Category: Latin America

Colombia Vows to Fight Stereotypes with… Stereotypes

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Tired of having Colombia being portrayed as a country plagued by drug violence and prostitution, two Colombian enterprises and the Medellín City Hall have joined forces to launch The Colombian Ambush, an online campaign aimed at showing the world the real Colombia, one that has given us many great things, including “Gabo,” one of the world’s greatest writers.

The campaign will live exclusively online and is being crafted by Dallas-based Dieste. A series of videos have been directed by Simón Brand and use the typical Colombian stereotype to fight … the Colombian stereotype.

In Patrón, for example, we are presented with a scene very similar to Season I of Narcos, the Netflix sensation about the bloody era of the Pablo Escobar years. But instead of witnessing an exchange of drugs –or weapons– we see men exchanging books… books by the great García Márquez.

Watch as a very unusual patrón scolds his men for not bringing La Hojarasca.

(Oh, and while we’re at it, PLEASE REMEMBER: It’s Colombia, Not Columbia.)

Via: CNET en Español

 

AMLO’s ‘Sharp Critique’ of Trump –and Trump’s Wall, now Available in English

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Mexican presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador is running on an odd platform, enlisting politicians from all walks of life (and political positions) to his campaign. And while his politics and rhetoric have pretty much divided the country, there is one thing he has in common with millions of Mexicans: His contempt for President Trump –and his proposed border wall.

And now, in hopes of making his message get across the border, his 2017 book has been translated into English.

I have not read this thing –nor I’m sure if I’ll ever do it, but according to an enthusiastic morning press pitch: ¡Oye, Trump! Saying Yes to a New Start for Mexico, Saying No to a Wall (OR Books) presents a “no-holds-barred condemnation of corruption in his own country and a sharp critique of what he regards as the baleful influence of the United States in Mexican politics, especially under the Trump presidency.”

U.S. Prosecutors Have Spicy Evidence Against El Chapo

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As the trial against El Chapo gets closer, prosecutors this week filed a 90-page memo detailing a 1992 shootout in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, that resulted in six people dead. The memo, says The New York Times, was designed “to list the crimes that Mr. Guzmán was believed to have committed, but were not specifically laid out in his indictment.”

The list includes all kinds of horrors: Murders, acts of torture, kidnappings, prison breaks and… “an attempt to smuggle seven tons of cocaine in cans of jalapeños.”

Via: The failing New York Times

Tijuana to Emulate the Iconic Hollywood Sign, because Mexico

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Why go to Hollywood when you can just go to TJ?

Having solved its most pressing issues, the city of Tijuana is working on emulating the iconic Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.

According to the Mexican press, the project was conceived –and is being financed– by the local Chamber of Commerce. It will be erected on the slopes of Colorado hill in the southeastern part of Tijuana at a cost of about $230,000.

The TIJUANA sign will be 15 meters high by 80 meters long and its letters would be illuminated with solar-powered lamps whose colors would randomly change.

Because, Mexico…

Via: Mexico News Daily

Peña Nieto Rebukes Trump in Video Message –Hilarity Ensues

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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, on Thursday, blasted Donald Trump in a video message, vowing that “nothing and no one stands above the dignity of Mexico” and adding basically that: “If your recent statements are the result of frustration due to domestic policy issues, to your laws or to your Congress, it is to them that you should turn to, not to Mexicans.”

Here’s Peña Nieto’s original tweet:

The response was pretty unusual, really, and Mexicans took to Twitter to express solidarity with their president but also some hilarious takes on the whole thing.

Here are only some of my favorite ones; I’ll be updating this as I see more (I gotta work, you know?)

You’re so cute when you’re mad

When EPN Defends Mexicans

 

Trump’s Reaction?

Lo que el viento a Juárez, Basically

Time to Fight for your Leader

In a Nutshell

And the Best Tweet of them all …

 

 

Woman Running DHS Says Replacing Current Sections of Border Wall Counts as New Wall 🙄

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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen this week met with reporters to mumble something about Trump’s Big Beautiful Wall (TBBW.)

In a nutshell, Ms. Nielsen wants us to know is that expanding and/or enhancing Obama’s border fence should count as a new wall, because that’s how this administration rolls. I don’t really know what the hell she’s talking about, but it doesn’t matter either because nothing makes any sense anymore.

WATCH. Weep. Do NOT repeat.

