Bienvenidos al blog sobre el mundo hispano

Con este blog quiero compartir información sobre la cultura de los paises hispano hablantes. Les invito comentar y sugerir otros websites y blogs sobre la literatura, cinema, música, etca. de la cultura espanola.

Monday, September 19, 2011


Actividades para Celebrar el Mes de Herencia Hispana (Hispanic Heritage Month: Sept. 15-Oct. 15)

FILM  -  Papers

Date:  Wed., September 21, FILM:  Papers  - FREE  -  7:00 pm Gallagher Theatre, UA Student Union

Over two million children born outside the U.S., are raised here each year.  For them, it’s illegal to work, drive, or attend most colleges; despite their American upbringing, they are undocumented.  They face the challenges of trying to avoid deportation from the only home they know while still fighting for their rights. Papers is the story of five of these youth.  Among these teenagers is Jorge Gutierrez, who is both undocumented and gay.   

Sponsored by LGBTQ Affairs, Women’s Resource Center, ASUA, Dean of Students, CHSA, and Student Services Fee Grant. 

FILM -- Los que se quedan/Those who remain (Q&A with Director Carlos Hagerman to follow the film!)

Date: Thursday, September 22, 2011 from 6-8pm -- FREE

Where: Harkins Theater Tucson Spectrum (5455 S. Calle Santa Cruz)

Los que se quedan/Those Who Remain (Mexico 2008, 100 mins. in Spanish with English subtitles), winner of multiple awards including Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival, depicts the other-side of the immigration story – the impact of Mexican migration to the U.S. on the families left behind. 

“This film is an intimate and discerning depiction of the impact of migration on families and villages left behind by loved ones who have traveled North for work. It is a film about those families who have crossed the border to the United States in search of better opportunities.  A films that explores the melancholy, memories and identity of those who remain, who continue to wait, to love, and to dream.  A film about absence, about the families whose lives are defined by the voids emigrations had created. The simple things... the stories of those who remain.”

Part of the Borderland Film Series Sponsored by the: Arizona Humanities Council, Consulado de Mexico en Tucson, UA Hanson Film Institute and the Center for Latin American Studies. The goal of the series is to expose the public to some great films and encourage a dialogue about the issues they explore.  All events will include discussions with filmmakers or experts and are completely free and open to the public. The complete series information can be found online at http://clas.arizona.edu/.

PHOTO EXHIBIT -- Los Que Se Quedan (Those who Remain)

Date:  Wed., September 14 – Sat., October 22

Where: The Union Gallery, UA Student Union

This photo exhibit accompanies the international acclaimed documentary Los Que Se Quedan (2009) by Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman. The exhibit comprises of photographs taken at the same communities where the documentary was filmed telling the stories of the people who remain deal with the absence of others.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Hace muchos años yo estudiaba español en San Miguel de Allende que es una ciudad colonial en el estado de Guanajuato, Mexico.  Aquí les comparto unas fotos de San Miguel.  Espero que ustedes puedan visitar esta bella ciudad un día.

Francisco X. Alarcon -- Un poeta hispano

Another poet who has written poems about tomatoes and other ordinary things is the Hispanic poet, Francisco X. Alarcon, who we will be studying in Chapter 9.  Below is biography of Alarcon and his poem from his book for children of the same name,  Laughing Tomatoes/Jitomates Risueños





«Jitomates risueños», por Francisco X. Alarcón

Francisco Alarcón es un famoso poeta chicano que vive en Davis, California.  Ha publicado varios libros, entre los cuales se encuentran Body in Flames (Cuerpo en lamas (1990) y el libro para niños, Jitomates Risueños (1997), que contiene el hermoso poema aquí incluido.  La obra de Alarcón se estudia en muchas universidades, la aprecian miles de lectores, y además educa y divierte a los jóvenes.
 
 Jitomates risueños

En el jardín
plantamos
jitomates

los vegetales
más felices
de todos

alegres
se redondean
de sabor

risueños
se ponen
colorados

convirtiendo
sus arbustos
alambrados

en árboles
de Navidad
en primavera


Both Neruda and Alarcon's poems can be called Odes.  What are the traditional themes of Odes in poetry?  Usually the subject of odes were people, places, things that the poet wanted to praise and give prestige to.  John Keats for example wrote "Ode on a Grecian Urn," in 1819.  His odes were usually about art.  Neruda uses the genre of the ode to give prestige to the commonplace.  Both he and Alarcon use "personification" (giving human traits to inanimate objects) in order to bring life to their subject.
Compare Alarcon's poem with Neruda's poem and the videos about tomatoes. 
1.  Why is the word for tomato -- tomate and jitomate -- different in each poem?   Google the words "tomato"and "jitomate" to find out the origin of the two words.   
2.  What similarities and differences do you notice in the two poems and the videos? 

3.  What are the different ways tomatoes are portrayed using personification?


For extra credit, write your own poem about your favorite fruit or vegetable or ordinary thing and post it on the blog (under comments).

Para más información sobre Francisco X. Alarcon, vean la entrevista (en inglés y español) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=587136973009119024


Friday, September 9, 2011

Pablo Neruda -- el poeta de Latin America

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet, and diplomat.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. His original name was Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, but he used the pen name Pablo Neruda for over 20 years before adopting it legally in 1946. Neruda is the most widely read of the Spanish American poets. From the 1940s on, his works reflected the political struggle of the left and the socio-historical developments in South America. He also wrote love poems. Neruda's Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924) have sold over a million copies since it first appeared.


Oda al Tomate is a poem from a collection of poems by Neruda called "Odes to Elementary Things" (Odas Elemenatares).   This collection includes poems to fruits (Oda a la Manzana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpCjXjlTabo&feature=related) and vegetables (Oda a la Cebolla, Oda a la Papa, Oda a la Alcachofa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No9WwAoNU8E&feature=related) and other ordinary things such as socks, bicycles http://ruedatropical.com/2009/03/oda-a-la-bicicleta-pablo-neruda/, spoon, etc. 



Here is a wonderful video of Neruda's poem "Oda al Tomate"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0xuOEBTWYg&feature=related 

Compare it to this video "Attack of the Killer Tomato" --  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-F52rbK8Gg&feature=related

What do these two videos have in common?  How are they different?  How are tomatoes portrayed in each video? (e.g., as victims, invaders, etc.)