Archive for the ‘Dominican Republic’ Category
VL At The Cine: Summer Indie Latino Films To Check Out
4:25 pm By BiancaLaureano · Arts|Dominican Republic|Immigration|Latin America|Movies|Raices|sexuality · Comments Off
26 Jul 2011This summer it’s all about saving money and supporting important films for our comunidad! I write this knowing that sometimes to support important films we may spend a little extra at film festivals, and if you live in an area where film festivals are coming (or have been) it’s def worth the energy to check out what they have to offer.
Mala and I will try to bring you some highlights of the film festivals we are going to this summer and year. In the meantime, here are a few films that have caught my attention and that I’d love to see (note that I’ve only seen some of these films and you can too, so they are not reviews), pero if any VL readers have seen any of these films I haven’t, please tell us your thoughts!
The first set of films is offered to view for free by the organization FUTURESTATES which are:
short narrative films created by established filmmakers and emerging talents transforming today’s complex social issues into visions about what life in America will be like in decades to come.
FUTURESTATES has also created a web resource for educators to use the films with grades 9-12 (but let’s be honest these are useful for any age!). The curriculums focus specifically on film and media.
The first film is one that was shared with me while I was away at a wedding. It is created, written, and directed by NYU alumna A. Sayeeda Clarke. Her film WHITE is in one word: phenomenal! It’s a short about 15 minutes long, and you may watch it online for free here. Clarke’s film takes place in the near future in NYC where the currency is skin color/melanin. She questions our ideas of identity, skin color, importance, class, natural resources, community, race, ethnicity, health, parenting, work, capitalism, global warming, and survival. The lead character is Bato, a Black Puerto Rican (yes, he’s written as that and indicates his identity in the film as such!), an activist in his community and expectant father. When the midwife working with his partner shares that she will have to give birth in a hospital setting, the couple must now find the money to pay the entrance fee to have a safe birthing outcome for their child. Bato must now find the money to do so.
The fact that there is a LatiNegro at the center of this story warms my heart. That we remain a part of the FUTURE is important for us to see and recognize. It also shares an important narrative of how white supremacy will/may continue in the future, but in new forms. This is one of those films where after seeing it I was so uncomfortable yet calm. I wanted more of the story and that alone is what makes this short film one of my favorites! Below is an interview with A. Sayeeda Clarke discussing her film:
Book Giveaway: In The Time Of The Butterflies
8:32 am By BiancaLaureano · Arts|Books|Culture|Dominican Republic|literature · 7 Comments
14 Mar 2011
On Monday March 21, 2011 at 7 PM EST Dominican author Julia Alvarez, author of In The Time of the Butterflies, will be interviewed by Haitian author Edwidge Danticat (Krik? Krak!; The Farming Of Bones). As part of announcing and participating in this virtual event (unless you live in Miami then you can witness the interview in 3D at Books & Books), Algonquin Books has offered 3 VL readers a copy of Alvarez’s book.
If you are not familiar with the book In The Time of the Butterflies, it is a historical novel of the Maribal Sisters, known as Las Mariposas, during the Trujillo regime. It has been turned into a film starring Salma Hayek, Edward James Olmos, and Marc Anthony. I’ve used this text in teaching from Latina testimonios, women, art, and culture, to women and organizing. The text is also extremely accessible for younger readers.
As we usually do with our giveaway’s at VL, the first three folks that leave a comment and have a valid email address for us to reach them, receive the texts! Algonquin Books will ship internationally, so those of you who have not been able to participate in some giveaways because of your location, this giveaway is for you!
You may watch the live webcast Monday March 21 at 7PM at the Algonquin Book Club site. We are told that you may also sign in to chat with other viewers and there is also a reading guide if you choose to use this text for a book club.
Martes Morning Movie : Change Up
10:21 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Dominican Republic|Dominicans|Movies · Comments Off
23 Feb 2010Today’s film clip comes to us via our friends at The Latin Americanist. It’s a trailer from a documentary called The Change Up about U.S. baseball dreams in the Dominican Republic.
Junot Diaz : writing feels like rolling up my emotional sleeves and putting my hand into a fire
7:34 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Books|Culture|Dominican Republic|Dominicans|literature · 1 Comment
27 Jul 2009
I don’t know why I didn’t come across this interview with my Dominican boyfriend, Pulitzer Prize winning Junot Diaz, before, pero it made me love him more. Hopefully we won’t have to wait 11 years for his next book.
Before I immigrated, I had no interest in books, no interest in newspapers, no interest in anything like that. There were plenty of little comics in the Dominican Republic, little pictorial books, penny dreadfuls: I had no interest in those whatsoever. But when I immigrated to the United States there was the crisis of being an immigrant who couldn’t speak the language very well, who didn’t understand the culture very well. I needed a way to express myself and a way to be engaged in the English language without it being a form of punishment. Speaking, during those early years, was a punishment. There was a lot of ridicule and a lot of cruelty, and instead of practicing aloud I could more safely read and practice language in my head.
