Why is talking about "class" such a taboo in the United States?

One of the things that always puzzled me since I moved to the United States is the reluctance to talk about "class" issues. I grew up in a different political tradition, so class issues was central to any discussion of politics. That did mean relegating other -ism: sexism, racism, etc. (Although I would like to point out that women are in position of power in a much higher number in Argentina than in the United States. This doesn't translate into the corporate world, though).

I do know about certain American myths that may it difficult to talk about class: American individualism in all its variations: "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps", the belief that if one works hard enough one could be a millionaire one day (and therefore the aversion to progressive taxation), etc. Overall, the idea that if there is something wrong, it is your fault and not the system's (Just to clarify, I do believe strongly in individual responsibility. However, that doesn't blind me to what I perceive are structural problems). This type of belief are usually associated with centrist and more conservative political positions.

What I have discovered throughout the years is that the same reluctance to discuss class issues is present in so-called progressive/left-wing individuals. They would have no problem in engaging in lengthy discussions about the problem of sexism/racism/[insert your -ism] in America. But if you bring up class, they dismiss it saying something to the tone that "it is only one aspect of a much bigger problem". I could say the same about sexism. In fact, one of the things about class issues is that it affects a wider variety of people. On the other hand, maybe that is the reason why some people feel so uncomfortable talking about it. It is complex, and therefore not reducible to sound bites.

Opinions, thoughts? Am I just being old-fashioned? Am I failing to comprehend something? Why do most progressives (not all of them) refuse to talk about "class"? It will be interesting to see how many comments this post gets.

A movie about Violeta Parra

I just read that the Chilean director Andres Wood (Machuca) has made a movie about the famous singer, poet and composer Violeta Parra. The film, Violeta se fue a los cielos, has been chosen by the Chilean Academy as their representative for the Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category. It has excellent reviews on the website Internet Movie Database. Considering the success of Wood's Machuca and the importance and significance of Violeta Parra, I believe that those of us living in the United States will have the opportunity to see the film about Violeta Parra not too far away in the future, at least on DVD. I certainly hope so.

Films I would love to get a copy for personal use.

Here is a list of films that are impossible to find, and that I would love to get a copy to satisfy my film lover cravings:

Arturo Ripstein

Principio y fin (1993)
La reina de la noche (1994)

Edgardo Cozarinsky

La guerra de un solo hombre (1982)
Citizen Langlois (1995)
El violin de Rothschild (1996)

Santiago Loza

Rosa Patria (2009)

Alejandro Agresti

El acto en cuestion (1993)

Lita Stantic

Un muro de silencio (1993)

With the exception of Santiago Loza's Rosa Patria, I've seen all these films. However, they are impossible to find on DVD. They were either released commercially on a movie theater but never on DVD, or I was lucky enough to catch them at a film festival or at an art movie theater. I haven't seen Rosa Patria. I even know somebody who has a part in the movie, and he doesn't even have a copy.

I don't like file-sharing sites, since I've had bad experiences in the past with them (viruses). So dear reader, if any of you have access to a copy of any of these movies, and can make a copy for me, I will be forever grateful. Seriously. Of course, I would pay for all the costs involved. What's more, you'd get to know who Spanish Prof is in real life!!! (I'd have to give you an address and a name for shipping). Just let me know if you can help, and we can arrange the details. Thanks.

New blog by a fellow Hispanist

Today, I discovered Meshalim/Amthal/Exiemplos: Notes from the Life of a Medievalist, a new blog from a fellow Hispanist. Go over there to take a look, say hi, and encourage this new blogger to keep up writing.

Online beauty stores

...or how I've saved a lot of money by breaking my Sephora addiction. This year, I've saved a lot of money by breaking my Sephora addiction. I am not kidding. For the previous two years, I had qualified to Sephora's VIB program, where you need to spend $350 in a calendar year to get in. I wasn't even trying, I was just a beauty junkie. But I was an online beauty junkie. If I walked into a brick and mortar Sephora store (there is one in my city), I didn't feel at all compelled to buy. In fact, I usually felt overwhelmed and had to get out of the store as soon as possible. What is worse, I don't wear make-up too often, and I am way past my crazy, experimenting years.

So how did I break with my online Sephora addiction? Having to get rid of two bags of unused make up, because they were too old, was the first step. I bought a lot of stuff because the package was oh so nice... And it looks so good on the catalog/webpage. Then, I realized that only two of my must-have products are sold at Sephora. This is my beauty routine. Only the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer and the Sugar Plum Tinted Lip Treatment are sold by Sephora (and some make up brands that I use, like MAC). I've always used coupons for online purchases, if I can find one. Last year, I also started using Ebates, an online portal that gives you a certain percentage of cash back if you buy on an online store through them. The percentages vary, but considering that I much rather shop online than go to a mall, it adds up quickly (I got over 100 dollars of cash back in less than a year, but that accounts for the fact that some online travel agencies give 1% back on air purchases, and I travel a lot). Since I started using Ebates, I pay attention to the cash back percentage on stores, and some online beauty stores have better percentages than Sephora (and better coupons, too). And, as with many impulsive behaviors, once you get out of the habit, you just don't engage in it anymore. Probably the fact that I am on sabbatical, and therefore more relaxed, contributes to it too. I just don't feel the urgent need to treat myself with a splurge as a reward. Having a sabbatical is a reward in itself. The overall result is that I am nowhere near to achieve the Sephora VIB status this year (and I won't miss it. It's totally cool as a perk, but not worth pursuing as a goal). I have more money to donate to causes I support. And my husband doesn't complain that every time he needs to find something in the bathroom (our bathroom is tiny) he has to go through stacks of lipsticks and eye shadows.

What about you? Do you find online shopping an indulgence? Is there something you don't need but you keep buying because, well, it just looks good? What do you buy online? What is your favorite splurge?

How do you decide to donate money for a cause?

As a foreigner, one aspect of American culture that I am not used to is systematically donating money to a charity/organization/cause. The tax structure that acts as an incentive to this behavior in the United States doesn't exist in other parts of the world. In countries like Argentina, going to Church every Sunday is unusual, so people usually do not contribute regularly to the Church they attend. That doesn't mean that people is less generous, but the way one give is different. In Argentina, for example, some people devote a lot of time to fight for a political cause, usually within a party structure. Others participate in literacy programs. Giving money is not how you usually think you are contributing to achieve something.

I started thinking what motivates me to donate money after reading Clarissa's post asking to help a fellow blogger get a new computer and my own post soliciting donation for an online Australian film journal. As you can see, both are very different causes, but both are worth contributing to if you are able to afford it. I gave whatever I could to both. Since I don't itemize my deductions in my tax returns, I do not have a method for charity contributions or a goal that I want to achieve in order to take advantage of a tax break (no judgement in this phrase, I have no problem with giving citizens an incentive to donate).

There are some donations that I really don't understand. For example, I can see the advantage of joining an alumni association of your alma mater. But I laugh every time I receive a request for donations from the institution where I did my PhD. They gave me a fine education, and I have nothing to complain. In return, I was cheap labor for 5 years and saved them a lot of money. I understand if you contribute to an alma mater that gave you an excellent education for very little money. But to a place where you had to pay an arm and a leg to attend? They should be happy that you paid their tuition, why would anybody give the institution additional money? In my case, I send money every year to my amazing high school in Argentina. I would probably donate to the University of Buenos Aires, where I got my BA for free, if I could trust that the money would be use in a good way. Unfortunately, it is such a big and bureaucratic institution that I am not sure what would happen to my money.

