Mexican Piñata Maker Takes Revenge on Donald Trump
Dalton Javier Avalos Ramirez has given people a way to beat up on Donald Trump, and receive candy as a reward.
Ramirez, a craftsman from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, told The Independent that after hearing Trump announce his candidacy for presidency — during which he alleged that Mexican immigrants were rapists bringing drugs and crime across the border — he was inspired to create a Donald Trump piñata.
He completed the task in a single day.
Ramirez told The Independent he’s received more than 10 orders since Friday. According to Fox News Latino, the piñatas are priced at 500 pesos apiece, or roughly $33.
The largest Spanish-language broadcaster has decided to not air Donald Trump’s annual Miss USA pageant next month due to the presidential candidate’s recent comments on immigration.
“Today the entertainment division of #Univision Communications Inc. announced that it is ending the Company’s business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which is part-owned by Donald J. Trump, based on his recent, insulting remarks about #Mexican #immigrants.
At Univision we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country.
We will not be airing the #MissUSApageant on July 12 or working on any other projects tied to the Trump #Organization.”
When recently announcing his run for president, Trump called for a great wall to be built in order to stop illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States.
“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” he said. “And some, I assume, are good people.” Donald Trump
Outspoken billionaire Donald Trump remained true to form during his presidential announcement speech Tuesday, delivering a rambling 30-minute talk that touched on a multitude of subjects, including jobs, immigration and wealth — but mostly China and Mexico.
Don Miguel Ángel Ruiz (born 1952), better known as Don Miguel Ruiz, is a Mexican author of Toltec spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts.
His teachings are similar to New Age philosophies which focuses on the Ancient Toltec teachings to achieve happiness. Ruiz is listed as one of The Watkins 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in 2014.
Some have associated Ruiz’s work with Carlos Castaneda, author of The Teachings of Don Juan.
Don Miguel Ruiz was born in rural Mexico, the youngest of 13 children.
Don Miguel attended medical school, and became a surgeon. For several years he practiced medicine with his brothers.
A near fatal car accident changed the direction of Don Miguel’s life. Don Miguel promptly returned to his mother to finish his training and he became a Shaman. Don Miguel then moved to the United States.
In the tradition of the Toltec, a Nagual (shaman) guides an individual to personal freedom. After exploring the human mind from a Toltec as well as scientific perspective, Don Miguel has combined old wisdom with modern insights.
Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday observed throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.
The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2, in connection with the triduum of Allhallowtide: All Hallows’ Eve, Hallowmas, and All Souls’ Day. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.
Pelicans in the Sea of Cortez are our guide to the incredible flying Devil Rays.
Brown pelicans off the coast of Baja California in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, reveal a birds eye view of the spectacular flying Devil Rays.
Earthflight uses many different filming techniques to create the experience of flying with birds as they encounter some of the greatest natural events on the planet.
It was a short day at school today. The kids were sent home at noon. My “sitter” duties started earlier. As a wise sitter, I invited Angelika (my oldest grand-daughter) to the movies. We had a quick lunch and headed to the theater.
Fridays have become a “tradition”. That the day we have a “date”: movies and dinner.
She really wanted to see this one. I wasn’t sure but …. Angelika can very easily get what she wants out of me.
And I was glad … didn’t expect this movie to be so good and entertaining. And it will be a “sure repeat”!
“WHAT IS IT WITH MEXICANS AND DEATH?!”
(… a line from the movie)
A charming tribute to Mexican culture and its Day of the Dead holiday, director Jorge R. Gutierrez and producer Guillermo del Toro’s The Book of Life follows three childhood friends – Manolo (Diego Luna), Maria (Zoe Saldana), and Joaquin (Channing Tatum) – whose romantic fates become the subject of a wager between two married deities: La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), who oversees the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba (Ron Perlman), ruler of the Land of the Forgotten.
The Book of Life is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated adventure musical comedy film produced by Reel FX Creative Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Co-written and directed by Jorge Gutierrez, the film stars the voices of Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, and Channing Tatum with supporting roles by Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, Ron Perlman, and Kate del Castillo. The film was theatrically released on October 17, 2014.
~Plot~
The film is described as the journey of Manolo Sánchez, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. In love with the beautiful María, yet having to battle with the affections of the charming Joaquín, to win her heart, the spirits La Muerte and Xibalba bet on who will win María.
