LA TERTULIA

The Soul of Bilingual Music

2008-12-02T11:12:00.007-05:00

I haven't published in a while .... life kind of took over .... but I was moved to come back to my blog when a friend suggested I translate a beautiful Neapolitan love song into English.

It reminded me of an article I wrote several years ago, originally for publication in Cuerpo magazine -- which then went out of business. Then it was going to be picked up somewhere else ... and that magazine never even made it to the first issue. At any rate, the article never got published, but it's still one of the favorite pieces I've ever written.

So I'm sharing it here, in response to my friend. This is why I could never translate that beautiful song into English; it would lose its soul.

The Soul of Bilingual Music

© 2007 Ruth Kunstadter

Fresh from jury duty, and still wearing the “good clothes” she had put on for the occasion after channeling her Mexican-Nicaraguan mother’s voice (“Si te vas a la corte y te vas a presentar ante el juez...”), bilingual/bicultural singer-songwriter Michele Greene takes a few minutes to explore how her Latina and her Anglo sides express themselves differently in her music. With the release of “Luna Roja,” her second bilingual CD, Michele adds to the growing trend on the national scene toward music that moves seamlessly between English and Spanish – a sofrito of language and cultures that most Latino families in the United States live every day, and that is carving its own path onto radio stations across the country.

Like most people who are bilingual and bicultural, Michele has experienced the sense of being a different person in one language than in another. She speaks both Spanish and English fluently, but she knows that language is about more than just words; it affects everything about the way we connect to the world around us. We can have a different personality, a different body language, a different view of the world. We can have a different spirituality and even a different soul.

Think about it – what language does your soul speak? English? Spanish? Both? Or perhaps something else entirely? Who are you in each language? What does your soul want to express – is it different depending on the language? Many bilingual musicians experience this duality of soul and take it one step further, expressing both sides in their music.

Every song has a soul

Songwriting is ultimately a storytelling process, and for the story to ring true – whether or not one has lived it – the artist must speak from the soul. The bilingual songwriter has two souls to choose from. And often, the music will be very different in each.

Just as each language has its own soul, every song has a soul unique to the language in which it is written. It’s easy to test this out: try singing “Bésame mucho” to yourself in English. Not only is the smoldering sensuality of the song completely lost – it sounds like something out of a bad movie. What about “Nosotros?” How can the one-syllable “We” ever fit that melody and inspire the same sentiment as that classic bolero?

“Certain songs can only be written in Spanish,” agrees Michele Greene. “Spanish has a poetry and a musicality to it that English doesn’t have. It flows rhythmically.” Michele speaks from experience. After her Oklahoma-born father passed away when she was very young, Michele was raised by her Mexican-Nicaraguan mother and her mother’s side of the family. Her mother was a singer in a trio, and Michele grew up listening to Trio Los Panchos, Agustin Lara, and other classic artists from the golden age of boleros.

Michele considers how the duality of her bilingual soul is reflected in her music. “My voice as a writer is more emotional in Spanish,” she says. “In English, it’s more removed and more ironic; it has more of an analytical edge.” In essence, Michele writes from the heart in Spanish, and from the mind in English.

“There are some songs that you can do in both languages,” notes Michele. But they are few and far between. And that is why the typical “crossover” that record industries have tried for years – releasing the same album in both English and Spanish – often falls flat. “You can’t just turn a switch and change the song from Spanish to English,” she says. In doing so, the song can lose its soul.

In English and Spanish lyrics, not only is the language itself different, but so are the parameters of what is considered culturally appropriate to express. Songs in Spanish – just like daily conversations in Spanish – are much more likely to delve deep into topics such as desire, passion, longing, and pain. Michele Greene agrees: “Spanish has a depth of sentiment that just doesn’t come across in English.”

As someone from a mixed Latino/Anglo heritage, and a traveler who has experienced many cultures as well, Michele is careful to point out that Latinos are not the only ones with feelings and sentiments: “It’s not that the emotions are different from one language to another, but how you access it and express it that’s different. You have more freedom in Spanish.”

Trying to express some of that passion and emotion in English can sometimes pose a problem. “With some of the classic boleros, if you tried a direct translation, you’d sound like you are a stalker,” laughs Michele.

Blasting through linguistic and cultural boundaries

Bilingual musicians are able to fuse the poetic force of Spanish with the other musical and cultural traditions that helped form their artistic self. They cross linguistic and musical boundaries with the same ease in which they move from Spanish to English and back again – sometimes within the same song.

Not limited to any one genre, bilingual artists blast through linguistic, cultural, and pre-packaged musical expectations as if they didn’t exist. Los Lonely Boys’ bilingual “Heaven” raced up both the mainstream and the country charts, and they were featured performers on both the 2004 Latin Grammy’s and the 2005 Grammy’s. Daddy Yankee’s Spanish-language “Gasolina” topped hit charts around the country.

These artists are not part of the so-called “Latin Boom” or any crossover marketing ploy. Instead, they are at the forefront of a more alternative, organic trend in music to write songs not in a specific language for one designated “market”, but rather in the language that each song calls for – the language that sounds best for that particular phrase or song.

And perhaps that is the secret to their success - the honesty in their music. While Shakira can put out an album in English and have Top 40 success here, anyone who has listened to her in Spanish can see which songs have more alma. She sounds almost diluted in English, the intricacies of her unique voice and lyrics losing much of the power she projects in Spanish.

Honoring both sides of the bilingual soul

Patricia Vonne, whose bilingual “Texas influenced roots rock with a Spanish flavor” has gained her fans around the world, knows the power of reaching an audience in Spanish – even if they don’t understand the words. “Spanish infuses more of a romantic element through the music and speaks to the audience in a unique way,” notes Patricia. “It speaks to the heart.”

Patricia’s bilingual and bicultural heritage creates an eclectic mix that is familiar to anyone who has lived in (and between) two languages and two cultures. Her three CD’s, including the just released Firebird, reflect both sides of her heritage. When she sings in Spanish, you hear the roots of her Spanish mother and Mexican father informing every chord and phrase. In English, her South Texas upbringing in a family of ten children bursts through.

Like Los Lonely Boys and other barrier-breaking musicians, Patricia Vonne’s music can’t be pigeonholed into any one market – and that is just the way she likes it. “I believe the diversity in my music offers something for everyone – from rockin' road house to Spanish spitfire. That culmination of sound is who I am.”

Someone else who can’t be pigeonholed in any way is Michele Greene – who you may remember as Abby Perkins from the TV series “LA Law.” Michele is proud of both her cultures. Not only did she release her second bilingual CD last year, she also has an archival country recording in the works, celebrating the musical heritage of her father’s side of the family. (The Trio Los Panchos records traded places on the living-room stereo with “American roots music.”). Michele can’t completely split her Latina side from her Anglo side, though. “In one song we’re doing, I keep hearing a marimba – I know I’m going to have to put a marimba in there somewhere,” she says with a smile. Y por si fuera poco, the multi-talented and multi-faceted Michele also just published her first novel: Chasing the Jaguar (HarperCollins) ¬– a Nancy Drew detective-type story with a bilingual/bicultural heroine.

The future of bilingual music

What does the future hold for today’s bilingual artists? It is not an easy road for any artist whose music can’t be easily described in a one-word package. Major record companies and radio stations want an easy fit for a specific market. But musicians across the country are staying true to their bilingual and bicultural heritage, breaking cultural, linguistic and musical boundaries in the process. And they are bringing their music to the national stage, often through independent production companies and grass-roots support.

Only time will tell if this “bilingual boom” will go the same way as the highly touted Latin Boom and run its course, or if it will take hold and grow, embraced by the 40 million bilingual Latinos in this country who live each day in Spanish and in English, and by the millions of non-Latinos who feel that same depth of emotion that Spanish provides – but just need to find a way to bring it out.

I'm Bringin' Conjugations Back ....

2008-04-16T10:36:00.003-04:00

This is fantastic .... foreign languages teachers ROCK!

Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize!!

2008-04-10T00:01:00.006-04:00

Felicidades, Junot!!

The photo is from a reading given by Junot at the Montclair Public Library back in December, hosted by Watchung Booksellers.

Amazing reading, really interesting man, and an incredible book .... check out "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," if you haven't already.

Fortunately, the Pulitzer Prize committee did!

Juanes vs. Chávez - the video game

2008-04-05T16:45:00.005-04:00

What I love most about this is that not only is it a video game in which Juanes takes on Hugo Chávez to promote peace in Latin America ...

... but he does it with his guitar.

And when he "shoots" -- he is launching musical notes, not bullets.

It's not unusual for "joke" video games to come out (the infamous Zidane head-butt created lots of them), but they usually involve mucha sangre, even when the original incident didn't.

It's nice that in this game, the objective is "tranquilizar con la música". That is exactly what Juanes and his fellow artists sought to do with the Paz Sin Fronteras concert.

Kudos to InkaGames, which succeeds in being peace-promoting in a funny and timely way.

Obamba

2008-03-31T15:32:00.003-04:00

I've always loved this guy on "I Love the 70s" and "I Love the 80s" .... I never knew he was half Italian and half Colombian. Whatever his background, I love this video!

Proof that the Celts were in Northern Spain

2008-03-18T14:58:00.001-04:00

You can always tell who was tromping around in a country by the music they left (and the faces -- there are a lot of redheads in northern Spain).

Enjoy this clip of Hevia, and his music that - believe it or not - is very typical of Asturias ...

Happy Day After St. Patrick's Day!

Concierto por la paz

2008-03-17T09:14:00.010-04:00

Juanes tiene la camisa blanca - and so do tens of thousands of others who want PEACE.

A message of peace from the Colombian-Venezuelan border .... initiated by Juanes, joined by Alejandro Sanz, Juan Luis Guerra, Carlos Vives, Miguel Bosé and Ricardo Montaner ...

I was at the Juanes concert at Madison Square Garden on March 6, and we were a little surprised that he mentioned the Colombian-Venezuelan-Ecuadorean situation only once, and seemingly in passing, rather speaking out a lot during the concert.

But I also realized at the time that Juanes seems more comfortable sending his message through his songs and his actions, rather than just through speeches. Indeed, his songs have always reflected that message, and he did speak through his songs that night.

And then two days later, he spoke definitively through his actions, by announcing that he was organizing this concert. In less than a week, this is what he pulled together.

Miles de personas asisten hoy domingo vestidas de blanco en las adyacencias de un puente fronterizo entre Colombia y Venezuela para el concierto gratuito denominado "Paz sin Fronteras" promovido por Juanes y al que invitó a media docena de artistas internacionales.

And here's Carlos Vives speaking -- I love his message, too, and how he shares it.

I know it will take more than music and white shirts to bring about peace in this region ..... but I also know that the only way to start is by creating a critical mass of people working together for a positive change.

¡Viva Juanes, and all the other artists who participated in the Concierto por la Paz sin Fronteras! Let's hope the positive spirit generated here carries over into more positive action in the future, by each and every person who attended the concert ... or watched it on TV ... or saw it on the internet ... or read about it in this blog.

Geraldo Rivera vs. Bill O'Reilly on immigration

2008-03-04T17:02:00.015-05:00

VERY worth viewing .... wow. EXCELLENT. Good for Geraldo ... he is so
right that racism is at the heart of this debate.

In the middle of this first clip, listen to what O'Reilly says when Geraldo compares the Irish, English, etc. getting 76% of the visas
allowed in 1924, while the Italians got 3% and the Mexicans got 0%. Go
to minute 2:38 to see the O'Reilly response ..... !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I literally jumped out of my chair when I heard what O'Reilly said -- ask my friend Liz, who was with me -- and wanted to reach through the screen and grab him. I am still speechless.)

Geraldo vs. O'Reilly, Clip 1

In the second clip, they really go at each other.

Geraldo vs. O'Reilly, Clip 2

For the record .... My grandparents all came here in the early 1900s.
It happened to be "legal" at the time. But had it been "illegal" ....
I'm sure they would have found a way to come anyway. In one case they
were literally starving (no work, no food, no future, no hope, etc. in
Sicily) and in the other they were victims of religious persecution
(Jews from Russia and Poland). People don't come here to take advantage
and be criminals ... they come here to make a future for themselves and
for their families. And in the process, they make enormous contributions to this nation.

As Rivera very clearly points out, racism and xenophobia have always been part of the immigration debate. So perhaps it is the triumph of hope over experience when I say that I sincerely hope that this negative propaganda will stop, and that these racist attitudes and policies will start to change, once the administration does.

In the meantime, I will continue to promote positive messages about the mix of languages and cultures that enrich our lives, our nation, and our world.

And I will be heading out to my local bookstore for the book "His Panic", by Geraldo Rivera ...

Hostages released in Colombia

2008-01-10T13:13:00.002-05:00

Just saw on my Yahoo news en español that Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzales were released in Colombia after six years of captivity. Let's hope that Ingrid Betancourt is next ... and soon.

Here is the text of a letter from her, written on October 24, 2007.

Bogotá

A Continuación se publica la carta que Ingrid Betancourt le envió a su madre, después de cinco años y nueve meses de permanecer secuestrada por las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc).
Se incluyen aclaraciones necesarias, entre paréntesis, para que el lector sepa a quienes se refiere Betancourt, al mencionar a sus familiares.

"Este es un momento muy duro para mí. Piden pruebas de supervivencia a quemarropa y aquí estoy escribiéndote mi alma tendida sobre este papel. Estoy mal físicamente. No he vuelto a comer, el apetito se me bloqueó, el pelo se me cae en grandes cantidades.
No tengo ganas de nada. Creo que eso es lo único que está bien, no tengo ganas de nada porque aquí en esta selva la única respuesta a todo es 'no'. Es mejor, entonces, no querer nada para quedar libre al menos de deseos. Hace 3 años estoy pidiendo un diccionario enciclopédico para leer algo, aprender algo, mantener la curiosidad intelectual viva. Sigo esperando que al menos, por compasión, me faciliten uno, pero es mejor no pensar en eso.
De ahí para adelante, cualquier cosa es un milagro, hasta oírte por las mañanas porque el radio que tengo es muy viejo y dañado.
Quiero pedirte mamita linda que le digas a los niños que quiero que me manden tres mensajes semanales (...) Nada trascendental, sino lo que puedan y se les ocurra escribir de afán (...) No necesito nada más, pero necesito estar en contacto con ellos. Es la única información vital, trascendental, imprescindible, lo demás ya no me importa (...).
Como te decía, la vida aquí no es vida, es un desperdicio lúgubre de tiempo. Vivo o sobrevivo en una hamaca tendida entre dos palos, cubierta con un mosquitero y con una carpa encima, que oficia de techo, con lo cual puedo pensar que tengo una casa.
Tengo una repisa donde pongo mi equipo, es decir, el morral con la ropa y la Biblia que es mi único lujo. Todo listo para salir corriendo. Aquí nada es propio, nada dura, la incertidumbre y la precariedad son la única constante. En cualquier momento dan la orden de empacar y duerme uno en cualquier hueco, tendido en cualquier sitio, como cualquier animal (...) Me sudan las manos y se me nubla la mente y termino haciendo las cosas dos veces más despacio que lo normal. Las marchas son un calvario porque mi equipo es muy pesado y no puedo con él (...) Pero todo es estresante, se pierden mis cosas o me las quitan, como el bluyin que Mela (su hija Mélanie) me había regalado en Navidad, con el que me cogieron. Lo único que he podido salvar es la chaqueta, ha sido una bendición, porque las noches son heladas y no he tenido más que echarme encima.
Antes disfrutaba cada baño en el río. Como soy la única mujer del grupo, me toca prácticamente vestida: shorts, brasier, camiseta, botas. Antes me gustaba nadar en el río, hoy ni siquiera tengo alientos para eso. Estoy débil, friolenta, parezco un gato acercándose al agua. Yo que tanto he adorado el agua, ni me reconozco. (...) Pero desde que separaron los grupos no he tenido el interés ni la energía para hacer nada. Hago algo de estiramiento porque el estrés me bloquea el cuello y duele mucho.
Con los ejercicios de estiramiento, el split y demás logro aliviar un poco la tensión en el cuello. (...) Yo trato de guardar silencio, hablo lo menos posible para evitar problemas. La presencia de una mujer en medio de tantos prisioneros que llevan 8 y 10 años cautivos es un problema (...) En las requisas le quitan a uno lo que uno más quiere. Una carta que me llegó tuya me la quitaron después de la última prueba de supervivencia en el 2003. Los dibujos de Natasha y Stanis (Anastasia y Stanislao, sobrinos de Ingrid), las fotos de Mela y Loli (Lorenzo, hijo de Ingrid), el escapulario de mi papá, un programa de gobierno con 190 puntos, todo me lo quitaron. Cada día me queda menos de mí misma. Algunos detalles ya Pinchao te los contó (Jean Pinchao, subintendente de la Policía, que escapó después de ocho años secuestrado por las Farc). Todo es duro.
Es importante que le dedique estas líneas a aquellos seres que son mi oxígeno, mi vida. A quienes me mantienen con la cabeza fuera del agua, no dejan ahogarme en el olvido, la nada y la desesperanza. Ellos son tu, mis hijos, Astrica (su hermana Astrid) y mis chiquitines, Fab (Fabrice Delloye, el padre de sus hijos), tía Nancy y Juangui.
Todos los días estoy en comunicación con Dios, Jesús y la Virgen (...) Aquí todo tiene dos caras, la alegría viene y luego el dolor.
La felicidad es triste. El amor alivia y abre heridas nuevas... es vivir y morir de nuevo. Durante años no pude pensar en los niños y el dolor de la muerte de mi papá copaba toda la capacidad de aguante. Llorando pensaba en ellos, sentía que me asfixiaba, que no podía respirar. Entre mí me decía: Fab está ahí, él cuida de todo, no hay que pensarlo ni hay que pensar. Casi me enloquezco con la muerte de mi papá. Nunca supe cómo fue, quiénes estaban, si me dejó un mensaje, una carta, una bendición. Pero lo que ha aliviado mi tormenta es pensar que se fue confiando en Dios y que allá volveré a abrazarlo. De eso estoy segura. Sentirte fuerte ha sido mi fuerza. Yo no vi mensajes sino hasta que me unieron con Lucho, Luis Eladio Pérez (congresista colombiano que se encuentra secuestrado por las Farc), el 22 de agosto del 2003. Fuimos amigos entrañables, nos separamos en agosto. Pero durante ese tiempo él fue mi apoyo, mi escudero, mi hermano (...).
Tengo en mi memoria cada una de las edades (de mis hijos). En cada cumpleaños les canto el Happy Birthday. Solicito que me permitan hacer una torta. Pero desde hace tres años siempre que pido, la respuesta es no. Igual, si traen una galleta o una sopa cualquiera de arroz y fríjol, que es lo usual, con eso hago de cuenta que es una torta y les celebro en mi corazón su cumpleaños.
A mi Melelinga (su hija Mélanie); mi sol de primavera, mi princesa de la constelación del cisne, a ella que tanto adoro, quiero decirte que soy la mamá más orgullosa de esta tierra (...) Y si tuviera que morir hoy, me iría satisfecha con la vida dándole gracias a Dios por mis hijos. Estoy feliz con su master en N.Y. Eso es exactamente lo que yo le hubiera aconsejado (...) Pero ojo, es muy importante que haga su DOCTORADO. En el mundo de hoy, hasta para respirar se necesitan credenciales (...) No me voy a cansar en insitirle a Loli (Lorenzo) y Mela que no claudiquen hasta obtener su PhD. Quisiera que Mela me lo prometiera (...).
Siempre te he dicho que eres lo mejor, mucho mejor que yo, algo así como la mejor versión de lo que yo quisiera ser. Por eso, con la experiencia que he acumulado en mi vida y en la perspectiva que da el mundo mirarlo desde la distancia, te pido mi vida que te prepares para llegar a la cumbre.
A mi Lorenzo, mi Loli Pop, mi ángel de luz, mi rey de aguas azules, mi chief musician que me canta, y me encanta, al dueño de mi corazón, quiero decirle que desde el día en que nació hasta hoy ha sido mi manantial de alegrías. Todo lo que viene de él es bálsamo para mi alma, todo me reconforta, todo me apacigua, me da placer y placidez.
Al fin pude oírle la voz, un par de veces este año. Me dio temblor de la emoción. Es mi Loli, la voz de mi niño, pero ya hay otro hombre encima de la voz de niño. Una ronquera de hombre-hombre, como la de mi papá. (...) El otro día recorté una foto en la prensa, que llegó de casualidad. Es una propaganda de un perfume de Carolina Herrera '212 Sexy men'. Sale un muchacho joven y pensé: así debe estar mi Lorenzo. Y la guardé
(...) Tienen la vida pendiente, busquen llegar a lo más alto, estudiar es crecer, no solo por lo que se aprende intelectualmente, sino por la experiencia humana, la gente alrededor de uno que lo alimenta emocionalmente para tener cada día mayor control sobre uno mismo, y espiritualmente, para moldear un mayor carácter de servicio a los demás, donde el ego se reduzca a su más mínima expresión y se crezca en humildad y fuerza moral. Una va con otra. Eso es vivir, crecer para servir (...).
A mi Sebastián adorado, mi pequeño príncipe de viajes astrales y ancestrales. ¡Tanto que quiero decirle! Primero, que no quiero irme de este mundo sin que él tenga el conocimiento, la certeza y la confirmación de que no son 2, sino 3 mis hijos del alma (...) Pero con él tendré que desenredar años de silencios que me pesan demasiado desde el cautiverio. Decidí que mi color favorito es el azul de sus ojos (...). Por si acaso no llego a salir de aquí, te lo escribo para que lo guardes en tu alma, mi Babon adorado, y para que entiendas, lo que yo entendí cuando tus hermanos nacieron, y es que siempre te he querido como al hijo que eres y que Dios me dio. Los demás son formalidades.
Yo sé que Fab ha sufrido mucho por mí. Pero que su sufrimiento tenga alivio en saber que él ha sido fuente de paz para mí. (...) Dile a Fab que en él me recuesto, sobre sus hombros lloro, en él me apoyo para seguir sonriendo de tristeza, su amor me hace fuerte. Porque está él al frente de las necesidades de mis hijos, puedo terminar de respirar sin que me duela tanto la vida.
A mi Astrica, tantas cosas que no sé por donde empezar. De pronto decirle que su ‘hojita de vida’ me salvó durante el primer año de secuestro, durante el año de duelo de mi papá. (...)
Necesito hablar con ella de todos estos momentos, y abrazarla y llorar hasta que se me agote el pozo de lágrimas que tengo en el cuerpo. En todo lo que hago durante el día está ella como referencia. Siempre pienso, ‘Esto lo hacía con Astrid cuando éramos chiquitas’, o ‘esto lo hacía Astrid mejor que yo’ (...) La he oído varias veces por radio. Siento mucha admiración por su impecable expresión, por la calidad de su reflexión, por el dominio de sus emociones, por la elegancia de sus sentimientos. La oigo y pienso: ‘Yo quiero ser así’ (...). Me imagino cómo gozan con Anastasia y Stanis. Como me ha dolido que me quitaran sus dibujos. El poema de Anastasia decía, ‘por un golpe de suerte, por un golpe de magia o de Dios, en tres años o 3 días estarás de vuelta con nosotros’. El dibujo de Stanis era un rescate con helicóptero, yo dormida en una caleta igualita a las de aquí, y él era mi salvador.