On a more systematic way, I donate to my local public library, I give my old clothes to a charity after carefully selecting those that are still in good shape (and I don't wait for a receipt), and I pledge a certain amount every year to a local community organization my institution works with. After that, it is on a first come, first serve basis or, basically, whatever calls my attention and I have some money left in my bank account to give to.

What about you? Is there any organization in particular you like to donate money to? Do you have a certain set amount per year that you give away? Do you have any kind of method regarding this? Or is it usually a spur of the moment decision?

Film lovers, support Senses of Cinema

I've been a subscriber of the excellent online film journal Senses of Cinema for more than 7 years. Senses of Cinema is an Australian film journal, offered online free of charge. The notes, articles and reviews that appear there are impressive in their depth, but they are not an "academic" journal per se. Senses of Cinema represents the best tradition of film criticism, as initiated by Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s. I don't know exactly what their funding mechanism is, but apparently they have received funds from the Australian government in the past (I know, how weird does it sound for those of us who live in the United States).

Today, I received an email from them requesting financial support. Why do they need financial support?

With diminishing government funding available for ventures such as Senses, we are forced to look elsewhere for income sources to continue to exist in the way we have. It has been a guiding principle for Senses to be accessible to everyone and there has never been any charge for subscription. This is something that Senses aims to maintain for at least the next 12 months.

So, how can you help?

Visit our campaign page to support us in our crowdfunding campaign http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/1720/description/0/0

The way Pozible works is that we get 60 days to reach our target of $15,000 (which is all it will take to keep this amazing journal freely accessible for the next 12 months). However, if we don’t reach our target, pledges are not processed, and we lose the lot. So please dig deep to help us reach our target. In fact, we’re hoping to exceed it. The more we raise, the more secure we’ll feel.

They also offer some goodies as incentives for donating, but for me, just being able to read them is enough. If you can help, I encourage you to do so. If you can't, I still encourage you to go to their website and discover what they have to offer. If you are a film lover, you will not be disappointed.

Things I forget because I'm on sabbatical

...how exhausting meetings can be. Although I am not required, I went to a Departmental meeting yesterday. I was interested in the topic to be discussed, and also I didn't want to be left behind in what is going on in my department. After the meeting, the new Provost came to meet us and talk (he's been doing it with every department since he arrived). The conversation was interesting, and I got to get a feel of what his style is. That is always something worth knowing. Overall, the whole meeting (Department + Provost) took a little over 2 hours. I left my institution at 5:30 pm, and I was completely brain dead. Nothing major had been discussed, there had been no battles, but I was just exhausted. For some reason, being in the same room with colleagues for over 2 hours just drain the energy out of your body.

Reinveinting the wheel for the third time...Latin American Culture and Civilization I syllabus - UPDATE WITH ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

At my department, me and my colleagues usually have a set of classes that each of us teaches. I don't have too much room to choose the upper level course I will teach each semester. For example, one Spring I will teach the 300-level Latin American Culture and Civilization I course (Colonial Latin America), and the following Spring I will teach Latin American Culture and Civilization II (from independence to contemporary times). The upside of the situation is that, as long as it barely fits in the course description, I am given total freedom to design the syllabus. So I get to experiment. Add to that my perfectionist tendencies, and I always end up re-designing my syllabus.

Next Spring, I am teaching Latin American Culture and Civ I. I have briefly wrote down some things I do in that class here, here and here. It is always much harder than the other one. I am not a historian, and to spend one semester on Colonial Latin America is really hard. The textbooks are horrific. There are very few movies you can show. A student once complained in an evaluation that I did not show any YouTube videos in that course!!! What I have finally ended up doing is dividing the course roughly in 3:

a) Conquest and Colonial Times
b) Independence Movements
c) How do the Conquest and Colonization influence contemporary Latin American problems, and how is the historical event viewed and interpreted nowadays.

I assign a mixture of short academic essays, chronicles and original documents, some texts written in English (otherwise, it's impossible to achieve the complexity that I want for for the class). As for movies, I've found out that Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, coupled with the chapter on the film that appears in the book Based on a True Story: Latin American History at the Movies works well.

So here are some things that were successful in previous semesters, so they will stay in the syllabus:

- The chapter on the Incas in Charles Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (sorry, Historiann)

- Chapter 4, "Ownership of Mineral Riches and the Spanish Need for Labor," in Patricia Seed's American Pentimento: The Invention of Indians and the Pursuit of Riches. I'll see if I can find a similar text by her written in Spanish.

- The set of articles described in this post about contemporary controversies about the Conquest.

- The chapter "Good Day, Columbus", in Michel-Rolph Trouillot's extraordinary Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Seriously, that book is a masterpiece, you need to take a look at it even if you are not teaching anything related.

-An assorted variety of chronicles, letters and essays.

What is out this semester:

-Jesuits in Latin America during Colonial Time. I included it because I work at a Catholic institution. Maybe I am not teaching it correctly, but my students couldn't care less about it. Both times. And I don't particularly care about it either.

What I need to look at, new material that I may include:

a) Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820 / Cultura visual de Hispanoamérica, 1520-1820. I hope I find interesting visual material and a good way to integrate it into the curriculum

b) A little more on the history of ideas and intellectuals during the Colonial Times. For the Southern Cone, Jose Carlos Chiaramonte is a good source.

c) Research Leslie Bethell edited collection Historia de America Latina 4. America Latina Colonial to see level of difficulty and possible topics to include.


So, dear readers... Do you have any question? Comments? Suggestions? This is only the beginning, and is always a work in progress. I know I get at least 20 hits a day with keyword searches such as "Latin American civilization syllabus" or similar ones. If any of you is a silent lurker but has find my ideas useful, I'd love to hear about it. If you have additional ideas, even better!

UPDATE: I just found out additional resources from a Summer Institute for Teachers organized by University of California, Berkeley. Check here and here. The resources are in English, but can be useful for those who teach Introduction to Latin American Studies or similar courses in English.

Links day!!! Posts I liked...

Still not recovered from "fried brain" afternoon, I don't think I can write anything meaningful or coherent today. So I will give you random links of posts I read and I would like to spread around:

- Clarissa is helping a fellow blogger reunite with her computer. Go and help that worthy cause, if you can.

- Dean Dad has a great post on what higher education administrators could learn from HP woes. Many university presidents could benefit from reading it.

- How to read Moby Dick, by Comradde Physioproffe.

- feMOMhist doesn't like the boy scouts. I never thought I would read that on an American blog that addresses issues of motherhood.

- A common sense, non-judgmental approach to debt management, courtesy of MutantSupermodel.

- Feminema on the racial politics of one of my favorite films ever: Jean Pierre Melville's Le Samourai.


Enjoy!

You know your brain is fried...

...when you leave your office, work to the parking lot to get your car, and you can't find it (your car). The parking lot is not that big. You walk around, check each car, and yours is not there. You freak out, wondered what happened, and suddenly you realize that you did not park your car in the parking lot near the gym, but in the one behind the Student Center.

