Hay muchas peliculas buenisimas de todos los paises de Latino America y para mi ha sido un gran placer conocer la gente y la tierra y la historia de los hispanohablantes por su cinema. Aqui comparto una peliculas que me encantan. Seguro que me faltan muchas! Favor de poner sus recomendaciones y comentarios abajor – gracias!

Yes, I have a minor in Latin American studies, listened to a lot of Manu Chao in college, studied in Cuba and now live here in LA where I go to an unusual number of Latin American film screenings with my USC alum cinephile boyfriend. You should be able to deduce all of that from this blog in general and, especially, this list of movies. I have undoubtedly left out some great ones – please put your recommendations and comments below!

Happy watching! Que las disfrutes….

Thrillers, intrigue and terror

• Abre tus Ojos – The movie upon which Vanilla Sky was based. The original is quite wild so you can only imagine the state of my head several years later when there was Penelope Cruz speaking English giving me intense deja vu and Tom Cruise running around…?!?! Americans – you need to learn to deal with subtitles. Stick with the original.
• El Secreto de Sus Ojos – Buenisima. Gano un Oscar! Ya…vete a verla!
• The Devil’s Backbone – Guillermo Del Toro – te quiero mucho, especialmente despues de este evento. And yes, that is German in photo #3 getting a signature from his idol.
• Pan’s Labyrinth – Mas Guillermo. Bien trippy.
• Bajo la Sal – You like CSI? This is better.
• El Traspatio – A nice transition to this next section since it is terrifying, but all too real – based on the countless murders of women in Ciudad Juarez.

Raise Your Social Consciousness

These are the movies where an audience member raises his or her hand and says: “Why doesn’t anyone show the positive side of our culture?” In fact, that happened at the Miss Bala panel at USC. The amazing lead actress said: “This is is real. This is how Mexico is right now.” Sooo….when you’re in the mood to be depressed but more enlightened…

• El Norte – La primera pelicula en espanol que vi en toda mi vida. Mi maestro del sexto grado nos enseno la peliculas – tuvimos que tener permiso de nuestros padres. La recuerdo mas que cualquier otra cosa que paso en el sexto grado. Me di cuenta de que yo no sabia nada de las historias de los mexicanos que habian llegado a vivir en mi pueblo.
• The Maid – So familiar. Chilean, but could be Mexican – so aptly captures a very particular dynamic in the homes of Latin America.
• Sin Nombre – Did you know that thousands of Central Americans illegally cross the border into Mexico? And that terrible, terrible things befall them? A beautiful and heart-renching film.
• Miss Bala – The Mexican Oscars are called the Ariels.
• Maria Full of Grace – Columbian drug trafficking. Ya viste Traffic? Y Blow? Pues, mejor que veas esta pelicula.
• Even the Rain – A recent episode of Bolivian history I didn’t know. You will notice that Gael Garcia Bernal films are all over this list. Well, he brings it – what can I say? This is just another great film with him!
• A Day Without Mexicans – Humor is the best social commentary. If I had a book club, I would just have us watch stuff like this.

To warm the cockles of your heart

• Viva Cuba – una historia increible de una amistad entre dos ninos que recorren toda Cuba
• No Se Acepta Devoluciones (Instructions Not Included) – #1 best Spanglish jokes. A Mexican party boy suddenly finds himself a father of a half-American baby girl – trust me: You do not know where this movie will take you. You will laugh. You will cry. Me encanta esta pelicula porque trata del intercambio de cultura entre los estados unidos y Mexico y como poco a poco empezamos a entendernos (o no).
• Bajo La Misma Luna – All of these movies have some element of immigration now that I think about it…
• A Better Life – Te quiero Demian Bichir.
• Real Women Have Curves – A great film with a great star (American Ferrera) based on a great play by Josefina Lopez – Angeleno friends, you should get over to the theater she founded – Casa 0101 and see her latest play – Trio Los Machos wherever you can…

High-brow and Indie-ness

• Nada – Cuban film, black and white…you just feel that you are cooler watching it.
• El Ambulante – This guy is a character and a half…and he’s real! This is a documentary!!!
• Enamorada – Guau. Cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa es un genio. Mexico at its most beautiful. This movie truly stands the test of time.http://youtu.be/hJstApoo1U4

Para los que no entienden ni papas – SEE THESE IF YOU REALLY DON’T SPEAK A WORD OF SPANISH…OR ANY LANGUAGE
Great news – there are some good movies with basically no dialogue!