Mamita, son tantas las personas a las cuales quiero darles las gracias por acordarse de nosotros, por no habernos abandonado. Durante mucho tiempo hemos sido como los leprosos que afean el baile, los secuestrados no somos un tema "políticamente correcto", suena mejor decir que hay que ser fuertes frente a la guerrilla aún sin sacrificar algunas vidas humanas. Ante eso, el silencio. Solo el tiempo puede abrir las conciencias y elevar los espíritus. Pienso en la grandeza de los Estados Unidos, por ejemplo. Esa grandeza no es el fruto de la riqueza en tierras, materias primas, etc, sino el fruto de la grandeza de alma de los líderes que moldearon la Nación. Cuando Lincoln defendió el derecho a la vida y a la libertad de los esclavos negros de América, también se enfrentó con muchos Floridas y Praderas (es el nombre de los dos pueblos colombianos que la guerrilla ha exigido siempre, que sea despejada de presencia militar, para posibilitar las negociaciones, entre esa guerrilla y el gobierno, para la liberación de los rehenes).
Muchos intereses económicos y políticos que consideraban que eran superiores a la vida y a la libertad de un puñado de negros. Pero Lincoln ganó, y quedó impreso en el colectivo de esa nación la prioridad de la vida del ser humano sobre cualquier otro interés.
En Colombia todavía tenemos que pensar de dónde venimos, quiénes somos y a dónde queremos ir. Yo aspiro a que algún día tengamos esa sed de grandeza que hace surgir a los pueblos de la nada hacia el sol. Cuando seamos incondicionales ante la defensa de la vida y de la libertad de los nuestros, es decir, cuando seamos menos individualistas y más solidarios, menos indiferentes y más comprometidos, menos intolerantes y más compasivos. Entonces ese día seremos la nación grande que todos quisiéramos que fuéramos. Esa grandeza está ahí dormidita en los corazones. Pero los corazones se han endurecido y pesan tanto que no permiten sentimientos elevados. Pero hay mucha gente que yo quisiera agradecer porque están contribuyendo a despertar los espíritus y a engrandecer a Colombia. No puedo mencionarlos a todos pero sí a algunos (...).
Mamita, ay vinieron por las cartas. No voy a alcanzar a escribir todo lo que quisiera. A Piedad y a Chávez todo, todo mi afecto y mi admiración. Nuestras vidas están ahí, en el corazón de ellos, que sé que es grande y valeroso.
Mi corazón también le pertenece a Francia (...) Cuando la noche era la más oscura, Francia fue el faro. Cuando era mal visto pedir nuestra libertad. Francia no se calló. Cuando acusaron a nuestras familias de hacer daño a Colombia, Francia les dio apoyo y consuelo.
No podría creer que es posible salir algún día libre de aquí, si no conociera la historia de Francia y de su pueblo. Le he pedido a Dios que me cubra de la misma fuerza con la que Francia ha sabido soportar la adversidad para sentirme más digna de ser contada entre sus hijos. Quiero a Francia con el alma, las voces de mi ser buscan nutrirse de los componentes de su carácter nacional, siempre buscando guiarse por principios y no por intereses. Quiero a Francia con mi corazón, porque admiro la capacidad de movilización de un pueblo que como Camus entiende que vivir es comprometerse. (...) Todos estos años han sido terribles, pero no creo que podría seguir aún viva sin el compromiso que nos brindaron a todos los que aquí vivimos muertos.
(...) Sé que lo que estamos viviendo está lleno de incognitas, pero la historia tiene su propios tiempos de maduración, y el presidente Sarkozy está parado en el meridiano de la historia. Con el presidente Chávez, el presidente Bush y la solidaridad de todo el continente podríamos presenciar un milagro.
Durante muchos años he pensado que mientras esté viva, mientras siga respirando, tengo que seguir albergando la esperanza. Ya no tengo las mismas fuerzas, ya me cuesta mucho trabajo seguir creyendo, pero quería que sientan que lo que han hecho por nosotros marca la diferencia. Nos hemos sentido seres humanos (...). Mamita tendría más cosas para decirte. Explicarte que hace tiempo no tengo noticias de Clara y de su bebé (...). Bueno, mamita, Dios nos ayude, nos guíe, nos dé paciencia y nos cubra. Por siempre y para siempre”.

Priceless ....

2007-12-07T15:19:00.004-05:00

Like the Chávez cartoon below, this wouldn't be funny if it weren't so true. And the fact that it is true isn't funny at all. Still, enjoy the laugh!

¿Por qué no te callas?

2007-12-01T10:21:00.003-05:00

It's the #1 ringtone in Spain, the top phrase on T-shirts in Venezuela, and now a great cartoon.

The cartoon is funny. Too bad the situation in Venezuela isn't.

Why I Love Teaching

2007-10-19T22:50:00.000-04:00

I love teaching because I love the kids, I love the language, I love sharing my passion for it all .... and because I just can't make this stuff up.

On the midterm this week, the students had to define the word "antepasado," which means "ancestor."

One student wrote:

El antepasado - "El antepasado es una comida muy deliciosa."

I guess he was confusing it with antipasto?

I don't know, but it made my week. (Maybe I'm just tired and a little punchy after grading all those midterms?)

BBC Mundo Interview

2007-10-18T11:13:00.000-04:00

I was so thrilled by BBC Mundo's "¿Hablas español?" project that I blogged about it several times, and wrote them a number of messages and comments along their route.

It turns out that one of my main comments (and the main focus of many of my blog posts, my videos, my teaching, my writing, and my mission in general) - that Spanish is no longer a foreign language in the United States - became the main slogan or theme of their trip.

So I was delighted when José Baig, the coordinator of the project, wrote to me and asked if he could interview me about teaching Spanish in the United States.

Here's the result ....

And you can now continue to follow José's observations on the impact of Spanish in the English-speaking world, on the BBC Mundo "¿Hablas español?" blog.

José says they will be returning to the United States next year for a "¿Tú también hablas español?" tour. I'm looking forward to meeting them this time!

¡¡¡ Maná at Madison Square Garden !!!!

2007-10-11T18:46:00.001-04:00

AMAZING concert ....

.... and what an opening!

When the wall exploded, the Garden went wild.

(This video is from the Chicago concert.)

These guys have been around for over 20 years (really, almost 30), and I'm so glad they've stuck together. They just keep getting better and better.

The One Semester of Spanish Love Song

2007-09-29T23:13:00.000-04:00

I can't stop laughing at this .... and you know what? It really shows how much you can communicate with some very simple words!

Just say Hola!

2007-09-15T17:53:00.000-04:00

September is always such a busy month, with many new beginnings ... especially this year, when this month began with taking my oldest child to college on the opposite coast and then starting a new university-level teaching position ....

And speaking of new beginnings, I have always said that just as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, the road to fluency in Spanish begins with a single word: Hola.

So I was delighted to read about an initiative to start a new holiday: "Hola Day", started by Myelita Melton, a Spanish teacher in North Carolina.

Celebrated on October 1st, right in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15th through October 15th), Hola Day is designed to foster a greater appreciation for the use of the Spanish language in the US. It honors both native speakers and non-native speakers who commit themselves to learning Spanish as a second language and using it in their daily lives.

Many communities and states across the United States are signing on, with a proclamation.

“Participating in Hola Day is simple,” says Melton. “We are asking everyone in America to say something in Spanish to someone else on Oct. 1. What you say can be as simple as ‘hola’ and ‘adiós’ or as complicated as you wish. Also, the person you speak to doesn’t have to speak Spanish; the whole point is that you do.”

I love the idea, even if I didn't think of it myself! Myelita definitely gets my Viva la Chispa award!

New op-ed published

2007-09-05T12:55:00.000-04:00

Is advertising coffee in a foreign language really going to undermine our culture and our values? (If so, someone had better tell Starbucks to take the words “grande” and “macchiato” off its menu.)

Do really we need a law to tell us that English is the primary language of this country?

And are we really threatened by bilingual families, when most bilingual children spend the majority of their day speaking English?

Apparently, some people would answer "yes" to all of the above.

My latest op-ed, All Languages Spoken Here, was just published today, and is about precisely this issue ... and how the escalating discrimination and negativity against immigrants and their languages is hastening the loss of the precious linguistic and cultural resources of our immigrant communities -- precisely at the time when we need those resources most.

By the way, the "Bogota" mentioned in the article is Bogota, New Jersey (not Bogotá, Colombia).

Because of space limitations, I couldn't include more about the personal losses that go along with this loss of language, or about how strongly I feel that everyone should be studying foreign languages, learning about other cultures, and increasing both their local and their global multicultural awareness. Fortunately, there was another op-ed in the same paper yesterday about promoting multicultural education, so at least that point of view is out there at the same time. I'll write more about the personal losses - what I see as the loss of culture, identity and soul - at a later point.

An interesting coincidence is that I wrote this article, mentioning Bogota's mayor who took offense at the "café helado" sign, a few weeks ago. And then yesterday, I found this article in the New York Times, about how Steve Lonegan - Bogota mayor and immigration opponent - is the brother of Bryan Lonegan, immigration rights activist ... and they are the grandsons of an Italian immigrant. VERY interesting article.

I start a new Spanish teaching position on Friday, and I hope I will still have time to write about the intersection of language, culture, identity and soul ... issues which are all so important to me.

Spanish lessons in San Diego

2007-09-02T21:55:00.000-04:00

I just got back from San Diego, and as always when I'm in the Southwest - and especially California - I feel like the entire experience is a Spanish lesson.

And I'm not even talking about how much Spanish you may hear on the streets or on the television or radio. Just the street and town names alone would be a great vocabulary practice.

In fact, I have often done a matching game in my classes, to help them see that many names that they may think of as just town names or place names (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Amarillo, etc. -and my personal favorite - Cape Canaveral, from cañaveral - sugar cane field) and even state names (Colorado, Nevada, Florida, etc.) actually have a real meaning in Spanish.

And not only is it a great vocabulary lesson; it also gives them an opportunity to see how the Southwest and Florida were originally colonized ... and by whom.

Latinos Describe “How I Learned English” in New Essay Collection

2007-08-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

I just found this on Hispanic Trending .... great article, and I'm buying the book today ....

It's interesting that this book touches on two things that I'm writing about -- the fact that immigrants DO learn English (despite anti-immigrant rhetoric to the contrary -- and often at the cost of their original language), and also the fact that many bilinguals feel completely different in one language than in another. Which leads me to ask, if bilinguals are different in the two languages, and then one of those languages gets lost ... what happens to that part of the person's identity that was tied to the original language?

By the way, I know all about those embarrassing mistakes you can make when learning a language ... or even when you know a language, thanks to all the wonderful regional differences in Spanish! I found out the hard way that in Venezuela, you can't say "cuchara" when you want a spoon .... let's just say that I definitely don't recommend that you go out to a nice dinner in Venezuela with a big group of people, and ask for two desserts and eight cucharas ..... it was pretty funny when my friend told me later what I had said.

We do need to keep a sense of humor when we're learning ... and remember that the important thing is, we're learning!

---------------------------------------------------------

Latinos Describe “How I Learned English” in New Essay Collection

August 27, 2007
By Jenny Shank

When I was six years old, I began taking a bus to my assigned public elementary school west of Mile High Stadium, about a thirty-minute ride away from my southeast Denver home. At school I encountered an entirely different world from that of my neighborhood: many of my classmates were the children of immigrants, and while classes were taught in English, the school encouraged expressions of different cultures and the use of Spanish language.

On one wall was a mural of an image taken from the Mexican flag, an eagle with a snake in its beak, perched on a cactus. If you behaved especially well, the teacher might choose you to wear the “Ayudante” jean jacket for the week, and give you some tickets that could be exchanged for marvelous junk at the Cinco de Mayo carnival. I don’t remember a time before I knew the story of La Llorona, which I must have heard the Mexican-American kids telling on the playground. So it was with great interest that I read How I Learned English, a new anthology edited by Tom Miller featuring 55 short essays by Latinos who made the same journey my classmates did, from the Spanish-speaking world into the English-speaking world.

PBS NewsHour regular Ray Suarez writes in his introduction that “learning a language begins a passage to another way of seeing the world and speaking it into existence.” Some of the writers struggled to learn English, while others arrived in the United States as children and soaked the language up, perhaps losing their previous fluency in Spanish in the process, as novelist Francisco Goldman did. (He once listened to a tape recording of himself as a child, and writes, “It was strange to be a college student, listening to your four-year-old self do something that you couldn’t do anymore: speak fluent Spanish.")

Changing a language can change one’s worldview or even one’s personality, as University of Michigan anthropology professor Ruth Behar writes: “They tell me I was a nonstop talker, una cotorrita. But after we arrived in the United States I became shy, silent, sullen. I have no memory of myself as a little girl speaking Spanish in Cuba.” I have observed the personality changes that using different languages can bring first hand--my husband was born in New York to French parents, and learned English as a second language, in part from Sesame Street. When he speaks in French, he is typically more of a social papillon than he is when he speaks in English.

Most of the writers in this collection entered the American educational system before the Chicano rights movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s brought about changes that welcomed multiculturalism (like that mural on my elementary school’s wall), and so several writers report that a teacher asked their parents to speak in English at home to promote the children’s fluency.

This is what happened to the incisive essayist Richard Rodriguez in the excerpt included from his book Hunger of Memory. “As a socially disadvantaged child,” he writes, “I considered Spanish to be a private language. What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right--and the obligation--to speak the public language of los gringos.” Rodriguez was shy and mumbled in class until the day when three nuns from the school visited his family’s house and suggested they practice English at home. His parents declared the nuns’ suggestion a rule, and Rodriguez’s English flourished, though not without regret for the loss of his family’s private Spanish world. “The spell was broken,” he writes.

Even when immersed in the English language, it’s not easy to learn all of the idioms and rules of English, as Richard Lederer and Josh White Jr. note in their piece, “English Is Cuh-ray-zee.” “If the teacher taught,” they write, “why isn’t it true that a preacher praught?”

“How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same/ When a wise man and a wise guy are very different?”

In several of the essays, the writers remember language mistakes they made that caused great confusion. Alvaro Vargas Llosa writes that he learned English “the hard way--that is, wrenching my guts out with books, tapes, video courses, and that irreplaceable method, the humiliation of real-life trial and error.” He learned Spanish from his Peruvian parents, then picked up French before he began to study English at a boarding school in Britain. While there, he had an English girlfriend, and he recounts this sad and funny incident:

“After not seeing her for a few weeks, I wanted to tell her that I missed her. When I said to her, ‘I regret you,’ anglicizing the French word for missing someone, she looked at me in horror and spat out something like: ‘You are not a gentleman.’ We never saw each other again.”

Although many of the writers had fun learning English through television, movies, and music (as did Gigi Anders, who watched Captain Kangaroo and The Lucy Show, and congressman José Serrano, who listened to Frank Sinatra records), a common theme is how hard one must work to master and maintain a language. Miami Herald journalist Enrique Fernández taught college Spanish at one point, and writes, “From that experience I found out that a foreign language can be learned and that some people can learn it, while others can’t no matter how hard they try.”

Many writers note that English is a language that opens the world to them, and the image of the stubborn immigrant who doesn’t want to learn English is belied by the stories in this book. Ray Suarez writes about Samuel Huffington’s Foreign Policy essay, “Jose, Can You See?” in which “he peers into the future and sees native-born English speakers as an embattled minority.” Suarez observes that Huffington “looks at Latino American and totally misses the night school classes” and “the endless hours of ads for English-language home study kits.”

It would be interesting if How I Learned English were to be updated twenty years from now with stories from younger bilinguals, because while many writers in this collection were encouraged to cast off their old language, today there is more interest in keeping multiple languages alive. What will the English language become as more Spanish speakers learn it and more Latinos join the U.S. population?

Judging from the determination of the essayists in How I Learned English, English will continue to be the potent global language that it is today, though Spanglish might become an important secondary tongue as American English continues to fold in the words of the native languages of its population. I, for one, don’t see anything ominous in this potential development. That’s what living languages do: they change.

How I Learned English: 55 Accomplished Latinos Recall Lessons in Language and Life
Ed. Tom Miller
National Geographic Books
266 pages, $16.95

Source: New West Books and Writers

Does he spit in the bath? (and more from a medical Spanish phrase book ...)

2007-08-28T11:12:00.000-04:00

Phrase books are a funny thing. They have to anticipate situations and then provide just the right sentence to address that situation.

Sometimes I'm just surprised at the situations that the authors of the book have anticipated.

I posted a while back about the book, "Hindi Made Easy," that my family had somehow acquired when we lived in New Delhi when I was a child. The book was one that had been given to British soldiers during the original occupation of India ... and included phrases that soon became famous in our household: "Let us set fire to the village", and "That man is a horse thief."

Shocking as it was, that book offered a glimpse into another era, and the attitudes of that time.

I wasn't prepared to be quite so surprised when I bought a Spanish medical phrase book for my friend, who is entering a new phase of her life and starting medical school next week. She wanted to be able to connect with her future patients, since she will be living, studying and working in a community where Spanish is prevalent.

But a few sentences in the book did jump out at me, and made me wonder what kinds of situations the authors were anticipating ...

Ellos rezan mucho. - They pray a lot.

Me gusta ver el cielo. - I like to see the sky.

No puede oler la medicina. - He can't smell the medicine.

El no patea la puerta. - He doesn't kick the door.

El escupe en el baño. - He spits in the bath.

Surprisingly (to me), my friend didn't think some of these were so unusual. "I could see that coming up in a psych evaluation," she noted.

And she's right - these aren't phrases that I would normally use, but perhaps they will come in handy for her. And if they do, she will be prepared ....

Are you involved in a Heritage Language Program?

2007-08-27T11:50:00.000-04:00

Just got this from the Heritage Language Listserve .... if you are involved in a K-12 and/or community-based heritage language program, the Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages would like to make sure you are in their database ... (by the way, "LCTL" stands for "Less Commonly Taught Languages").

The Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages (the Alliance)
consists of individuals and organizations dedicated to the preservation
of heritage languages for cultural, social, educational, economic and
national security purposes. The Alliance is committed to working
together to enable heritage language speakers to attain high proficiency in
their heritage languages while also developing English literacy.

The Alliance is hosted by the Center for Applied Linguistics in
Washington DC, and is collecting profiles of heritage language programs in
K-12 and community-based settings. They are particularly hoping to enhance
the number of LCTLs represented in that database, so as to have a more
complete network in which ideas regarding heritage language programs
are exchanged and strengthened. Please learn more about the work of the
Heritage Alliance (www.cal.org/heritage) and enter a program profile at
the following link: http://www.cal.org/heritage/profiles/submit.html.
You can contact us regarding questions or suggestions related to
heritage education or the work of the Alliance through email:
heritage@cal.org. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Reaction to "Who is a Latino"

2007-08-26T13:10:00.000-04:00

Well, that's why they call them opinion pieces ....

In addition to a number of positive responses, I also received one very negative reaction to my "Who is a Latino" piece, by someone who felt I oversimplified the issue, disrespected the reality of the Latino experience, and basically "Disney-fied" being Latino.

I can see the author's point, and obviously, generalizations about any culture can never be fully true. But I do enjoy, and observe, and write about my personal experiences in those cultures and what they mean to me.

Like many people who speak more than one language, I find I have a different personality and a different experience depending on the language or culture in which I’m operating – and part of this essay comes from these observations. My experience in Spanish is different from my experience in English – and yes, I enjoy what I call the Latinidad of that – and my experience in Italian is also quite different. In fact, I’m researching and writing on this subject to try to delve more into these issues.

One of my goals, through my writing and my work, is to counteract the negativity against other languages and cultures in this country (which has always existed, and is escalating alarmingly now). I try to do that by putting out positive messages that celebrate the contributions of all languages and cultures here.

I am the grandchild of immigrants who had all of their language and culture boiled away by the melting pot … the language disappeared, and only a few cultural traditions remained (in my family, that consisted of a few recipes and not much more).

It saddens me to see the same trend continued today, whether it’s due to xenophobic attitudes or just the overwhelming weight of societal pressure and pop culture. There's a great loss for our country in terms of our linguistic and cross-cultural expertise (very important for our future in the global market), and a huge loss for our society, which is so enriched by our combination of heritages... but there’s also a long-term personal loss as well. Many heritage language learners, including myself, have gone back to try to find the piece of their identity or soul that was lost in that process.

So I will continue to write it as I see it, and as I experience it. It’s my way of honoring the cultures that I came from, the languages that my family lost, and the multicultural and multilingual reality that I would like to see this country achieve.

Ich bin ein Latino!

2007-08-22T14:36:00.000-04:00

I have a new catchphrase that I am going to start spreading around: "ICH BIN EIN LATINO." If we all said that, then they REALLY couldn't deport us all! (Kind of like JFK showing his solidarity for Berlin, or that story about the King of Denmark making everyone wear a yellow star of David to thwart the Nazis ... which, apparently, is not a true story, but it should be ....)

By the way, my essay on "Who is a Latino" has just been posted up on Hispanic Tips and American Taíno. As I note in that essay – and as my new catchphrase reaffirms – we could all use a little Latinidad.

Who is a Latino?

2007-08-22T13:41:00.000-04:00

L.A. Law actress Michele Greene.

Supermodel Christy Turlington.

Wonder Woman Lynda Carter.

Baseball legend Ted Williams.

New Mexico Governor – and presidential candidate – Bill Richardson.

What do these individuals have in common?

Their American-sounding last names – and their Latino cultural heritage.