Afraid to lose the bet after María falls for Manolo, Xibalba sends a snake to kill Manolo, hoping that will result in Joaquín becoming María’s lover. In order to return to the human world and to María, Manolo embarks on an incredible journey that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears armed with only his wits, his guitar, and his two swords.
Mexican folklore gets the full 3-D animated treatment in one of the most visually dazzling films of the year.
At first, director Jorge Gutiérrez and producerGuillermo Del Toro (director of “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Pacific Rim”) seem to be offering just another joke-a-minute family flick, complete with lessons about believing in yourself. Soon, though, things heat up with blasts of color and a vibrant Meso american myth.
Manolo (voiced by Diego Luna) yearns to be a musician, but hails from a legendary line of bullfighters. He’s in love with the independent Maria (Zoe Saldana), but so is Joaquin (Channing Tatum), a soldier obsessed with his medals (and his mustache). Above it all, La Muerte and Xibalba, skeletal spirits from the afterlife, wager over who will win Maria’s heart.
From producer Guillermo del Toro and director Jorge Gutierrez comes an animated comedy with a unique visual style. THE BOOK OF LIFE is the journey of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, THE BOOK OF LIFE encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future.
Director: Jorge Gutierrez
Actors: Channing Tatum, Zoë Saldana, Diego Luna, Ice Cube, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Kate del Castillo, Eugenio Derbez
The International Day of Peace, sometimes unofficially known as World Peace Day, is observed annually on 21 September. It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid access.
The day was first celebrated in 1982, and is kept by many nations, political groups, military groups, and peoples. In 2013, for the first time, the Day was dedicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to peace education, the key preventive means to reduce war significantly.
To inaugurate the day, the United Nations Peace Bell is rung at UN Headquarters (in New York City). The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents except Africa, and was a gift from the United Nations Association of Japan, as “a reminder of the human cost of war”; the inscription on its side reads, “Long live absolute world peace”.
Annual synchronized global peace prayer and meditation on International Day of Peace, September 21.
#bethepeace
~~Description~~
Every year on the International Day of Peace, hundreds of organizations worldwide join together to create one of the largest global prayers and meditations for peace in history!
BeThePeace welcomes people from every culture, every spiritual tradition, and every political perspective to come together in a profound experience of Global Oneness. What does it really mean to be the peace we wish to see?
The event builds on a thirty-year tradition of a Planetary Peace Wave on September 21 to build a global Culture of Peace. It aims to strengthen an ever-growing global network of ‘subtle activists’ committed to developing internal peace and creating a foundation for a global culture of peace.
Dedicated to the United Nations’ International Day of Peace celebrated each year on September 21. Join and spread the Spirit of Peace, because Peace can only prosper as a collective condition of human heart and mind, for the sake of all Children!
This song is the Playing For Change Foundation’s gift to the world.
The Playing For Change Foundation feels honored to have the blessing and generous support of Yoko Ono as music lovers around the world join together to launch the Power to the People campaign. The campaign seeks to advance John Lennon’s vision of peace by engaging artists and audiences to contribute to music education programs worldwide. Proceeds raised will help build music schools, support teachers and music programs, purchase instruments, and connect schools for cross-cultural learning and conflict resolution across borders.
El bolero de Raquel (English: Raquel’s Shoeshiner) is a 1957 Mexican comedy film directed by Miguel M. Delgado and starring Cantinflas, Manola Saavedra, Flor Silvestre, and child actor Paquito Fernández who was nominated for a 1958 Silver Ariel for Best Performance by a Child Actor for the role of Chavita.
This is Cantinflas’ first Mexican color film (it was filmed in Eastmancolor, also considered as Mexico’s Technicolor).
Cantinflas is a down on his luck but affable shoe shiner that learns that his compadre has died in an accident. His friend’s widow, Leonor (Flor Silvestre) is unable to raise her child, Chavita, so she leaves the kid with Cantinflas so she can go to Guadalajara, Jalisco in order to seek help from her parents. In the first days, Cantinflas goes to work in Chapultepec and Chavita catches a ball that some other children are playing with, and almost ends up in a fight with the owners of the ball. Cantinflas calms down the child by promising he will bring him a new ball.