The 2nd Happiest Place on Earth : The Dominican Republic
8:23 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Dominican Republic · 1 Comment
9 Jul 2009
Jennifer already told us that Costa Rica was the happiest place on earth. The second happiest? The Dominican Republic and that is making many Dominicans crack the hell up.
Via Monaco:
Como bien dice El Nacional en su editorial de hoy, la noticia de que República Dominicana es el segundo país más feliz del mundo ha causado hilaridad y hasta escepticismo, pues nadie se explica cómo se puede estar feliz en medio de apagones, basura, y el caos que predomina a nivel general.
My translation: just like it’s written in today’s El Nacional, the news that the Dominican Republic is the second happiest country in the world has caused hilarity and even skepticism, because no one can explain how you can be happy in the middle of blackouts, garbage, and the chaos that dominates at a general level.
Remesa Reversal
9:34 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Dominican Republic|Dominicans|economy|Money · 1 Comment
18 May 2009
The current economy has had an impact on all communities, but especially Latinos, who were already feeling the pinch. This has caused a reduction in the amount of money that immigrant communities are sending to their home countries, and anti-immigrant scapegoating has a role to play as well. Pero here’s a very interesting development, as reported by Feet in 2 Worlds, remesas have started to change their usual traveling direction, with money coming from Latin America to the United States.
“We have seen a significant increase in the number of money transfers made from the D.R. to the U.S.,” confirmed Reny Pena, supervisor of customer services and transfers at the company’s office [La Nacional] in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights.
Pena said that the volume of transfers from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. grew from between 80 and 120 monthly transfers in 2006 to the current rate of about 150 transfers a day. The increase has prompted the agency to expand the department that deals with U.S.-bound remittances from one to five employees.
What Mala is Reading on Saturday Morning
10:44 am By Maegan La Mala · Blogs|Dominican Republic|Education|Internet|Linking Latinos|race · Comments Off
13 Dec 2008When do kids realize the difference between weekdays and weekends? Not soon enough if you ask me, which is why I’ve been up since early, reading the internets.
Some things that caught my ojo:
President-elect Obama named his choice for secretary of HUD and it’s a Ny’er, pero not Carrion
University students in the Dominican Republic are on a hunger strike over problems registering.
Did you know you could salsa for freedom tonite?
Happy Saturday!
World AIDS Day : Children with HIV / AIDS in the Dominican Republic
10:56 am By Maegan La Mala · children|Dominican Republic|Health · Comments Off
1 Dec 2008In the Dominican Republic there are 1033 children registered as having HIV. The grandmother of one of these children, 2 year old “Mariano”, says that one of the hardest things to deal with is the discrimination her grandson faces.
Su abuela doña María, con los ojos húmedos, cuenta que para ella lo más difícil es la discriminación y el rechazo “me duele porque en el barrio los vecinos saben que mi hijo murió de sida y no les gusta que mi nieto juegue con sus hijos, por eso no lo quiero mandar ni a la escuela”.[My translation] With tears in her eyes, the boy’s grandmother, Doña Maria, tells that the hardest thing is the discrimination and the rejection. “It hurts me because in my neighborhood, the neighbors know my son died of AIDS and they don’t like for my grandson to play with their children, and that’s why I don’t even want to send him to school
Man Bathes in Blood to Protest Violence Against Women in the Dominican Republic
7:09 am By Maegan La Mala · Bizarro|Dominican Republic|Women · Comments Off
20 Nov 2008Last week we wrote about the large number of women being killed in domestic violence situations in the Dominican Republic. One man is making a statement with his body and cow’s blood to denounce the femicide.
This Year In the Dominican Republic, At Least 102 Mujeres Have been Killed by Partners
12:22 pm By Maegan La Mala · Dominican Republic|Dominicans|Women · Comments Off
13 Nov 2008The year is not quite over yet statistics coming out of the Dominican Republic show that so far this year (through to September), 102 women have been killed by their partners. 154 women in all have been recorded as being murdered in the Caribbean nation. The sad thing that is never recorded in statistics is the number of incidents of violence against mujeres that are never recorded, that are covered up yet reverberate through communities in silence.
In response, the state has set up 14 centers throughout the country to deal with familial violence. Yet the state also is taking an almost threatening approach to community movements inside DR who have taken their struggle to the streets in search of justice and a fundamental change in how women’s lives are valued.
R
adamés Jiménez, Procurador General…advirtió que todo aquel que altere el orden público será sometido a la justicia.
In other words, we’ll take care of the problem just don’t disturb public order, as if violence against women and the threat that hangs too often over the lives of women isn’t a disturbance enough.
Via / Panorama Diario, Remolacha
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