Ushca Tenesaca, a 65 year old indigenous Ecuadorian man who goes to collect ice from the mountains of Chimborazo. A documentary lasting 15 minutes was directed by Sandy Patch. They synopsis of the film states:
For the last five decades, Baltazar Ushca has made a living harvesting glacial ice from the tallest mountain in Ecuador. His brothers, Gregorio and Juan, have long since retired from the mountain. This is a tale of cultural change in a small indigenous community and how three brothers have adapted to it.
Starting out as a family business where Baltazar, his two brothers, and father mined ice, today it is only Baltazar who is doing this work. The youngest brother, Juan, works in construction and Gregorio the middle brother works in a factory that produces ice and he had churns homemade ice cream. Most of Baltazar’s clients are also “mom and pop” shops in the nearby city that purchase his ice to make drinks and other desserts to sell to locals. We see how fascinated the more urban Ecuadorians and youth are in seeing ice wrapped in hay, something that is rare in the city.
Baltazar speaks about missing his community and fellowship that came with the work he was doing of collecting ice. He is the only one who does this work now of the original crews and does this work alone. He hopes his son or grandson will be interested in the work, as of now none are. They discuss this to be connected to the changing times. The youth perspectives are very much ones we hear today: why work so hard in such hard conditions, for such little pay? Is life easier now? Their children think so.
It is Juan who shares that “our culture and the work of our ancestors I don’t want to forget it, I don’t want to lose our culture” when he speaks of children picking up where they may leave off. Baltazar is clear when he dies, ice from Chimborazo will no longer be mined.
The film leaves us with important questions about how culture is connected to the land, modernization, and preservation. Baltazar speaks of how the ice is becoming more scarce and he must climb higher up the mountains to mine, which brings on it’s own forms of additional danger. A few areas in the film that were left unclear: what tribe are Baltazar and his family a part? In what ways can the education found in their community connect to preserving this cultural practice and these artifacts? How does class, indigenous identity, and discrimination result in who desires ice and in what form?
Below is the trailer
VL Digest
10:23 am By BiancaLaureano · Arts|Culture|GLBT|Health|history|Immigration|Justice · 3 Comments
13 Dec 2011Instead of me finding time to write about some of the news stories that are of interest (which seems to be a challenge these past few weeks) I’ve decided to share with you the stories. Yes! These are stories I would love to write more about, share my perspective, challenge our ideas, and forge a conversation about them with VL readers. Perhaps we can do that without individual posts for each piece? Perhaps not, either way, here’s a VL Digest. Have VL readers heard of these stories? What are your thoughts?
An Apology 30 Years In The Making: El Salvador Marks El Mozote Massacre
Yesterday I was reading about the apology the Salvadoran government gave for El Mozote massacre where over 800 women, children, men, people were killed by the Salvadoran military. The Massacre occurred 30 years ago in December. I remember growing up in Maryland and hearing about this massacre by the Salvadoran immigrants who migrated to the Takoma Park and Langley Park area. I remember my parents telling me that some folks who we met may not ever be able to go back home because of a Civil War. It all began to become more clear to me years later when I started reading more on the historical accounts and injustices that were occurring, especially the role the US played in training the military in the Americas.
There was a lot of buzz about TEDx San Juan, and I’m eager to see what video is available of our friend Larry La Fountain-Stokes’ presentation of the work, activism, and survival of Puerto Rico’s LGBTQ community. In attendance was Forbe.com blogger Giovanni Rodriguez who shares his ideas of Puerto Ricans as being exiles (inspired by Larry’s usage of queer Puerto Ricans as sexiles who use music, art, songs, and writing to share their testimonios). Rodriguez considers those Puerto Ricans who migrated from the mainland to the US as exiles as well (this would include my parents) who were searching for more secure and better economic opportunities. He argues that many Puerto Ricans leaving now are doing so reluctantly.