I call them "Latinos incognitos," because at first glance, they might not easily be recognized as Hispanic. With Anglo fathers and Latina mothers, the institution of marriage automatically hid the Latino heritage of all these individuals – at least on paper.

As a result, they certainly don’t “sound” Latino. They may not even “look” Latino, either. So are they really Latinos?

Because of his name and his part-Anglo heritage, Bill Richardson has been accused of being “not Latino enough.” But at the same time, he is also accused of being “too Latino,” trying to leverage his Hispanic heritage for political gain.

The reality, of course, is that Bill Richardson is Latino, and he is Anglo. The two cultures are not mutually exclusive – although they are often treated as such. When was the last time you saw a box for “multicultural” on any official form? Our society does not easily accept the middle ground between two heritages.

On official forms, as in life, bicultural Latinos are pressured to choose. And inevitably, they will receive criticism for their choices. Kevin Johnson (another Latino incognito), in his memoir, How Did You Get to Be Mexican, recalls being accused in college of “checking the box” as a Latino to get preferential treatment, but not being “Latino enough” to back it up with political activism.

Even Latinos with two Latino parents can have their Latinidad challenged. A dear friend of mine, who proudly describes herself as Puerto Rican, was often made to feel less so by her native Puerto Rican peers in New Jersey, because she wasn’t “born on the island.” Another friend who doesn't "look" Latina recalls that the only way she could convince her Hispanic classmates that she was indeed Latina was to tell them she watched Walter Mercado's horoscopes with her grandmother.

But who is a Latino, anyway?

Is it someone who is born in this country, a descendant of the original Spanish settlers?

Is a Latino someone whose family immigrated from a Spanish-speaking country and created a home here?

Can you be a Latino without a Hispanic name? Without speaking Spanish? Without a direct connection to your heritage?

What makes someone a Latino?

It’s certainly not just the name, despite the U.S. Census’ original method of counting Latinos by using the category “Hispanic surname.” Where does that leave Governor Bill Richardson or Michele Greene (who, as a bilingual singer/songwriter, recently released her second CD, Luna Roja, in both English and Spanish)?

Language helps – but you don’t even have to speak Spanish to be a Latino (and a growing number of Latinos don’t). The reverse, however, can be true – you can start to feel Latino just by speaking Spanish. There is something in the sound of the language, the words themselves, that bring Latinidad to those who choose to celebrate its beauty, its richness, and its innate poetry.

Those who learn Spanish in order to bark orders at employees or simply to fulfill a foreign language requirement are not likely to feel it, though. Here, intention is everything.

To me, being a Latino is more than just a language or a last name, or even what country you came from or can trace your roots to. Being a Latino is about a feeling, an attitude, a connection to life and culture and family and music, and a desire to experience it all to its fullest.

And to me, being a Latino means living life with sabor, and taking the time to appreciate and enjoy everything – and everyone – that makes life worth living.

And we can all use a little bit of that Latinidad.

Chispa in LATINA Magazine – Teaching Spanish to Your Children

2007-08-20T13:15:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I was contacted by LATINA Magazine's Lifestyle Editor for an article on encouraging your children to speak Spanish.

Well, the magazine is out, and I'm quoted in it ...

We spoke at length, and it was a shame that the feature she was writing could only be 300 words! The article is concise and well written, but I would like to add a few tips that we had discussed. (And these points are equally valid for Spanish teachers or for anyone who wants to learn or improve their Spanish.)

1. Start as early as you can ... but it's never too late!

Yes, I said in the article (only half-jokingly!) that kids should start learning languages "in utero." But that doesn't mean that if you start when your child is 10 or older, you've lost your opportunity. I am proof of that - I didn't start learning Spanish until high school, and I now speak with near-native fluency. (And I am still learning and improving every day.) Anyone can learn at any age. Of course, it's easier for young children, but don't let that stop you if they - and you! - are older. Being an older learner has its own advantages. So yes, start as early as you can ... but it is never, ever too late!

2. Immerse, immerse, immerse! Create a language-rich environment in your home - and don't forget your community....

Family, friends, games, music, books, culturally authentic television shows and videos ... keep the language alive by using it and making it an enjoyable and "siempre presente" part of your daily lives. Try a game with post-it notes - write the names of household objects and label things around the house (watch out for el gato, though!). And don't forget your community! Of course, it's great to take the kids back to a Spanish-speaking country, if you can ... but if you can't, you can probably still find that same type of language immersion experience right in your own town or close by.

3. Make Spanish fun for yourself and your child.

Tie learning to an interest that your child has, or that you and your kids have in common. Do you like cooking? Bicycling? Reading? Legos? Do it in Spanish! Nancy Marmolejo created a fun game with her young daughter, where they each have a Spanish "persona", and when they're in character, they can only speak Spanish.

Remember, the key to any learning is motivation. If it's fun, they're motivated. If it's done in a way that produces stress, then the brain goes into defensive mode, and cannot absorb new information (it's called the affective filter, and I won't bore you with the details, but it is one thing I remember from all those educational theory classes I took, and the one I most agree with). I think it can be counterproductive to force the issue and make children respond in Spanish when they're not ready to do so. Trust that if you are providing as much exposure as you can, the kids are absorbing the language – and eventually they will produce it on their own (sometimes when you least expect it!).

4. Be proud of sharing your language and heritage with your child, and don't beat yourself up if they're not perfectly bilingual yet!

It's common for bilingual children to respond to their parents in English. Some parents may feel discouraged by this. Rest assured that if they are responding to you, they understand you - and that means the language is programmed into their minds. When they need it and are motivated, they will find a way to use it.

The Chispa Spanish thematic units I'm creating are designed to provide maximum exposure, make learning fun, and highlight Latino culture and heritage at the same time. And just as I tell teachers, "These are not babysitting videos" – i.e., these are not materials to put in the DVD player and let the kids passively watch – the same is true for families. These are active learning tools, with accompanying enrichment activities for parents and children to enjoy together.

So check out Chispa and LATINA magazine this month!

Xenoglossophobia*

2007-08-18T19:53:00.001-04:00

*Xenoglossophobia - fear of foreign languages

I'm writing a new op-ed about immigration and the real linguistic danger ... i.e., not the fact that immigrant languages are "taking over," but rather that they are being lost .... and I cited the story of my friend, who was chided at her own son's birthday party for speaking to him in Spanish.

I wondered how many other Spanish-speakers (or speakers of any language, really) had received similar treatment, so I put out a call on the Las Comadres New York network.

Here is a sampling of some of the responses I received:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a very interesting subject. I have to say that in my case, I've got all kinds of looks when I speak Spanish - some good, but most bad, especially from very ignorant Americans. I am a blond, blue eyed woman who gets very good reception until I open my mouth, and then I get the " you don't look Spanish" or "What language is that?" When I say it is Spanish, people say it sounds different. I think that they cannot believe a very American looking woman can be Spanish and be proud of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a really touchy point in my psyche. Adversion to Spanish speaker is not a new issue, especially on the West Coast. I am in my early 40's, second generation on my father's side, third generation mother's side, we were discouraged in a socially condoned approach (as were many before me). I am Mexican, Spanish, Native American - both my parents were bilingual. I have written stories (unpublished) about my experiences growing up being told not to speak Spanish.

As a Chicana, I consider it important to contextualize the reality that it is not just recent immigrants and/or immigrants which have suffered from this racism.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi, yes a few years ago my and my sorority sisters were doing a community service at a church near Columbia University, and we were speaking spanish in between ourselves. The other people at the community service complained and the organizers there told us that we should not speak spanish anymore. What happened to freedom of speech? eh? it never mentioned it was to be only English speech!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has happened to a lot of us. In the midst of "friends", when I have spoken in Spanish, non-Spanish speakers have said "that's rude". I just keep on speaking in Spanish. It is my language and if the more languages we know..the better. I'm so glad you are writing this piece.

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When I was in high school about 6 years ago, I was speaking in Spanish to one of my friends (the classroom was half Hispanic, a third black, the rest South-East Asian, one person was white), and as soon as the ASSISTANT teacher heard me start up a conversation in Spanish, this one time she told me to stop speaking in Spanish, and didn't stop there. Instead she added: "Welcome to America." I feel that her perception of America does not recognize the diversity that we have, and instead, ignorantly rejects it. Secondly, look at the classroom statistics and think about how many other people were offended besides me. I was extremely offended to the point that look how many years have passed and it still bugs me. I wish I would have said something then!

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Thanks for asking about this. I have been chided and have also chided close relatives for speaking Spanish. The situation is the same, usually. My mother used to reprimand me for speaking Spanish when we were in English-speaking company that didn't understand. She found it rude. At first I was offended (but why? Spanish is our language!!), but then I understand that her intention was not to stifle me, but to be inclusive and speak in the language that all of us could participate in. I found myself doing the same to my husband recently when he started a side conversation (already rude) in Spanish with me while we were in company that spoke only English (ruder).

So that's that. I think you have to look at people's intentions when incidents like this happen. We're all doing the best we can and sometimes the question is one of education or misinformation. Perhaps I worry too much about seeming rude to others, but I would rather speak plainly to a family member or close friend than come across as anything less than being clear, comprehensible, and present in the company I might be keeping.

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Soy profesora de español para adultros en Manhattan. Con mi esposo tenemos nuestro propio centro de aprendizaje, y hemos tenido la oportunidad de ver casos muy interesantes relñacionados con el idioma.

El que mas nos llama la atención es el target de estudiantes que llamamos "Spanish Heritage students" cuyas edades oscilan entre los 25 y 40 años. Hijos de hispanos de segunda generación, con características físicas claramente hispanas, que entienden el idioma pero que no lo hablan. Ellos han sido criados por padres (la mayoría con escasos recursos academicos y económicos) que han promovido que sus hijos solo hable inglés por el miedo y complejo de ser estigmatizados o discriminados en sus comunidades por hablar español. Ahora esos mismos niños son los que, en busca de su propia identidad, pagan para aprender lo que sus padres debieron haberles enseñado desde chicos. El tema de hablar español en los hogares es tan importante porque el idioma va relacionado intimamente con la personalidad y la identidad del niño.

Entonces sería interesante que en tu nota detallaras el tema de que muchas veces el que no se hable español en las familias no solamente es por parte de los "blancos" sino por ignorancia y desconocimiento de los propios padres.

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I have a couple of stories for you...they may be too old...meaning they happened in the 60's but I feel must tell you.

May 1965 Brownsville, Texas (a border town) Matamoros being on the other side of elementary school, Ebony
Heights, on Stanford Street. We were alway told NOT to ever speak Spanish at school. We were told this by the teachers and administrators. One afternoon while I was playing in the school yard during recess...there were a couple of girls playing with a ball beside me. They were speaking spanish and having fun. In a moment that I will never forget, a teacher strides over to them and grabs on girl by the arm and slaps her in the face. Everyone on the school yard was stunned. The teacher dragged both of the girls off yelling at them that they are NOT to speak spanish on the school grounds. I felt so bad because I spoke spanish to my grandparents....and this is where another story begins.

Just after that incident. I was, in my mother's place, going to Delaware to my Aunt's wedding. On that trip, travelling through the south, I noticed people looking at my Aunt Yolanda a bit different. She is morena.

But what happened next is very telling. We went to Washington DC and saw all of the monuments...going over our constitution and re-reading how all men are created equal. After that...we went to the New York Worlds Fair. I was in heaven, so I thought. But at one point I said I had to go to the ladies room. My maternal grandomother...who always dressed so elegantly in Christian Dior took me to the bathroom. I went into the stall, I then heard my grandmother ask in Spanish if I was hungry. I answered her in English that I was. She then asked me again in Spanish what I wanted to eat..I answered her in English that I'd like a hamburger. When I walked out of the stall....my very elegant grandmother grabbed me and asked me Why I was speaking to her in english...I said to her that I was speaking in English because we're in the United States. She tightened her grip on me and said to me "Don't you ever feel ashamed of who you are, where your family comes from. You speak two languages. Most people can't even speak one! Never be ashamed of who you are and where you come from! Be proud of your
history".

Whoa....I heard her loud and clear. My ability to speak spanish has helped me in my career. In fact...I feel I should have been paid more for being bi-lingual. I think that is still an issue.

Anyway....I don't know if this is anywhere near what you were really needing...but it's my story.

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Cuando vine a Upstate New York, me encontré con un grupo grande de
amigas españolas. Así es que siempre hablabamos en español.
Cuando estabamos afuera de los "dorms", algunos chicos gritaban:
"English- English."

Por supuesto que seguía hablando español (a mucha honra!)

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It's interesting how this post meshes with the one below, about the BBC reporters travelling across the US for two weeks, speaking only Spanish.

I can very definitely say that this type of attitude is the reason I grew up speaking only English, even though all four of my grandparents were immigrants. The sad thing is, my grandparents immigrated here 100 years ago. How is it possible that these attitudes are still the same, one century later?

And yes, as one writer notes, many heritage language learners are on a search to recapture a part of their soul that was lost, when these languages disappeared.

In my op-ed, I'm writing about how these language capabilities are so necessary to our future economic and political strength as a nation. What I didn't add, but will in a future article, is how this country's soul is in danger as well.

There's so much more to write on this subject ...

The British are coming ... and they're speaking only Spanish!

2007-07-31T10:26:00.001-04:00

"I didn't know there were Hispanic British people."

That's what my son said when I told him him about this fascinating new project by BBC Mundo.

José Baig, a Hispanic affairs correspondent for BBC Mundo, and Carlos Ceresole, a video producer for the Spanish American section of BBC, have just set off on a two-week long trip across the United States with one simple goal in mind: to speak only Spanish during the entire trip.

Their route will begin in San Agustin, Florida and end in Los Angeles California. Along the way, they will be asking everyone they meet, "¿Hablas español?"

You can follow their journey by reading their highly entertaining and informative blog, and communicate with them via email (bbcmundohispano@gmail.com), Skype and Facebook.

I wish they were doing this two months from now, because I would definitely assign their blog – written entirely en español – as required reading for my college students this fall. In fact, I may still do that – especially since my emphasis is always on teaching Spanish through Latino culture and heritage in the US, and celebrating the people and resources we have here, instead of always treating Spanish as a "foreign" language.

In the meantime, I will be following their progress, and wishing them buen viaje y buena suerte ... and I hope you will, too!

The Daily Show's take on English as the Official Language of the United States

2007-07-20T16:12:00.000-04:00

My favorite line .... "OK, give me - 'I'm allergic to penicillin .....'"

Best Educational Blog!

2007-07-16T08:04:00.000-04:00

La Tertulia was nominated for Best Educational Blog!

OK, I did originally nominate myself a month or so ago, but then last week I actually got an email from Blogger's Choice Awards saying that I had been nominated independently. So that seems more official, which is nice ...

At any rate .... Vote for me here!

Let's show Blogger's Choice awards that people care about the Spanish language and Latino cultures .... especially since they don't have awards for Latino-themed, multicultural or multilingual blogs ... yet. (If we show enough interest, hopefully by next year they will!)

When politics mix with fútbol (that wasn't "GOOOOOOOOOOOOL" they were shouting in Venezuela .....)

2007-07-13T11:57:00.000-04:00

The stadium shook as the passionate crowd seemed to unite in one resounding voice at the Copa America soccer match in Maracaibo, Venezuela two weeks ago. A chant was taking hold, and it grew louder and louder as people joined in, clapping and stomping their feet at the same time.

At first, I couldn’t understand what they were saying. The chant had started on the other side of the stadium, in one of the “popular” sections. But as it gained force and moved around to where we were sitting, it became clear.

They were chanting, “RCTV! RCTV! RCTV!”

In late May, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez shut down Venezuela's oldest and most-watched television network, RCTV, saying it sought to undermine his government. Recent polls show that between 70% and 80% of Venezuelans oppose the closing of the station. These figures seemed to be reflected loudly and clearly in the chants coming from the stands.

“RCTV! RCTV! RCTV!”

For a few minutes, even though the game was in full swing, no one was paying attention to the field.

Venezuela is a self-proclaimed “país de béisbol” rather then fútbol. A popular TV commercial acknowledges this fact and then turns it around, showing Minnesota Twins star pitcher Johan Santana playing a pick-up soccer game on the street with a group of children – the tagline says, “In a country of baseball, we also play soccer.”

But the Venezuelans love soccer, too. The newly refurbished stadiums practically glisten with pride, and the country is awash in “Vinotinto” mania, celebrating the national team with wine-colored jerseys and reggaeton songs.

And Venezuelans know it is a privilege to be hosting the oldest international soccer tournament in their home country, and to be watching the best of the best on their fields – especially the Argentine team, with its dazzling footwork and superstar players.

This was an eagerly awaited game, the first time Argentina would appear on the field. Many Venezuelans feel a close connection with Argentina, as evidenced by the sky-blue and white jerseys that filled the stadium. And when Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona appeared in the stands, the crowd went wild.

Yet none of that mattered for those few moments at the Pachencho Romero stadium in Maracaibo two weeks ago.

“RCTV! RCTV! RCTV!”

The voices calmed down – but only briefly. Soon a new, louder chant came up:

“Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!”

On the field, the Argentine team continued to dazzle the US with its lightning-fast footwork, but again, no one was looking at the field. People were looking around at each other, the majority chanting and clapping together, united in passion and purpose.

In a few minutes, the crowd calmed down again, and seemed to return to the business of watching the game.

But the chants weren’t finished. There was one more left – this one, a song that swept through the stadium and reverberated into the night:

“Y va a caer, y va caer, este gobierno va a caer!”

(“It’s going to fall, it’s going to fall, this government is going to fall.”)

The crowd had made its point, and finally the public’s attention returned to the field to watch the end of the game. (Final score: Argentina 4, US 1.)

I went to the Copa America game fully expecting the US team to be booed. The Venezuelan government makes no secret of its disdain for the US and its policies, and quite honestly, much of that disdain is based on a history of some highly indefensible actions on the part of the US in the region. In fact, as a result of that history - and some current
policies as well - anti-Americanism can be considered another popular sport in much of Latin America.

So I was ready for the boos. I braced for them when a parachutist with an American flag landed on the field to open the game, and again when the US team took the field. But the boos never came. Instead, the US was greeted with polite applause. (Of course, the roaring cheers were reserved for the Argentines.)

The only hoots, whistles and boos came when a parachutist with a flag saying “PDVSA” – the Venezuelan national oil company, associated with the Chávez government – landed.

And then there were the chants.

There were many goals scored during the Argentina-US match, and many chances for the crowd to leap to its feet, screaming 'GOOOOOOOOOL!' – which they did, deliriously.

But they had something else to say, too.

And in this match, perhaps the most important points were made not on the field, but in the stands. At the Copa America game between Argentina and the US on June 28, the people may have scored the loudest goal.

My op-ed was published ....

2007-07-06T17:48:00.001-04:00

I got back from a trip to Venezuela last night to find that my op-ed was published on Tuesday!

I wrote about how Bill Richardson and Barack Obama are constantly being accused of being either too Latino or too black, or not Latino or black "enough." This is what biracial and bicultural kids are being faced with every day -- which table to sit at in the cafeteria? The pressure is to choose between one or the other ... but the reality is, they are both ... and the cafeteria needs a new table that reflects that.

My original title was, "Race, Politics and the Middle School Cafeteria." They changed it to, "The futility of classifying ourselves by race."

I do like my title better, but I'm not complaining. Al contrario!

In the meantime, I just wrote another piece entitled "They weren't shouting 'GOOOOOOOOOOL'" about the chants of "RCTV" and "Libertad" at the Copa America games in Maracaibo, Venezuela last Thursday. As it happens, I was there, and it was an amazing moment. Hopefully you will be reading about it in my next published piece .....

When history repeats itself

2007-06-02T14:04:00.000-04:00

Imagine that you grew up in Cuba. Your family fled as the revolution took hold, civil liberties were taken away, and the government put a stranglehold on the nation. You never lost your love or your longing for your patria, but your new country soon became home, and you rebuilt your life and created new dreams and hopes for your own future and that of your children.

Now imagine that the country to which your family fled is Venezuela. And you start to see history repeating itself.

This is what my friend and his family are living through right now. I'll call him "Empalado" because his previous experience has taught him to be cautious about speaking out publicly - and even though he now lives in the US, you never know what the repercussions might be at home.

I asked him what he thought about the US and Spain coming out publicly against Chávez's closing of RCTV, because I am very sensitive to the US sticking its nose in other people's business, partly because of our history (especially in Latin America) and partly because of our present (in Iraq) ... and I wouldn't want to give the Venezuelan government more ammunition and an easy enemy to use as justification for further repression. I wondered if perhaps the protests coming from el pueblo would be more valuable in effecting change than those coming from el extranjero.

Empalado writes ....

Como Cubano-Venezolano que soy y ahora a mucha honra US Gringo, pienso que países como Inglaterra , USA, y otros aliados, tuvieron el valor de ir en contra de un Chávez más grande como era Hitler y dar el todo por el todo y no dejar que el mundo se convirtiera en una película inhumana.

Deseo con todas mis fuerzas las PAZ, y entregaría mi vida por ella. Pero como una narración Bíblica dice: " De qué le sirve al hombre tener mucha riqueza cuando se pierde la vida".

El himno Nacional de Cuba dice en una de sus estrofas:" ...el morir por la patria es vivir".

Y yo añadaria:-

deja que tu mano te entregue su Paz
quitad del camino al tirano sagaz
y nunca descanses si hijos teneis
si luchas por ellos jamas temereis.-

La ley de la vida es siempre la misma...eres la semilla de ayer...y seguirás siendo mañana tambien. El que emigra, emigra por los hijos, por el futuro de sus frutos, por la cosecha sembrada que abarca hasta que perecemos. No en vano, un golpe sencillo en el corazón tambien te rompe el destino.

Venezuela se ahoga, y no puede pedir auxilio. Se ahoga arrogante aun y pierde su hilo. Ya casi ni se ve ya el país, tan solo protestas sin brío. Tal cual una flor , marchitando un chillido. Y triste desvanecedor ya cae el destino, en el bravo Pueblo de Bolívar. Desvirtualizado. Hecho trillas.

Y pienso ahora en Martí, escribiendo sus versos sencillos. Seguramente yo sienta lo mismo, qué historia, qué triste. Sin libertad, no vivo.

Dar por igual sin respetar que somos los mismos. Eso es libertad, tener la oportunidad de expresar civismo.