• Suite Habana – An ode to the city – con esta peli La Habana te va a robar el corazon
• Soy Cuba – Sort of the same thing…except surreal and Soviet. No me crees? A ver…

Pura Diversion/Pure Pleasure

Guaranteed good time, nuff said.

• Casi Divas
• Saving Private Perez – 10x mas chistoso que “Casa de mi Padre”
• Rudos y Cursi
• Un Cuento Chino (Chinese Take-out)
• Chico y Rita
• Nosotros Los Nobles – El DF que yo conozco. Estaba muriendo de risa.

Un Toquecito de History

• Arráncame La Vida
• Cabeza de Vaca – Not fun per se…a bit like eating your vegetables, but more accurate that whatever Columbus films are around.
• In the Time of the Butterflies – A powerful story of a family living under the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic
• The Mission

?Como se dice “50 Shades of Gray?”
It’s cool how you’re pretending like you’ll see any of the high-quality films above, you sex-crazy people…Pues, ya vas con tus peliculas sexi y/o romanticas.

• Like Water for Chocolate
• Y Tu Mama Tambien
• City of God
• Mancora
• Pedro Almodovar films – don’t necessarily belong in this section. Try one, if you like it, pues, you have many more to enjoy…

If I’ve learned anything in my study of history, it’s that people are jerks. Even historical figures who we can agree did some really good things often also did some really bad things (poster child: Thomas Jefferson).

Which brings us to Columbus Day. If you aren’t convinced that we are living in an era of rapid change, let me just point out that when I was in first grade, we actually CELEBRATED Columbus Day. By 9th grade, we were assigned to read “Lies My Teacher Told Me” over the summer. By college, we were celebrating MLK Day and Cesar Chavez Day and pretending that whole Columbus Day thing never happened.

In college, one of the first primary sources I ever read in depth was Columbus’ journals, in which he reveals himself to be a mega-jerk, to put it mildly. He writes: “As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.” The more you read, the more bizarre it seems that very nice first grade teachers across America were urging young children to celebrate this guy just 20 years ago.

If you think I’m conflicted, well, think how Mexico feels (to get quickly up to speed, read this essay and google images for Dia de la Raza).   Yes, that’s right, American people: “Columbus Day” has a different name outside of the U.S.:

• Mexico: Dia de la Raza
• Spain: Dia de la Hispanidad
• Venezuela: Día de la Resistencia Indígena
• Costa Rica: Día de las Culturas

That pretty well sums it up. When Europeans crossed paths with the indigenous peoples of the Americas, it was not a win-win. However, it was absolutely a world-changing event for everyone involved, a turning point in history that brought all of us to where we are today. I don’t think Mr. Columbus is someone we should celebrate, but I think that what happened in 1492 is something that we should remember and talk about and argue about because this history matters to all of us. And this Oct. 12, I will remember all of the bad things that we humans have done to one another. And then I’ll give my boyfriend a big hug, marvel at the twists and turns of history that brought us both to right here and be grateful to all the humans who stood up and spoke out and fought to create this better world we live in today.

Some more food for thought: A call for replacing Columbus Day with Bartolome Day (featuring a lot more reasons why Columbus really was the worst).

Shaved Ice + Azuki Beans

Sometimes I feel like when I moved to LA, I actually moved to a different country. Several countries, actually. Good thing I’m not running for President because at this point I am completely out of touch with middle America, at least culinarily speaking. I eat “meat and potatoes” literally once a year – when my boyfriend and I commemorate St. Patrick’s day with a special meal (note that neither of us are of Irish descent).

