Penélope, con su bolso de piel marrón y sus zapatos de tacón, y su vestido de domingo. Penélope, se sienta en un banco en el andén y espera que llegue el primer tren meneando el abanico. Dicen en el pueblo que un caminante paró su reloj una tarde de primavera. Adiós, amor mío, no me llores, volveré antes que de los sauces caigan las hojas… Piensa en mí, volveré por ti… Pobre infeliz, se paró tu reloj infantil una tarde plomiza de abril, cuando se fue tu amante. Se marchitó en tu huerto hasta la última flor, no hay un sauce en la calle mayor para Penélope. Penélope, tristes a fuerza de esperar, sus ojos parecen brillar si un tren silba a lo lejos. Penélope, uno tras otro los ve pasar, mira sus caras, les oye hablar, para ella son muñecos. Dicen en el pueblo que el caminante volvió, la encontró en su banco de pino verde. La llamó: ‘Penélope, mi amante fiel, mi paz, deja ya de tejer sueños en tu mente… Mírame, soy tu amor, regresé…’ Le sonrió con los ojos llenitos de ayer, no era así su cara ni su piel: ‘Tú no eres quien yo espero…’ Y se quedó con su bolso de piel marrón y sus zapatitos de tacón sentada en la estación

Chile: Indio Picaro

You’ll see why it’s called Indio Picaro. Ironically, it’s from Chile (hint).

The history of African influence in Mexico has always been something that has not had much exposure (something I find disturbing). The influence is much bigger than simply “Boca Chica”. Click the source to read a pretty in depth review from a professor in Belmont, Ca named Bobby Vaughn

Interesting fact: The term Mexicans refer to as “chino” for curly hair (others call it “riso”) is actually an African influenced term coined after la china cambuja­­, la casta que salía de la cruza de mulato con india. A masculin term due to the father being of the African race. A common theory is that the derogatory term “naco” also originates from the same term.

At the end of the day… like Nas and Gong Marley sang,…

we’re all distant cousins.

Pretty band, pretty colors, pretty sound . Anyone know anymore about this band? Indie band from Caracas is all I know. Doesn’t hit me like a serious rock band but the way the video was shot is pretty cool

Y si tu alma no esta contenta,
pide la rebancha a tientas no achantes,
Recuerda ya perdí la cuenta la vida es violenta,
no mientas, hay que ser valiente. (x2)

Dos cosas flotan en el agua: la mierda y los barcos.
Mi transalantico es un estado mental,
yo te reprendo por lameculos, yo te pego en el culo.
No hagais el ridiculo fingiendo mas escuelas, mas hospitales
menos maniobras militares.
No abandono lucho hasta el final,
lloro hasta que no me quedan lagrimas en el lagrimal.
Verguenza os tenia que dar!!…yo soy mejor que la Mala.
Igualdad de condiciones, igualdad los cojones.
Dime ¿de perte de quien te pones? cuando no hay opciones
la misma mierda en to el globo, sin exclusiones,hay que ponerse tapones.
Quien necesita razones si te tienen amaestrao.

[Estribillo]
Y si tu alma no esta contenta,
pide la rebancha a tientas no achantes,
Recuerda ya perdí la cuenta la vida es violenta,
no mientas, hay que ser valiente. (x2)

Educao, agarrao en un puñao como gorriones
comiendo las mijitas que te dejan esos lampones.
A mi no me gusta la politica, sé de algo de mecánica
atravieso tu mundito con mi técnica.
¿Te puedes grabar en video señorita?,
Abrigate que va a caer una buena, si te quemas,
oye como suena. Sigo vivo en la cadena, yo me pongo las botas.
Aprende, el camino es duro. Dime cuantos ponen el culo
yo estoy aqui tan contenta fumandome un puro, no apuro.
Cuenta hasta tres y levanta la mano mi hermano que el mundo es tuyo.
Quiero que esta cama sea una toalla
y este suelo la arena de una playa. Tú y yo.

[Estribillo]
Y si tu alma no esta contenta,
pide la rebancha a tientas no achantes,
Recuerda ya perdí la cuenta la vida es violenta,
no mientas, hay que ser valiente. (x2)

Contempla los rayos de luz,
escucha lo que realmente
quiere esa gente dime ¿se lo vas a dar tú?.
Quiero la verdad aunque sea mala, aunque duela.
Yo solo quiero que me quieras,
pero como soy no como tú quieras.
Hay Dios mio si mis palabras
hirieran el don y la condena
sintoniza la antena, yo me monto en un avión
y paso por encima de los —– ,
paso por encima de tu sistema.
No te necesito, te critico,
te araño, te escupo, te muedo, te pico…
No me domestiques que yo no me domestico.

