A night of Latin American unity

The Semblanza Latinoamericana held its annual Latin American Folk&Dance festival at the Los Angeles Theater Center on October 17. The night was filled with beautiful representations of  Bolivia, Panama, the United States, Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, and Ecuador. Audience members in the cozy theater rooted for their respective countries just as passionately as the fans of the Los Angeles baseball team that was playing somewhere else not too far from there. Even so, their was an all around respect and admiration for all of the countries in general, for it seemed that each country received a gasp and wondering stare from at least one audience member who was not familiar with their dance. Evey one learned something that night, whether it was a lyrical gesture or a greater tolerance for their fellow Latin American neighbor. Most of all, the most prominent lesson was that there is a richness and diversity throughout the countries that form Latin America, and it was appropriately displayed through dance.


Here are some photos from that night.
1.Los Angeles Based Tierra Blanca performing an Afro-Mestizo dance from Veracruz, Mexico.
2.Colombia's group Folklore de Mi Tierra performing "La Puya Loca" cumbia.
3.From Cuatro Caminos Art&Flamenco, Lisa Solar and guitarist Walter Molina performing a style called Alegria.
4.Panama's Ballet Folklorico "Viva Panama" dancing to "El Borracho" and "Viva Panama".

Orgullo Hispano en el Phil

From the Times' Ann Powers article:


"As a band, we always mix genres, cultures, generations, and now to have a musical director who does the same, it's awesome," said Ulises Bella of Ozomatli, the Latin hip-hop fusion band, during one introductory segment. Like much of the day's banter, this statement was in English and Spanish, now the unofficial parlance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
y le decimos "bienvenido a Gustavo"

Friends forever?

There was an article in the Los Angeles Times about the recent Summit of the Americas that President Barack Obama, along with other democratically elected leaders, attended in Trinidad and Tobago. In here, writer Peter Nicholas talks about how much criticism there was toward the hand shake and chit chat among Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez and Obama. I do not think there is anything threatening at all with that.The president defended it by saying it was diplomatic courtesy, as it should be...and believe me,I didn't vote for Obama.It just is what it is...(and everyone disregarded his handshake with Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega,which is one in the same with Chavez,maybe even worse,but why should anyone care right?)

Obama stated " it's defense budget is probably 1/600th of the U.S.,...They own Citgo.It's unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr.Chavez tar we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States. Strategic interests. I am not enraged by any of those peace-loving gestures. I agree with an official who said at the summit, "Anybody who's been at international conferences with Chavez knows that if there's a camera around, he's going to find a way to get in it. I mean,you can see that from his furious and wannabe Fidel speeches, (he is his protege.) I'm not angry.

In fact I think it's hilarious that Chavez gave Obama a copy of "Open Veins of Latin America by Eduarde Galeano, discussing Chavez's favorite punching bag and go-to topic, imperialismo! It was a Spanish version, I heard...so does that mean he's going to carry a prompter around...I mean,a translator?I really don't think this is going to turn Obama into the next president with half of Latin America's antimosity toward the U.S. Those are just out of control allegations. Fox news then reported that the book shot up to the number 2 most requested on Amazon.com. Either this is dejavu, where everyone is following this trend of supporting anything Obama touches or people just sincerely want to get educated on how the U.S. has messed up in the past. I'm pretty sure it's the former but we will give the public the benefit of the doubt.

Left...LITERALLY!:President Obama and Chavez. "Let's give 'em something to talk about!"