Crecí viendo los valles de Aragua, los mismos que cabalgó "ese niño Don Simon". En mi caso bicicleta y luego con un motor. Pero embriaga de magia y los sueños ya no "solo sueños son". Así sentía yo, creo igual que El Libertador.

Avisto una Venezuela sin orden, igual que en antaño colonial. Persibo ingratas injusticias, traciones de paz. Será, existe hoy dia algún otro joven soñador? O se ha perdido mi patria? Eso solo lo sabe Dios.

I have a trip to Venezuela planned next month ... my first, after many years of having a Venezuelan connection and amigos muy queridos from this country that has always seemed to know how to love and enjoy life like no other culture I have ever known.

It will be an interesting trip.

Friends vs. Latin Friends

2007-05-31T14:30:00.000-04:00

I didn't write this, but I certainly have experienced it. And my life is so much richer for it!

FRIENDS VS. LATIN FRIENDS

FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
LATIN FRIENDS: Are the reason you have food.

FRIENDS: Will say "hello."
LATIN FRIENDS: Will give you a big hug and a kiss.

FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
LATIN FRIENDS: Call your parents mom and dad.

FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
LATIN FRIENDS: Cry with you.

FRIENDS: Will eat at your dinner table and leave.
LATIN FRIENDS: Will spend hours there, talking,laughing and just being together.

FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
LATIN FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours.

FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
LATIN FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.

FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
LATIN FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds' ass that left you.

FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
LATIN FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"

FRIENDS: Are for a while.
LATIN FRIENDS: Are for life.

Sonrisas

2007-05-22T21:57:00.000-04:00

So let's just say – not that this necessarily actually happened – but let's just say, just for the sake of argument, that perhaps your family dropped the ball a little bit on Mother's Day, or your birthday wasn't exactly celebrated with quite the fanfare which you might perhaps deserve .... and perhaps you need a little bit of a sonrisa today .... or let's just say that perhaps you need a smile for no reason at all!

Well, here is something that will definitely bring a smile to your face ...

Thanks to the incredibly brilliant Marisa Treviño, the brains behind Latina Lista (originally "just" a blog, soon to be a movement ... more on that in a separate post), I have discovered ....

The E-Serenata!!

How incredible is this??

Click on this link to be transported to a second story window, from which you are looking out onto a garden ... and there is a mariachi band below, just waiting to serenade you!

And then they do!

And – here is the best part – you can send an E-Serenata to anyone, for any occasion. OK, it does cost two bucks. But the proceeds go to the Mariachi USA festival, and certainly I don't mind supporting musicians.

So I got my serenata, and my sonrisa, today!

Now go to your window and enjoy your very own serenata!

Inspiración, sin límites

2007-05-12T15:45:00.000-04:00

Fun and inspirational -- a reminder that the only limits we have are the ones in our own mind.

Mi Espacio es Tu Espacio

2007-05-09T13:58:00.000-04:00

OK, don't use the MySpace en español version until they decide to have a real Spanish speaker do the translations ... (see my previous post) ...

But DO consider using MySpace as a fabulous networking and platform building tool for any small business, artist or writer.

I thank Nancy Marmolejo of Comadre Coaching for opening my eyes to all the networking and business-building potential at MySpace. It really isn't just for teens anymore. (In fact, as any teen will tell you, they've all moved on to Facebook!)

I had actually signed up for a MySpace page a while ago, just so I could get some information on a band I liked. But it never occurred to me to use it as a business networking and platform building tool until Nancy suggested it. In fact, even after Nancy suggested it, and told me what success Crafty Chica Kathy Murillo was having on MySpace, it took me a long time to come around! I just didn't see the connection at first. After all, my company, Chispa Productions, creates multimedia Spanish educational materials that celebrate Latino culture and heritage in the U.S. Where's the MySpace in that?

Trust Nancy, though, to see the possibilities and run with them ... and to motivate the rest of us to do the same! She even published an easy-to follow guide called Make MySpace Your Space to help us get started.

Following her suggestions and her example, I created a MySpace profile that showcases me and my business in a way that no website ever could. I've got pictures, music, animated graphics, quizzes, and even interactive, moveable alphabet magnets on a refrigerator! (I put a new Spanish dicho on every week.)

I cross-link with my website, Chispa Productions, and my blog, La Tertulia, and have seen an increase in traffic to them both. I am connecting with people from all over the country who love the Spanish language and want to celebrate Latino culture and heritage. I know that as I build my network, I have ready-made contacts for all my current and future projects. And I have a network of "amigos" whose colorful pictures and artwork reflect the excitement and sabor latino that I want to share with the world.

Nancy's teleseminars on MySpace and the easy, step-by-step instructions in the book make it easy to get started, and to build on what you've already started. I would never have thought of some of the tips Nancy provides (e.g. put your website at the bottom of every message you send!!). They are truly invaluable.

I really thank Nancy for opening the door to this new opportunity, and for making it so easy to enjoy the benefits of networking and platform building on MySpace!

Try it yourself ... remember, Mi Espacio es Tu Espacio!

¡Lo siento! Ocurrió un error inesperado. (Bienvenidos a MySpace en español)

2007-05-08T08:48:00.000-04:00

¡Lo siento! Ocurrió un error inesperado.

Este error se le ha reenviado al grupo técnico de MySpace.

If you've seen this message before, then you probably signed up for MySpace en español.

Really, though, it should be called "MySpace en Spanglish." Or maybe just "MySpace really poorly translated by some online translator in a way that would make any Spanish speaker cringe ... and would make any Spanish teacher flunk the person trying to use it."

Ever use a translator like BabelFish to try to translate something? A word of warning ... don't try using it with your language teacher .... we always know.

How do we know?

Well, first of all, it's kind of obvious when a Spanish I student turns in an essay with pluperfect subjunctive (when said student can't even conjugate a regular verb in the present tense.)

And then, there are the mistranslations.

My daughter's friend showed me an essay she had "written" in Spanish, which included a phrase about someone having to stay behind. The online translator translated that "behind" as trasero ... i.e., the kind of "behind" you sit on.

Want to have some fun? Try it yourself. Go to BabelFish and put in any sentence in English, and translate it to any other language.

For example, I typed in "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," to be translated from English to Spanish.

BabelFish gave me:

"El alcohol está dispuesto, pero la carne es débil.

Now for the really fun part ... have BabelFish translate that sentence back into English!

Here's what I got:

"The alcohol is arranged, but the meat is weak."

(Try it with any saying, with movie titles, etc. ...)

Translating languages is not just about words, and you can't just do it with a computer. Ignore the culture and nuances, and you lose not only the meaning -- you lose the communication, and you lose the motivation to communicate.

And this is what reading MySpace en español is like. The translations are bad (I get things like "Ver todos * Ruth * Chispa Productions Grupos de" for "See Ruth's groups"), and aside from having a few Latinos as suggested "amigos", and some obscure Latino groups as featured artists, there is nothing particularly "español" or "Latino" about it.

I certainly don't see any added bonus. In fact, right now, it's a negative.

Also, you know that error message that opens this post? I get that with practically every "clic."

At this point, MySpace en español seems like a poorly executed attempt to grab the Latino market. I'm not impressed, and I know they can and should do better.

(And here's the REALLY annoying part ... I can't figure out how to get it back into English mode!)

El cielo

2007-05-01T17:44:00.000-04:00

I am in love ....

.... with YouTube.

Yes, YouTube.

I cannot believe what I just found .... poems by Mario Benedetti .... read by Benedetti himself and other actors (from the movie, "El lado oscuro del corazón") ....

Táctica y estrategia

No te salves

Corazón coraza

What a treasure ....

Foreign languages ... they're not foreign any more!

2007-04-26T15:35:00.000-04:00

Check out this link for the published version of my article about a local high school Spanish Club's trip to a Spanish-speaking city .... 20 minutes from home.

Imagine if every language teacher in the country sought to help their students make this kind of personal connection with the language they teach, the people who speak it, and the culture that surrounds it.

What a difference that would make, not only in our language classes, but in our society.

Young people would start to see languages as something real, something they can use every day, something that connects them to people and to new (and positive) experiences.

And maybe some of them would think twice before categorizing immigrants and other speakers of different languages as a negative influence that detracts from our country and our culture.

And perhaps, as well, the young people who grow up in these linguistic communities will see their language and culture validated, and will understand the value of maintaining their language and culture, while still being fully "American."

In Italian, there is a phrase, "sogni d'oro." These are my golden dreams.

Just for fun!

2007-04-07T20:41:00.000-04:00

This always brings a smile to my face (and gets me moving, too) .....

Click here.

(If you get a message about a user name and password, type in "guest" for the username and "porfavor" for the password.)

Enjoy!!

Spanish Trip with a Twist

2007-04-04T10:40:00.000-04:00

It's one thing to talk about how important it is to use local resources in teaching languages. It's quite a bit harder to actually do it. But here's an article I just wrote about one teacher who did just that!

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Monica Lavosky’s Spanish Club students from Montclair High School just got back from a Spanish trip. In the town they visited, they met and conversed with native speakers in Spanish, shopped in local stores, and tasted local foods. Lavosky had assigned a scavenger hunt that had the teenagers scouring a Latin American market for ingredients to make a dinner recipe, asking for directions in Spanish from a local store owner, and capturing key information from Spanish-language newspapers, postcards, billboards and store signs. To complete the scavenger hunt, they had to find a music store and learn the name of the number one song (“La Llave de Mi Corazón”) and the artist who sings it (Juan Luis Guerra). They topped off the day with a meal featuring yucca and other novelties that many of the students had never even seen, much less tasted.

All in all, it was a complete cultural and linguistic immersion for the Montclair students.

The catch?

They never left New Jersey.

Lavosky’s students took a 20-minute bus ride from Montclair to Union City, taking advantage of the rich linguistic and cultural resources of this predominantly Latino community in Northern New Jersey. This Montclair Spanish professor knows that effective language learning cannot just take place with books and classrooms.

“I wanted to give my students an opportunity to interact with native speakers, and to use the language they’ve learned in class in a real life setting,” she said. By taking her students outside of the classroom and into the community, Lavosky made the language real for her students. And they loved it.

“The best part for the students is that the native speakers understood them, and were friendly and very receptive to them. They were really able to communicate,” Lavosky said. “And they were amazed to find a place so close to their home where everyone spoke Spanish.”

The first stop for the students was Mi Bandera supermarket, where each student had to find the ingredients to prepare a dinner recipe they had been assigned. While in the market, Lavosky and her colleague, Maribel Marte – also a teacher at Montclair High School – interviewed several of the employees about their various positions. They learned, for example, that one worker’s responsibilities included washing the linens for the butchers.

Out on Bergenline Avenue, the students eagerly undertook what turned out to be their favorite part of the trip: the scavenger hunt, where they searched for birthday cards and magazines while interacting with storeowners and people on the street. They then returned to Mi Bandera for a meal featuring a variety of Latin American foods.

And what was the reaction of Union City residents to the visitors? “Well, one person asked why the kids weren’t in school!” said Lavosky. “But everyone responded well to the students and welcomed their efforts to communicate in Spanish.”

Union City’s Latino legacy dates back to the early 60s, when thousands of Cuban immigrants fleeing Castro’s regime settled there. The Cuban presence in the city nicknamed “Havana on the Hudson” is still strong, but the Latino population has since expanded to include newcomers from all over Latin America, including the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Union City also happens to be Lavosky’s home town, and she enjoyed sharing her heritage with her students.

By helping her students make immediate and personal connections to Spanish in a town just minutes away from where they live, Lavosky proves that in this day and age, many foreign languages don’t need to be taught as “foreign” any more. It’s an approach with benefits that will extend far beyond the classroom, in the students’ lives, in the communities they will visit, and in the interactions they will have with native speakers in this country and overseas.

(And chances are, as a result, Lavosky’s students will never be quoted saying the line that makes language teachers worldwide cringe: “I took four years of (x) in high school, and I can’t speak a word!”)

Languages - A Star Trek-like Journey?

2007-03-29T08:05:00.000-04:00

No matter how wonderful we may be as teachers – and no matter what fabulous techniques we have learned and tweaked and refined – chances are, our students won’t really be learning Spanish (or any other language) unless they want to learn it.

We might be teaching them, yes, and they might also be performing well – and of course, our skills are crucial here – but are they really learning? And even more important, are they craving more?

Are they becoming lifelong learners who want to embark on a Star Trek-like journey to seek out new contacts in the language and culture?

Do they tune the radio to the Spanish station when they’re in the car? Do they switch to a Spanish program on their televisions at some point during the day? Do they have French, Italian, German, Chinese, Russian or Japanese popular music on their iPods? Do they make an effort to greet and converse with native speakers in their town? Do they see themselves visiting the countries where the language they're studying is spoken?

Do they see that languages all around them and can enrich their lives and their experiences every day?

Our goal as teachers is to spark that motivation in our students.

But how do we get there?

We need to take language study out of the classroom and into real life, and we need to bring real life into the language classroom. That's the motivation behind Chispa.

It's a journey well worth taking, for all of us. And it's not just worthwhile – it's fun!

Pasos de gigante -- but forwards or backwards?

2007-03-15T22:51:00.000-04:00

I just got this email from a friend, under the heading "increíble."

"Ruth, acabo de escuchar esta noticia. Una emisora de radio tiene un concurso de agarrar a un inmmigrante.

Estoy arrechiiisima!! Echo humos por todas partes. Dios Mio, creo que es como un virus que se está regando. Parece mentira pero como que estamos echando para atrás. Todo lo que habíamos ganado, parece estarse devolviendo a pasos agigantados. Podemos hacer algo al respecto? Lee sobre los imbeciles estos..

"Craig announces that ‘Operation La Cuca Gotcha’ kicks off tomorrow February 6th. Our listeners can help ‘out’ illegal immigrants by any of the following methods:

Calling into the show or our toll free number

Call any immigration office toll free hotlines which are posted on the Jersey Guys webpage

The ultimate Jersey Guys goal is set: 300 illegals in 3 months. Beginning tomorrow February 6th and ending May 5th (yes, Cinco De Mayo). The guys plan on possibly renting a bus and going around and trying to round up illegals by themselves. But how do you keep them from escaping?"

So this is like that ridiculously inflammatory and offensive "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" contest at NYU earlier this year. Only this time, it's for real.

Increíble, yes. I would also call it asqueroso.

But mostly, instead of naming what I feel about it, I have to start thinking about actions I can take to counteract this in a POSITIVE manner. Two negatives may make a positive in math, but they don't in real life.

I definitely feel that that my videos will help, by celebrating the Spanish language and Latino cultures in the United States as valuable and valued resources.

And I know that my writings are on target, too.

But there is so much more to be done, and it is going to require the combined POSITIVE efforts of a whole lot of people to stem this kind of thinking.

We have our challenge, and it's not catching illegal aliens ....

Phrases we used to learn in language class

2007-03-09T17:55:00.000-05:00

My previous post includes a link to Eddie Izzard's hilarious routine about French phrases he had to memorize in French class that ended up being extremely difficult to work into everyday conversation:

"The mouse is under the table."

"The cat is on the chair."

"The monkey is on the branch."

I still remember the junior high dialogues that the kids in French classes had to memorize .... and I didn't even take French! It's funny, but I just wrote about this in the paper that my friend Liz and I are preparing for the NYU "Beyond Borders" conference on multiculturalism and international education (yes, our abstract was accepted!). And then I opened up my daily digest email from the FL TEACH Foreign Language Teaching Listserve, and found many, many language teachers reminiscing about exactly this same thing: the silly phrases they had to memorize, which got stuck in their heads. Some of them were useful:

"Ojalá que se mejore pronto." (I hope he gets better soon.)

Some were less so ....

... the German equivalent of "I have a plaid bathing suit with a zipper."

... the Hebrew version of "Mother, the cheese is bad."

But I have to say that my favorite phrases from any language book are the ones from the book "Hindi Made Easy", that was given to my father when our family spent a year and a half in India in 1961-62. (He was sent by Columbia Teachers College and USAID to work on a nonformal education project there.) I believe this book was the one given to British soldiers stationed in India.

The two phrases that we will all always remember are:

"Let us set fire to the village."

and

"That man is a horse thief."

(I wish I were kidding about this, but I'm not!)

By the way, if you want to see pictures of a 3-year-old me in India .... click here. The white outfits and colored paints and powders are from the holiday Holi, when everyone dresses up in white and throws paint, colored water, and colored powder on everyone else. As a kid, this was just about the most fun I could ever imagine having! Seeing the Taj Mahal was amazing, too. I was so young at the time (3 and 4), but I definitely remember my friends, the people who worked in our house, my British nursery school, Claridge's swimming pool (where my brother fell in before he knew how to swim, and one of his teachers jumped in, in full sari, to get him out), and the elephant I refused to ride on (much to my father's dismay, since he wanted to get a picture, but I had just seen the elephant eat an entire banana WITHOUT PEELING IT, and that just freaked me out .... ). And I remember - and will never forget - the incredible poverty that was around us every day.

I've been tagged! Why I Blog ....

2007-03-08T16:13:00.000-05:00

Normally I hate any type of "chain" letter, but this is different .... Nancy Marmolejo of Comadre Coaching and The Loca Diaries has tagged a bunch of us with the question,
Why Do I Blog?

Well.

I think I blog so that I can share information with people. I am a compulsive resource sharer. Especially if it's (a) related to language and culture and (b) either inspirational or funny.

I mean, where else would I have an opportunity to share this with the world?

Enjoy!

Bilingual babies

2007-02-16T18:31:00.000-05:00

This is what my friend's bilingual six-year-old asked, when she heard about a new baby cousin in the family:

"Salió en inglés o en español?"

("Did the baby come out in English or in Spanish?")

¡¡PBS en español!!

2007-02-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

Great news for the entire Spanish-speaking and bilingual community of the United States, as well as Latinophiles!

PBS has just announced the creation of a new network, V-me, that will start broadcasting on March 5 in cities with major Latino communities (isn't that most of the United States at this point?).

V-me will include both children's and adult educational programming, including shows about nature, science, politics and culture, as well as an updated telenovela called "Nuestro Barrio," that will touch on current social themes. Local affiliates will be able to incorporate their own programs about their local communities.

This is a long time coming, but it's never too late! In fact, V-me was created by Mario Baeza, head of the Baeza Group, for precisely the same reasons I created Chispa Productions: to create quality programming in Spanish that is fun, educational and culturally relevant to today's Spanish speakers and learners in the United States.

As today's New York Times article notes, "Mr. Baeza became interested in a public broadcasting network for Latinos years ago, when his children were young, and he searched, fruitlessly, for television programs they could watch in Spanish that had the same educational values as English-language public television."

Amen to that! We all have the same mission. And if a rising tide lifts all boats ... well, this is an ocean that reaches far and wide, and we will all benefit.

For more information, read the full article in the New York Times here.

And keep that dial tuned to V-me, starting March 5!

Gerundios from my Invisible Friends

2007-01-29T18:06:00.000-05:00

Another song from a favorite group, Los Amigos Invisibles of Venezuela.

The artist in me loves the look of this video ...... the romantic in me loves the storyline .... and the language teacher in me loves that the song is almost 100% gerunds ..... the combination gives this video such a dreamy quality. It really is beautiful.

Chispa on TV!

2007-01-20T09:53:00.000-05:00

Hey, I got my one minute of air time! Well, less than a minute, actually, but there I am, at minute 17:55 of the January 18, 2007 PBS television show, Images/Imágenes on Hispanics, Economics and Politics, discussing how Chispa Productions creates resources that teach Spanish with Sabor Latino, celebrating Latino culture and heritage in the United States.

For the next week (until January 25), you can watch a streaming webcast of the show here.

So here are three important things I have learned from this experience:

1. ALWAYS have your 30-second elevator speech ready (thank you, Laurelle Johnson of InnerWealth Communications!)

2. ALWAYS take advantage of networking opportunities that really relate to your business and your mission, even if you think you're too tired to go out that evening (I was, but I went anyway) ...

3. NEVER leave your house without having your hair and make-up completely TV-ready!!

Well, maybe #3 is an exaggeration, but I certainly wasn't expecting to be filmed when I went to the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey networking event last month. And yet there I was, being interviewed by Willie Sanchez, Executive Producer of Images/Imágenes, the longest running Hispanic affairs program in the PBS system, and one of the longest running television programs of its kind in the country. (I guarantee you, you would be seeing a different hairstyle and more effective make-up if I had known!)

But you know what – I like how my message came across, and I was glad to be able to get it out there.

And here is what I love most:

At minute 5:30, guess who also shows up: my Latinapreneur Coach Extraordinaire, Nancy Marmolejo of Comadre Coaching, receiving the Anna Maria Arias award for Latina entrepreneurship at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce convention in Philadelphia last September.

Such synchronicity! Without Nancy, there would be no Chispa Productions right now. So it was a wonderful surprise, and completely fitting.

Juanes, Carlos Vives y Aterciopelados cantarán poemas infantiles

2007-01-03T06:52:00.000-05:00

From my Yahoo Noticias en español ... it sounds like fun, and it could be a great resource for Spanish teachers ....

Juanes, Carlos Vives y Aterciopelados cantarán poemas infantiles

BOGOTÁ (AFP) - Un grupo de artistas colombianos del que forman parte Juanes, Carlos Vives y el grupo Aterciopelados se unieron para musicalizar los versos infantiles del poeta del siglo XIX Rafael Pombo, que aparecerán en un disco este año con motivo de la celebración del Congreso de la Lengua Española.

Juanes aceptó interpretar 'El gato Bandido', mientras que el dueto Aterciopelados -de Andrea Echeverry y Héctor Buitrago- darán vida a la gata Candonga en 'Mirringa Mirronga', algunos de los poemas más famosos de Pombo.

"Es un proyecto en el que venía trabajando desde hace tiempo y al cual se unieron varios amigos", dijo a periodistas el cantante del folclórico vallenato Carlos Vives, promotor de la iniciativa. Vives dijo que le encantaría que la cantante Shakira pueda vincularse al proyecto, aunque reconoció que ha sido difícil contactarla.

Pombo, que nació en Bogotá en 1833 y murió en 1912, fue un prolífico poeta cuyos versos de amor han sido opacados por la popularidad de sus fábulas infantiles, con personajes como 'Rin Rin Renacuajo' y 'La Pobre Viejecita'. De esta última se rodó una película animada en 1984.

El disco con los poemas musicalizados será lanzado durante el IV Congreso de la Lengua Española que tendrá lugar en la colombiana Cartagena en marzo. Los recursos que se obtengan con la venta serán destinados a la financiación de una fundación que lleva el nombre del poeta.