I’ve always been a California girl – I literally do not remember a time in my life when tacos, pad thai and sushi weren’t part of my basic diet. Since moving to LA, my eating has only gotten more adventurous.

I’m referring, of course, to dessert. This is where it becomes evident that people from different cultures don’t just eat different food; we actually have different palates.

My mom was excited (rightfully so) about the opening of La Michoacana in Sonoma. La Michoacana is a massive chain throughout Mexico that sells delicious paletas and nieves in a dazzling array of flavors. Unfortunately, on her first visit, my mom ordered…a mangoneada. A mangoneada is a heap of mango ice mush – yum! – with a liberal dose of chile, lime and salt. This is a little out there for us folks raised on Otter Pops, push-up pops and Klondike Bars.\

Mangoneada – Chamoy is kind of like the li hui ming powder of Mexico.

But apparently palates can change. I’m pretty sure I used to think mango lollipops covered with chile were disgusting and now I love them.

Mmm…who cares about the trace amounts of lead?

And if you think Mexican candies and desserts are pushing it, even Pinkberry might be a little much for you these days. Sure they carry traditional vanilla and chocolate frozen yogurt, but you can also opt for a mix of taro and lychee yogurt topped with bits of mochi, boba and azuki beans. But that’s passe. The hot new thing this summer is “Taiwanese snow ice” – which finally solves the problem of all the syrup on snow cones falling to the bottom. This incredible confection is made by mixing flavors and milk and water and freezing it into a big block, then shaving the block into delicious ribbons.

Thai Iced Tea snow ice

My boyfriend and I have officially succombed to Asian desserts. It started with little Japanese hot cakes fresh off the griddle filled with Azuki bean paste and escalated quickly to green tea frappes with boba and mochi ice cream balls.

Last week, German ordered and devoured an entire Taiwanese snow ice inspired by the Filipino dessert Halo-Halo – original flavor with taro whipped cream and condensed milk, topped with jackfruit, palm fruit and honeydew flavored gelatin. We’ve officially broken through to the other side. Pass the chile powder.

Halo-Halo = Total Dessert Insanity

**Side note: I actually wrote this blog post last summer and spaced out on posting it. Taiwanese snow ice is SO last year…but still awesome. Believe it or not, even more desserts are now available. If you want any dessert, just head over to Little Tokyo. I believe that Little Tokyo offers the highest concentration of diverse and high-quality desserts in the entire world:

Beard Papa

Mochi w/ice cream

Ice cream mochi!

Traditional Japanese sweet shop

Fugetsu-Do in Little Tokyo – mochi-mania

Frozen Yogurt – Pinkberry OR Yogurtland

Boba

Green Tea Boba

Macaroons

Green tea donuts, taro churros, roti rolls w/filling…We love you Cafe Dulce

Pastries at Cafe Dulce

And please note the bakery in the heart of Little Tokyo Village is good too, and The Pie Hole is within walking distance. And you can get Taiwanese snow ice at a couple of places…And on the Latino side – Mama Churro’s in El Sereno is unreal. If you want a nieve, it’s hard to beat the guy selling them out of a cooler outside of elementary schools at pick up time, but he is slightly elusive.  Mateo’s Ice Cream and Fruit Bars is a great stop after gorging yourself on Korean BBQ in Koreatown/Mid-city. And I still haven’t gotten into the unique desserts of about 10 other countries that I’m sure you can find in LA, not to mention the recent cronut and ice cream sandwich crazes. I simply can’t go on – not a single bite more.

“Italy is incredible! I love Italy!” This pretty well sums up every conversation I’d ever had about Italy before going there this spring. Americans are inordinately fond of Italy. The food! The culture! The art! The fashion! The Renaissance! Tuscany! We both put it on a European pedestal and then boast about how we’re a quarter Italian.