Third Party & Independent Candidates 2012
I am often exhausted with hearing only two party debates, discussions and media coverage. This week I went in search of who may be considering running as Third Party and Independent candidates for President of the US in 2012. This site was useful to give me an idea and remind me that there are always more than two options when it comes to voting, and knowing all of those options is what makes someone, in my opinion, an educated voter.
Radio VL: Maracuyeah!
9:25 am By BiancaLaureano · Arts|Culture|Immigration|Music|Washington DC · Comments Off
13 Dec 2011This is not our usual VL musica review. As I’m sure you’ve noticed Maegan and I are surviving so much and our posts at VL have not been all that we wish them to be. I know that after I’m done grading 70 final exams I’ll be back to bringing you more reviews and updates on topics and issues impacting us all.
For now, I’d like to share an amazing interview with the transnational media-makers, DJ, activists, artists Maracuyeah!. Our good friend Hugo over at American Pupusa has a fantastic interview with the members of Maracuyeah! , DJ rAt and Mafe. When Hugo first shared with me some of their work I was already in love with their existence. He shared that their sound and creations come from our experiences (Hugo and I grew up in the same community in Maryland) of sending “mix tapes” back home to family of the music we listened to in the US. His explanation invoked so much nostalgia for me that it lead to some sort of resistance to listening to their sound.
I know it may sound odd, but there’s a level of joy and pain and bittersweet memories of those times in the late 80s and 90s for me when I was coming into my own consciousness of why I was away from everyone in my family besides my mother, father, and sister. However, Hugo’s interview has lead me back to Maracuyeah!’s musica mash-up and I’m thankful and hopeful I can attend one of their events when I visit for the holidays.
Here’s a bit of the interview that had me sold (again!) on Marachuyeah!’s cultural productions:
Maracuyeah! is a collective of transnational, global, local, DIY activists, artists, DJs, and music promoters presenting the “now” in upfront soundsystem/DJ culture in Washington D.C. They spin underground DJ music from Latin America – Cumbia Electronica, Tribal, Dembow, Tropical Bass, with dashes of old school Latino pop. Officially starting in March of 2011, Maracuyeah! also put on shows of local and international musicians such as Chancha Via Circuito, Permnet, Zuzuka Poderosa, and El Freaky, who bring innovative takes of contemporary Tropical music. Their sets and shows are mixed and jumbled together in a classic (cassette) mixtape style. And, the venues they play out in are purposeful and grounded in social consciousness.….So you call it a movement, and you have a political grounding to it. How would you describe this movement? Movement is a big word.DJ rAt: It is a big word… for me, I say movement because dancefloors are depoliticized and they are some of the most powerful spaces that we have, so more than Maracuyeah. I belong to another DJ collective called “Anthology of Booty” and like Mafe said, we work on radio together, and we have a project called “DJ Geek Out” all of that is being like ‘culture is political, our bodies are political, our identities are political, and social spaces. I think often, social spaces are depoliticized in a way that… they really deserve a lot more credit for bringing people together and crossing lines and building power.
Lo Que Hay This Weekend Boston & NYC: Danza Mexicana y Mas
8:13 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts|boston|dance|Events|mexico · Comments Off
25 Nov 2011Boston
Friday, November 18th
Paredes en Fuego: The 2011 Cacique Youth Art Show Opening Reception
Villa Victoria Center for the Arts
85 W. NEWTON STREET BOSTON, MA 02118
Ongoing
Calpulli Danza Mexicana in Queens Theater in the Park
Saturday, November 26 – 8 pm
Sunday, November 27 3 pm
Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing Meadow Park
Tickets available via the Box Office or by calling 718-760-0064
Tickets can also be purchased at event sponsor Compliments U Boutique in Jackson Heights, Queens (80-14 37th Ave.) and at Calpulli Youth Dance locations in Queens and Staten Island
I first learned about and began to read Chilean author Roberto Bolaño after his death in 2003. Since his death, a number of previously unpublished works by the author have been released and translated into English. The latest of these is El Tercer Reich, written in 1989 and originally published in Spanish last year. Found among Bolano’s papers posthumously, it is set to be released as an English translation on November 22. MacMillian was gracious enough to provide me with an advanced copy of the audiobook version.