That happened to me ten minutes ago. At this very moment, I'm at the coffee store in the Student Center drinking a double expresso, and waiting until I feel that enough brain cells have regenerated to make it safe for me to drive home.

Made it home safe. Going to bed NOW...

Surprise, Surprise!!! Missoni for Target order shipped and received

After all the fashion drama, a nice surprise awaited for me yesterday when I returned home. My Missoni for Target order had been shipped, and it was sitting on my couch, waiting for me. I hadn't even received an email confirmation about it. In fact, out of curiosity, I checked my Target account and it said that the order had not been shipped. So my brief review of the two items I ordered:

 - I was pleasantly surprised  by the fabric. While by no means it resembles the original fabric of the high-end Missoni clothing, it is not just nylon either. It has a "knit" looking, while at the same time, when you put it on, you can feel the polyester.

-Both items run small. They fit me OK (I was careful and bought and XL), but it is not a loose fitting.

- As for each item in particular:

• The Missoni for Target Sleeveless Sweater Shirt looks better than on photos. I bought it in a hurry, but I wasn't very convinced. However, it can see wearing it with black pants or a skirt to go teaching. It looks polished and professional. I will have to buy a black cardigan to wear with it, since Fall is already starting (now that I think about, I am not teaching this semester. Well, I'll wait for next Spring to decide how to wear it)

.

• Missoni for Target Short-Sleeve Knit Dress: I was expecting a looser fit since I bought an XL. I wanted to wear it with my black skinny jeans. Well, I don't think I will be able to do it. The dress fits OK, but it definitely shows curves. The fabric, however, doesn't cling, which is an advantage. On the negative side, there is something wrong with the yellow in the dress. The other colors look fine, but the yellow seems different: wash-out, cheaper quality, something. I'll have to think whether I keep it or I return it (or sell it on Ebay, where apparently some people are willing to pay twice the original price for the Missoni for Target items).

So that is my fashion report for the day. Now, back to work!

Reading and Research overload

One of my problems while writing is that I have a hard time stopping the research and reading bibliography part to actually sit down and start writing. I just like the first stage too much. If you add to that my ADD tendencies, then at some point I will find myself reading about completely unrelated things. Just one thing led to another, and somewhere I lost track of my goal. I do manage to get back on track, but that is a tendency I have to wrestle with. For example, the reason why I moved from that stage and started writing my dissertation was the very real threat of uncertainty: I didn't know whether I would have funding past my fifth year or not (I probably would have, but that threat allowed me to go into the job market the year before the economy crashed).

If, as I am now, you are attempting a major project, the juggling can get complicated. I have managed to start writing, while doing research at the same time. So far, I've written 35 pages in the past month and a half. However, I haven't written anything in the past week and a half. The last two days, because I was busy with the R&R, but last week, I just immersed myself into the world of reading and research. Some was useful, but I didn't really need to tackle Alain Badiou out of curiosity right now. I am not sure if I do this because of short attention span (I get bored with a big project every so often, and I need to switch my attention to something else), because I don't know how to organize myself, because I am stuck in my writing (I don't feel so, but I haven't felt compelled to write like I usually do), or why.

Does this happen to you? How do you deal with it? How does your brain (for lack of a better word) works while you are embarked in a research process? I'd love to hear your stories

Random thoughts while doing a R&R

-Quoting in Portuguese is a pain in the ass. Half the quotes had typos, thanks to Microsoft Word fighting with me.

-I didn't know you were supposed to put in parentheses the date of birth of an author (though not a critic) when you first mention him/her.

-Is it me, or different people have different interpretations of the MLA style? And why do they update it so often? There is always something to throw me off.

-I really need to pay more attention do I don't write 7 line sentences in Spanish with too many subordinates. I thought I had gotten rid of the habit, but evidently not.

Scholarly article on Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together

I have written before about my love for Wong Kar Wai's movies, and Happy Togetherin particular. There are many scholarly articles on Happy Together, but they are always written by specialists in Asian cinema, so many times they lack a subtler understanding of the use of space in the movie. Many times, I've played with the idea of writing about the movie from a Latin American perspective, as a Latin American scholar. However, I've always had too many other things that kept me busy and prevent me from achieving this, since it would had been a completely side project.

Today, I discovered the first essay about Happy Together by a Latin American scholar. I haven't read it yet, but the author is a well known specialist in Argentine film and the essays in the journal it appeared (Colorado Review of Hispanic Studies) are usually high quality. Here is the reference with link:

Aguilar, Gonzalo. "Oriente grado cero: Happy Together de Wong Kar Wai." Colorado Review of Hispanic Studies 8 (Spring 2011). Web.
Here is the link to the article, and here is the link to the journal, a very good one in my opinion (as a disclaimer, I've never published here).

Takeshi Kitano - Fireworks (1998)

...also known as one of the last time I cried in a movie theater.
Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese director, comedian, actor, TV host show, auteur and painter. He is a truly Renaissance man. Japanese public know him better as TV host and a comedian, and

He hosts a weekly television program called Beat Takeshi's TV Tackle (ビートたけしのTVタックル), a kind of panel discussion among entertainers and politicians regarding controversial current events.

He is (or used to be), on Japanese television almost every day of the week. It is not a surprise, then, that while his movies are acclaimed abroad and he is considered one of the best living Japanese filmmakers, these films are usually box office flops at home. As an actor, he is the protagonist not only most of his films, but has also appeared in movies as different as Nagisa Oshima's Taboo and the Sci-Fi flick Johnny Mnemonic (starring Keanu Reeves).

The list of films he directed is long. His early films were jakuza (gangster) movies that showed great craft and highly choreographed violence scenes. He also demonstrated an incredible understanding of contemporary Japanese youth in his film Kids Return(1996). Think a teen-slacker movie combined with deadpan humor and deep melancholy. Some of Kitano's films have the rare gift of being incredibly moving and very funny at the same time. Kikujiro is a great example.

His masterpiece, though, is Hana-Bi (the English title is Fireworks). On the surface, another gangster movie. But beyond that, it's a reflection on love, on friendship, and on the ability of saying goodbye. Still images are inter-cut with highly violent ones. I saw the movie at a very intense personal time for me: I was leaving for the United States for the first time in less than two weeks, and I had to add to the anxiety of the situation the decision of saying goodbye to somebody that had been the most important person in my life for the past few years. Hana-Bi is still among my 20 top movies of all times list. Here is a short trailer, as a teaser:

Enjoy!

Pseudonymity

No, this post is not an addition to the "blogging under a pseudonym" controversy that resurfaces in the blogosphere every so often. I'm pretty comfortable blogging the way I do, so that's not an issue for me. I have realized, however, what I would like to blog about and I can't because of the pseudonymity: the city I live in. Urban narratives is part of my research field. I love cities, as you can attest by reading my posts about Buenos Aires. Although I wouldn't say I love the city I live now, there are so many posts I would write about it. So far, that's the biggest drawback to not blogging under my real name. Maybe after I get tenure, it will be enough of a reason to change it.

Another article!!!!

I just got an email from the editor of a journal where I had submitted an essay. It's a R&R, but an easy one: it's more about form than content. So if nothing strange happens, one more article out there!!!! Yeahh...