I’m a bit contrarian so if everyone loves something, I’ll immediately find fault. So naturally in college I chose to study abroad in Cuba rather than Europe. Though I studied history, I focused on American and Latin American history and indeed only managed to take one European history class in my four years.  Then I moved to Mexico, something that puzzled pretty much everyone I met on either side of the border.

I told myself I’d make it over to Europe once I was established and fabulously wealthy and tired of weathering travel in developing countries. It was partially a way to blunt the pain of prohibitive cost and partially a rejection of European cultural hegemony. I’m a native Californian – I reject East Coast cultural hegemony, much less people putting on airs from across the Atlantic.

This May, I went to visit friends who have been living in Pozzuoli, near Naples, Italy. I knew so little about the country, I couldn’t have pointed at Naples on a map (or Rome or Florence or this fabled Tuscany place). And I had no idea what I was expected to see.

Which is probably why I had such a great trip. I stayed with my friends, making day trips from there to downtown Naples, Pompei, Capri and Ischia and I joined them and their friends for a weekend in Umbria and spent four days traveling alone in Rome. I felt like this was a pretty packed itinerary until I ran into scores of Americans who asked me if I had “done” Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Milan, etc. as they had in their two week trip.

Hmmm…somehow these mobs of tourists temper my enjoyment of the Spanish steps.

This got me reflecting on just what is the point of traveling internationally anyway. There’s a long and loaded history – after all, many of the sights now visited by middle-class midwesterners are the same ones on the “Grand Tour” that Europe’s elite would make back in the 1800s. I love that the wikipedia entry for Grand Tour has at the end “See:  Gap Year, Hippie Trail,” and in a few clicks you reach “Banana Pancakes Trail” and “Gringo Trail.” And there are the pilgrims as well, many of who I saw in rapture at the Vatican. Not to mention the long legacy of expatriates and colonialists. I invite you to take a few moments to reflect on the phrase “going native” which we’ve inherited from our English ancestors.

In my own life, I have sought out what I’d call “transformative travel.” That is a euphemism. If there were a movie trailer for the trips I take, it would close with the voiceover saying: “But will you ever really be able to come back?” My very first trip out of the country at age 14 so affected me that it changed the itinerary of my life. After two years of preparation and fundraising, my Girl Scout troop went to the international Girl Scout center in Cuernavaca, Mexico. I was so frustrated not being able to talk to the girls from Mexico, Honduras and Ecuador that I vowed to learn Spanish. Ten years later, I was living in Mexico.

Observing other travelers and expatriates over the years, it seems like time spent in another country has one of two effects – it shakes you to your foundation and opens your mind or it confirms your every bias and entrenches you more deeply in your ways.

I recommend to every teenager and college student I ever meet that he or she study abroad. When I say that, I am not referring to spending three months partying in a new location. I am not referring to civilizing the natives or proselytizing. You do not go just so you can say you went, whipping through a check-list of “must-see” sites.

The point of going to another country is that it should humble you. You go to realize how little you know. When you don’t speak a word of the language and have no clue which train to catch and a stranger helps you, you will be reminded that contrary to the ideals of American individualism, in this life, we are inextricably connected to and reliant upon other human beings and that is not a bad thing. You will come back less sure of the facts you know and more sure of your heart.

Sure I had a great time, but was I affected by two weeks of touring Roman ruins, gazing upon art and eating and drinking in Italy? You bet! I was just as moved by the sights as any other traveler and every day brought surprises that challenged what I thought I knew.

I think one of the reasons Americans love Italy so much is because you can actually see how different it is from America. A Roman coliseum built in the early hundreds stands in sharp relief to a mini-mall built in the 1980s. The history of the country (going so far back before there even was such a thing as a country) is written on every surface and everything is just SO OLD compared to our baby country. I was actually overwhelmed by Italy’s treasures and the magnitude of its history.

Yep, we ain’t in Kansas anymore.