The novel is a travelogue, the vacation diary of German war games champion Udo Berger, who has returned with his girlfriend, Ingeborg, to a small town on the Costa Brava where he spent the summers of his childhood. Soon they meet another vacationing German couple, Charly and Hanna, who introduce them to a band of locals—the Wolf, the Lamb, and El Quemado—and to the darker side of life in a resort town.
I found it interesting the way the South American obsession with the European, specifically the Southern Cone identification with the German, comes out in Bolaño’s novel. The theme of German supremacy, alluded to in the title, appears throughout. Udo comes off as arrogant, thinking himself smarter than all of those around him, including his girlfriend who prefers mystery novels to war game articles. Only the German characters in the book actually have proper names, Udo, his girlfriend, the couple they become friends with, and the wife of the owner of the hotel, whom Udo is infatuated with. The Spanish locals, all portrayed as crass and damaged, only have nicknames : el Quemado, the Wolf, and the Lamb.
Late one night, Charly disappears without a trace, and Udo’s well-ordered life is thrown into upheaval; while Ingeborg and Hanna return to their lives in Germany, he refuses to leave the hotel. Soon he and El Quemado are enmeshed in a round of Third Reich, Udo’s favorite World War II strategy game, and Udo discovers that the game’s consequences may be all too real.
The twists and turns in this story make one wonder if Bolaño is playing a game with us, the reader/listener. Are we being manipulated as we are placed in the middle of complex relationships and mysteries?
The novel in audiobook form is read by Simon Vance and is ten hours long on eight compact discs. The story is rich with sensory details, and listening to it on cd made me think that this must be what it was like to listen to radio serials. I think it would be more accessible as an MP3 as opposed to cds. I myself had to struggle to find a cd player. However, I could see someone enjoying the tale on a long flight or series of drives.
Singled Out due to Alabama’s HB56
2:00 pm By BiancaLaureano · Culture|Immigration|youth · Comments Off
9 Nov 2011The ACLU has produced this video that shares the story of Cineo Gonzalez and his daughter who was given a paper in front of her entire class that explains HB56 in Spanish. When Gonzalez spoke with the principal asking why his daughter was receiving this information, the principal replied “they give this paper to all the students who appear to not be from here (US).” There are subtitles in English in the video. The ACLU has created a website specifically devoted to working to challenge HB56 and you may visit it at Crisis In AL.
Notes From The Afro-Latin@s Now! Conference Plenary
3:38 pm By BiancaLaureano · Culture|Latin America|New York City|Politics|Raices|Uncategorized · Comments Off
5 Nov 2011The Afro-Latin@s Now! Conference is taking place as I write. It began on Thursday at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with the Plenary and continued through Friday with “traditional” presentations throughout the day and wraps up this Saturday with events targeting youth at El Museo del Barrio.
I was asked to participate in one of the sessions on sexuality but my workload didn’t allow me to attend any of the events except for the Plenary. I’ve included some notes I took on the plenary and some other reflections from other folks who did attend Friday.
The plenary had four extremely well-known people doing work within the Afr@Latin@ community in various capacities. The panelists included Educardo Bonilla-Silva, sociologist at Duke University and author of several texts on white supremacy, Maria Rosario Jackson a researcher and professor who works in urban planning and development and , Evelyne Laurent-Perrault a biologist and historian and founder of the annual Arturo Schomburg Symposium at Taller Puertorriqueno in Philidelphia, and Silvio Torres-Saillant a professor of English and founder of the Dominican Studies Institute at City College and the author of several texts about Dominican identity. The facilitator for the evening was James Counts Early the Director of the Cultural Heritage Policy Center at the Smithsonian instituion. You may read more about each panelist and a fuller bio at the Afro-Latin@ Now! Conference site.