Salud, Amor y $$$$$

2007-01-02T10:39:00.000-05:00

My bríndis to all is for health, love and mucho dinero in 2007 .... I can't necessarily help you with the first two, but this may be of assistance for the dinero part. This is a teleseminar from the Latinapreneur Launch Pad series of my always inspiring and creative coach, Nancy Marmolejo. Definitely worth tuning in .... it's nice to put a little sabor latino into the financial process!

Got an Hour to Become a Millionaire?
Start the New Year off with the Tools to Achieve Financial Freedom.

Join award winning Latinapreneur Nancy Marmolejo as she interviews speaker, millionaire, and financial guru Ruben Ruiz, author of 'The One Hour Hispanic Millionaire'.

Date: Tuesday January 9, 2007
Time: 2pm Eastern Time, 1pm Central Time, 12pm Mountain Time, 11am Pacific Time

Ruben's acclaimed book, 'The One Hour Hispanic Millionaire', teaches people of all backgrounds how to overcome lifelong mindsets and barriers to wealth creation.

In this teleseminar you will learn:

* How to develop a Millionaire Mindset to reach all your financial goals

* A cash flow management system to serve as a blueprint for your wealth creation

* Valuable tips and tools to create net worth in 4 major opportunity areas

* The Five Destroyers of Wealth and how you can completely defeat them

* How to avoid the fallacy of getting rich overnight

* Why 'cheap thinking' may be blocking your financial success

* The 4 Wealth Building Quadrants and how to get started on them right away

Space is limited, so don't wait to sign up. You can learn more by visiting here.

Buñuel does Christmas

2006-12-15T11:36:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what kind of mind thought this up ... it's more than a little creepy, and yet an interesting take on things nonetheless .....

Something serious and something funny

2006-12-08T12:29:00.001-05:00

Hey, I'm a Gemini with a split personality and a dual bilingual soul on top of it, so why not put two completely unrelated posts together?

First, here's the start of an abstract that I'm submitting with a friend for a conference called "Beyond Borders: Global Change and Education in Action", presented by the NYU School of Education International Education Program. (Doesn't that sound a bit like the Department of Redundancy Department? But anyway, I digress ....)

My friend Liz just sent me the start of her thesis on multiculturalism in foreign language education, and I realized that it had a very common thread with my article in Language Magazine (June 2006) calling on foreign language teachers to take a stand in promoting the celebration and validation of other languages and cultures in this country (and to help stem the xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-anylanguageotherthanEnglish tide of sentiment that was permeating the immigration debate). So we decided to put our heads together and make a presentation at this conference. Here's what we've come up with so far ...

ABSTRACT: Foreign language educators can take the lead in promoting multiculturalism if we take “foreign” our of our mindset and our vocabulary, and instead work to connect our classrooms to other languages and cultures in our own communities. Language teachers are a unique and underutilized resource in multicultural education, and we can and should be a much stronger force.

One might think that language teachers are at the forefront of international and multicultural education in the United States. After all, we are the ambassadors of language and culture in our schools – and indeed, we do teach the language and culture of many other countries. But what are we doing to promote other languages and cultures in this country, and to open our students’ minds to the multicultural society in which they live?

As language teachers, we can and should do much more to promote international education and multiculturalism at a much deeper level for our children and our society. It can begin with a simple paradigm shift: we need to stop thinking of languages other than English and cultures other than the dominant one as “foreign.” We are a nation of immigrants representing almost every language and culture in the world. We need to bring these local, not foreign, resources into our language classrooms. By doing so, we give students a local and immediately relevant connection to “foreign” languages and cultures, while at the same time opening them to multiculturalism in their own communities and in society at large.

We will present two ways in which language teachers can promote multiculturalism and make language learning more personally relevant to students in the world language classroom. First, we will discuss using fables and legends to teach multiculturalism. Second, we will demonstrate ways in which language teachers can bring local multilingual and multicultural community resources into the language classroom and make real-life connections to language and culture for students.

Let's move away from teaching languages as something that is "foreign" and towards a multiculturalist approach that will help create more locally active and globally aware young citizens.

And on a completely different note ...

Here is my nomination for funniest video of the week (and possibly of the year), by the outrageously fun Venezuelan group, Los Amigos Invisibles. (Note: do not watch this if you understand Spanish and get easily offended. If you get easily offended but don't understand Spanish, go ahead and watch it, though ... it's a hilarious throwback to the 70s, the tune is fun and sounds sweet, and you will think it's very cute.)

We're live!

2006-11-21T20:40:00.000-05:00

Break out the champagne and celebrate a new birth ... Chispa Productions has a new website!!!

I am so excited with how it all came out!

The wonderful creative genius behind this exciting new site is none other than the Web Muse herself, Anita Larson. Boy, did she and her amazing team of designers have to be patient with me. We went back and forth on the logo, the borders, the colors ... everything! (Those little green dots in the border? That was an entire day's worth of discussion with my husband and just about everyone else I knew...)

And then there was the moment of panic today when I accidentally erased my entire home page ... But Anita saved the day, and we were back online within the hour.

So click right on over to Chispa to check out what all the excitement is about ... and find some great tips for teaching Spanish with sabor latino!

Now, about that champagne ...

What happened to salsa?

2006-11-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

I miss salsa.

Sure, there are now more salsa clubs and salsa classes and even salsa conferences than ever before.

But it's not the same salsa that I first knew. Somehow, salsa has lost its soul.

Back in the late 70s, when I was a college senior and Gloria Estefan was just one of the singers in a new band called "Miami Sound Machine", I learned how to dance salsa in the apartment of my Venezuelan friends. It was simple, and it was fun. Grab your partner, feel the beat, and move.

If you wanted to get fancy, maybe occasionally you and your partner would throw a turn in there. Or you could add that little extra beat with your foot ("la patita") before stepping into the next step.

But mostly, you wanted to feel the music and enjoy dancing with your partner. You could even chat while dancing. Either way – verbally or nonverbally – salsa was about communicating with your dance partner and enjoying the music.

Not so anymore.

Salsa has somehow become a competitive sport. How many turns can you do in one beat?? What's your signature flash move? Don't forget to throw your arm up in the air with a flourish every time you turn or step away from your partner! And do you dance on 1 or on 2?

Communicate with your partner? Enjoy the music? Not a chance. And converse? ¿Estás loco?

Give me old-style salsa any day ... and give salsa back its soul!

¡Atrévete!

2006-11-03T17:58:00.000-05:00

I just love this song ... it is so much fun!

The beat is infectious (just like the lyrics say) and the lyrics are just a riot – a pure celebration of Spanglish with a Puerto Rican accent. I love how they unhesitatingly rhyme "esmalte" with "taparte" and "retratarte!"

Take out the reference to nalgas and tapa rabo (not sure I want to explain the origin of that one to a class...) ... and I guess gloss over some of the other suggestive phrases if you have a young or sensitive class... and this would be a great song to teach informal commands, especially commands with reflexive pronouns. I've highlighted the commands below .... and hey, you've even got a matching negative reflexive command (Ponte and No te pongas), a command with both a reflexive and an object pronoun (súbetela), and some subjunctive to boot!

So what do you say, Spanish teachers? If this song is too risqué, then find another one ... but use popular music to make Spanish popular! ¡Salganse del closet, y atrévanse!

Atrévete, te, te, te
Salte del closet,
Destápate, quítate el esmalte
Deja de taparte que nadie va a retratarte
Levántate, ponte hyper
Préndete, sácale chispas al estárter
Préndete en fuego como un lighter
Sacúdete el sudor como si fueras un wiper
Que tú eres callejera, “Street Fighter”

Cambia esa cara de seria
Esa cara de intelectual, de enciclopedia
Que te voy a inyectar con la bacteria
Pa’ que des vuelta como machina de feria
Señorita intelectual, ya se que tienes
El área abdominal que va a explotar
Como fiesta patronal, que va a explotar
Como palestino…
Yo sé que a ti te gusta el pop-rock latino
Pero es que el reggaeton se te mete por los intestinos
Por debajo de la falda como un submarino
Y te saca lo de indio taino
Ya tú sabes, en tapa-rabo, mama
En el nombre de Agüeybana
No hay mas na’, para na’ que yo te vo’a mentir
Yo sé que yo también quiero consumir de tu perejil
Y tú viniste amazónica como Brasil
Tú viniste a matarla como “Kill Bill”
Tú viniste a beber cerveza de barril
Tú sabes que tú conmigo tienes refill

Atrévete, te, te, te
Salte del closet,
Destápate, quítate el esmalte
Deja de taparte que nadie va a retratarte
Levántate, ponte hyper
Préndete, sácale chispas al estárter
Préndete en fuego como un lighter
Sacúdete el sudor como si fueras un wiper
Que tú eres callejera, “Street Fighter”

Hello, deja el show
Súbete la mini-falda
Hasta la espalda
Súbetela, deja el show, más alta
Que ahora vamo’a bailar por to’a la jarda
Mira, nena, ¿quieres un sipi?
No importa si eres rapera o eres hippie
Si eres de Bayamón o de Guaynabo City
Conmigo no te pongas picky
Esto es hasta abajo, cógele el tricky
Esto es fácil, estoy es un mamey
¿Que importa si te gusta Green Day?
¿Que importa si te gusta Coldplay?
Esto es directo, sin parar, one-way
Yo te lo juro de que por ley
Aquí to’a las boricuas saben karate
Ellas cocinan con salsa de tomate
Mojan el arroz con un poco de aguacate
Pa’ cosechar nalgas de 14 quilates

Atrévete, te, te, te
Salte del closet,
Destápate, quítate el esmalte
Deja de taparte que nadie va a retratarte
Levántate, ponte hyper
Préndete, sácale chispas al estárter
Préndete en fuego como un lighter
Sacúdete el sudor como si fueras un wiper
Que tú eres callejera, “Street Fighter”

Salud, amor y pesetas

2006-10-31T08:55:00.001-05:00

¡Salud!

Un grupo de amigos, un vinito ....

Best friends and a good wine .... is there any better combination? Latin cultures have known this forever.

So it's no wonder that there are so many different ways to toast with friends in Spanish.

The simplest and most direct:

¡Salud!

But few are satisfied with that. So it is often expanded to:

¡Salud, amor y pesetas!

Good, but still not good enough. Sure, health, love and money are important, but you need something more ... and everyone has their own favorite variation of this theme:

Salud, amor y pesetas, y tiempo para gozarlos

Salud, amor y pesetas, y tiempo para gastarlos

Salud, amor y pesetas, y tiempo para gustarlos

Salud, amor y pesetas, y tiempo para disfrutarlos

(And by the way, how come that never got updated to Salud, amor y pesos, or Salud, amor y bolívares, or Salud, amor y colones?)

But my favorite bríndises are the ones I learned in college from a dear Venezuelan friend (and by the way, one constant in my life seems to be incredibly wonderful Venezuelan friends ... I'm going to have to blog some other time on what is either the amazing Venezuelan national character, or my amazing luck in finding such wonderful friends). But back to my point .... the toasts:

Pa' arriba
Pa' abajo
Pa'l centro
Pa' dentro!

.... and this treasure ....

Manjar de dioses,
Dulce tormento,
¿Qué haces afuera?
¡Vámonos pa' dentro!

Recently I wrote to my college friend and told him that I still remembered the toasts he taught me, more than 25 years later.

His response:

Estiro el brazo,
Empino el codo,
Y de un solo golpe,
Me lo tomo todo!!

Good friendships last forever, and that is certainly something to toast to.

Anyone else have a favorite bríndis to share? Add them to our comments .... and ¡salud!

We need more Tommy Torres!

2006-10-30T08:52:00.001-05:00

So many of my posts these days seem to be about music ....

But music is such an integral part of why I love Spanish, and Latin cultures, so it's not too surprising.

One of my favorite artists is Tommy Torres. He's often in the background, generously supporting other artists with his beautiful songs, guitar-playing and voice, and as a producer as well (for Ricardo Arjona, Ednita Nazario, Robi Draco Rosa, etc.).

Here he is with Julieta Venegas:

Julieta Venegas y Tommy Torres

But when he steps out front, wow ... es increíble, y me encanta. Check out both his albums, "Tommy Torres" and "Estar de moda no está de moda."

So given how much I admire Tommy Torres' music, I shouldn't have been surprised the other day when I heard Ricky Martin's new song, "Tu Recuerdo," on the radio and fell in love with it ... because when I looked up the video clip, who did I see in the background playing and singing, but Tommy Torres .... and who wrote the song? Tommy Torres.

Ricky Martin, Tommy Torres and La Mari

I'll definitely be buying the Ricky Martin MTV Unplugged album ... but I really hope Tommy Torres comes out with a third solo album soon. The world needs more of him out front, not just behind the scenes.

Te Mando Flores - from Colombia to the U.S.

2006-10-13T08:29:00.000-04:00

It often seems as if in today's world, we have instant access to everything ... a click of a mouse, and you can find whatever you want.

That wasn't my experience, though, when I had lunch with some friends visiting from Colombia back in the fall of 2004. We were discussing music, and they told me about a great new singer named Fonseca.

Fonseca

Of course, I went home and got to work. I searched Google, iTunes, Amazon .... EVERYTHING!

No Fonseca.

I kept trying every few months, but still ... no Fonseca.

I asked my friend Liz to look for a Fonseca CD when she went to Venezuela .... but no Fonseca there, either.

I kept trying.

The next summer (2005), Liz returned to Venezuela. I got a call from her saying, "You know that Fonseca? They're playing his video all over the television here!" She still couldn't find the CD to buy, but she was able to download a few songs and brought them to me.

I finally had my Fonseca! And yes, he was great! He has a warm and engaging voice, beautiful lyrics, catchy vallenato-based music ... a total delight.

But why wasn't he in the U.S.?

I kept looking to see when, if ever, this incredibly talented artist was going to show up in the U.S. market.

Well, it took two full years, but he's here!

And not only is he here, but he's nominated for two 2006 Latin Grammys: Record of the Year and Best Tropical Song.

Best of luck to Fonseca ... it took long enough, but I'm glad he's here! And I hope his success means that it won't take two years for his next CD to get from Colombia to the US. He's worth the wait, but I prefer instant gratification.

¡Abrazos!

2006-10-07T14:56:00.000-04:00

This has nothing to do with Spanish ... unless you count the fact that many Latinos cultures seem to know this innately ... but it puts a smile on my face every time I see it, so I'm sharing it here:

¡Un fuertísimo abrazo para todos!

Which language should your child take?

2006-09-28T09:13:00.000-04:00

Which language should your child take?

As a Spanish teacher, I’m always being asked for recommendations about which language a child should take.

This frequently comes up when children are moving up from elementary school – where in many cases, Spanish is the only language offered ¬ to middle school, where they actually have a choice for the first time. And this is what I often hear:

“Joey want to take French, but I think he should keep taking Spanish. I mean, he’s been learning Spanish since kindergarten, and it’s such a useful language ....”

To which I reply ....

Joey should take whatever language he wants!

Parents are almost always surprised by my response, especially since I am a Spanish teacher. And in fact, there are a number of language experts who disagree with me as well. Neither one likes to see what was learned in elementary school “wasted” if the child moves on to another language.

But to me, language is about a passion to communicate, a connection to the people, a love for the sound and feeling of the language, an interest in the culture and the countries where the language is spoken.

So as much as possible, you should be studying the language that appeals to YOU.

I don’t want people in my Spanish classes because they think it’s useful or – even worse – that it’s easy. (Hello?? Por vs. para? Ser vs. estar? A gazillion irregular verbs? Subjunctive????)

I want students who want to learn Spanish because they love it, because they love the sound of it, the culture, the music, the people, the poetry, the history, the literature ....

Certainly, we as teachers will always strive to bring that excitement into our classrooms and instill that love in all students. But sometimes, as in any relationship, the heart is elsewhere.

In languages, as in love, el corazón tiene razones que la razón desconoce. The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of.

But what about those “wasted” years, the time spent on another language that would be abandoned if a child moves on to another language?

No te preocupes. Don’t worry. I don’t believe any of that time, or any of that language learning, is wasted. In languages, anything that you have already learned will enhance what you study in the future. Even if it’s a different language, you are still programming your mind to learn different vocabulary, different sentence structures, and different ways of expressing things. And anything that you study in the future will reinforce what you have already learned – “Oh yes, that’s like what I learned in Spanish,” or “Oh, that’s different from the way you say it in Spanish.”

To reinforce my point, I always point out to parents – whose children, in most cases, started learning Spanish in kindergarten – that I didn’t learn a word of Spanish until 11th grade. I took Latin for four years, and then started Spanish (and the following year, added Italian). And even I, with my very self-critical manner, will say that I am near-native fluent now.

How and why did I become fluent? Because I loved the language, the culture, the people, the music, the food, the poetry, the literature .... all of it. Because I followed my heart and my interests and my passion.

So, which language should your child take?

Ask your child.

Immigration and the real linguistic danger

2006-09-13T07:39:00.000-04:00

Direct from my Reuters news feed today. The facts speak for themselves ... although in a couple generations, they probably wouldn't be able to do that bilingually. And that, in my opinion, is the big story here, and the one we need to address.

Immigration no threat to English use in U.S.: study

PHOENIX (Reuters) - U.S. citizens concerned that Latino immigrants will have them singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish can rest easy, according to an academic study published on Wednesday.

A report in the Population and Development Review found that far from threatening the dominance of English, most Latin American immigrants to the United States lose their ability to speak Spanish over the course of a few generations.

The study by sociologists Frank Bean and Ruben Rumbaut of the University of California, Irvine, and Douglas Massey from Princeton, drew on two surveys investigating adaptation by immigrant communities in California and south Florida.

It concluded that by the third generation, most descendants of immigrants are "linguistically dead" in their mother tongue.

"Based on an analysis of language loss over the generations, the study concludes that English has never been seriously threatened as the dominant language in America, nor is it under threat today," the researchers said.

"Although the generational life expectancy of Spanish is greater among Mexicans in Southern California than other groups, its demise is all but assured by the third generation," it added.

Third-generation immigrants are American-born with American-born parents, but with three or four foreign-born grandparents.

The study, which also included some data from immigrant groups from Asian countries, weighs into a polarizing debate in the United States on the desirability, or otherwise, of linguistic assimilation for immigrant minorities.

Differences flared earlier this year when a group of Latino and Caribbean artists recorded a version of the "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish, prompting condemnation from some public figures including President George W. Bush.

"The national anthem ought to be sung in English," Bush said of the version, dubbed "Nuestro Himno" by the artists. "And I think people who want to be citizens of this country ought to learn it in English."

She makes a man want to speak Spanish ...

2006-09-08T16:23:00.000-04:00

... and more than a few women, too!

(She also makes me want to take about 8 hours of belly dancing classes a day ...)

I went to the Shakira concert at Madison Square Garden last night – a fantastic experience. Shakira looked more comfortable and natural than she has in years. She was barefoot the entire night, left her hair loose and naturally curly, and wore loose-fitting pants and a crop top or T-shirt for much of the concert, instead of the overly sexy, bleached blonde, tight-leather-pants-and-high-heeled-boots look of her last tour.

I still prefer the dark-haired Shakira of her pre-American-market days, though ... but that's another story. I guess she did what she felt she needed to do to conquer the American market. And who am I to argue, if she just sold out two concerts at Madison Square Garden? Now she's a big enough success to have her Spanish-language songs become hits on English-only radio stations. (And to anyone who thinks she has sold out commercially, I would ask: "When was the last time you saw classical Indian dance on the MTV Video Music Awards?")

Vintage Shakira

Last night's included such a wide range of musical and cultural influences that I couldn't even begin to count them! But I'll mention the ones I can think of ... Colombian, Middle Eastern, Indian, hip hop, reggae, rock, bossa nova, pop .... well, that's a start, at least.

And our special treats for the night: an opening set by Wyclef Jean, who was incredible; a surprise appearance by Alejandro Sanz that was greeted with an ovation that nearly blew the roof off the Garden, and a "Hips Don't Lie" finale including the saffron-sari'd Indian dancers who were featured with Shakira on the MTV Video Music Awards.

My only complaint – for someone who makes so many people want to speak Spanish, she herself didnt speak any last night! She addressed the crowd entirely in English (extremely fluent English, by the way). Given that the audience was at least 80 percent Spanish-speaking, that was a surprise. Fortunately, most of her songs were in Spanish, though – which is a good thing, since she sounds so much better in Spanish than in English. ("Hips Don't Lie" is the exception that makes the rule, in my opinion.)

That's a minor complaint, though, given the the incredible creativity, artistry, musicality, warmth and non-stop energy that Shakira shared with us last night. I can't wait to see what she will do next. And while I am waiting, I'll sign up for some more belly dancing classes. What an inspiration!

(PS - Thanks to my best comadres, and our honorary compadrecito, for being there to enjoy the experience with me!)

Becoming a citizen

2006-08-30T11:19:00.000-04:00

I went with my friend Liz yesterday to watch her take her oath of
citizenship. Even though she probably would have become a US citizen at
some point anyway, she actually didn't have much of a choice. She's a
teacher here, and if you apply for a teaching license in New Jersey,
you must sign this statement: "I realize that if I do not become a
United States citizen within the next five years, the New Jersey State
Board of Examiners may revoke any license issued to me." So to keep her
job, she had to become a citizen.

Her appointment was for 8:00 am at INS in Newark, so we got there
early. Four and a half hours later, she was a citizen -- literally the
very last one to receive her papers on a very long day, when she had
been one of the first to arrive. (There is no concept of "first come,
first served" at INS, I guess.)

Interestingly enough, here is what you do NOT do when you become a
citizen:

1. Recite the pledge of allegiance

2. Sing the national anthem

Here is what you DO do:

1. Recite the oath below

2. Watch a video of Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" (and sing
along if you want to)

The Oath of Citizenship

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national
importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God. In acknowledgement whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature."

Were any of you US citizens aware that we are supposed to be bearing
arms on behalf of the United States when required by law, and
performing noncombatant service and "work of national importance under
civilian direction when required by law?" I certainly wasn't. Or maybe
only naturalized citizens are required to do this??

You also get to watch a video of George Bush saying "God bless you and
God bless America." (So much for separation of church and state.) At
least we had an immigration official with a sense of humor, because he
said, "After the President speaks for two minutes, the screen will go
black. Don't forget to clap."