This also makes it easy for us to romanticize Italy. Not knowing anything, I always vaguely felt like there weren’t any poor people in Europe – I mean, they’re socialists, right?! Obviously, this is absurd, but I never gave it much thought and when you meet Europeans traveling, they’re always the Europeans who can afford to travel, not to mention have a month of vacation every year (not fair!).

Some charming terraced hillsides on the island of Capri.

One of things that I didn’t expect is that Italy has a long, long history of poor people that is revealed constantly in the very architecture and food that  we Americans now romanticize. “What charming terraced hillsides!” we exclaim. Imagine digging up rocks and building them into walls day after day, year after year. Do you think the people who built the coliseum received a living wage? “Mmmm…what delicious polenta and bread soup”… Direct descendants of the food that peasants made because they couldn’t afford meat. Did you know that the famous pizza of Naples was only available in Naples for hundreds of years? Italy only unified its former city states and distinct regions into a single country in the mid-1800s, less than 100 years ago. In fact, the first place outside of Naples that one could try Neapolitan pizza was America because times were so tough after unification that many southern Italians were forced to migrate. Many of the smallest details and asides seemed to reveal the most to me.

Dear history, thank you for coming up with the pizza margherita.

I felt everything when I was in Italy – the weight of history and its surprising gifts as simple as a beloved culinary dish, pride in the artistic and intellectual accomplishments of all of western civilization, sadness at the long legacy of cruelty, suffering and inequality across so many empires and kingdoms and countries, wonder at the advance of technology and society, and most of all gratitude for the kindness of strangers and for having the chance to travel across hemispheres to know an entirely new place and to find there new friends.

More Photos from Italy

Cruising peacefully for a Sunday afternoon earlier this month took on a special poignancy in the wake of the bombings in Boston. I believe in my head that most people in this world are good, loving, caring people – when I participate in Ciclavia, I feel it in my heart.

See what Ciclavia feels like in my short video (overlook shakiness at start). And yes, it really was that quiet.

Scenes from Ciclavia to the Sea, April 2013:

• Three old guys sit drinking beer in their garage, watching the bikes go by. When I bike past them again three hours later, they’re still there. Just another Sunday afternoon.
• The sounds of praise drifts out of corner Iglesia Pentecostal – a man in black pants and tie steps out with a bemused expression.
• The sound of a young child’s voice belting out karaoke floats through the windows of a corner apartment building.
• Two bikers go rogue and cut off the route – a middle-aged black man in full biking regalia complete with neon orange shirt and a middle-aged white mom in beach shorts. “I’m riding with my home boy,” she comments. He grins as they as they disappear into the neighborhood.
• A girl and guy hipster with shades, skinny pants and ironic t-shirts blast some old-school Snoop Dog from a huge stereo affixed to the back of their bicycle built for two.
• A 5-foot man on a makeshift stage blasts cumbia and salsa from giant speakers in front of a Salvadoran restaraunt pushing pupusas. According to his neon sign, he’s El Tremendo.
• Two Rastafarians sing along to Bob Marley outside their pan-African thrift store calling to passerby to check out their wares.
• A chubby 8-year-old Latino boy runs to catch up with his dad, carrying a white trash bag as big as he is. They’re collecting cans and bottles along the route.
• A paletero with a huge straw hat strolls between several ladies grilling hot dogs on small carts next to the bike repair tent. The air smells of pork and jalapenos and the onions make your eyes smart.
• A transvestite in coveralls is perched on top of a double-decker bicycle. “How do you do that?” someone exclaims.
• A low-rider bicycle club hangs out by a gas station. I’m envious of their shiny bikes with their twisted chrome handlebars.
• A fit man outfitted entirely in spandex is pulling a neon yellow cart for kids behind his bike – a small gray dog pops its head out, its ears blowing back in the wind.
• A little boy pedals past sporting a fuzzy pink mustache.

I could easily be negative and whiny about some of my experiences as a K-12 student, but that is like complaining about everything I hate about horse-drawn buggies when they’ve already been replaced by cars. That is how much technology has changed since I was in kindergarten. I constantly look at what is happening in some of California’s most innovative schools and say, “Gee, I wish they had THAT when I was a kid!”