In order to find a better job, Cantinflas goes to school, where he tries to learn but, instead, fails in love with Raquel Saavedra, an attractive teacher who works there. While in school, he tries finding more jobs, with comic results: first, as a shoe shiner in a night club, where he gets into various incidents on his first night, including an unexpected entrance in the dancers’ dressing room and an accidental entrance to Ravel’s Boléro dance act performed by Elaine Bruce (from which the pun in the Spanish title is drawn, as he confuses Ravel with the name of the teacher with whom he is infatuated, thus thinking that the dance is for him); the scene is reminiscent of his Apache dance in the 1944 film, Gran Hotel. After sabotaging the act, Cantinflas is removed from the night club.
Cantinflas tries to get new jobs in Acapulco, where he tries everything to get some money, when accidentally Chavita leaves Cantinflas to climb La Quebrada. Cantinflas tries to rescue him, but he is stuck himself at the top of La Quebrada (as Chavita escapes easily to the other side) and he is obliged to make a spectacular dive. His action leads him to get a job as a life saver but his incompetence when attempting to save a large woman from drowning (almost drowning himself in the process) causes him to be fired the same day.
Finally, Cantinflas gets enough money to raise his godson and buys him a new big ball, but Leonor returns from Guadalajara, with a husband, a better life and a brand new ball. Chavita leaves Cantinflas and he sadly sees the scene. Angrily he kicks the ball, the ball goes to Raquel’s feet and finally they get together.
El bolero de Raquel satirizes the lifestyles of the rich with their bodyguards, managers, etc. through scenes set in posh nightclubs. Though a relative box-office disappointment for a Cantinflas film, it still ranked among the most profitable Mexican films of the year.
I remember growing up with this man, this character in my life. Who didn’t know about “Cantinflas“? This was the time when you had to go to the theaters to see the movies. We didn’t have CDs, DVDs, DVRs.
It was a treat watching his movies. His character “Cantinflas” was one who would surely make you laugh and forget …. for a while.
Now the time has come to recognize his genius, his creativity, his genuineness. A biographical movie was produced and it’s in the theaters starting this weekend. I saw it today and enjoyed it immensely.
Mario Fortino Alfonso Moreno Reyes, known more casually as simply Mario Moreno, and known professionally as Cantinflas (August 12, 1911 – April 20, 1993), was a Mexican comic film actor, producer, and screenwriter. He often portrayed impoverished “campesinos” or a peasant of “pelado” origin. The character came to be associated with the national identity of Mexico, and allowed Cantinflas to establish a long, successful film career that included a foray into Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin once commented that he was the best comedian alive, and Moreno has been referred to as the “Charlie Chaplin of Mexico“. To audiences in the United States, he is best remembered as co-starring with David Niven in a Golden Globe Award-winning role in the 1956 film “Around the World in 80 Days”.
As a pioneer of the cinema of Mexico, Moreno helped usher in its golden era.
In addition to being a business leader, he also became involved in Mexico’s tangled and often dangerous labor politics. Although he was a political conservative, his reputation as a spokesperson for the downtrodden gave his actions authenticity and became important in the early struggle against charrismo, the one-party government’s practice of co-opting and controlling unions.
Moreover, his character Cantinflas, whose identity became enmeshed with his own, was examined by media critics, philosophers, and linguists, who saw him variably as a danger to Mexican society, a bourgeois puppet, a kind philanthropist, a transgressor of gender roles, a pious Catholic, a verbal innovator, and a picaresque underdog.
~~Origin of name~~
As a young man, Cantinflas performed a variety of acts in travelling tents, and it was here that he acquired the nickname “Cantinflas“, although the origin of the name is obscured by legend. According to one obituary, “Cantinflas” is a meaningless name invented to prevent his parents from knowing he was in the entertainment business, which they considered a shameful occupation. In another version, the Mexican media critic and theorist Carlos Monsiváis cites a legendary account of the origin of Cantinflas’ characteristic speech:
“According to a legend that he agrees with, a young Mario Moreno, overwhelmed by stage fright, once, in the Ofelia carpa (tent), forgets his original monologue. He begins to say what comes to mind in a complete emancipation of phrases and words, and what comes to mind is an incoherent brilliance. His assistants recite his attack on syntax, and Mario becomes aware of it: destiny has placed in his hands the distinctive characteristic, the style that is manipulation of chaos.
