Pocoyo (Pocoyó in Spanish) is a Spanish pre-school animated television series created by Guillermo García Carsí, Luis Gallego and David Cantolla, and is a co-production between Spanish producer Zinkia Entertainment, Cosgrove-Hall Films and Granada International.
Two series have been produced, each consisting of 52 seven-minute episodes. English actor and comedian Stephen Fry narrates the English-language version and José María del Río narrates the Castilian Spanish version of the first two seasons, while Stephen Hughes narrates the third season, called Let’s Go Pocoyo.
Set in a 3D space, with a plain white background and usually no backdrops, it is about Pocoyo, a 4-year-old boy, interacting with his friends Pato (a duck), Elly (an elephant) and Loula (a dog).
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
Puerto Ricans (Spanish: Puertorriqueños; Taíno: boricua) are the inhabitants or citizens of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Puerto Ricans do not treat their nationality as an ethnicity but as a citizenship with various ethnicities and national origins comprising the “Puerto Rican people“.
Despite its multi-ethnic composition, the culture held in common by most Puerto Ricans is referred to as mainstream Puerto Rican culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early Spanish settlers, along with other Europeans arriving later such as the Corsicans, Irish, Germans and French, along with a strong West African culture which has been influential.
Puerto Ricans commonly refer to themselves as boricuas. “The majority of Puerto Ricans regard themselves as being of mixed Spanish-European descent. Recent DNA sample studies have concluded that the three largest components of the Puerto Rican genetic profile are in fact indigenous Taíno, European, and African”.
Orlando Campus
Address: 550 N Econlockhatchee Trail, Orlando, FL 32825
Friday Oct. 23, 2015 – 6:30pm – 8:30pm
“There will be war to the death against all Puerto Ricans.”
–Puerto Rico Chief of Police, E. Francis Riggs-
When it won the Spanish-American War in 1898, the U.S. acquired Puerto Rico as a new “possession.” The American who led the invasion, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, promised “liberty” to Puerto Ricans. He also promised “prosperity” and “the advantages and blessings of enlightened civilization.”
This never occurred.
Puerto Rico was stripped of her land and natural resources by U.S. banking syndicates. By 1934, the theft was so extreme that Puerto Ricans organized an island-wide agricultural strike. In response to this strike the Yale-educated Chief of Police, whose father owned the Riggs National Bank, promised that “there will be war to the death against all Puerto Ricans.”
I lived all my childhood, teenage and early adult years in the Island.
It wasn’t until 1999 that I moved to the United States.
I went to a Catholic private school for all of my schooling. Needless to say, I grew up totally Americanized.
We learned about the history of the Island but nothing like I learned when I first read this book.
It took me 60 years to become fully aware of what has been done to Puerto Rico by “the master”.
Puerto Rico has never been independent .. only for a few days after freeing itself from the claws of the Spanish empire.
After the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico, along with several other nations under Spanish rule, became bounties of war and were handed over to the United States.
But I digress ….
I read the “War” book in total disbelief ….
How could the “greatest country in the world” do these things to another country under their “protection”?
I completed my reading withing three days.
I couldn’t fathom that these things occurred in my country. I was born in 1950 … the year that the “revolution” was squashed by the might of the super-power and the corruption of the local government.
Last night, I had the opportunity to meet the author and thank him personally for taking the band off my eyes and for educating me about the true story of Puerto Rico, my country.
The battled raged back in the 50’s and it’s still raging to this day.
In 1950, after over 50 years of military and colonial rule, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico staged an unsuccessful armed insurrection against the United States. Violence swept through the Island: assassins were sent to kill President Truman, gunfights roared in eight towns, police stations and post offices were burnt down. In order to suppress this uprising, the US Army deployed thousands of troops and bombarded two towns, marking the first time in history that the US government bombed its own citizens.
Nelson A. Denis tells this powerful story through the eyes of the controversial life of Don Pedro Albizu Campos, the president of the Nationalist Party.
