Gael and the BAFTAs

Let's vote for the most fantastic actor of his generation... And probably one of the best actors ever, Gael García Bernal. He is nominated for the "Orange Rising Star Award" this year at the BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards)! Noone else has ever made me go five times to go see the same movie at the movie theater... a true feat.

Cuban Wendy

Wendy is getting her transexuality officially recognised by the Cuban government. At 31, she is living her feminine identity now, after having struggled her whole life with misunderstanding and prejudice; she and 24 other transexuals could become biologically women after a sex-reassignment surgery is approved by the Cuban parliament. Transexuality is officially diagnosed in Cuba, and the surgery is the means by which diagnosed transexuals (the diagnostic is optional) are expected to be treated. Transexuals in Cuba can seek support of the government through the Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (National Center for Sexual Education), which has fully helped Wendy since she was 22, by providing psychological and medical support (hormonal replacement therapy included). As part of the national medical strategy, the Cuban government has devised a system to help identify gender-identity problems through the health and the education ministries.
What lies beneath this wonderful story is the irrational paradigm on which civilisation rests.- Why is it that our identities depend on whichever biological organs we happen to have between our legs? The organisation of this world as we know it is based on the human's genitalia, and so everyone must comply: one is either a "man" or a "woman". Nothing in between seems to be allowed; those who are born as hermaphrodites need to comply with this pattern based on the parents' decision, or in what genetics determine. However, "conforming" to the social norm is what Wendy is doing in a sense, because society dictates that women have long hair, long nails, wear high-heeled shoes, wear make-up and have soft skin. Pardon me if I seem to be reaching an oxymoron.
What would happen if that disguise (long / short hair, make-up / no make-up, high / low heels, etc.) could be changed freely from day to day, the same way that we change our clothes from day to day? What if we could choose to wear a skirt, high heels and make-up one day and no make-up, a shirt, a tie and slacks the next? Why would such a thing not be possible? Nothing would change, because ourselves, our thoughts, our feelings, our reactions, our personalities would remain largely the same (if such a change were routinary; because nowadays our personalities do not remain the same if we change such attires).
However, would the concept of "identity" the way it is conceived today survive?

* Sigh

So, after reading this story and this story, I just have to let out a sigh in a bit of frustration about living in Texas. And it is not because of the gay issue, but because of the self-indulgence that people who live states like Texas (or Tennessee, or Alabama, or Georgia, or the Carolinas...) is accostumed to. Nothing that questions the orthodoxy of their traditional beliefs can be questioned because they shut it down, and people hang on desperately to them because, in many cases, that's the only substance to their lives. The less self-questioning and questioning of their beliefs, the better. So, let's watch infomercials and crawl into our shells instead of being exposed to someone else's point of view, regardless of how much we disagree with it.

Michael from La Academia USA

I know it doesn't speak too good about me to admit that I do watch "La Academia", but I thought all participants had been born here in the USA to Spanish-speaking parents, and so I thought it would be interesting to try to see the way they used languages to communicate and eventually sing. However, that wasn't the case; most participants were born outside of the USA and came here as grown-ups (and now I just have to see who wins!). I wrote most participants, because two or three were actually born here in the USA, and one of those was Michael Anthony Muenchow (not Munchow; the terra.com website is wrong), and I came to acquire quite a liking to him. He was eliminated today, and I actually felt really sad for that. I'm going to kind of miss him.

The raw and the cooked

My take on the raw and the cooked.

At work

My interpretation of torture.

Ethics

I have never studied ethics formally. But there are a couple of issues that occupy my mind these days that involve ethics.

1) How valid (or ethical) is it to have people who don't master a certain subject to an elementary, acceptable level "teaching" that same subject? How can someone who can't tell the difference (because he doesn't use it properly in using the language) between "saber" and "conocer" be "teaching" a Spanish class and grading assignments where the lack of ability to tell the said difference is penalized?

2) "De orígen mexicano, el patrullero que abrió fuego"
How can someone whose parents (or at least one of his relatives or loved ones) most likely became citizens through the Amnesty Act of 1986 because they arrived in this country ilegally, hold a job as a Border Patrol Agent? He would not be able to work -hell, he wouldn't even be here- had his parents not come here. Was he born here? Is he a naturalized citizen? Were his parents born here? Many important questions remain to be answered in this story.

ANGELS

This CD... it's going to become one of those obsessions. I can't find a cheap copy to purchase anywhere online. I'll shelf it here for later.

These landscapes in Colorado in winter make excellent Scribe notebook covers

Yay! Now that I know how to post pictures in this thing, I should feel more excited about writing. Maybe.

Captive

Just trying to figure out how to post pictures in my Blog. I guess it works! I was on my way to beautiful Pagosa Springs, CO in this pic.