Keyword searches: Spanish Prof answers her readers

As a service to the blogosphere, I will try to answer some of the keyword searches that landed unsuspected victims into this blog.

*Mitt Romney hair color*

In my opinion, too dark. Somebody did a bad job on his hair, and he has obviously colored it. But maybe I'm just biased, because I can't stand the guy.

*Argentina movie murder vigilante justice*

I'm guessing you are referring to El secreto de sus ojos. I wrote a post about El secreto de sus ojos, but before you click on the link, be aware that I reveal the ending.

*thinking problem? johnny ramone*

I really don't believe Johnny Ramone had a "thinking problem". If you watch the wonderful documentary End of the Century - The Story of the Ramones, you'll find that Johnny Ramone comes across as the most articulated of all the members of the band. It doesn't sound that the band would have lasted as long as it did without him. He also comes across as a real jerk. And I already knew it, but you may be surprised to find out that he was a right-wing Republican.

*Target Missoni Hispanic*

You lost me on this one. No, Target doesn't have a special Missoni for Target line for Hispanics. Do Hispanics like Missoni for Target? I have no idea. Although according to a comment on this blog, apparently Texans don't like Missoni for Target much. Hope it helps.

More Films and Documentaries for a Latin American History Survey Course

As a follow up to my previous post on films and documentaries to use in a Latin American History course, more e-mails landed on my mailbox with additional suggestions, so here is a compilation of some of them.

John Sayles' Men with Gunsand Jeff Gould's Scars of Memory/Cicatrices de la Memoria (Spanish Prof note: I looked for this film on Amazon AND on Imdb.com, and I couldn't find it. So I have no idea if it's a mistake, or what the movie is about).

On Paraguay:
Hamaca Paraguaya, de Paz Encina

The following one is an email from a Professor not in a History Department. I've edited it slightly to erase any detail that could identify hir or hir students.

Last semester I taught a Latin American Film class. We watched the ten films discussed in Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Breaking into the Global Market, edited by Deborah Shaw (Note from Spanish Prof: If you are going to use this book, be careful. The quality of the essays is really uneven. Some are very good, and some have some factual mistakes that I can't believe the essay saw the light of day). The ten students were all pretty new to this genre, and they ended up rating the films as follows (from most liked to less liked):

Kamchatka
The Motorcycle Diaries
Cidade de Deus
El destino no tiene favoritos
Nueve Reinas
Bolivar Soy Yo
Y Tu Mama Tambien
La Otra Conquista
Lista de espera
Madame Sata

I think the sexual themes in Madame Sata and Y tu mamá tambien proved too much for my [insert rural Midwest location] students. They weren't crazy about what they thought to be unconventional story telling and acting in Bolivar, La otra conquista, and Lista de espera The students were split over El destino and Nueve reinas—some liked them a lot, the rest not at all.
But, whether or not they liked them, all of the films provoked lively, useful discussions about Latin American culture and politics, the craft of film,how to think critically about film, and how to talk and listen to one another in debating qualities of film

[End of long email]

Recent documentaries on extractive industry, neoliberalism, and resistance:


• Crude: The Real Price of Oil (Dir. Joe Berlinger, 2009)

• Leasing the Rain: Bolivia’s Water War (*Frontline/NOW with Bill
Moyers*, 2002) [only about 25 min. long---good for showing in class]

• A Country of Peoples Without Owners: The Indigenous and Popular Minga
of 2008 (Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, Colombia,
2009)



On immigration to the US:

• POV: Farmingville(Dir. Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini, 2004)

• Sin Nombre(Dir. Cary Fukunaga, 2009)

(Note from Spanish Prof: A few emails mentioned Costa Gavras films. I would avoid them, because I don't think they have aged well, and the regardless of its good intentions, I really feel those movies as "a look from the outside").

Films and Documentaries for a Latin American History Survey Course - Updated

This post will overlap with previous ones. I've already written about movies to use in a Latin American Civilization and Culture class here, here, and here. I am subscribe to the Latin American listserv of H-Net, where there are not only announcements, but professors posing questions about a certain topic and the community answers it. 90% of the participants seem to be historians, so it is not always useful to me. However, every so often there is either a question or a discussion that I find interesting and/or informative. Last week, somebody asked for suggestions regarding Films and Documentaries to use in a Latin American History Survey Course. Here are some of the answer that person receive. As a word of caution, note that not all the movies are necessarily good, and some professors use them just for their "educational" value. I usually don't do it, but that is just my personal preference. So here is a compilation of the answers I read:

Bolivar soy yo by Jorge Ali Triana.
It follows an actor in a popular telenovela version of "Bolivar" who
becomes obsessed with the role, angry at the director's attempts to
cheer up the history, and, ultimately, convinced that he is the new
"Bolivar" who can solve modern woes.

On Mexico:

Many of the documentaries by Canal seis de julio (www.canalseisdejulio.com), especially
Tlatelolco: Las claves de la masacre (available with English subtitles), Halcones (about the Corpus Christi massacre, no English subtitles), Zapatistas: Crónica de una rebelión (available with English subtitles) covers the time period of the 1994 Uprising until 2006, Romper el cerco / Breaking the Siege (available with English subtitles) - on the events in San Salvador Atenco 2006, a critique of mass media discourse.

On Argentina:

The Take, about workers taking over production in locked-out factories in
Argentina, by Noami Klein and Avi Lewis. In English, French and Spanish DVD (Note from Spanish Prof: as much as I like Naomi Klein, if you show the documentary be aware of the Manichean narrative. I suggest that you do a little more research into the issue, since you will find out it is more complex).

*Social Genocide (Memoria del Saqueo)* Pino Solanas. Argentina during the 2001 crisis.

On Chile:

Machuca, La Frontera, and Sub-Terra and the
documentaries Salvador Allende, sections of the Battle of Chile, and
Estadio Nacional for Chile, there are all in DVDs with English
subtitles. Palomita Blanca is fantastic too, but hard to find in the US.

Colonial Latin America

Cabeza De Vaca, directed by Nicolás Echevarría, Mexico,1991.

I, The Worst of All, directed by María Luisa Bemberg, Argentina, 1990. (Note from Spanish Prof: I showed it in a class once. My students were bored as hell, and so was I)

Modern Latin America

Maluala, directed by Sergio Giral, Cuba, 1979.


The Motorcycle Diaries, directed by Walter Salles, Argentina, Chile, Perú,
Francia, 2004.

Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary, directed by Arturo Pérez Torres,
Canada, 2005.

Strawberry and Chocolate, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, Cuba- Mexico-Spain-USA, 1995.

Heart of Time, directed by Alberto Cortés, Mexico, 2009

The Young and the Damned, directed by Luis Buñuel, Mexico, 1950.

Red Dawn, directed by Jorge Fons, Mexico, 1989. (I haven’t found a version with
English subtitles, though. If somebody knows about one please let me know)

The Violin, directed by Francisco Vargas, Mexico, 2005.

De Ollas y Sueños (Cooking Up Dreams), directed by Ernesto Cabellos, Peru, 2009.

Father Roy in the School of the Assassins, directed by Robert Richter, USA, 1997.

Black in Latin America, a series of documentaries produced by PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/

I hope you find it useful. And again, don't take it as a personal guide to "good" films.