I also expected an inspiring speech, but basically all we got was a
reminder to register to vote, and a warning that you are now stuck in
the United States because the government took your green card, and you
don't have a passport, so don't plan on going anywhere (even for a
family emergency) until you get your passport ... which, by the way,
takes 4-6 weeks.

Despite the delays and the bureaucracy, though, I will say that every
single person we came into contact with there was extremely nice,
polite, pleasant and helpful. That was a probably the nicest surprise
of the day. I guess Tuesdays must be "oath of citizenship" day, so
there aren't any major problems or arguments going on, and there is a
nice energy to the place (or there would be, if you didn't have to wait
four and a half hours - which, by the way, apparently is "short,"
according to one of the workers there).

So, all in all, a lesson in democracy and bureaucracy. And now Liz can
do two things: vote, and keep her job as a teacher.

More Trino

2006-08-12T19:56:00.000-04:00

Well, between this post, the previous one, and the one before that, I have a trinity of Trinidades ....

I have been looking for an article about Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. that would do justice to his work -- not just his poetry, but his dedication to teaching poetry, especially to the young and/or disaffected or marginalized. I found this wonderful piece in the Denver Post.

"Trino's" poems gave color to life

By Claire Martin
Denver Post Staff Writer

August 5, 2006

Trinidad Sánchez Jr. wrote popular poems and worked with young offenders and prison inmates.

Chicano poet and activist Trinidad "Trino" V. Sanchez Jr., who died July 30 at age 63 in San Antonio, was renowned for the hip, socially astute writing that galvanized audiences in venues including the Taza Cafe he owned with his wife near downtown Denver.

Sanchez's seminal "Why Am I So Brown?" and other popular, provocative poems inspired younger generations of poets. The poem's title is a question asked by a Chicana elementary schoolgirl in one of Sanchez's writing classes. She was among countless children who knew Sanchez through artist-in-residence programs and other venues.

The poem is his response to her query. An excerpt: "Understand ... brown/ is not a color ... it is: a state of being/a very human texture/alive and full of song."

"When I think about Trino's legacy, I think about all the children and young people he taught," said Maurice Ka, a Denver poet and spoken-word artist who performs as El Negro.

Sanchez was the ninth of 10 children born in Pontiac, Mich., to poet and pool hall owner Trinidad Sanchez Sr., and Sofia Sanchez. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, he yearned for hugs and encouragement from his father, who rarely displayed affection.

Trinidad Sanchez Sr. spent 12-hour days running his pool hall. At home, he holed up with his manual typewriter, writing poems. When Trinidad Jr. left home at age 19, his father wrote "To Trino," a poem that began:

"When you feel lonesome and blue,
Count all the stars in the sky.
It is the times we think of you
Since the day you said 'Good-bye."'

At the time, Trinidad Sanchez Jr. dismissed the poem. He left home and eventually joined a Jesuit monastery in Detroit, where he worked with young offenders and prison inmates. He had a special affinity for Chicanos and African-Americans, many of whom had discordant relationships with their own fathers.

When he was 39, Sanchez reread "To Trino." The final lines leapt out at him - "Don't fear the storm, in the brink/Or the high winds in the night/It is Papa, who took a drink/And wanted to hug you tight."

Sanchez finally recognized the poem as the expression of the love his father never expressed aloud or with hugs. He included "To Trino" in "Poems by Father and Son," his 1991 anthology of his own work, and his father's.

By then, he was writing poems too, many of them published in journals and anthologies. After 27 years as a Jesuit monk, he left the order but remained active in prison ministry. Sanchez used poetry as a medium for emotionally constrained men and included writing in his men's workshops and community outreach groups.

He became a schoolteacher. He led creative writing classes in Michigan and Texas and worked with the developmentally disabled as well as conventional students.

Between the late 1990s and 2003, when Sanchez lived in Denver, he worked with young fathers through Family Star's Montessori and Early Head Start and other programs. Social services workers from Colorado to New York knew Sanchez as an exceptionally successful mentor for disaffected young fathers.

He led workshops urging them to express their love for their children. In a 2000 Denver Post article, Sanchez lamented that of Family Star's 75 fathers, only 38 were listed as an involved parent.

Sanchez proved more artist than businessman. Cafe Taza, the Platte Street coffee shop designed to showcase spoken-word performances, closed in 2003, about a year after Sanchez and his wife, Regina Chavez y Sanchez, opened it.

Young poets and spoken-word artists sympathized. Their support for Sanchez continued after he and his wife moved back to San Antonio, shortly afterward.

When Sanchez suffered two strokes last month, Colorado poets and performance artists promptly rallied to hold fundraisers to pay for daunting hospital bills. It was one way, Ka said, to repay the man who was mentor and confidant for so many.

Along with poet Day Acoli and other Sanchez admirers, Ka is organizing a memorial tribute this weekend at the Aurora Black Arts Festival, 9900 E. Colfax Ave. Organizers named the festival marketplace after the poet and established a community altar where mourners can leave candles, letters, poems and other ephemera.

Survivors include wife Regina Chavez y Sanchez of San Antonio.

The Death of a Peaceful Warrior

2006-08-02T08:12:00.000-04:00

I'm in shock ... I just got back from a week-long trip to Costa Rica (more on that later) to find that Trinidad Sanchez, Jr., the wonderful poet I met in San Antonio two months ago, has passed away from a stroke.

The funeral is today in San Antonio, and additional memorial services are also being arranged. Many are benefits to help his family with expenses, because he did not have medical insurance. Please consider sending a donation in honor of Trino and all that he brought to us.

For more information, click here.

And in the meantime, take a moment to listen, and to celebrate Trino's life and poetry.

Gracias, Trini Lopez

2006-07-10T17:15:00.000-04:00

This is a copy of an e-mail I just sent to Trini Lopez, whose "Latin Album" may actually have been the first spark to ignite Chispa!

I had been looking at a copy of his album on my wall (I have it framed), decided to Google him, and came across his e-mail address ... here is the result.

Hola Mr. Lopez,

It occurred to me the other day, as I was looking at the framed cover of my absolute favorite "The Latin Album" on my wall (sharing a space with the cover from Eydie Gorme and Trio Los Panchos' "Great Love Songs in Spanish"), that I should write to you to thank you for sharing your music with the world, and in doing so, sparking a lifelong love of Spanish for me, and helping me to become what my friends call an "honorary Latina."

Despite the fact that my mother was a Spanish and French professor, and she originally spoke Italian as a child, I didn't grow up speaking any language other than English. But I did inherit my mother's facility for languages. And, just as fortunately, I also "inherited" the two record albums mentioned above, which she must have bought in the 1950s or whenever they originally came out.

I started studying Spanish in 11th grade and immediately knew I liked it. But I think it started to become much more than "like" when I came across "The Latin Album" in our family's extremely tiny LP collection. I listened to that record over and over and over. And over again. I loved every song, even before I could understand the lyrics. And then, miraculously, after all that listening, I started to be able to understand the lyrics!

(My mother also knew the power of your music to teach Spanish -- once I sat in on one of her college Spanish classes, and she was using your version of "Adelita" to teach the subjunctive.)

I have listened to that record over and over and over again in the more than 30 years since. I recorded it onto a cassette tape. And then FINALLY, after a very exhaustive search (ending up with a record store in England), I was able to find it on CD and bought it, along with a few extra copies for my dearest friends.

Since falling in love with Spanish language and culture -- and yes, I do think it was "The Latin Album" that really started it -- I have lived in Spain, become fluent in Spanish, gained an entire community of Latin friends, become a Spanish teacher, and now, a producer of Spanish educational videos featuring US Latinos.

And I have become a Latin music addict; I can't tell you how many CDs I own and how many albums I have bought from iTunes, in every Latin genre you can think of, from bolero to rock to pop to flamenco to merengue to salsa to reggaeton to you name it.

And my favorite, favorite album, through it all, is still "The Latin Album."

Thank you so, so much for being a spark for me. I hope I am a spark for others to also fall in love with Spanish language and culture ... and that's why I named my Spanish educational video company "Chispa Productions." And my videos are designed specifically to teach Spanish by featuring the Spanish language and Latino cultures in the United States, and by celebrating the contributions of Latinos to our culture. With this, I feel as if I have come full circle from when I first started learning Spanish 30 years ago, with the Spanish language songs of a Mexican-American singer born in Texas.

I wish you all the best, and once again -- un millón de gracias.

Un fuertísimo abrazo,

Ruth Kunstadter

Viva el Star Ledger

2006-07-08T18:52:00.000-04:00

It seems I write a lot of posts on how some people react with what I will euphemistically call "insensitivity" to other languages and cultures in this country.

But sometimes I also have an opportunity to commend someone who has done exactly the opposite, showing how our other languages and cultures here are to be celebrated and promoted, not feared and smothered.

Today I get to do both!

Originally, I planned to write about the mayor of Bogota, NJ (that's pronounced Bo-GO-ta, not Bo-go-TA, by the way), who was offended by a McDonald's billboard in Spanish. He wasn't offended by what the billboard said (it was promoting iced coffee, not undocumented immigrant rights or any other political issue). No, he was offended by the mere fact that it was in Spanish!

According to Mayor Steve Lonegan, putting up billboards in Spanish sends a message to immigrants that they don't need to learn English. He labled the billboard "divisive," and called for a local boycott of McDonald's.

Marisa Trevino, in her always on-target blog Latina Lista, points out how faulty the reasoning behind these sentiments is, and just how harmful such attitudes can be.

And that was my original story, too.

But then I turned to the editorial page in the same paper. And this is what I read, word for word:

Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan objects to a billboard pushing iced coffee that was put up in his Bergen County town. It's not the cold java that upsets him; it's that the billboard is in Spanish. That sends a message that Spanish speakers shouldn't learn English, he says. In any language, that's just silly.

Además, un cartel en español puede animar a los anglo-parlantes a apreciar este bello idioma. Y, tal vez, aprender a pronunciar Bogotá.

BRILLIANT!

Viva el Star Ledger and its editors for their stand on the issue, and for their wonderful use of Spanish in making their point. They officially get my new Viva La Chispa award for being a spark of support for Spanish language and Latino culture in the United States, and for doing it with a sense of humor, too! Other Viva La Chispa honorees would have to include the producers of "My Name is Earl", and the Little League International organization (see links to my previous posts to find out why!).

This is America - We Speak All Languages Here

2006-06-12T11:45:00.000-04:00

I'm a pretty tolerant person, and as a Gemini (see below), one of my problems is that I can understand and even identify with both sides of almost any issue.

So it takes a lot to p•ss me off.

One of the things that will do it, though, is when someone disrespects someone I care about.

Another is when someone disrespects something I love – and in particular, other languages and cultures.

The other day, someone did both.

One of my closest friends, who is from Venezuela, was at her own son's birthday party. As she was gathering the kids together for a picture, she counted off before taking the photo, "Uno, dos, tres . . ."

Then it happened. Another mother there turned to her and said, "What's that? In America, we speak English."

If anyone doubts what the effects of all the anti-immigrant and pro-"official language" (read: monolingualism) rhetoric will be, there you have it. Intolerance, ignorance and idiocy.

We won't get very far in a global economy - or in the political influence that our country so desperately wants to spread - as a monolingual and xenophobic nation. We need to celebrate and support all languages and cultures, because that is really what makes "America" unique. And that is where our future economic and political power lies.

We can become the country that can interact with all other countries, because we have a cadre of linguistically proficient and culturally aware leaders, who can carry out complex business and political negotiations in all languages and cultures, not just one.

Rather than saying, "This is America - we speak English here," our new cry should be:

This is America. We speak ALL languages here.

San Antonio is a Gemini!

2006-05-31T06:50:00.000-04:00

No wonder I get along so well with San Antonio! The city of San Antonio is a Gemini, just like me!

My trip this past weekend (see below) was kind of a birthday present to myself. My birthday falls just at the start of Gemini. And even though on paper I could be a Taurus/Gemini cusp, in reality I am pure Gemini .... and so are a lot of my friends.

Not that we start out being friends because we're Geminis. We're drawn to each other, and then only later discover that we share the same crazy sign. Sometimes we even share the same birthday ...

So it was not all that suprising that my San Antonio weekend was filled with everything Gemini. At least half of the amigos electrónicos I met up with turned out to be Geminis. And appopriately enough, some even had double connections ... I walked by a sign for something called Gemini Ink, which I thought might be a printing company, and it turned out that it is a writers workshop ... at which one of the Geminis I met with teaches, and another one takes classes.

I even bought myself a charm bracelet with a Gemini charm ... and then turned on the TV to hear Kelly Ripa on "Live with Regis and Kelly" talking about how two of her three children are Geminis (which she accurately noted was like having a total of five children).

But the best was my last night in San Antonio, when I took the Riverboat cruise at twilight ... as we floated past the statue of Saint Anthony, I learned that San Antonio was named after St. Anthony because it was founded on St. Anthony's day, June 13.

So San Antonio is a Gemini ... that explains how it can have so many facets, so much creativity, so much energy, so much beauty, and a little bit of craziness thrown in. And maybe it starts to explain why I've always been drawn there.

How to spend a perfect weekend in San Antonio (Forget the Alamo)

2006-05-28T19:48:00.000-04:00

I am in my favorite city in the US, San Antonio ... I needed to recharge my batteries, and this is my charger of choice .... and wow, am I ever recargada!! Culture and connections have abounded, just what I needed to nourish my spirit and refresh my creative spark.

Skipping the traditional Alamo/Riverwalk sights, I spent Saturday visiting the Missions. One look at the picture above is all you need to see how close San Antonio still is to its Spanish roots ... one of the reasons I love it so much. I watched a very well done documentary at the Mission San José Visitors Center, Gente de Razón, on the history of the people of the missions. Maybe I'm just emotional these days, but it did bring tears to my eyes at the end when the narrator (singer/songwriter Tish Hinojosa) said, "I ask my daughter what she thinks happened to the Indians of the missions. She replies, "They're all dead, mamá. Then I tell her to go look in the mirror"....

Saturday afternoon I had the pleasure to meet with Trinidad Sánchez, Jr., a poet and a gentleman – and the first of several people I met this weekend who are amigos electrónicos, i.e., people with whom I'd been corresponding for quite some time by e-mail, but had not yet met in person. Not only did I have the chance to enjoy merienda with him, but he shared his poetry with me and even read me several of his poems as a Spanish guitarrist happened to be playing in the background. I told him that completely made my weekend (it did!) Please, please check out his new book, Jalapeño Blues, an incredibly wonderful, bilingual collection of poetry.

Then, on Saturday night, an unbelievable stroke of el destino gave me the opportunity to see my favorite singer, Patricia Vonne, who happened to be playing at the new Red Room in San Antonio. What a treat; I honestly couldn't believe my luck, and it was a fabulous show in a truly unique venue, complete with gauze covered ceiling and walls, red lights, flickering candles, low tables and lots of huge pillows and cushions on the floor (think of the inside of I Dream of Jeannie's bottle, and you'll be close). She did an acoustic show with just herself and her guitar player, and it was beyond wonderful.

And as for today, Sunday? I drove up to Austin and had the great, great pleasure of finally meeting up with Marisa Treviño, the brains and energy behind Latina Lista, which right now is "just" a blog (go read it and you'll see why I put "just" in quotes), but in the future will be a movement.

Topped off the day with a visit to the San Antonio Museum of Art, and then tomorrow I meet with yet another e-mail friend who is a writer and another source of energy and creative ideas.

With all these incredible, energetic, creative and fabulous people in the same orbit, I feel a critical mass growing .... there is something we are all supposed to do together, and I feel that pretty soon, we're going to start figuring out what it is!

Earl does it again!!

2006-05-12T21:47:00.000-04:00

"My Name is Earl" wins the prize again for creative use of Spanish!

(And for one of the best inside jokes for Spanish speakers that I've ever seen on national television!)

For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, the two women characters are Joy, Earl's white-trash and hilariously over the top ex-wife, and Catalina, the kind and sexy maid who has befriended the main character, Earl, and his brother Randy.

Whenever Joy insults Catalina, Catalina responds with a stingingly nasty flurry of Spanish.

The thing is, though, what she's actually saying in Spanish isn't nasty at all! It's a "secret" message to the show's Spanish-speaking viewers. Scroll down two posts to see what Catalina first said to Joy (and to which Joy responded in her inimitable drawl, "I don't speak maid!").

Last night, my kids called me in excitedly to tell me that Catalina had done it again, and they wanted to know what she said. Thanks to Tivo, we rewound, and I saw Catalina saying in her most vicious tone to the exasperating Joy:

"Con esto concluímos nuestra primera temporada de 'Earl.' Estamos muy agradecidos con su acompañamiento. Anticipamos verlos el próximo otoño!"

Translated into English, she said:

"WIth this, we conclude our first season of 'Earl.' We thank you so much for joining us. We look forward to seeing you next fall!"

Well, I'll definitely be there next fall, not only to watch one of the funniest shows on TV, but to keep an eye out for more "mensajes secretos" for the Spanish-speaking public ...

¡Que viva Earl!

Chispa in the news again!

2006-05-10T18:13:00.000-04:00

Click here to see a wonderful article about the filming of Chispa's second video, in Visalia, California! We travelled to the Central Valley to film the talented and dedicated young men in the program Sequoia Gateway.

My first video, La Chispa del Béisbol, was officially released in March. It's been featured at several major foreign language teaching conferences and is being used in classrooms across the United States.

For my second video, I went to Visalia, CA to film the absolutely incredible group of academically and athletically talented high school boys who are part of Sequoia Gateway, a program designed to help them get to college on soccer scholarships.

In most cases, these young men come from the crop-picking families of the Central Valley, and will be the first in their families to go to college.

The Sequoia Gateway program provides intensive soccer training, takes the kids to tournaments where college recruiters will see them, provides tutoring and college advising, takes them on college visits, and carries out character education workshops. With Sequoia Gateway's help, these young men plan to become engineers, architects, teachers, businessmen, and whatever other careers they have as their goal. And I have no doubt they will achieve their goals!

I highly encourage you to find out more about Sequoia Gateway by visiting their website. You will be as inspired and moved as I was when I first learned about this group, and as my husband, daughter and two sons were when they came out with me to Visalia.

In fact, my entire family helped out with the shoot, as you can see by the photo above! My daughter showed an incredible knack for picking just the right camera angle, my husband and older son were invaluable in connecting all those wires so that the sound would come out just right, and my younger son repeated his role from the first video as key grip and top production assistant!

The video is already generating a lot of excitement, even before it is completed. It is truly an amazing story, and I am so honored to be able to feature the leaders, coaches and participants of Sequoia Gateway so they can serve not only as teachers of language and culture, but as role models for young people around the country who are looking to achieve their dreams.

And I have to say that, given the tenor of the current immigration debate, I am so pleased to be able to put materials out into the world that celebrate the Spanish language and Latino cultures in the US.

Mi Nombre es Earl

2006-04-13T21:48:00.000-04:00

Felicitaciones to the producers of the program, "My Name is Earl," for their creative use of the Spanish language and the non-stereoptyical way they portray Latinos!

I've always enjoyed the character Catalina, played by Nadine Velázquez. Catalina is caring, funny, mysterious and naturally sexy.

In tonight's episode, Earl's ex-wife, Joy, says something snide to Catalina about her work as a maid. Catalina responds with an evil eye and a blistering paragraph in Spanish.

If you didn't know the language, you would think that Catalina is cutting Joy down to size with a scathing insult in Spanish. But in reality, this is what she said:

"Quiero agradecer a todo el público latino que nos acompaña cada semana, y para los que no son latinos, les felicito por aprender otro idioma."

("I want to thank the entire Latino public that watches us every week, and for those of you who are not Latino, I congratulate you on learning another language!")

I loved it!!

Also loved this past week's Saturday Night Live, by the way, with all the Spanish spoken by Antonio Banderas, Horatio Sanz and Fred Armisen (whose mother is Venezuelan, we found out).

Viva el español ... and the producers who recognize that a second language is to be celebrated, not feared.

Sabor y Cultura en Durham, NC

2006-02-22T16:16:00.000-05:00

Just got back from Durham, NC and surrounding towns, where I took my daughter (and her two brothers) on college visits to Duke, UNC, Wake Forest and Elon.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the diversity I saw in Durham. It was my first time in North Carolina, and I couldn't believe how much Spanish I heard being spoken. There was also a nice selection of libros en español at the Barnes & Noble I went to, and I was even able to get a copy of Laura Esquivel's new book, Malinche, which I had been wanting to get.

I also had the pleasure of meeting my blog friend, Nayeli, a doctoral student in film and literature at Duke, who is from Mexico City and writes a blog called Native Stranger that I serendipitously found one day and loved. We ate at Super Taquería, the most authentic Mexican restaurant I've ever eaten at in the United States, complete with huge glass barrels of aguas frescas, including tamarindo, jamaica, horchata ... ¡riquísimas!

Picture of aguas frescas (not at Super Taquería, but this is exactly what they looked like!)

Nayeli noted that the Mexican population in Durham has grown 500% in the last five years. It was like seeing Hector Tobar's "Translation Nation" in action. Even the tiniest little towns that we drove through (like Elon) have at least two Mexican restaurants on their main strip, and they look real (not Taco Bell-type).

After our dinner, we went to Duke to watch the 2005 Oscar-nominated shorts. And that's where we saw Nacho Vigalondo's 7:35 de la mañana. I can't explain why I loved this so much, but it is just incredible. To see what I'm talking about, go here. And watch it twice (it's quite a different viewing the second time around!).

Scene from 7:35 de la mañana

Who knew a visit to Durham, NC would be full of Spanish language, literature and film? Definitely a pleasant surprise for me, and another sign of how our country is being enriched more and more by Latino cultures all around.

A cualquier edad....

2006-02-16T17:12:00.000-05:00

Qué suerte tengo yo....

I am a lucky girl! In the past 48 hours, I've gotten to see two amazing shows, one by an old favorite, and one by a new favorite.

But when I say "old" for the first one, I only mean in terms of the number of years I've been watching him. He will never be old, and he will never lose his sex appeal.

I am talking, of course, about Tom Jones!

Dios mío, can this guy put on a show. To paraphrase one of his songs, two hundred pounds – and 90 minutes – of heavenly joy.