The first question that was posed to the panelist were “why is there this interest in Black Latin@s at this time?” Responses included an increased interest in Blackness, the diaspora. Torres-Saillant shared that when he was growing up Blackness was something one had to apologize for in the Dominican Republic. Rosario Jackson shared that with the browning of the US being more local yet there is still a crisis which she believes may lead to more creative opportunity. Laurent-Perrault mentioned the term “coyuntura” and how there is an increase in energy within particular communities that is leading to this attention. Bonilla-Silva shared that we are living in a “new racial order” which is how the US is moving towards a more Latin Americanist perspective on race, which he believes is NOT a good thing. He states we, in the US, are living in a “multi-racial white supremacist regime” and that there is a three point racial consciousness for Black Latin@s which includes: being racially Black, being ethnically Latino and being US citizens as well.
The next question was about being proactive. Torres-Saillant began by indicating how mestizaje is connected to the “multi-racial white supremacist regime” where the US hides racism under mestizaje in the US in the same way that Latin American’s are currently finding themselves in crisis regarding their mestizaje. Rosario Jackson shared that we must begin to claim racially Black people as a strategy to be proactive. At this point the facilitator Early shared how many Black Latin@s Anglicized their names to pass just as Blacks in the US. He gave the example of actor and producer Terry Carter and several Black Latin@ baseball players who changed their names to simply be in the Negro Leagues and be Black only. Laurent-Perrault indicates this is why she loves history because it already gives us some of the answers we need. It’s at this time that the panelists indicate that Black US folks can learn from LatiNegr@s as we have 100 years longer of Blackness in our countries compared to the US (based on documentation of when the first African slaves were brought to the areas in the 1500s). Bonilla-Silva mentions the connections to the ideas of mixing among Black Latin@s in an effort to “better” (i.e. whiten) the family and community. He also mentions this being connected to a myth of nation building where we validate whiteness by using the same categories and structures that were created by whites to identify and label/mark Latin@s worldwide.
Yesterday, It was with great sadness that I read about the death of Puerto Rican author, poet, and inspiration to many – Piri Thomas. According to a release that I received via the National Institute for Latino Policy, Thomas, 83 years old, passed away on Monday, surrounded by his family after struggling with pneumonia.
I, like many, first became aware of Thomas via his book Down These Mean Streets, which looks at life in el barrio (Spanish Harlem, NYC) for a young Afro-Cuban Rican, and how the complex intersections of race, poverty, and urban policies guided him through a struggle that included drugs, prison, activism and art.
I was a teenager when I first read Down these Mean Streets, struggling with my own NYRican identity and what it meant. His words were part of my learning to navigate identity and what to do with my definition of self. I was 18 when I was lucky enough to meet Thomas. I was in college and he was giving a presentation open to the whole school, but those of us in the Latino organization, Solidaridad Latina, were able to have a small intimate lunch with him. At this point I already considered myself a writer and and an activist – although an infant in both of these roles. It was during these meetings that I became exposed to Thomas’s poetry. If Down These Mean Streets is a brutally honest look at gritty realities and painful realities, his poetry is words on bright alas de mariposas offering a new vision for growth and evolution. I was struck by how hopeful and joyful Thomas was. The light he exuded was not in spite of his struggles – it was a direct result of it and he encouraged us all to work through our lives unapologetically and like the title of a poem of his that I always remember – he invited us to be born anew at each a.m.
So gracias Piri – no te digo adios because you live on through your words and your actions that have touched the hearts, minds, and souls of so many – including this NY Rican from Queens.
Lo Que Hay This Weekend en NYC : Blaktina in the Bronx y Mas
10:41 am By Maegan La Mala · Culture|Events|Lo Que Hay · Comments Off
14 Oct 2011Please Keep Checking this Page as it will be updated throughout the weekend.
-Mala
Ongoing
October 14-28th
The Bronx Academy of Art & Dance presents its annual BlakTina Performance Series
A festival celebrating works by Black, Latina/o and Blatina/o artists. This year we are using BlakTina in the festival’s title to flip the Spanish language norm that uses the masculine to describe the universal.