Mexican Entrepreneurship Knows No Limits Part XVII

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What else were you going to call your fitness center in Mexicali?

Mexico, the land that brought us El Chapo’s special gourmet coffee and original escape T-shirt, among millions of wonderful things, continues to foster local entrepreneurship.

Take this business owner in Mexicali, Mexico, who has found the BEST NAME EVER for his otherwise unremarkable fitness center.

MEXICANS: How can anyone NOT like us?

Hat tip: @lechancle

Emma González Is a National Treasure –and the Haters are Here

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Wearing a green olive jacket featuring several patches, including one of the Cuban flag, Emma González delivered a gut-wrenching speech at the “March for Our Lives” on March 24, 2018.

Unless you live under a rock (or maybe you’re busy celebrating National Greek Independence Day) you probably have read by now that millions of people took to the streets on Saturday March 24, 2018 to say ¡basta! to the NRA –and the politicians who take their money in the name of defending the Constitution or some BS like that.

While I joined the thousands that took to the streets in New York City, a young woman in Washington, D.C. delivered the most gut-wrenching speech of them all. It was Emma González, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who stood on the stage for a full 6 minutes and 20 seconds… the length of the Parkland shooting.

“Six minutes and about twenty seconds. In a little over six minutes, 17 of our friends were taken from us, 15 were injured, and everyone, absolutely everyone, was forever altered,” she began. She spoke for a little under two minutes and then she said nothing for the remaining four minutes and change.

WATCH it here:

Upon seeing her speech over and over again, most of which was dominated by a powerful silence, I couldn’t help but notice the little Cuban flag she wore on her olive green jacket and thought it would be a matter of time until the haters would go after her for that.

Well, it happened about 18 hours later, when the group known as “Hispanics for Trump” Tweeted the following.

Haters gonna hate

I’m sure the hate has only just begun and we’ll see shit tons of it in the days and months to come. But none of that will matter to this blogger who –for once– has some kind of hope in the future of this country.

He dicho.

Donald Trump Goes to the U.S.-Mexico Border. Hilarity Ensues

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President Trump had the “brilliant” idea to visit San Diego to inspect several design prototypes for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

As I’m writing this, Mr. Trump was still at the border meeting with border patrol officers and wall-enthusiasts, so this post is only a taste of what’s to come.

Please check back later, as this post will be updated throughout the day with some of the most hilarious reactions to the visit, including –ahem, ahem– my very own (because, really, if I don’t laugh at my own jokes, who will?)

These people…

Go do something useful…

The Mexicans are OK

El Bisnes es el Bisnes

And the funniest thing that started it all!😂😂

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsPhoto via Reuters

New York City’s New School Chancellor Is a Professional Mariachi. No, Really.

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If everything else fails, Richard Carranza can always go back to serenading las muchachas. ¡Ajúa!

From the Archives of I Could Not Make This Thing Up if I Tried comes Richard Carranza, the recently appointed New York City Schools Chancellor, who took a very unsual approach when discussing his new job with Mr. De Blasio and wife: He serenaded them with mariachi song María Elena.

His background is plain awesome. Per the [failing] New York Times:

At Monday’s news conference, Mr. Carranza said he had been a mariachi musician since he was about 6 years old. When he wanted to stay up late with his father and his uncles, they said the only people staying up late were people playing instruments — so he learned to play the guitar. He later worked his way through college at the University of Arizona “gigging,” as he put it on Monday.

Now you know. If running our disastrous public school system turns out to be too much for this fellow Mexican, he can always go back to serenading las muchachas. ¡Ajúa!

Just WATCH:

Via: New York Times

Darth Vader, Stormtroopers Help the Mexican Government Raise Awareness of HIV, Because Mexico

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May the Force (of Campeche’s Healthcare Professionals) Be With You!

Campeche is not only one of my favorite Mexican states; it is also the force behind a deliciously bizarre government advertising campaign to help raise awareness of HIV and AIDS.

Using the slogan HIV doesn’t kill; discrimination does, the government of Campeche has tapped none other than Darth Vader and a stormtrooper to help raise awareness of the virus, and urge citizens to attend the Capasits (a chain of ambulatory, educational centers to help people understand HIV and learn tips on prevention and other issues.)

Because, honestly… What else can be more impactful than the good ol’ Star Wars folks telling you to take care of yourself?

Just WATCH.

Via: Publimetro