My friend Marielle and I both renewed our love for Tom Jones during a trip to Madrid back in 2000, when we caught his version of "Mama Told Me Not To Come" on Spanish MTV. We were hooked, and both bought his album "Reload", which for some ridiculous reason was only available in Europe, not the United States. It had an amazing mix of songs with new artists, including a scorching remake of "Burning Down the House", and our absolute, all-time favorite and now signature song, "Sexbomb."

So when we heard he was coming on February 14, we knew we had to be there .... and it was incredible. The man can sing – he can sing anything – pop, blues, rap, funk, you name it. He can charm. He can move. And he does it all with a sense of humor and never taking himself too seriously.

That is why he's still sexy, and will be at any age.

Then last night, we got to see another singer, one of my new favorites, Rubén Flores, the talented young singer and actor from Mexico who wove the story of his life together with poetry and song at Joe's Pub back in December. This time he treated us to "Latin Love Songs" (including a special surprise duet with Joyce DeWitt, who looked and sounded fabulous!!). Talk about cortavenas ... some of the selections were just heartbreakingly beautiful. Others were so much fun that Marielle and I, along with our famous arepas-making friends Liz and Gilde, were dancing in our seats (Joe's Pub needs a dance floor....).

Again, through it all, Rubén sang, moved, and charmed ... but with warmth and a sense of humor, never taking himself too seriously (he even stopped one song twice, admitting that he'd messed up the lyrics, and had everyone in the audience completely charmed).

And that is why he is sexy, and will be at any age.

And he had teamed up with an equally wonderful producer: Richard Barone, the former lead singer of The Bongos who not only tells his own stories through song (May 13 at Joe's Pub – be there!), but uses his warmth and artistry to produce shows that speak directly to the soul.

Rubén, Joyce and Richard

In fact, I don't know if Richard Barone is Latino, but if he's not Latino by heritage, he is Latino in his soul. So is Tom Jones. And Rubén Flores, well, por supuesto.

Living with passion and creativity and warmth and humor ... this is what makes us all sexy (and Latino de corazón y de alma!) at any age.

Art de la Soul

2006-02-09T16:02:00.000-05:00

Wow, Kathy Cano Murillo has done it again!

Check out her new book, Art de la Soul and ENJOY!

I first discovered Kathy by accident a few years ago; I saw the book La Casa Loca and just fell in love with it, and all the projects in it. Then I discovered her website, Crafty Chica and fell in love with that, too.... and in fact it was through her fabulous Loca Links that I discovered my unbelievably wonderful coach, Nancy Marmolejo of Comadre Coaching ... which has in turn led to the birth of my creative venture, Chispa Productions.... a series of very fortunate events.

Now Kathy's new book, Art de la Soul, is out, and I want to make every project in it! And even if I can't make all the projects, I will just spend hours soaking up all the wonderful color and sabor that are just bursting from this book.

Do yourself a favor and check it out!!

And here's a link to La Casa Loca, which I also highly recommend! Go out and get loc@!

Amor Mio

2006-01-23T17:32:00.000-05:00

What better way to celebrate El Día del Amor y de la Amistad, El Día de Los Enamorados, y El Día de San Valentín, than with these beautiful stamps! In fact, buy them for every day of the year!

They are a new treat available from my favorite artist, María Sánchez of Sandía Fria. My walls are rapidly filling up with María's beautiful artwork – it is truly artwork to make your soul smile! Check out María's blog frequently to see her latest pieces ... although I probably shouldn't be telling you this, since now I'll have more competition in bidding for her pieces on eBay!

Judíos, latinos y el resto de la banda

2006-01-08T18:04:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, a friend sent me this Ladino Hanukah greeting – a hip hop version of "Ocho Kandelikas," which is actually a song I play every December in my Spanish classes when I teach about the holidays. This version is way more fun than the one I have, though!

I found out the song was by the Hip Hop Hoodíos, and did some more research on them. I liked what I read and ended up downloading their album "Agua Pa' La Gente" from iTunes.

It has been in constant play ever since. Rarely do I find something that appeals to so many aspects of my multiple Gemini-Sicilian-Jewish-Latina personality!

The music is movida y divertida – I always love the cultural fusion of different sounds, and this record blends klezmer, cumbia, hip hop and more – and the lyrics combine the absolutely hilarious with the strikingly true (with a little mysticism and poignancy thrown in here and there to balance it out).

How can you not smile at a group that boasts, "You like our d•cks and you like our noses, you see a Jewish guy and you forget where your clothes is ... venga mami, take a little sip from my ladle, I'll take you back to my room and you can play with my dreidl!"

But other lyrics are much deeper: the song "1492" talks of how Jews were forced to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition, noting that while the Hip Hop Hoodíos "Jewish-Spanish" combination may seem unusual, it really reflects what's hidden underneath the surface throughout the Spanish-speaking world: "Jews and Spanish, you think that we're token but ... here's some news that will hit you with a thud: millions of Latinos, they got Jewish blood." And "Ancient" pulses with the refrain, "Ancient, ancient, la dignidad humana – judíos, latinos y el resto de la banda."

I'm definitely enjoying the Hip Hop Hoodíos - "up in your face with three languages, cabrón!"

PS, Aside from "Ocho Kandelikas," I could never play this music in my Spanish classes (I teach K-5!)...but actually, "1492" would be great in a middle or high school Spanish or social studies class.

PPS, As you can probably tell from this post and the one below it, I've got a pretty eclectic range of music that I like. My favorites these days (in addition to the above, and in no particular order) are Elefante, Andrea Echeverri, Alejandro Fernandez, Ozomatli, Tommy Torres, Juanes, Cabas, Edgardo Monserrat, Fonseca, Shakira, La Mosca, Jorge Drexler, Zucchero, Pepe Alva, Los Lonely Boys, Del Castillo, Tribalistas, Bebo and Cigala, Juan Luis Guerra (pre-2005!), Gipsy Kings and Patricia Vonne. And my oldest favorite, trumping all others, is Trini Lopez's "The Latin Album". It's the album that made me first fall in love with Latin music and with Spanish.

¡Buenas noticias! More Rubén Flores ...

2006-01-06T16:09:00.000-05:00

Just got this buena noticia from Richard Barone, who produced Rubén Flores' "The Latin American Songbook at Joe's Pub!

Dear Ruth,
Thank you for your wonderful and insightful comments on last night's show,
"Rubén Flores: The Latin American Songbook" at Joe's Pub. It is a very special show that I am thrilled to be part of. I just wanted to let you know that it is not a once-a-year event, but we are developing various installments to be played at different times throughout the upcoming year. We plan to return to Joe's Pub on February 15 with Latin love songs. We will let you know as soon as the date is confirmed.
Please stay in touch, and come see us again!
All my best wishes for a happy and healthy new year,
Richard Barone
Producer/Director - "Rubén Flores: The Latin American Songbook"

This is fabulous news for me; I loved the original show and will definitely be looking forward to the future installments! And by the way, check out Richard Barone's own site, he's clearly a very talented guy in his own right. He must have a Latin soul ...

If you are wondering why I'm so loca about this guy and his performance, just click here to listen.

So, nos vemos at Joe's Pub el 15 de febrero! Click here for more info and tix.

PS, just realized that this is actually the night after I see Tom Jones in concert (don't laugh, especially if you've never heard the song "Sex Bomb", or his version of "Mama Told Me Not To Come"), so it'll be a busy week for me .... I would have gotten tix to Franco De Vita that week, too (on a double bill with Aventura), except that he's playing on the same night as Tom Jones, and I already had the Tom Jones tix. Ricky Martin is also in town that week, by the way. A busy month for Latin music – but never enough for me.

Caminante, no hay camino

2006-01-01T14:12:00.000-05:00

Thinking about Rubén Flores' show at Joe's Pub (see below) brought Antonio Machado's poem to mind.

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino, y nada más;

caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.

Al andar se hace camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.

Caminante, no hay camino,
sino estelas en el mar.

Happy new year and best wishes to everyone as they make their way on their own journeys!

Todo empieza con un sueño

2005-12-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to Joe's Pub in the Village to see "The Latin American Songbook", a one-hour show by Rubén Flores. I wasn't familiar with Rubén Flores, but the description of the show – a journey of poetry, music and passion – sounded perfect for me.

And it was.

Rubén Flores is a very attractive young Mexican actor, he sings beautifully, he's charming and personable, and he picked a wonderful variety of songs, a mix of old and new, popular and traditional, from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Spain, Perú, Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Brazil...... but he's also much, much more than just a talented cabaret act. He's a young man who is thinking about his dream, working to achieve that dream, and at the same time trying to process what it means to try to achieve that dream.

Each song reflected a step in the journey, as he wove the lyrics together with stories of his life and his desire to come to the United States to make his mark here. He talked about how lonely and anonymous it can be. One line I loved was when he said, "Sometimes I feel so unloveable, even my dreams want to break up with me." And he talked about his struggle to be true to himself as an artist.

After his opening song, Déjame Soñar, he spoke about the word soñar in Spanish – how in Spanish you dream with someone, not about someone .... so essentially, in Spanish, as you are dreaming about someone, that someone is also dreaming about you. You are dreaming together. How true .... and just one of the many, many reasons I love the Spanish language so much. So many things are inherent in Spanish that just can't be expressed in English. I know that's exactly what keeps bringing me back to the concept of The Bilingual Soul, how we have different personalities and even different souls when we move from one language to another.

I gather that this show is a once-a-year event, but I'd love to see it happen on a much more regular basis (and for longer than one hour!). In the meantime, you can check out www.rubenfloresonline.com to keep up with this very thoughtful and very talented young artist.

Las arepas – ¿caraqueñas o maracuchas?

2005-11-20T09:33:00.000-05:00

¡Qué ricas!

Last night I had a group of friends over ..... mostly Spanish teachers (we teachers need to party!!) and some other friends, from the US, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Ecuador, Cuba, Italy, Canada (French), Belgium ... and probably a few more places I'm not remembering. I love bringing people together to celebrate all of our stories.

My two Venezuelan friends, Liz Sandra and Gilde, brought the ingredients to make arepas, a truly delicious side dish typical of Venezuela. Made with a base of corn meal, they can be rounded and white (al estilo caraqueño), or flatter and yellow, colored with achiote (al estilo maracucho)

Arepas

Little did I know we were in for a chapter of the long-running but light-hearted feud between the caraqueños and the maracuchos! Gilde is from Caracas, and Liz is from Maracaibo.

Liz and Gilde both showed up with the main ingredient, a cornmeal flour called Harina Pan...

Harina Pan

...and their Tosty Arepas:

Tosty Arepas

La maracucha, Liz was also packing her achiote seeds to add color y sabor. The seeds are heated in oil until they release their color, then the oil is drained and added to the masa.

To make the masa for the arepas, you mix the Harina Pan with water and salt. Liz explained that there are heated discussions about the best way to do this – in some places you put the flour down first and then add the water; in others, you start with a bowl of water and add the Harina Pan into that. You mix and mix until you have a smooth masa.

La caraqueña, Gilde, kept her masa blanca, while Liz added the achiote-colored oil to give her masa a rich yellow glow.

Then to the preparation – two different cities, two different ways. Both started by breaking off a large chunk of masa and rolling it into a ball. But that's where the similarity ended. Liz flattened out each ball of dough and placed it on a hot iron griddle (my Mexican comal that I bought after my trip to Oaxaca). She toasted the disks on the griddle until they were browned, and then put them in the oven to finish cooking. The true test of whether she did it right? If they puffed up while in the oven. They did!! And they were delicious. (And by the way, she never used her Tosty Arepas!)

Arepas maracuchas

Gilde took her balls of dough and put them directly onto the Tosty Arepas. This is the coolest appliance! (I think it's going to be on my Christmas list ...) To add some more flavor, she took the pan drippings from the roast pork that had just come out of the oven and greased the Tosty Arepas with that. Close the lid of the Tosty Arepas, click it, let it cook through one cycle for soft arepas or two cycles for ones with a crispier outside, and they're done!

Arepas caraqueñas

There was no contest – there were two clear winners, both la arepa caraqueña and la arepa maracucha. Both were absolutely delicious, and were finished up so quickly that a second round of masa had to be made.

Now, the next morning, I'm wishing I had some for breakfast ..... they are often eaten for breakfast in Venezuela, and I can see why; I would eat them at every meal! .... Hmm, there's still some Harina Pan downstairs ...

A Los Reggaetoneros -- Cuidado con lo que dicen

2005-11-02T17:56:00.000-05:00

I got this AP release from my Yahoo noticias en español ... I could not agree more. I hope that someone transforms reggaeton with positive, beautiful and socially conscious lyrics, the same way Juan Luis Guerra did with bachata.

2 de noviembre de 2005, 01:56 PM

Diego Verdaguer a reggaetoneros: Cuidado con lo que dicen

(AP) - NUEVA YORK (AP) _ "El reggaetón es una ola muy interesante y alegre, un ritmo muy contagioso, pero ... a veces sería mejor que no tuviera letra", opinó el miércoles el cantautor argentino Diego Verdaguer al iniciar su primera gira estadounidense con su esposa y compañera de éxitos, Amanda Miguel.

En entrevista con la AP horas antes de presentarse en el SOB's de Manhattan, Verdaguer recomendó a los intérpretes de reggaetón que tengan "cuidado con las letras, porque el público joven es el que va a ser adulto y va a tener posiciones de gran responsabilidad en el mundo".

Agregó que cuando uno disfruta de liderazgo como cantante del momento debe decir cosas positivas para el futuro de la sociedad, porque si no estaría haciendo mal uso de esa oportunidad.

La pareja se encuentra en Estados Unidos para promocionar el más reciente álbum de Miguel, "Piedra de afilar", así como una compilación de éxitos de ambos en vivo, "Siempre fuimos dos", de próximo lanzamiento.

100 Preguntas

2005-10-25T22:29:00.000-04:00

I usually don't like these "get to know me" e-mails in English and I never answer them, but I got this from a dear friend and thought it might be a fun thing for Spanish students. (Although some questions might need to be changed a bit...) If anything, they might be interested in seeing the Spanish version.

CYBERCHISMOGRAFO: COPIALO EN UN MAIL NUEVO, BORRA LAS RESPUESTAS, RESPONDE Y
REENVIALO INCLUYENDO A LA PERSONA QUE TE LO ENVIO PORSUPUESTO!...

HEYYY Y SE MUY SINCERO (A)...

1. Que hora es?

2. Nombres y Apellidos?

3. Edad?

4. Fecha de Nacimiento?

5. Estuviste enamorado anteriormente?

6. Estas enamorada(o)?

7. Has hecho Una Locura de la cual No te Arrepientes?

8. Tienes un Secreto que jamás podrás decir a alguien?

9. Religión?

10. Rumbero(a) o Pacifico (a)?

11. Te has emborrachado?

12. Amaste tanto a alguien como para llorar?

13. La Mejor Sorpresa que recibirías?

14. Estuviste en un choque de autos?

15. Como te vistes en este momento?

16. Cerveza o vino?

18. Sabor de helado?

19. Sabanas lisas o con animalitos?

20. Canción que estas escuchando en este momento?

21. Flor?

22.Tema de conversación mas detestado?

23. La gaseosa, con o sin hielo?

24. Tom o Jerry?

25. Disney o Warner Bros?

26. Restaurante de comida rapida?

27. Ultima visita a un hospital?

28. De que color es la alfombra de tu dormitorio?

29. Como llamabas a tu osito de dormir? .

29.Como te ves dentro de 10 años?

31. Cual de tus amigos(as) vive mas lejos?

32. Lo mejor?

33. Hora de dormir?

34. Quien piensas que te responderá mas rápido este e-mail?

35. Mascotas?

36. Mejores amigos?

37. Amigos especiales?

38. Amores platónicos?

39. Que cambiarias de tu vida?

40. Que dejarías como esta?

41. Cuantos timbrazos antes de contestar el telefono? .

42. Video preferido?

43. Cd Preferido?

44. Lo primero que piensas en la mañana cuando te levantas:

47. Si pudieras ser otra persona quien serias?

48. Algo que tienes puesto siempre y no te lo sacas?

49 Que hay en la paredes de tu habitación? .

50. Que hay debajo de tu cama?

51.Cual es el auto de tus sueños?

52.Algo a la persona que te envió este mail?

53. Nombra a la persona que tal vez no lo contestara?

54 Quien te gustaría que lo respondan?

55. Que le dirías a alguien y no te animas?

56. ¿Qué es lo que mas te gusta hacer?

57. Prefieres Noviazgo o Free?

58. Momento mas triste de tu vida?

59. Momento mas humillante?

60. Persona mas loca y la mas sencilla que conoces?

61. Que buscas en el sexo opuesto (pareja)

63. Que fobias tienes:

64. Te ha gustado un amigo/a tuyo/a?

65. Que piensas de la muerte?

66. Tiempo que tardas en arreglarte?

67. Lugar al que mas te gusta ir?

68. Revista favorita?

69. Le darías un beso apasionado a la persona que te envió este mail?

70. Que es lo que mejor que puedes tener en tu vida?

72 A que lugar te gustaría ir de vacaciones?

73. Te irias a vivir a otro pais?

74. Quien no te fallara nunca?

75. Carta o E-mail?

76. La persona que extrañas?

77. Caricatura preferida?

78. Equipo de futbol?

79. Darías un beso apasionado a alguno de los que les mandaste este mail?

80. Programa de Tv Favorito?

81. Peor sentimiento del mundo?

82. El mejor sentimiento del mundo?

83. Montañas Rusas?

84. Futuro nombre de tu hijo?

85. Futuro nombre de tu hija?

86. Chocolate o vainilla?

87. Una almohada o dos?

88. Duermes con peluches?

89. Si pudieras teñirte el cabello de que color lo harias?

90. Cual es tu numero favorito?

91. Juego favorito?

92. Que haces si alguien quiere pasarse con tu novio/a?

93. Dile algo a la persona que más extrañas:

94. Tienes focos de colores?

95. Condimento favorito en una ensalada?

96. Qué no te gusta comer?

97. Alguna vez nadaste desnudo?

98. Quien te felicitó primero en tu cumpleanos?

100. Que hora es?

"Crossover" no more

2005-10-02T18:05:00.000-04:00

It seems that every decade had had its hit Spanish song – Perez Prado in the 40s, "La Bamba" in the 50s, "Guantanamera" in the 60s, "Eres tú" in the 70s .... does Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" count for the 80s?

For the most part, these were mere blips on the Top 40 radar, one-hit crossover wonders. They were fun, they were hits, and we all hummed them and did our best to sing along (I didn't speak Spanish at the time, so I was just singing along phonetically). But they didn't herald an entire paradigm shift in the way we listen to music.

But I can tell you right now, there is a huge paradigm shift going on.

I know it when I turn on a Top 40 station and hear not just one Spanish song, but many.

I know it when I my 5th grade students are working on a project and I hear the kid who has always HATED Spanish singing loudly to himself, "Boricua, americana ... ¡dame más gasolina!

And I really know it when I get in the car with my 16-year-old daughter and her friends – my daughter, who has always disliked Latin music and tries to distance herself from my tastes in all things – and instead of asking me to turn OFF the Spanish station, she herself tunes the radio to 105.9 "La calle", and starts singing, "Y yo voy, voy, voy...."

Reggaeton has blasted through whatever we used to think of as "crossover" and firmly established itself in our popular culture. And kids who never paid attention to Spanish before are singing and dancing along. Never mind that they still don't understand what the singers are saying; they're just enjoying the experience.

Actually, it's a very good thing that some of these kids don't understand the lyrics, since every reggaeton song I've ever heard is so raunchy that an English translation would never make it on the airwaves! I hope my students don't start asking me to translate ... but I also hope they'll take the initiative themselves and buy a Spanish dictionary so they can translate for themselves.

Anything that motivates suburban Anglo kids to learn about Spanish language and Latino cultures is valuable, in my book. So let's see how long reggaeton will continue to make my job easier!

Principe Withdrawal

2005-09-24T16:47:00.000-04:00

Well, El Príncipe Azul has ended .... usually when one of my Spanish-language TV addictions is ending, I feel sad to see it go. My husband, on the other hand, is delighted, since (a) he doesn't speak Spanish, (b) what I'm watching in Spanish is not exactly PBS or BBC quality, and (c) the shows I like are always on right at bedtime.

This time, even I'm happy to see it go, although I did enjoy the guilty pleasure of watching it. But enough is enough, and even I have my trashy TV limits.

In last night's finale, the two replacement príncipes chose their princesas. The only thing I will say is that it seems they were both fairly intelligent men who seemed to vote more with their brains and/or hearts instead of lo que tienen entre las piernas, as it was so delicately put by the original príncipe's Tía Rosita on the show. Although that other part led them pretty far as well.

I remember a phrase a Venezuelan friend once taught me: Cuando la cabeza de abajo se calienta, la cabeza de arriba no piensa.

Nice to know some men use la cabeza de arriba.

Not that anyone expects either of these relationships to last. But it did make for interesting TV while it lasted.

So enough of the Príncipe, and back to real life. Although with Katrina, Rita, Iraq, and who knows what else, "reality TV" almost seems like a better choice than reality itself.

Principe Surprise

2005-08-28T13:18:00.000-04:00

Wow, talk about spoilers!

If you are watching El Príncipe Azul and want to be surprised, don't read this.

According to People en Español, Leonardo García, the supposed star of Telemundo's new reality show (although the real star, and the guy running away with the show, is Andrés García, su papá), dropped out of the show mid-way through filming. The magazine says that Leonardo realized he was still in love with a former girlfriend and didn't feel right about going out with the Príncipe Azul candidates when he knew he didn't really want to be with any of them. So he left the show and took off for Mexico.

We'd seen inklings of something "big" happening, when in the last few shows Leonardo didn't show up for his dates because of a supposed stomach ailment (again, a little too much information on this was provided by Andrés). I'm actually glad that Leonardo seems to have a personality and some cojones, because he was coming off as quite pale y muy soso in comparison with his outrageous papá.

So how did the producers deal with this? According to the article, they came up with not one other príncipe, but two. No word on how the girls felt about this or what the final outcome was. And I wonder where this leaves la mamá y la tía.

And of course, Andrés stays on as presenter.

Which is a good thing, considering that Andrés' excesses are the most entertaining thing on the show -- next to the excesses of some of the girls, including Evelyn, who is coming off as "La Nueva Omarosa."

I guess my real question is, why the heck am I watching this? Well, I can always say it's good language practice. I certainly have picked up some new derogatory expressions -- naca, patán, etc. -- thanks to the candidates, who are not exactly getting along well with each other and in some cases, with their hosts; and some new insulting machista phrases -- such as, "Las colombianas son como las cucarachas; puedes barrerlas con la escoba pero regresan por el palo" -- thanks to Andrés, who seems to have no shortage of them in his repertorio.