Check out all the events at BAAD!’s website here
Latin@ Events This Weekend in NYC : Celia Cruz in the Bronx, Latino Rock at #OccupyWallStreet
11:13 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Culture|history|New York City · Comments Off
7 Oct 2011Here are a few events of interest this weekend happening in various parts of NYC including the Bronx and down at #OccupyWallStreet. If you want to see your event listed here please email info@vivirlatino.com
Sunday, October 9th
Friends of Woodlawn is proud to present Azucar! Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Celia Cruz with The Bronx Music Heritage Center, Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, and City Lore.
1:00 p.m.
A FREE event honoring the legacy of The Queen of Salsa, whose timeless work continues to have a major impact on jazz, pop culture and Latin music worldwide.
Program includes:
• Panel discussion on the life and influence of Ms. Cruz organized by preeminent City Lore folklorist Elena Martinez and moderated by Grammy-nominated musician Bobby Sanabria
• Selection of Ms. Cruz’s music performed by students from The Celia Cruz High School of Music
• Guided visit to the Cruz mausoleum, La Guarachera de Cuba’s final resting place.
“EL GRITO DEL MUNDO” – MUSICOS LATINOS SE UNEN A #OCCUPYWALLSTREET
6 pm
La reciente formada Coalición de Músicos Latinos de Nueva York anuncia gran concierto acústico en apoyo a #Occupywallstreet este Domingo 9 Octubre a las 6:00PM. Invitamos a toda la comunidad latina sin importar su status migratorio a manifestar su apoyo a través de la música y cultura en forma pacífica, solidarizando con el grupo #occupywallstreet que se mantiene en protesta contra las políticas económicas adoptadas por Estados Unidos como además a las movilizaciones en distintas ciudades del país, frente al descontento general, hacia la crítica situación.
“Estamos a favor de políticas, reformas sociales y económicas que favorezcan a todos los habitantes de EEUU incluyendo las minorías e inmigrantes”
Las malas decisiones tomadas, afectan desproporcional y principalmente, a las familias de menores recursos y minorías en este país. Dentro de los denominados 99% que se ven afectados, nos encontramos la mayoría de inmigrantes latinos. Nosotros junto con muchas otras comunidades en los Estados Unidos, estamos siendo perjudicados, aún más, que el resto de los indignados.
Es por eso que saldremos a cantar por la justicia social, la paz y por mejores leyes de inmigración.
Estamos a favor de la unión y la reunificación de las familias de trabajadores indocumentados, y en contra de políticas de criminalización que solamente crean un ambiente de xenofobia, violencia y discriminación rampante. Por tanto, también pedimos poner un alto a todas las deportaciones y exigimos una reforma migratoria ahora. La necesidad para nosotros, de ser parte del movimiento #occupywallstreet se manifiesta, en este momento, como imprescindible. Bandas independientes neoyorquinas como Kofre, Eskarioka, Eskarroneros, Paracuta,Earthdriver, Changala, RadioArmada, The Times (lista en formación); montaran un concierto acústico en la Plaza Zuccotti, ahora apodada “Plaza de la Libertad.”
Llamamos específicamente, a todos los inmigrantes, cualquiera sea sus estatus migratorio. El grupo de abogados que apoya la causa, se encargará de establecer el dialogo con NYPD, y se responsabiliza por la seguridad de todos los asistentes.
Also at #OccupyWallStreet
This Sunday, October 9th at 6 p.m., members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio, an organizanization that is part of the Zapatista initiated The Other Campaign have been invited and will participate in Occupy Wall St.
They will share a message written by the humble immigrant community of East Harlem on their seven-year struggle for dignity and against neoliberal displacement. In this message, they will speak on their vision of the world, their analysis of the problems that besiege it, and how they seek to change it. They will offer their grain of sand and make echo the voice of all the dignified people who are struggling to build a new world from below and to the left.
Hola!
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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