A Tale of Two Teachers

I want to start with a tale of two teachers that illustrates pretty darn well what needs to end and what can be. First off, I’m no genius. I’m a very curious person and I love learning. School always came easily to me, so in a class of 30 kids, if the lesson was at the exact right level for 20 kids and five were completely lost, I was one of the five who were bored. My point? There are lots and lots of kids out there just like me – enough that I ask you not to say or think things like: “Liza is bright, so she’ll be fine no matter what we do,” and just leave it at that.

As a sixth-grader, I was in a unique school within a school at our big, overcrowded middle school. We had traditional English and math classes, then every afternoon, we had a block period for project-based learning integrating science and social studies with a mix of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. We would work on a project for six weeks, then start a new one. For every assignment, we had seven options for completing it based on the seven multiple intelligences, and a lot of the projects were group work where they would put together a strong student, a struggling student and two average students (Teachers: don’t think we weren’t on to you!).

My math teacher hated me. I was always bored out of my mind in her class because she went super slow through the material, most of which I already knew, then if she gave us an in-class assignment, I’d finish quickly and ask her what to do next. She would snap at me and tell me to just sit there for the remaining 20 minutes of class or, another favorite approach of teachers, make me help other students. I have more sympathy now – after all, she had 35 kids with widely varying abilities and she was supposed to get all of us ready for algebra the following year. However, at the time, I was so bored at school that I was actually getting depressed and, being a goody two-shoes, I was distressed that my teacher hated me.

Fortunately, I had an amazing teacher for our project-based class in the afternoon. He made me feel special – I felt like he took all of us seriously and listened patiently to our concerns. In response to my complaints of boredom, he devised a special project for me – rather than just writing an essay or whatever else we were supposed to do – he had me create a Hypercard presentation. He showed me a little bit, then basically set me off on my own to figure out the program. I’d work away at the one classroom computer while he worked with the rest of the class. Most importantly, he didn’t give me an A based on how my work compared to that of my classmates. He compared me only to myself and pushed me to the edge of my abilities. Now THAT’S differentiated instruction!

I had many, many teachers like these two during my years in school – those who found me annoying and those who saw me as an opportunity to try out something new. In high school, I was much happier than I was in middle school for a couple of reasons:

1. They tracked us. There is a lot of rightful criticism around tracking and I am still bothered by the few Latino and low-income students in honors classes at my old high school. However, I personally thrived by having challenging material and being surrounded by bright students who loved learning.
2. My mom. I was one lucky kid because my mom is a fighter. She was an advocate for me – she worked with my teachers to make sure I was challenged. She found opportunities outside of school for me to develop myself.  And through a combination of volunteering for everything at the school and cajoling/harassing the principal, she would ensure I was always assigned to the toughest teachers for any given subject and the ones that loved teaching kids like me. Unfortunately, most kids aren’t as lucky as I was.

The op-ed that sparked this post  summarizes very well why gifted students often don’t get much attention – not from the principals and teachers entrusted with educating them nor from policymakers or education reformers. This includes worries about elitism, the idea that equity only matters for income, minority status and handicapping conditions, the belief that high-ability students will do just fine no matter what….not to mention there’s no clear definition for “gifted” nor clear research on what works. I went through school before No Child Left Behind, so I’m guessing if anything, there’s now even less focus on gifted students.

To me, it’s very simple – all students have special needs and that absolutely includes gifted students. In the same way that you take it upon yourself to help a struggling student – “intervention”, take it upon yourself to reach a student who is bored or who is coasting, not pushing herself to the best of her abilities. Every student needs more than a mom and dad – they need a whole community of diverse adults who care about them.

Coming next week: My Dream School and reflections on how we can truly have awesome 21st century schools…

And a plug for the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance – mentor a kid!

This post is dedicated to my mom, Bobbie Jenkins.