May 10, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

For all the bearded heartthrobs that Hollywood has given us to interpret Jesus Christ, we may just be beginning a lost list of Che Guevara interpreters to compete. I can count four. First we had Omar Sharif in the controversial 1969 version Che! The movie was seen as so offensive in Chile and Argentina that Molotov cocktails were reportedly thrown at screens in movie theaters. Then we had Gael Garcia Bernal as boy Che in Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries to whet our appetites for a more grown up comandan...Read More

May 7, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

My role as blogger of the Latino arts demands that I delve into book subjects I feel you should know about whether kosher or non-kosher. So I wanted to let you know that there’s a book about teaching young children about marijuana available in several languages including Spanish and English. Meet Ricardo Cortés, the 34-year-old founder and director of the Magic Propaganda Mill (MPM), a NY-based visual design agency that combines art with progressive political education. He is also the man behind a controversial and much talked about book entitled It’s Just a Plant first published in 2005 . Dr. Andrew Weil called it "A delightful book….a glimpse of what enlightened drug education could be" and it was labeled "an outrage" by ...Read More

May 3, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I want to recommended four books out there on the Quinceañera, that coming of age ritual that celebrates a Latin girl’s fifteenth birthday. If you're trying to fill out your collection, here are four very different takes on the this Latino ritual. The first, Once upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA is a sociologically informative non-fiction look at the cultural tradition written by Julia Alvarez (that's also available in Spanish). The second is Estrella’s Quinceañera, a charming and zany young adult novel by Malina Alegria. The third, Quinceañera:The Essential Guide to Planning the Perfect Sweet Fifteen Celebration, i...Read More

April 30, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

April 25, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

In 1972 the legendary Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash while taking supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was only 38-years-old  and his body was never found in the Atlantic Ocean where his plane crashed. If you missed out on the premiere of the PBS documentary “Roberto Clemente,” an “American Experience” this week, which has a handy Spanish-language version as well, you can now view it by visiting the PBS American Experience site. They’ve also got a page dedicated to books about Latinos in baseball.

There&...Read More