13
Jun
2007

Rubén Darío y mi papá...

Mi papá acostumbraba contarme cuentos por las noches. Tiene una imaginación maravillosa, una voz dulce, un corazón cálido.

Cuando estaba muy cansado y no encontraba la energía para sumergirse en el mundo de la imaginación, me recitaba el mismo poema, que hasta el día de hoy, guardo en mi corazón.

Margarita
Margarita, está linda la mar,
y el viento
Ileva esencia sutil de azahar;

yo siento
en el alma una alondra cantar
tu acento.
Margarita, te voy a contar
un cuento.

Éste era un rey que tenía
un palacio de diamantes,
una tienda hecha del día
y un rebaño de elefantes,
un kiosco de malaquita,
un gran manto de tisú
y una gentil princesita,
tan bonita,
Margarita,
tan bonita como tú.

Una tarde la princesa
vio una estrella aparecer;
la princesa era traviesa
y la quiso ir a coger.

La quería para hacerla
decorar un prendedor,
con un verso y una perla,
una pluma y una flor.

Las princesas primorosas
se parecen mucho a ti:
cortan lirios, cortan rosas,
cortan astros. Son así.

Pues se fue la niña bella,
bajo el cielo y sobre el mar,
a cortar la blanca estrella
que la hacía suspirar.

Y siguió camino arriba,
por la luna y más allá;
mas lo malo es que ella iba
sin permiso del papá.

Cuando estuvo ya de vuelta
de los parques del Señor,
se miraba toda envuelta
en un dulce resplandor.

Y el rey dijo: "¿Qué te has hecho?
Te he buscado y no te hallé;
y ¿qué tienes en el pecho,
que encendido se te ve?"

La princesa no mentía.
Y así, dijo la verdad:
"Fui a cortar la estrella mía
a la azul inmensidad".

Y el rey clama: "¿No te he dicho
que el azul no hay que tocar?
iQué locura! iQué capricho!
El Señor se va a enojar".

Y dice ella: "No hubo intento;
yo me fui no sé por qué;
por las olas y en el viento
fui a la estrella y la corté".

Y el papá dice enojado:
"Un castigo has de tener:
vuelve al cielo y lo robado
vas ahora a devolver".

La princesa se entristece
por su dulce flor de luz,
cuando entonces aparece
sonriendo el Buen Jesús.

Y así dice: "En mis campiñas
esa rosa le ofrecí:
son mis flores de las niñas
que al soñar piensan en mí".

Viste el rey ropas brillantes
y luego hace desfilar
cuatrocientos elefantes
a la orilla de la mar.

La princesita está bella,
pues ya tiene el prendedor
en que lucen, con la estrella,
verso, perla, pluma y flor.

Margarita, está linda la mar
y el viento
Ileva esencia sutil de azahar:
tu aliento.

Ya que lejos de mí vas a estar,
guarda, niña, un gentil pensamiento
al que un día te quiso contar
un cuento.

Rubén Darío.

12
Jun
2007

Silence

Be quiet when you feel there's nothing to say
And when you find in silence the comfort you need
Be quiet when words don't make sense

But don't use silence to hide your fear...
don't be quiet when your silence hurts someone else

I love you

1
Jun
2007

Watch out world: Mía Soto has arrived!!!

My sister-friend Lourdes just had our first baby (ok, it's not "our" first baby, it's her's and Rodrigo's, but still...she's somehow mine too).

Her mother wrote the most beautiful poem to her, and I just have to post it-

Yo te esperaba
Y veía mi cuerpo crecer
Mientras buscaba el nombre que te di

En el espejo fui la luna llena y de perfil contigo dentro
Jamás fui tan feliz

Moría por sentir tus piernecitas frágiles
Pateando la obscuridad de mi vientre maduro

Soñar no cuesta, no
Y con los ojos húmedos
Te veía tan alta, es más, en la cima del mundo

Yo te esperaba!
Imaginando a ciegas el color de tu mirada
Y el timbre de tu voz

Muerta de miedo
Le rogaba al cielo que te deje llegar lejos
Mucho más que yo

Yo te esperaba
Pintaba sobre las paredes de tu cuarto cuentos en color
Y restaba sin parar días al calendario

El mundo es como es
Y no puedo cambiártelo
Pero siempre te seguiré
para darte una mano

Yo te esperaba!
Imaginando a ciegas el color de tu mirada
Y el timbre de tu voz

Hoy que te tengo
Pido al cielo que me deje verte llegar lejos
Mucho más que yo

Yo te esperaba...
Y el espejo nos miraba mientras ya te amaba.