UPDATED: here is a second post with additional recommendations.

Missoni for Target epic fail - UPDATED: shipping delay

So, how many of you managed to buy something from the Missoni for Target collection? Target website crashed almost all day yesterday (by the way, does anybody know if it had happened to them before, with other designer brands for Target collections?). I was lucky enough to catch the website running at around 11 am yesterday (Eastern Time). I was in a hurry, so I couldn't do much browsing nor deciding. I did manage to buy two items:

1- Missoni for Target® Short-Sleeve Knit Dress 

2- Missoni for Target® Sleeveless Sweater Shel:

Not terribly impressive, but it's something. A few hours later, when I could finally sit down and do some browsing, Target website was down, and it remained so for most of the day. I went back to it today, and very few things are still available. Most of the items of the Missoni for Target collection are out of stock. Bleah...
Another thing I'm wondering now is whether the items will ship or not.

So, what about you? If you were interested in buying something from the Missoni for Target collection, did you manage to grab it at some point?

UPDATED: Maybe I shouldn't be bragging. I just received (Friday 16th) an email from Target delaying the shipping date to September 27th. I wonder if it will even ship. Probably not.

How to double the number of hits your blog receives in a day...

Write a post about the Designer brands for Target collection. Include the words Target and designer (Missoni will do this week) as many times as possible. Seriously. I've written two posts on the Missoni for Target collection, and my numbers have double in the past two days. And half of the hits come from Google searches with the words Target and designer on it. I know it won't last, but it's been surprising, since I am not a fashion blogger.

Question to readers: what animal do you most identify with Republicans?

Of course, I know that traditionally the donkey symbolizes the Democratic Party, and the elephant the Republican Party. Tonight B. and I were talking while we were having dinner, and decided that the animals are all wrong. However, we couldn't come up with the right animal to represent the Republicans (we are both liberals). If you had to pick an animal whose image and/or behavior embodies the Republican Party circa 2011, what animal would it be? Why?

Amazon, I don't believe you.

I was looking in Amazon for a copy in Spanish of Italo Calvino's book Las ciudades invisibles. I found it, it's available on Amazon both new and used, so cool. Then I look at the section Amazon has, "Frequently Bought Together", out of curiosity. Sometimes, I discover interesting things there, books I hadn't heard of or connections I hadn't thought of. What book is listed on Amazon as "Frequently Bought Together" with Italo Calvino's Las ciudades invisibles? The English version of the book, Invisible Cities!!!! Seriously? You buy the English and the Spanish version together? Somehow, I don't believe it.

Labor on film - Laurent Cantet

This past weekend, there were discussions on other blogs on the nature of (academic) work. I read them with interest and also with despair. That is not the point of this post, though. Above everything, I think I am a walking film encyclopedia. It was not surprising, though, that I connected the topic of work to films I've seen. And I'm thinking in particular about Laurent Cantet, a director I've mentioned in a previous post only briefly. In that previous post, I referred to his movie The Class(2008), about a high school teacher in a Paris banlieu. I highly recommend that movie.

The two movies that I associated with this weekend discussions are Cantet's Human Resources(1999) and the next movie he made, Time Out(2001). The stories in those two movies have absolutely no connection to academia. They are, though, the two most insightful examinations I've seen on film on the issue of labor during this neoliberal times. I am not going to say anything else about Human Resources and Time Out, except that I suggest that you watch them in order of production.

And no, I'm not trying to add anything to this weekend discussions. I am just suggesting two wonderful films.

Reviewers for peer-reviewed journals

In June 2008, I submitted an article for publication to a peer-reviewed journal. The journal is not based in the US (nor in the UK or Spain), but well-known scholars publis there frequently. According to them, the timeline for a decission was 4 months. Those months passed, and I didn't hear anything. My emails went unanswered. Since I was new at the job, I had no idea of whether to wait for a response or withdraw the article. I had already sent them 3 emails and I got no reply, so I was afraid that if I withdrew the article, they would overlook it, and then randomly published it and get me in trouble. So I decided to wait.

On July 2009 (more than a year after submission), I finally got an email. The article had been accepted, but they were asking for substantial changes. In TWO weeks. To be fair, most of the changes were not unreasonable. I kind of panicked, but did everything they had ask and re-submit. I received no acknowledgment of the receipt. So I email the editor twice, and ze didn't reply. In mid-September I received an email from the editor asking if I was still interested in publishing with them, since they hadn't heard from me. Luckily, I save all the work- related emails. I sent her the manuscript again along with the initial one, to prove that lack of interest was not my problem. Radio silence again for a few month, but the following February I received in the mail a copy of the journal. A month later, the editor emails me and asks me if I wanted to review a manuscript for them. I should have said no because of previous experiences, but I'm new in the field and didn't mind to add a line to my CV. So i get the manuscript, which IMO required substantial revisions to be publishable, and sent back the evaluation in June 2009. Again, the editor never acknowledge receipt. It was a busy time, and I had other things to do, so I forgot about it. Last night (September 12th, 2011), I open my email and what do I see: a message from the editor, asking me when will my evaluation be ready. I'm speechless. The document in itself was on my old computer, so I'm not sure I can find it. But even if I did, what should I do? I'm just furious with the editor.

Even if you are on sabbatical...

...dress appropriately when you go to your university. I was reminded of this an hour ago. I was still there, finishing up the day. I had to make some photocopies of a book that was overdue, so I went to the library. I was wearing a pair of jeans, sandals, and a t-shirt showing more cleavage than I would allow for my teaching clothes. My hair should have been washed this morning (it wasn't), and it could have certainly used something to make it less frizzy. In short, I was a mess. In one of the floors, there was some kind of reception going on. I didn't recognize anybody, until I literally trip into the president of the university. "Hi Spanish Prof," he says (and since when does he remember my name?). "Hi Father X..." Running into him always make me nervous, because I never know whether to call him "Father X" or by his first name. I know he doesn't mind, and most faculty call him by his first name. But I'm not used to call a priest by his first name. I switch back and forth. Add to that my less than professional appearance, and I was more nervous than usual. Without him asking anything, I just blurt: "I'm on sabbatical, I need to make photocopies. That's why I'm here," and then run away. I don't want to even think what he must have thought. Grrr....

Bullies in High School

Today, Clarissa had a post on a Russian student impressions in an American High School. Coincidentally, I was thinking about writing a post on a similar topic, but with a different focus.

Last night, I was talking to my parents on the phone and they told me they had run into somebody that had been my high school classmate, and that this person had send his regards to me. My parents asked me what I thought about him, and I told them that I didn't particularly like him in high school, but I never saw him after that, and one thing I have learned is that people change a lot after high school, so whatever I though of him back in the early 90s doesn't necessarily hold true today.

One way Argentinean's high-school are different from American high-school is: a) You do not have the division between middle school and high school. High school is considered from 8th grade until your senior year, b) you don't have elective courses that you can take. The curriculum is more rigid (although each school can have a variant of it), so everybody takes whatever courses you are supposed to take each year. As a result, you also have the same classmates in every class for those five years. Literally, you spend 5-6 hours a day, 5 times a week, with the same people.