I've also learned more than I ever really wanted to know about La Bombita, the implant which has revived Andrés' mojo after his battle with prostate cancer. It's interesting to hear something like that discussed so openly -- especially in such a machista environment -- but I think I finally figured out why they keep mentioning La Bombita -- it is a sponsor of the show!

Mad Hot Ballroom

2005-08-25T18:24:00.000-04:00

I was going to say that anyone who is a teacher should go see this movie immediately, to get psyched for the coming school year. August, for teachers, is like a one-month-long Sunday night. You know that Sunday night feeling, when you know the weekend is over and what's facing you tomorrow? That's what all of August is like for us.

So when I see something that is as inspiring as "Mad Hot Ballroom," especially at this time of year, it's a wonderful reminder of why we do teach. Which is why I was going to recommend it to teachers.

But on second thought, I think I need to say that anyone who is a human being should go and see "Mad Hot Ballroom" immediately! It's a truly wonderful -- and wonderfully true -- story about 5th graders in NYC's five boroughs who take part in a 10-week ballroom dance program and ultimately go to a city-wide competition. It's a documentary, so these are not actors playing kids learning how to dance, and dealing with school, family, immigration issues, etc. These are real kids dealing with real issues, and really learning how to dance.

They are fabulous, and so is this movie.

I particularly loved one little boy in Washington Heights named Wilfredo, who had just moved to the US from the Dominican Republic and did not speak much English. But he could learn how to dance.... and when he walks into the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, the look on his face reminded me exactly of the look on Ibrahim Ferrer's face in the final shot of "The Buena Vista Social Club." They share the same innate grace and quiet dignity, and the same look of wonder and pride and amazement at where they are and what they have accomplished.

I also loved one sentence that the teacher at the Washington Heights school used to describe kids who didn't get the right attention when they were young -- "No lo bailaron cuando chiquito." "Nobody danced them when they were young. One of the things I love most about Latin cultures (most of them, anyway), is that you start dancing as soon as you can stand up (even before, really, in your parents' arms) and only stop when you die. Not like our culture here, where dancing has only a limited window in our lives.

I just spent an evening in the company of some 20,000 New Yorkers of Dominican descent, at the "Noche de Herencia Hispana" at a Mets game last week. Pedro Martinez was pitching, and after the game there was a concert by Aventura and by Frank Reyes -- who has a bachata hit in "Tu eres ajena", the merengue version of which (by Eddy Herrera) was prominently featured in the "Mad Hot Ballroom" finals. Shea Stadium was a sea of Dominican flags and Dominican pride, everyone was on their feet singing every word, and dancing, and when Pedro Martinez came out on the field while Frank Reyes was singing -- and started to dance -- the crowd went wild.

We have so, so much that we can learn from all the cultures that have come to this country. I hope that the dancing gene starts to work its way, by osmosis or by marriage, into the mainstream here!

La Chispa del Beisbol

2005-08-22T21:21:00.000-04:00

The first Chispa video has been filmed and is almost completely edited! Click here to read about our video shoot with four Latino players from the New Jersey Jackals. What wonderful guys -- ¡tan simpáticos y tan carismáticos! They talk about themselves, their love of béisbol, how old they were when they started playing, how baseball came to their countries, and why they think Latinos are so important to baseball in the United States. (Key word here: ¡sabor!)

I can't wait to finish editing the video and get it out there -- I will have a working copy to show to the players before they leave in September, and with just a few more tweaks and some licensing issues taken care of (I found the perfect song!!!), it will be ready for distribution. I will be looking forward to some valuable feedback from my fellow teachers and Spanish-speaking parents!

Oh, and the video features specially commissioned artwork by María Sánchez of Sandía Fría!

Un millón de gracias y un montón de abrazos for everyone who has been so supportive of this creative chispa and helped make it a reality! ... and especially to Nancy Marmolejo of Comadre Coaching. If you or anyone you know needs a little help to spark your own chispa, contact Nancy!

LatinaLista and Sequoia Gateway

2005-08-13T16:38:00.000-04:00

If you're already a regular reader of LatinaLista, a blog on "anything and everything, from a Latina perspective," written by journalist and public radio commentator Marisa Treviño, you know how great it is. If you're not familiar with it, click on over there right away! I read this every day, and I always learn something new.

LatinaLista's latest posting is on a wonderful program in California called Sequoia Gateway, which helps young Latinos in central California to develop both soccer and academic skills, with an eye toward college scholarships. I happen to have a personal connection with this program, since my former college roommate is the proud stepmom and stepmom-in-law to Amalia and Marvin Lopez, the founders and directors of the program. What a fabulous organization! I am always thrilled to learn about people like Amalia and Marvin, who are really making a difference in their communities.

Check out LatinaLista and learn all about Sequoia Gateway!

Principe Update

2005-08-10T09:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I wrote about Telemundo's new reality show, El Príncipe Azul, and the comment made by the mamá norteamericana: "Yo no quiero nietos negros."

I originally thought that the comment was made directly to the Dominican contestant. As it turns out, it was made "privately" to the other women of the family, the príncipe's tía and abuela. "Privately," of course, meaning on national TV. To their credit, the tía and abuela disagreed with the mamá.

Well, I wasn't the only one struck by that comment. Our local Spanish news reported on the reactions around here to those palabras controversiales. And obviously, the producers chose to put that comment on the air because they knew it would be news -- and it would keep people watching.

The interesting thing to me is that it opens up conversations on race and prejudices in all the cultures portrayed in the show. I would like to believe that these prejudices are as pasado de moda as Andrés García's celebrated machismo. But I know that in the real world, they're not.

I live in a town with a lot of interracial families (and a lot of gay families as well). A friend of mine who is white and married to an African-American, with three biracial kids, said to me once: "The white (liberal) kids are always trying to pretend that race isn't an issue. The black kids know it is. Nothing is going to get better until we can all be honest about the issue."

Whatever you think about the machista and exploitative excesses of El Príncipe Azul, it is providing an honest look into both the stated and unstated views on race in Latino and Anglo cultures.

El Principe Azul

2005-08-09T10:38:00.000-04:00

Never have the cultural differences between Anglos and Latinos been more clear to me than in watching Telemundo's new reality show, El Principe Azul.

Modeled on the U.S. "Bachelor"-type shows, it's ostensibly the search for the perfect mate for Leonardo García, son of the actor Andrés García. But it's also a cultural window into, if not the differences between U.S. and Latino cultures, at least the differences between U.S. and Latino television.

Last night's premier episode introduced Andrés García, his son Leonardo, Leonardo's mother Sandra ("la norteamericana"), and Andrés' sister and mother. There was an extensive interview with Andrés García during which we learned about his numerous infidelities while he was married to Sandra (they're now divorced), his bout with prostate cancer which left him impotent ("me quemaron los aguacates"), the "bombita" which he now employs, which has cured the problem, and various and sundry other personal and intimate details of his life. He delights in his machismo, even while his sister admits that perhaps that attitude is becoming a little pasado de moda.

Interestingly enough, we didn't learn a whole lot about Leonardo, his son! Clearly the star of the show is Andrés...

But anyway, here was the interesting part, and the part that really set it aside from the U.S. shows (which I have to say I have only watched a few minutes of, so perhaps I'm exaggerating the differences).

When the 20 girls of varying Latin nationalities were introduced, they each walked up a red carpet and spoke with Andrés García for a moment, before entering the house that is the set for the show. He flirted with each one, then as she walked away, he made a comment to the camera, with Leonardo watching inside. These comments would NEVER have gotten by U.S. censors! "Esa tiene voz de cama." "Esa está rica, por esa tú y yo vamos a pelear." "Las dominicanas son encantadoras y peligrosísimas." And my favorite, "La fruta guayaba ... después te digo cómo es y dónde se encuentra."

In the scenes from upcoming episodes, we see the girls being interviewed by Andrés and by Leonardo's mother, grandmother and aunt. They ask questions about what the girls are like in bed, whether they've had plastic surgery ... and then at one point, Sandra, Leonardo's mother, says to one of the Dominican contestants, "Perdona, pero yo no quiero nietos negros."

This comment is seen being discussed by the girls -- the Dominican says the mom is a racist -- and then she confronts Sandra about it. Sandra responds with this incredible phrase: "Yo no soy racista, yo soy tejana!" I will be interested to see how the rest of that conversation plays out.

Whatever you think about ANY of the above, and yes, it is all horrendously politically incorrect -- it is really interesting to me that these comments are on the air. Because even though they are politically incorrect, they are honest reflections of what the people are really thinking. And perhaps a lot more honest than any of our supposed "reality" shows.

A Day Without a Mexican

2005-08-03T20:41:00.000-04:00

Run, don't walk, to your nearest video store and rent A Day Without a Mexican, a very moving and yet very funny movie by Sergio Arau.

The premise, if you're not familiar with it, is that all of the Latin Americans in California suddenly disappear for one day. (Part of the joke is that many Californians refer to all Latin Americans as "Mexican".) Of course, farms are suddenly left without agricultural workers, restaurants are left without staff, etc. -- all the cliches you would expect. But there is so much more, because the contributions of Latin Americans in California, and in this country as a whole, are so far-reaching. And this movie, for all of its broad strokes, paints much of this very subtly, but very, very effectively.

It was interesting to see on film the very border -- and the fence into the sea -- that I had just read about in Héctor Tobar's Translation Nation (see my previous post on Libros).

I highly recommend the DVD version of A Day Without a Mexican, in which you can watch the interviews with the director, cast and crew. Here is where the real emotions and the real opinions come out, without the filter of the movie.

And I just want to mention that I can very much identify with a main character, who disappears at a crucial point in this film. What a powerful moment, and it says so much.

¡Viva el Beisbol! And Hurray for the Little League!

2005-07-31T12:07:00.000-04:00

I love Spanish, and I love baseball.

In my last post, I talked about two different "worlds" converging, when my Spanish-language-and-culture passion sometimes crosses paths with my non-Latino daily life. But here are two things that are easy to combine! Over 25% of our major league players are Spanish-speaking. And not only is baseball popular in many Latin American and Caribbean countries, but many of our English-speaking players play in the Venezuelan and other Latin American leagues during the off-season.

I always teach a unit on Latinos in baseball to my classes -- what countries do our Spanish-speaking players come from, which teams have the most (and the least!) Latino players, why do the kids think baseball is more popular in some Latin American countries than others (this is a good geography and history lesson!). The kids pick a player and make a baseball card with his stats, and draw the flag of his country.

It's a natural match: kids, Spanish, and baseball. So much so, that this week I'm planning to film the Spanish-speaking players of our local minor league team, the New Jersey Jackals, for my first Chispa video!

So today I learn that a Little League umpire in Massachusetts prohibited a coach from speaking in Spanish to his team, made up of young Dominican players. In a country still full of "English Only" sentiment, I can't say I'm surprised. What did pleasantly surprise me, though, was the reaction of the Little League International organization. They said there was no such basis for that ruling, and the umpire was dismissed.

¡Viva el béisbol! And ¡viva el Little League!

Here's the full story, from Reuters:

Fri Jul 29, 2005 6:39 PM ET

Umpire reprimanded by Little League

BOSTON (Reuters) - An umpire who ordered a Little League baseball team to stop speaking Spanish during a game this week was barred from officiating any more games this year, league officials said on Friday.

The incident occurred when a bilingual assistant coach shouted out instructions in Spanish to the team's 14-year-old pitcher and catcher, who are immigrants from the Dominican Republic and speak little English, the Eagle-Tribune newspaper reported.

The umpire, whose name has been withheld, then ordered the team to speak only English.

The coach of a Methuen, Massachusetts-based Little League squad said the umpire's ruling banning the use of Spanish on the field demoralized his team and ultimately contributed to its loss in a state tournament game, according to the newspaper report.

Lance Van Auken, a spokesman for Little League International, said in a statement, "The umpire made an incorrect decision, for which there was no basis in the Rules and Regulations of Little League."

As a result, Little League officials will not allow that umpire to work any more games for the remainder of the year.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

El sexto sentido de los niños

2005-07-30T14:21:00.000-04:00

It's always strange when two separate worlds converge .... for example, I never think that the documentary I'm making with two friends on everyday psychic experiences has any connection with my work on Spanish language and culture. But this week, I've had two of those everyday psychic experiences with my son, and both were related to Spanish.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the gender of inanimate objects; my first sentence was, "What makes a table feminine and a tree masculine?" Then the other day, I sat down in a pizzeria with my two sons, and the first thing the younger one said was, "Why is the word for table feminine in Spanish?" I said, "Have you been reading my blog?", and he replied, "What blog?" He had no idea what I was talking about, and I couldn't figure out how he came out with that, when I know I didn't mention it to him.

What followed then was a very funny conversation about why things are masculine or feminine in Spanish -- my middle son said, "'Table' is feminine because all the men are standing at the bar. And 'napkin' is feminine, because men just use their arm." But I was still surprised that the topic had come up.

Then, yesterday I was thinking about writing a post on how I regret not having spoken Spanish to my kids (and I still don't speak to them directly in Spanish, although are surrounded by it all the time, between my friends, my music, and my telenovelas). I actually stopped speaking Spanish at all for ten years, after having my kids, for reasons that are still not totally clear to me ... although I think most of it had to do with losing a part of my self -- my Latina alter-ego -- after becoming a mother, and only reclaiming that within the last 6 or 7 years. Another part was that I'm not a native speaker, and my husband doesn't speak Spanish, both factors that made it less likely for me to speak to them in Spanish. But oh, how I wish I had. And recently I've considered starting to do it.

Then last night, at dinner, this same son said, "How come you never speak to us in Spanish?"

I'm going to have to start watching what I think! And I think I'm going to have to start speaking to my kids -- at least that one -- in Spanish.

Libros –– What I'm reading these days

2005-07-22T20:59:00.000-04:00

Summertime – and the break from full-time teaching – has not only freed me up to work more on my creative projects; it has also unleashed the voraciously ravenous reader in me. I should have a revolving account with Amazon.com, since a package seems to be arriving daily from them. But it is so worthwhile ...

Here's some of what I've been devouring of late, in Spanish, English and in several cases a mix of the two:

I just reviewed Killer Crónicas: Bilingual Memories, by Susana Chávez-Silverman, for Cuerpo Magazine, so I won't write that much here except to say that I have never read anything like this book in my life. It is written in a Spanish/English mix that is incredibly fun to read (if you speak both languages -- I'm not sure what it would be like to read this and not be bilingual), but the insights go way beyond fun. It is a true journey of the soul. Read the full review in the upcoming edition of Cuerpo!

Wow, I found this book entirely thanks to el destino; I was looking for another book with "Gringolandia" in the title (recommended by a friend) and came across The Chalupa Rules: A Latino Guide to Gringolandia. Because I am a complete Lotería fanatic, and the book uses Lotería images to tell its story, I had to get it. I'm so glad I did. As I was reading the introductory chapter, I realized that the author, Mario Bósquez, is one of our local TV news anchors, whom I've watched often. All I can say is that after reading that first chapter, I will be looking at him in a completely new light. He describes his story of struggling to make it, of growing up poor, of wearing threadbare jackets on camera as he was establishing his career, of sending every spare penny back home to his family. He credits the love of his family, hard work, determination, persistence, and the wisdom he learned through age-old dichos for his success as the first full-time Chicano television anchor in New York. This is an incredibly inspirational read for adults, and I can really see it as a wonderful book for teenagers as well.

Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States arrived in the same shipment as The Chalupa Rules, and I started reading them both at the same time. Héctor Tobar's description of Latino lives in the U.S. traces everything from one individual's border crossing to the Latino community-building that is taking place around the country and changing the culture not only of our larger cities, but more importantly, of many smaller rural and suburban communities as well. This book sends such a positive message about how many parts of our country are not just accepting la nueva onda, but thriving and being rejuvenated through the richness and diversity of the many Latino cultures which have joined their communities. One of my favorite stories is about how the town of Dalton, Georgia handled the influx of Latino children into their schools, with the percentage going from only a handful of Latino kids a decade earlier, to 80% now. I'd like to quote more on this in a later post, but I will just note that there actually are communities that see a need like this, decide to send many of their teachers to Spanish-language classes, the principal herself will go to the very area in Mexico where most of these children come from to learn more about their cultural background, and Spanish and English are heard throughout the school, from both the children and the very Anglo – but newly bilingual – teachers. With all the bad things I keep hearing about education (and seeing some of them myself, as a teacher), this was a truly inspiring story.

The Hummingbird's Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea, is a beautiful book about a young girl who has a special gift of healing and becomes an important curandera and partera in the time just before the Mexican revolution. What makes this story unique, for me, is that in addition to being beautifully written and extremely engaging, it is based on a real person – Urrea's great-aunt (his tía abuela, as I just mentioned in a previous post). Urrea's bio notes that this novel "took twenty years of travel, research and study amoung the healers to write." I'd like to read more by Luis Alberto Urrea, and I'm sure I'll be ordering more of his books soon.

OK, this one you need to speak Spanish for, but if you do, buy this book and read it. I have enjoyed Gioconda Belli's powerful poetry, and have read other books of hers, but El pergamino de la seducción is completely different. It's the story of Juana La Loca, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabel of Spain. I had always heard little bits about Juana La Loca, mainly that she was indeed loca and had a very sad life. This book makes her come alive, and describes the treatment she received at the hands of her parents, her husband, her political advisors, and everyone else who was able to take away her sovereignty, her home, her freedom, her trust, and worst of all, her children, while she could do nothing to prevent it. Belli takes a great deal of poetic license, of course, but she has clearly done her historical research as well... so much so that an in-law of mine, who happens to be distantly related to Juana La Loca and up until now completely bought into the "she was really crazy" party line, may actually be changing his mind a bit now, thanks to this book. Basically, Belli notes that while Juana may indeed have been depressed or bipolar, the abuse, abandonment and imprisonment she suffered at the hands of those she loved and trusted, combined with the callous and forced separation from her children and her few real friends, were certainly enough to make any one of us end up loca.

Gender Identity in Spanish

2005-07-21T12:36:00.000-04:00

What makes a table feminine and a tree masculine?

The many forms of the word "the" in Spanish – el, la, los, las – present a challenge for kids (and adults) learning Spanish, and not just because you have to memorize which gender each noun is and then make sure you match up the gender and number every time you refer to that noun. The very concept of inanimate objects having a gender is practically impossible for those of us who are non-native speakers to really understand.

I've always loved the discussions kids have on this subject when they first learn about it, and try to figure it out in their minds – before they can learn to just accept it. They come up with all sorts of reasons for the gender of a window, a clock, a shirt. Eventually, though, they will have to internalize it, so that it becomes natural to them.

If there is a sense behind the gender of inanimate objects, I don't know what it is. Having taken my four years of Latin, I vividly remember having to learn three genders – masculine, feminine, and neutral – but not every inanimate object was neutral. So the gender identity of nouns reaches far back into the very origins of language, with reasons probably too old for any of us to understand now, even if there originally was one.

And even that designated gender identity is not always consistent. Sometimes you can use the same word with el or la, and it will change the meaning, as in the case of el radio, the actual radio itself, and la radio, the programming that you listen to on el radio. Then there are the mixed-up el and la, as in el día and la mano. And then, of course, the variations of Spanish that cause one object to be feminine in one country and masculine in another. "Computer," for example, is feminine in Latin America – la computadora – and masculine in Spain – el ordenador. (there are a ton of chistes on this subject, actually – "Why is a computer feminine" vs. "Why is a computer masculine" – but I doubt that was the original reasoning behind how the words came into use.)

Yesterday, I came across a great passage in a book I'm reading, The Hummingbird's Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea, which added a whole new nuance to the subject of gender identity:

....

"Whereas the North Americans," Aguirre announced, "have no gender in their language."

Aghast, Tomás let out a small puff of air.

"No 'el'?" he said. "No 'la'?"

Aguirre, quite satisfied with his latest astonishment, said: "No. They have the following word: the."

"As in tea?"

"Not té! The!"

"No male, no female?"

"The!"

"C'est bizarre, mon ami!"

"Los gringos," Aguirre lamented, "are hermaphrodites."

Which begs the question – I wonder if some words in Spanish can be gay?

Family relations

2005-07-09T10:17:00.000-04:00

Having just returned from a week in France with my extended family, I was reminded of how special the "cousin" relationship is. I have always thought that cousins are the best. They're like siblings, but without the competition. They understand you, they know the quirks of the family, and they are the best cómplices you will find anywhere!

I particularly love how the "first cousin" relationship is described in Spanish -- mi primo hermano, "my cousin-brother or brother-cousin." Somehow the words "first cousin" just don't describe how close the family relationship really is. But when you say primo hermano, the bond is clear.

It's the same with tía abuela for "great aunt." A "great aunt" sounds so far removed; it's not even clear from the words themselves what kind of relationship they actually describe. But your tía abuela, your "aunt-grandmother?" You can feel the direct bloodline and the love just in those words.

Are there any other examples of this that I'm missing? Native speakers, please fill me in ....

Detalles

2005-06-23T17:53:00.000-04:00

Detalles.

When we talk about words or concepts not translating directly from Spanish or English, this is one of the first things that comes to my mind.

Yes, in English we have the word "detail." And yes, detalle can mean the same kind of "detail" in Spanish as it does in English.

But it goes much, much further. And I wish we had not only the word and the concept in English, but the common cultural practice as well.

Detalles are the little things you do for someone else, the thoughtful gift or action that shows you care and that you're thinking about that person. Detalles show consideration for others and are a way of making the world a better place one detallito at a time.

The word popped into my mind at an odd moment the other night. I was at a local pub (yes, we have a new, fabulous, totally authentic Irish-from-Ireland pub in our little New Jersey ex-urb!), and a friend mentioned to me one of the reasons she knew it was a wonderful place. She said, "Did you see the tampons in the bathroom?" I said no, I hadn't visited the restroom yet. She said, "There's a little basket in the bathroom filled with tampons, and if you need one, you just take one! No fumbling around, looking for change, if you need one. What a great idea! How much could that cost, maybe five bucks a month, but what a difference it makes!"

I never thought of a feminine hygiene product being a detalle, but in this case that is exactly what it was. So the Irish must know something about detalles, too...

A little consideration and a little detalle go a very long way, in business, in personal relationships, and in life.