Congratulations to Lourdes and Rodrigo, I can't wait to see Mía grow up to be an amazing person, just like her mom!

I love you so much!!!

30
May
2007

Want to learn German?

Learn German Online for free!

I think this is great. All you need is time...that's the most difficult part, right?

29
May
2007

Violence Against Women and Girls

I highly admire Eve Ensler's dedication and work to the cause of erradicating violence against women and girls.

Eve Ensler is the playwright of The Vagina Monologues and The Good Body. If you haven't seen them...you have to!!! They're incredible.

She's also the founder of the global movement V-Day, which is actively working to end violence against women and girls all around the world.

The video I'm posting here explains how she got to be so passionate on this particular cause. When I saw it, I was truly touched. I cried. I hope it has on other people the same effect it had on me, not about the crying, but about being more aware to the global and multidimensional problem that Violence Against Women really is.

I assume everyone knows about the existence of this problem, but I don't think we're really aware of its dimension, or maybe we are; maybe we just decide to look away and decide to ignore how harmful and horrible it actually is.

And so, it continues to wreck and sacrifice millions of lives every year.

Authors@google

Lately I've been watching some of the "talks" that authors@google post in youtube. There's a lot of very interesting ideas coming out of there. Brilliant people explaining and backing their thoughts on different subjects available online for anyone to see. That's the wonder of internet!

To anyone interested, I highly recommend it.

Viaje por Guatemala

I give full credit to Quique for the posting of this video in my blog- he posted it himself in his own blog and I thought it was so good I had to post it too.

Young Guatemalans are strangely patriotic (I love that!). Like I said before, I first watched this video in Quique's blog, but I later discovered it was all over the Guatemalan blogs I know.

The video is named "Viaje por Guatemala" and it was produced by Vinizzio Rizzo. It wan First Prize in the video-art category in the Central American Icaro Film and TV Festival.

I keep wanting to know more about Vinizzio Rizzo, since he's done a lot of very interesting and high quality videos that capture -in a very special way- a variety of different faces of Guatemala's particular reality. I will look him up and post more of his videos soon.

Tu amor me hace bien

Me encanta esta canción- es una de las canciones más románticas que he oído!

Tu amor me hace bien- Marc Anthony

Te quiero así deliciosa insospechada
Porque creo en tu palabra
Porque yo siento que aún te necesito
Porque me alteras las ganas

Te quiero así estruendosa y delicada
Entre alegría y nostalgia
Porque me gusta tenerte vida mía
Y no quiero que te vayas
Porque el amor cuando es verdad sale del alma
Nos aturde los sentidos
Y de pronto descubrimos que la piel
Se enciende en llamas

Bien, tu amor me hace bien
Tu amor me desarma
Ay, tu amor me controla
Me endulza, me encanta
Pero bien, tu amor me hace bien
Tu amor me desarma
Ay tu amor me controla
Me vence, me amarra
Mira que me hace bien, que me hace bien

Te quiero así tan precisa equivocada
Con tus detalles que matan
Porque tenerte a mi lado me hace fuerte
Si eres mi reina y mi espada
Te quiero así cuando ríes cuando callas
Porque al caer me levantas
Porque mi voz y mi espíritu se agitan
Cuando dices que me amas
Porque tu amor como es verdad me vuelve el alma
Me despierta los sentidos
Y de pronto descubrí que aquí en mi piel
Se encienden llamas

Bien, ay tu amor me hace bien
Tu amor me desarma
Tu amor me controla
Me endulza, me encanta
Pero bien, tu amor me hace bien
Tu amor me desarma
Tu amor me controla
Me vence, me amarra

19
Mar
2007

Samuel P. Huntington doesn't like guacamole

When I first read some fragments of Samuel P. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" I thought he could probably be right. Maybe the 21st century would be about civilizations rather than nation-states.

Nation-states appear to be so weak today (appear to be, not are) -everything is understood as a consequence of "globalization"- and many people seem to think that nation-states have reached a point where they're no longer valid. I, myself, believe one must keep in mind that neoliberalism often uses the suposed "weakness" of the nation-state to prove and promote, at some point, the predominance of economy over politics. The nation-state must not be underestimated: it's still a very powerful actor, without which multinationals would not be where they are (even if that's contradictory to their speech).

Getting back to Huntington, he argues in "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" that last century's Cold War conflict (a.i. ideological conflict) will become most likely, in the post-Cold War period, a conflict along cultural differences. His book came out in 1993, and 9/11 certainly re-enforced his theory, specially apropos of the conflict between the "Islam Civilization" and the "Western Civilization".