Weeks later, the name that will mark the invention is invented. Someone, taken in by the nonsense, screams: “Cuanto inflas!” [C’ ntinflas] (You’re annoying!) or “En la cantina inflas!” [You like to drink a lot at the cantina (inflar means to swell)].
The contraction catches on and becomes proof of the baptism that the character needs.”
~~Cantinflas Featurette~~
The Story (2014) – Michael Imperioli Movie
~~Published on Jul 30, 2014~~
Mike Todd is a Broadway producer struggling to produce ‘Around the World in 80 Days’. In Mexico, Mario Moreno, a young entertainer is struggling to get some respect, and he manages to become a star. A twist of faith makes them partners. Together they won the Oscar for Best Picture.
~~Cantinflas Official US Trailer~
~~Published on Jun 12, 2014~~
Cantinflas (Mario Moreno Reyes) is beloved throughout the Spanish-speaking world and is considered by many to be the Mexican Charlie Chaplin. This biopic traces his life as a young entertainer, who struggles to become a star in Mexico, while Broadway producer, Mike Todd, struggles to make Around the World in 80 Days in the U.S. A twist of fate brings the two together and they go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
~~CANTINFLAS’ GALLERY~~
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“Cantinflas is the untold story of Mexico’s greatest and most beloved comedy film star of all time. From his humble origins on the small stage to the bright lights of Hollywood, Cantinflas became famous around the world – one joke at a time.”
This has been a trying week. As a matter of fact, we are living in trying times. There’s so much havoc in our world. So many places where the environment and atmosphere isn’t inviting. There’s conflict, wars, injustice, prejudice, racism, need, hunger, poverty … the list is endless.
When the world around us is that way, there can’t be peace, quiet solace within our souls.
It’s the weekend. Maybe there’s an opportunity to disconnect from the outside and connect from the inside.
I know I’m trying to.
To learn to see- to accustom the eye to calmness, to patience, and to allow things to come up to it; to defer judgment, and to acquire the habit of approaching and grasping an individual case from all sides. This is the first preparatory schooling of intellectuality. One must not respond immediately to a stimulus; one must acquire a command of the obstructing and isolating instincts.”
~~Friedrich Nietzsche~~
~Twilight of the Idols: How to Philosophize With the Hammer~
“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”
~~Pema Chödrön~~
Right at that moment it was as if we were the only two people left in the world. And I don’t mean that to sound corny; it just honestly did. The only sounds were the droning crickets and chip-chips of the bats, the faraway wind against the sand, and the occasional distant yowl of a dingo. There were no car horns.No trains. No jack-hammers. No lawnmowers No planes. No sirens. No alarms. No anything human. If you’d told me that you’d saved me from a nuclear holocaust, I might have believed you.”
~~Lucy Christopher, Stolen: A Letter to My Captor~~
♥♫A walk in Heaven♫♥
Very relaxing music
~~Uploaded on Nov 27, 2008~~
music: Ernesto Cortazar
A bit of history on the artist
~~Ernesto Cortazar~~
Ernesto Cortazar (1940–2004) was a contemporary classical composer and pianist. He composed background music for more than 75 motion pictures. He also gained notoriety by topping the popularity on MP3.com – a leading music-sharing service, popular with independent musicians for promoting their work.
~~Life and musical career~~
Ernesto Cortazar II was born in Mexico City in 1940 into a family of composers.
Ernesto’s father, Ernesto Cortazar Sr., was an accomplished composer and was named president of the Society of Authors and Composers (SACM – Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de Mexico). Despite being orphaned at age 13, Ernesto continued with his studies by attending a music academy.
Ernesto Cortazar found even bigger fame being the #1 artist on the #1 music website in the world. Among 130,000 artists Ernesto lead the way with over 14,000,000 downloads to his compositions on MP3.com from 1999 to 2001 which would normally make one a multi-platinum artist by gold/platinum sales designation of the traditional music industry. His sites were visited by more than 4,000,000 viewers.
He established a website community which is translated to English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and German.
In 2001, Ernesto moved from Los Angeles to Tampico, Mexico to live his last years near his family, where he died in 2004. His music legacy is continued by his two sons, Ernesto Cortazar III and Edgar Cortazar, who are successful songwriters on the Latin market.
Let his music draw you in … take a walk in heaven!!
It Is What It Is 