Back to the high school story. I was re-telling my conversation with my parents to my husband, and I said that I had the impression that bullying was less frequent in Argentina than in the United States. By bullying I mean not only physical aggression but verbal abuse (constant taunting, mockery, etc). I don't think I ever witness an act of physical violence on school grounds or related to school issue. There was a hierarchy of students, with the "popular", "cool" ones and the wanna-be that followed them. But if you were not one of them (and trust me, I wasn't), you were more likely to be left alone and not invited to a party than actively mocked. And there were enough "uncool" kids where you could form your own group of friends. I am not saying it was a paradise, but it wasn't hell either.

On the other hand, whatever I know from bullying in the United States is what I read in the newspapers or see in the movies, so I could be absolutely wrong. Then I wondered if the fact that you spend so much time with the same people dissuades some from engaging in active bullying. My husband also mentioned the fact that as a teenager in Argentina, you have other places where potential aggression can come out: for example, I started going to punk music shows when I was 16, and I did witnessed there my fair amount of fights (and I always avoided them like the plague). Maybe that is another contributing factor. I don't know.

As a final disclaimer: both the high school I went to and the stories I know from friends I made in college include a socioeconomic group of teenagers that go from the lower middle class to the upper middle class. I don't know what happens in schools in a slum, for example, nor in high schools where the extremely wealthy rich kids go.

So what do you think? From my story, do you think there is a difference in bullying in the United States and in Argentina? What is your experience with it?

Vignettes of daily morning hilarity

It takes B. and I a few hours to really wake up. This morning, we were having breakfast, in silence, when I see that B. opens his cell phone and starts "listening" to it, without doing anything else.

Me: "What are you doing?"
B.: I'm waiting for the dial tone.
Me (sleepy stare): It's a cell phone.
B.: Ohhh....
Me: Who were you trying to call?
B.: Hmmm... I forgot.

And we kept drinking our coffee in silence.

Need input from readers: espresso machine

Both B. and I are avid coffee drinkers. Coffee is also one of the things we like to splurge on. We love our coffee strong and smooth. But no matter how much you spend on your coffee beans, you will not get great coffee without a good coffee/espresso machine. We want, in fact, a good espresso machine. Our old one bit the dust a while ago, and we got a Keurig single cup machine as a replacement. It was not a good idea, and neither him nor I like the coffee that comes out of the Keurig. So we are looking into buying an espresso machine in the $80-100 range. We can't afford to buy the really expensive ones, but we don't want a cheap espresso machine either. So dear readers, I need your input: is there any espresso machine that cost $80-100 that you would recommend? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

Questions about the US Census Bureau

Apparently, when B. and I were away in Argentina, we got randomly picked to complete the more extensive questionnaire of the US Census Bureau. The envelope, however, got eaten by the mail, so last week we received another questionnaire by the US Census Bureau with a friendly reminder of how it was mandated by law that we complete it. Regardless of the tone of the reminder, I actually don't mind completing the US Census Bureau survey, and I do think it's useful and part of a civil duty. That being said, I have a couple of questions regarding it.

a)One question asks how many weeks did you work (even for a few hours), including paid vacation, paid sick leave, etc. It doesn't explicitly say how many weeks did I work for pay, although that seems to be the implication. Now, as a college professor, I'm on a 9 month contract. However, I certainly did work (though technically not for pay) during the summer (research, writing articles, etc). So what should I answer? As if I had worked for 9 month or as if I had work for 12 months?

b)This one is theoretical and does not apply to me. I've always found puzzling Americans mania for labeling and classifying everything. I perfectly understand the reason behind race questions in this kind of surveys or applications, etc, although I don't think they are very comprehensive. That aside, the US Census Bureau has finally realized that Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origins is not a race. The way it is framed in the questionnaire is the following:

Question 5: Is [Person X] of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin? (Please note that Hispanic origins are not races)
Possible answers:
-No
-Yes, Mexican, Mexican American or Chicano
-Yes, Puerto Rican
-Yes, Cuban
-Yes, another Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin (for example, Argentinean, Colombian, Nicaraguan, etc...)

So the answer to that question is easy for me: Yes, other: Argentinean.

Question 6: What is [Person X] race? Mark one or more boxes
Possible answers:

-White
-Black, African American or Negro
-American Indian or Alaska Native (print name of enrolled or principal tribe)
-Asian Indian
-Chinese
-Filipino
-Other Asian (for example, Pakistani, Cambodian, Thai, Hmong)
-Japanese
-Korean
-Vietnamese
-Native Hawaiian
-Guamanian or Chamorro
-Samoan
-Other Pacific Islander (for example Fijian, Tongan)
-Some Other Race (print other race)

Now, for my particular case, the answer is also easy, since I'm white. However, I have a couple of questions, and I apologize in advance if they reflect ignorance, but I simply don't know.

a) Why is being Argentinean not a race (which it's not), but being Cambodian or Pakistani a race?

b) As I say, I am white. But what should an Hispanic who is a mestizo (an Hispanic of mixed European and Native tribes origin) mark? American Indian and White? Since it says "print name of enrolled or principal tribe", the term American Indian seems to apply to U.S native Americans. But I might be wrong. Any answers?

Designer Brands for Target - Updated with link

One of my biggest yearly disappointments is the "[Insert Designer Brand] for Target". I'm not such a fashion follower that I know every name that has participated in this collection, but occasionally a brand pops up that I love but I have never been able to afford. However, when I go to the store, the apparel always look like a piece of cheap crap. The most notorious example I remember is Proenza Schouler for Target. I love that brand, but it's impossible to afford it on a professor's salary. Their designs for Target, however, were awful. What always happens when I go to Target excited about a new collaboration is that I end up buying one of Target's regular T-Shirt, which are a staple in my wardrobe. I buy at least ten Target T-shirts every year (short and long sleeve). Now, I see that on September 13th, Missoni for Target launches. Missoni is another brand I adore, but has never been able to afford. I love their colors and designs. I am sure that I will be disappointed again, though.

Why is it so hard, with that concept, to create a product that doesn't scream "cheap" a mile away? H&M used to be better at that. What about your experience? Have you ever bought/found a "Designer brand for Target" product that you liked? What was it? Has it resisted the pass of time or disintegrated in 2 months?

Update with link: I know there is only one day left (it starts tomorrow, ladies, don't forget), but thanks to the savvy of Sisyphus, here is a link to the products that will be sold in the Missoni for Target collection.

When ignorance and fascism get together...

...all sorts of horrible things can happen. I know this is a platitude. After this week "wars", I started reading some science blogs a little more closely, at least as much as I could understand (I have no idea about what each acronym for a type of grant means, so that limits my readings a lot). I found some similarities in the kind of discussions I've seen in humanities blogs. For example, what should a grad student do or not do during his/her grad studies. This post is inspired by this one, regarding the danger of the Republican anti-science stance, and the fact that so many people seem to believe that they can't disregard scientific theory just because the Bible says something else. One particular comment said:

What’s next? Is mathematics going to be outlawed because some mythical deity in the bible insists that calculus just isn’t possible.

That reminded me of a few historical occurrences in my own country, Argentina, during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.