I am in no position to criticize Huntington (Yale graduate, Harvard Ph.D. and Professor...) but I can't help it think he's making a huge mistake by trying to simplify complex realities into one big problem: "cultural differences".

Concepts such as "globalization", "identities" or "civilizations" are so abstract that it's almost dangerous. You've got to be careful, because they are a practical tool for manipulation purposes.

"Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity" came out in 2001. Huntington now identified the United States "internal enemy": the Latinamerican immigrant, particularly the Mexican immigrant.

It's much simpler (and a lot less compromising) to blame someone who doesn't belong to the own identity for profound and complex internal problems. Take Nazism for example: antisemitism was a way to address Germany's problematic situation at that moment: creating an "enemy" immediately unites everyone else who isn't a part of it. No matter what huge differences divide the newly integrated block, they still represent an "us" against a "them". It's very powerful, and so very dangerous.

Massive migrations are a present world-wide problem that needs to be resolved. However, encouraging xenophobia, racism and strengthening new sources of conflict is not the way to go about it. As much damage as undocumented immigrants might cause to their host-countries, their contribution to their economies should also be recognized. Ying-Yang, not black or white, that's life.

The Latinamerican/Mexican immigration issue is not -by far- the cause to the United States problems. Not even it's complete elimination would solve them. Come on, that's ridiculous.

13
Mar
2007

George W. Bush visits Guatemala

The unpopularity of the United States' President is no secret, not here, not in China.

The USA has been directly involved in Latin America's history ever since it's independence. Guatemala's geographical position has condemned it to a permanent intervention from all mighty USA. The Monroe Doctrine became the justification for it: protecting Latin America from any kind of imperialistic attempt- to do precisely that.

Panamericanism took the Doctrine Monroe's shape, except for that short period when leaders such as Simon Bolivar attempted to build the Latin America that all Latinamericans deserve. No- I mean he visioned the kind of country everybody deserves: a free independent one; one that makes decisions based on it's own interests, needs and possibilities, not someone else's.

The USA has always tried to keep a pretty strong bond with Latin America, but Mr. Bush's administration overlooked the region, mainly because it was focused on the"War Against Terrorism".

An anti-usa sentiment emerged inside Latin America, encouraged by politicians such as Bolivia's Evo Morales, Brazil's Ignazio Lula da Silva, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Nicaragua's Manuel Ortega, Argentina's Néstor Kirchner, and specially, Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Cuba's Fidel Castro.

So, Bush decided to come to his -still faithful, albeit possibly not of long- backyard and demonstrate his commitment to the Latinamerican development. Hm. He visited Brazil (Lula), Uruguay (Vásquez), Colombia (Uribe), Guatemala (Berger) and Mexico (Calderón). People expressed disapproval and dislike: protesters in all five countries called Bush a murderer and fascist. Harsh. True? No comment.

I like to think that Mr. Bush's visit could actually help improve life conditions for Latinamerican undocumented immigrants, and as much as it hurts to admit it: we definitely need help to prevent countries like Guatemala and Colombia from becoming narco-states.

We'll see what happens.

4
Mar
2007

Luna de Xelajú

Correct me if I'm wrong but this must be one of the most beautiful waltzes in the world: Luna de Xelajú (01-Luna-de-Xelaj- (wma, 3,861 KB)), a Waltz composed by Paco Pérez, a very talented Guatemalan who was inlove.

What I like the most about this particular version of "Luna de Xelajú" is the mixture between Classic Orchestra and our Guatemalan National Instrument: La Marimba. It's just beautiful.

This version was actually directed by one of my teachers, Dr. Dieter Lehnhoff.

Here are the lyrics:

Luna gardenia de plata
que en mi serenata te vuelves canción,
tú que me viste cantando
me ves hoy llorando mi desilusión.

Calles bañadas de luna
que fueron la cuna de mi juventud,
vengo a cantarle a mi amada
la luna plateada de mi Xelajú.

Luna de Xelajú
que supiste alumbrar,
en mis noches de pena
por una morena de dulce mirar.

Luna de Xelajú
me diste inspiración,
la canción que hoy te canto
regada con llanto de mi corazón.

En mi vida no habrá
más cariño que tú
porque no eres ingrata
mi luna de plata, Luna de Xelajú.

Luna que me alumbró
en mis noches de amor,
y hoy consuelas la pena
por una morena que me abandonó.
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yo no sé nada

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