[Estribillo]
Y si tu alma no esta contenta,
pide la rebancha a tientas no achantes,
Recuerda ya perdí la cuenta la vida es violenta,
no mientas, hay que ser valiente. (x2)

[ These are La Loca Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

Havana Cuba

Tengo el impulso torvo y el anhelo sagrado de atisbar en la vida mis ensueños de muerto ¡Oh la pupila insomne y el párpado cerrado! (¡Ya dormiré mañana con el párpado abierto!) Rubén Martínez Villena, 1923

• If fifty years of aggression forced the Cubans to organize for the defense, then Cuba is a “militarized society”.
• If the country applies a tight economic blockade, without access to trade credits and the main international market, “socialism is an economic failure.”
• If from the outside a fifth column is financed acting with the support of some embassies for provocations, these are “fighters for freedom and human rights challenging a dictatorship”.
• A law with clear political intentions favors the entry of Cubans to the U.S. and gives them automatic residency. However, only they (Cubans) “run” from their country, while migrants from twelve Latin American nations surpass them in proportion but rarely make the news.
• Cuba needs to increase its food production and reduce imports, but few know that UNICEF ranked the island as the country with the lowest rate of child malnutrition in Latin America .
• U.S. limits the availability of financial resources and infrastructure to Cuba to access to the internet, but media said the island is an “enemy country of the Internet” and the government that jails Bradley Manning and harrasses Wikileaks to the brink of bankruptcy is ” the country of freedom. “

Gustavo Dudamel is one of the most decorated conductors of his generation. In October of 2011, he was named Gramophone Artist of the Year, and in May of the same year, he was inducted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in consideration of his “eminent merits in the musical art.”  The previous year, he received the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT.  Dudamel was inducted into l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as a Chevalier in Paris in 2009, and received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Centro-Occidental Lisandro Alvarado in his hometown of Barquisimeto. In 2008, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was awarded Spain’s prestigious annual Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts and, along with his mentor José Antonio Abreu, he was given the Q Prize from Harvard University for extraordinary service to children.

Although named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2009, Gustavo Dudamel hails from humble beginnings in the small town of Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Born in 1981, as a child he began violin lessons with José Luis Jiménez at the Jacinto Lara Conservatory. He continued his violin studies with José Francisco del Castillo at the Latin American Academy of Violin. His conducting studies began in 1996 with Rodolfo Saglimbeni and, the same year, he was given his first conducting position, Music Director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra.  In 1999, he was appointed Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra and began conducting studies with the orchestra’s founder, Dr. Abreu; a few years later in 2004, Dudamel was brought to international attention by winning the inaugural Bamberger Symphoniker Gustav Mahler Competition. These early musical and mentoring experiences molded his commitment to music as an engine for social change – a lifelong passion.

Gustavo Dudamel, his wife Eloisa Maturén, and their infant son divide their time mainly between Caracas and Los Angeles

Classical composer Arturo Márquez

Biography

Arturo Márquez was born in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico in 1950. He began his musical training in La Puente, California in 1966, later studying piano and music theory at the Conservatory of Music of Mexico and composition at the Taller de Composición of the Institute of Fine Arts of Mexico with such composers as Joaquín Gutiérrez Heras, Hector Quintanar, and Federico Ibarra. He also studied in Paris privately with Jacques Castérède, and at the California Institute of the Arts with Morton Subotnick, Stephen Mosko, Mel Powell, and James Newton. In recent years, Marquez has written a series of danzons, works based on an elegant Cuban dance that migrated to Veracruz, Mexico.  His Danzon No. 2is among the most popular Latin American works to emerge since the 1950s.   In February 2006, Arturo Marquez received the “Medalla de Oro de Bellas Artes” (Gold Medal of Fine Arts), the highest honor given to artists by Mexico’s Bellas Artes. That evening the concert “El Danzon según Márquez” (The Danzón according to Márquez) was presented at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The concert included six danzons, all contained on a forthcoming CD.Márquez has received commissions from the OAS, the Universidad Metropolitana de Mexico, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Festival Cervantino, Festival del Caribe, Festival de la Ciudad de Mexico, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has received grants from the Institute of Fine Arts of Mexico, the French Government, and the Fulbright Foundation. In 1994 he received the composition scholarship of Mexico’s Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. Márquez’s Octeto Malandro (Misbehaving Octet) was commissioned and premiered by Philadelphia’s Relâche Ensemble in 1996, and subsequently recorded by Relâche for Monroe St. Records. Márquez’s flute concerto, commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Consejo Nacional para las Artes, was premiered by James Newton. Other works by Márquez include En Clave for piano, Son a Tamayo for harp, percussion, and tape (featured at the 1996 World Harp Congress), Homenaje a Gismonti for string quartet, and Zarabandeo for clarinet and piano. (click on the source link for more info)

Mil Mascaras Munny Sculpture

Ana Tijoux

This is horrible but not surprising. Long live capitalism (sarcasticly).

In 2004, Pablo Rodriguez, of Candela Records, and visual artist, Rostarr, had the vision of melding the gritty style and aesthetic of Bronx River Parkway with the distinct musical vocabulary of traditional Puerto Rican music. The way to see this though was to team up NY’s, Bronx River Parkway, with a crew of legendary salsa musicians that make their home in San Juan.  Some of the local musicians who contributed to the album have graced the stage with such legends as Roberta Roena, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Ray Baretto, and Tito Rodriguez to name a few.  Sammy Ayala, one the many vocalists featured on the album, was an original member of Cortijo y su Combo.  Fifty years ago, Sammy Ayala, along with Raphael Cortijo and Ismael Riviera, created a blended sound in salsa incorporating the native rhythms of Puerto Rico with the Caribbean sounds from Cuba, Dominican republic and the West Indies. They were one of Puerto Rico’s most successful musical groups, and one of Salsa’s most famous groups across Latin America. – source: truthandsoulrecords.com