1- During the dictatorship, the governor of the province of Cordoba (Argentina has provinces, not States) banned math schoolbooks on vectors because he deemed vector theory “Marxist” and “subversive”. Since I am not a scientist, if one of my readers could speculate as to why they could even think vector math was subversive, I would greatly appreciate it.

2- The very revolutionary book “The Electrolyte Cell” was also banned (the title’s translation in Spanish is “La Cuba Electrolitica”).

3- And last, a real tragicomic story. In 1979, a (very stupid) acquaintance of my parents decides to go to Mexico on vacation. While he is there, he goes to a bookstore and finds the 3 volume edition of Karl Marx's The Capital on sale. "What a great find," he must have thought. So he bought it, and brought it back to Argentina in his suitcase. For those of you who do not know Argentina's situation at that time, the Army would kidnap, torture and kill people for lesser offenses. So this guy goes back to Argentina. He is going through customs in Ezeiza (Buenos Aires International Airport), and the guy checking his suitcase (usually a member of the Air Force) discovers the book. "What's this?," he yells. "How can you have a book by that well-known Russian subversive Marx?". "Oh no," answers my parent's acquaintance. "It's not the Russian Marx, it's the German Marx". Instantly, the customs officer calms down and replies: "Oh, the German Marx? I'm sorry for the confusion. Go ahead" And that's how an idiot probably saved his life.

Obvious moral of the post: when ignorance and fascism mix, you never know how scary things can get.

Spanish Prof answers all your questions...

Taking upon the example of other bloggers who are kind enough to answer readers based upon keyword questions, I will do the same for those of you who landed in my humble blog.

A perennial favorite:

- "Cortazar, Casa Tomada"
It's an Argentinean short story. The classic interpretation is to see it as a metaphor of Peronism. The author, though, refused that interpretation. But who cares about the author, anyway. He is dead, in a literal and metaphorical sense.

"College professors"
Not sure what you meant by that. We exist. We have lives. We are human beings.

"Causes of death Yekaterina Golubeva"
I have no idea, and I don't think the family is talking about it either. My guess is an overdose, since she was living with Leos Carax, not the healthiest person in France, but I can be completely wrong.

- "Movies about student behavior"
I would definetely recommend Laurent Cantet's The Class (Entre Les Murs). He is my favorite living French director, along with Olivier Assayas. I will write more about Laurent Cantet soon. "The Class" is the story of a high school teacher in a banlieu (kind of an inner city neighborhood) in Paris. Although some of the issues that the movie raises are specifically French problems, it has an universal appeal. I recommended the movie to a former student who is now doing Teach for America in an inner city school, and ze said that ze could identified so much with the main character and the students.

- "Bathroom signs in Spanish"
"Hombres/Caballeros" for Men, "Mujeres/Damas" for Women

-"Roberto Valentino grave"
He is buried at the Hollywood Forever Cementery in Los Angeles. I highly recommend the visit. If you happen to be there, don't miss Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone graves.

Things you learn when you have insomnia...

I need to stop surfing the Internet at 1:00 AM. Today I learnt you are not supposed to ask somebody "Where are you from?" It's offensive and culturally insensitive. Americans can be weird sometimes. Memo to self: call your doctor, and get a prescription for Ambien ASAP. This sort of things give me a heartburn.

Everyday life and ADD

With all the disadvantages it carries along, ADD can bring unsurpassed sources of humor to your everyday life. 15 minutes ago, my husband came to me with a bag in his hand and an embarrassed smile.

Husband: "I bought you an Eastern bunny"
Me: "In September?"
H: "No, for Eastern. I put it in my closet, and I forgot it existed"

I started laughing really hard, and asked him if he found anything else hidden in his closet.

Husband: "No, but next time I need to store something for a few days, remind me to put it in plain view. Otherwise, I'll forget"

GOP debate - bumper sticker

As I wrote in one of my comments to my post about the GOP debate last night, I think Al Sharpton, after the debate, had a great idea. Referring to Rick Perry's condemnation of Social Security, Al Sharpton suggested that if Perry wins the GOP nomination, the Democrats should print bumper stickers saying "It's Not About Obama, It's About Your Mama". Then I came back home and out of curiosity I checked on the website Cafe Press to see if somebody had taken him up on the idea. Sure enough, I found one of those bumper stickers. I don't know if Perry will win the GOP nomination (I suspect he will), but I already bought one of the bumper stickers. I loved it.

Another reason why I fear buying a house...

I rent an apartment that has all utilities except electricity included. I don't know exactly how it works, but even heat is included. So my largest energy bills are always in the summer. My apartment is old, 750 square feet, not very well insulated. I have two air conditioners, one in the bedroom and the other one in the summer. Today I got the electricity bill for August. As usual, it's the highest of the year. You know how much it was? $72 dollars.

That is right, $72 dollars is the highest energy bill of the year. If I do an average, I pay around $40 a month (it ranges from $20 to $80 according to the month). I know people with $200 and up energy bills. I've paid up more while sharing apartments when I was a grad student. The idea of buying a house, and that my utility bills will go through the roof just scares the hell out of me.

GOP debate recap... random thoughts

1) "Galileo got outvoted for a spell," said Rick Perry referring to his skepticism of global warming. Can somebody explain me what he meant, exactly?

2) Rick Perry is proud of the amount of executions Texas has had while he was governor, and people cheered. Scary, creepy, and WTF is wrong in this country? I'm sure they would also be proud of this story. But hey, it involves science, so why bother?

3) I understand why President Obama feared John Huntsman and sent him to China. He comes across as a human being I could have a conversation with. It probably says something about Obama misreading of the political climate that he feared him. In normal times, he would have been right. In 2011-12, he doesn't stand a chance to get elected as the candidate. I am still not sure whether that's a good (Republicans will elect a nutjob and therefore moderates will vote for Obama) or a bad thing (Republicans will elect a nutjob and such nutjob actually stands a chance of getting elected in 2012).

4)What's up with the hair dye of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum? It's too obviously fake. It makes them look more fake. And Santorum's tie was awful.

5) Why do some women insist that Rick Perry is an attractive man (from a purely physical point of view)? Eww...

6) Ron Paul never fails to deliver. When everybody was talking about how we need to keep building the fence, he points out that it's actually a method to keep US citizens entrapped, not allowing them to leave. And then he throws on something regarding capital movements. Somebody has seen a little too many sci-fi/horror movies, I think.

7) Was it me, or Michelle Bachmann was not at the top of her game last night?

8) Mitt Romney hired a good acting coach. He came across as a fake, as usual, but less than in previous occasions.

Who knew...

...some academic/science bloggers were actually frustrated wanna-be "Mean Girls" actors and actresses? I thought that happened with other kind of bloggers, but I was wrong.

Monetizing your blog...

A while ago, NicoleandMaggie had a post on whether to monetize their blog or not (sorry, I can't find it). If I remember correctly, they decided not to do it because it would be more effort than they are willing to put on it. The discussion was interesting, though, since it ranged from people who said s/he didn't like blogs with ads because they were distracting, to moral issues such as what would you be advertising, etc. I know that the ethical aspect of monetizing a blog is more of an issue in the so-called "mommy blogs" and in the personal finance blogs, which are more likely to be contacted directly by advertisers. In the personal finance blogs, would you accept direct advertising from a payday loan, with their predatory rates? In the so-called "mommy blogs", would you do sponsored posts extolling the virtue of a product you don't really like? Also, is there a difference between sponsored posts, links in the text, direct advertising, etc?

I had always read these discussions as an outsider, and was fascinated by them. As you can all see, I monetize my blog in two different ways. I have Google Adsense (from which I earned an incredible $5.37 in August and $27.83 since I started the blog), and I run an affiliate program with Amazon (where last month was actually amazing, thanks to a reader that ordered a lot of films through my links. The profits will be wisely invested in more books, I promise). I know people come to my blog for my posts, and I doubt anybody cares about the fact that I monetize the bolog, the Google Adsense or even the aesthetic of the blog (which I know could be better). I've never been bothered by Google Adsense in other blogs, or direct advertising (I just don't click on it), but I always thought that I wouldn't personally take direct advertising from a payday loan, since I've seen first hand the wreckage they do on poor communities. All these came back again because to my great surprise, a few weeks ago, I received an offer to place a link to a website in an old post I've written. It is to a website that is an online aggregator of online and for-profit education (no, it is not this website, I put the link for free because I was interested in the discussion of the list of books). It wasn't a lot of money (but it was more than what I've done with Google Adsense so far), but I thought over it for a few days. I finally said no, because it went against everything I believe regarding education. On the other hand, I have Google Adsense, and I know they place those kind of advertisements. Somehow, I don't have a problem with it. I feel like the reader can just ignore the ad, and I didn't choose it. However, somebody could ask me why shouldn't I receive more money from this kind of ads, since I would basically be cutting the middle man. I know personal finance blogs and "mommy-blogs" are different in another way, too, that many bloggers derive significant income from those blogs while for me, this is just a platform to write about things I'm interested in (but I don't mind if a little money comes along, obviously).

So what do you think? Does it make sense to you? Am I being contradictory or hypocritical? What is your approach to monetizing (or making a little money) out of your blog? Do you think that it somehow changes the value of a blog if you see that it's being monetized? What are your personal stories regarding the issue? What is your take on monetizing a blog?

Random half drunk thought from a foreigner....

Maybe an American can answer this pressing question: Except for the Florida Marlins, why isn't there a professional baseball team in the South? This is an example of the metaphysical questions that occur to me when I've had one too many beers.

Spanish and Latin American novels for students

Today, when I checked the email related to this blog, I found one of those emails that I usually delete without even reading. They are promotional material of websites related to Online Learning. For some reason, though, I did take a look at this email, and I what I found was very interesting. It was a link to a website that provides "information for continuing and online education". The title of the page was enough to pick my curiosity: "50 Great Hispanic Novels Every Student Should Read". So I clicked on the link. And I am linking to them for two reasons. First, because it's an example of Hispanic novels that have been translated into English. But above all, because the list is not your average list (since I am doing this for free, now I am thinking that I shouldn't have turn down an paid offer for a similar link last week. But that's another discussion and no, I wouldn't accept that kind of paid advertising).

To begin with, the list is weirdly divided. As categories, you have "Spain", "Argentina", "Chile", "South America" (so where are Chile and Argentina located?), "Mexico", "Caribbean and Central America" and "United States". The books that made the list include some of the usual suspects of "Latin American for export", and some curious choices. Among the former, you find Isabel Allende's books and Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera. Among the latter, I was surprised to find Jose Donoso's The Obscene Bird of Night, Juan Jose Saer's The Witness, or Luis Martin Santos' Time of Silence. These are canonical texts, but within scholars. They are not an easy read, which is what you would imagine the target audience of this website is looking for.

So take a look at the list? What do you think of it? How many have you read? If you are in the field of Hispanic Studies, are there any names you have no idea who they are? If you are not in the field of Hispanic Studies, have you read any of the novels? Do any of the text pick your interest?

The "Good Neighbor Policy," or Mr. Welles goes to Rio...

In 1942, Orson Welles was at the top of his game. As part of the efforts of the American government to win the support of Latin American countries during war times, Nelson Rockefeller asked Orson Welles to go to Brazil to shoot a documentary on the "culture" of this country. What both Rockefeller and Getulio Vargas (Brazil's president at that time) expected was some picturesque documentary on Rio de Janeiro Carnival. While he did shoot that, Orson Welles also went to the Northeast to tell the story of the daily life of fishermen there, an adventure that ended in tragedy. Getulio Vargas was not very happy with Welles portrayal of Brazil, and the studio behind the project, RKO, pulled the plug because of the increasing costs.

For years, the footage of Welles' Brazilian adventure was thought to be lost. It was found in 1985, in the archives of the studio. That gave place to a fascinating documentary, It's All True. It narrates the story of Orson Welles trip to Brazil and the disaster it became. It is also a great insight into the politics of the time, and Hollywood attitude towards Latin America. The last 45 minutes is a B&W silent documentary titled "Four Men on a Raft", the only part of Welles footage that was recovered almost intact. You get the sense that, if he had been allowed to complete the project, it would have been very different from other European and American directors incursions into Latin America (including Einsenstein and Mexico).

Saving money on sabbatical. . .

Since I'm staying in town and not flying to some fancy place out of my own pocket, I've realized that I'm actually saving money during the sabbatical. At least so far. For example, since my schedule is more flexible, I always take the time to pack my lunch when I come to my office. So far, I haven't gone to Subway (believe it or not, the best place to eat on campus) even once since the beginning of August. I also stay home more often, reading, so that is another occasion where I am not tempted to buy coffee at the coffee-house, or to buy lunch. I also feel more relaxed and go to the grocery store more often, which means that we don't buy take-out food twice a week as we used to. I also didn't go shopping for new clothes for the Fall, as I usually do. I don't mind wearing the same as last year, or just be casual. That is probably a savings of $100 - 150. On a regular basis, I'm probably saving an average of $100 a month. Great!!!

Of course, I still haven't fallen into the temptation of buying too many books. If I do, then there go my savings. Because when I start, it is so hard to stop!!!

Why I will never be in charge of the official film programming . . .

. . . at my institution. Yesterday, I received an email from somebody on campus announcing that as part of a series on Ethics and Society, some campus organization would be screening the movie Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. It's a fictionalized account of the last days of Sophie Scholl, a member of the student anti-Nazi resistance group White Rose. This group was formed in 1942 by seven students from the University of Munich. It denounced the Nazi dictatorship by distributing flyers, specifically on the University campus. As you may imagine, the group was not long-lived. They were arrested and subsequently executed on February, 1943.

The movie is from 2005, and I saw it then. I wasn't particularly impressed by it, but that is not the point. I vaguely remember exiting the movie theater thinking the movie was OK, but that the students had been beyond naive in their actions. In the email I received yesterday announcing the screening, the promotional blurb said: "Seventy years after university students in Munich launched a non-violent resistance group . . . we hope that the movie will inspire our academic community to refine its values and to live a full life of meaningfulness." Huhhh??? What is exactly the message am I suppose to take from the movie? Non-violent resistance to tyranny? But that gets you killed... Violent resistance? I doubt my religious university wants to promote that... Resisting tyranny will get you killed? Ehh... I don't think that one will work either. I told my husband about the email and my thoughts, and he said: "That's why you will never be in charge of film programming at your institution. You don't like platitudes". I guess he is right.