Esta versión de La Borinqueña fue interpretada por Ednita Nazario, Ruth Fernández
y Cesar Hernández en un especial de Navidad del Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.
~Himno Verdadero de Puerto Rico~
~Uploaded on Apr 15, 2008~
Himno revolucionario de Puerto Rico
This video was complied to honor the death of another great Puerto Rican Hero .. Filiberto Ojeda. The lyrics are those written to express the feelings behind the colonization of Puerto Rico at the hands of “the master”.
Columbus initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade, in early February 1494, first sending several dozen enslaved Taínos to Spain. Columbus described those he enslaved as “well made and of very good intelligence,” and recommended to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that taxing slave shipments could help pay for supplies needed in the Indies.
A year later, Columbus intensified his efforts to enslave Indigenous people in the Caribbean. He ordered 1,600 Taínos rounded up — people whom Columbus had earlier described as “so full of love and without greed“— and had 550 of the “best males and females,” according to one witness, Michele de Cuneo, chained and sent as slaves to Spain. “Of the rest who were left,” de Cuneo writes, “the announcement went around that whoever wanted them could take as many as he pleased; and this was done.”
Taíno slavery in Spain turned out to be unprofitable, but Columbus later wrote, “Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold.”
From the very beginning, Columbus was not on a mission of discovery but of conquest and exploitation — he called his expedition la empresa, the enterprise. When slavery did not pay off, Columbus turned to a tribute system, forcing every Taíno, 14 or older, to fill a hawk’s bell with gold every three months. If successful, they were safe for another three months. If not, Columbus ordered that Taínos be “punished,” by having their hands chopped off, or they were chased down by attack dogs. As the Spanish priest Bartolomé de las Casas wrote, this tribute system was “impossible and intolerable.”
The dream of a seven-year-old Syrian boy, who along with his father was tripped up by a Hungarian camerawoman while being pursued by police, has come true. He met his football idol Ronaldo.
Football legend Cristiano Ronaldo decided to make it up for Zaid Mohsen and his father Osama Abdul who were unlucky enough to meet a Hungarian camerawoman who “panicked” and tripped up the two while they fled the police from a refugee camp earlier this month.
Ronaldo invited the boy, his father and his older brother Mohammad, 18, to a Real Madrid game against Granada this weekend. The little one was even given the honor to walk the football pitch next to the famous football player as his personal mascot.
At some point the boy apparently felt so excited that he even tried to perform Ronaldo’s well-known celebration move, almost managing it.
“Little Zaid got to know his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo, with whom he was photographed on the pitch,” says a statement on Real Madrid official website accompanied with a photo of the family proudly standing along with Ronaldo and other members of the team.
“The father of the Syrian family, who was tripped by a Hungarian journalist, and his sons met (coach) Rafael Benítez, the technical staff and the squad minutes before the final training session ahead of the game against Granada.”
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, (born 5 February 1985), known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team. He is a forward and serves as captain for Portugal. By the age of 22, Ronaldo had received Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year, in 2008, he won his first Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He followed this up by winning the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2013 and 2014. In January 2014, Ronaldo scored his 400th senior career goal for club and country aged 28.
~Cristiano Ronaldo Meets Tripped Syrian Refugee Boy~
~Published on Sep 21, 2015~
Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid welcomed the Syrian refugee who made headlines after being tripped by a camerawoman in Hungary onto the soccer field.
Pocoyo (Pocoyó in Spanish) is a Spanish pre-school animated television series created by Guillermo García Carsí, Luis Gallego and David Cantolla, and is a co-production between Spanish producer Zinkia Entertainment, Cosgrove-Hall Films and Granada International.
Two series have been produced, each consisting of 52 seven-minute episodes. English actor and comedian Stephen Fry narrates the English-language version and José María del Río narrates the Castilian Spanish version of the first two seasons, while Stephen Hughes narrates the third season, called Let’s Go Pocoyo.
Set in a 3D space, with a plain white background and usually no backdrops, it is about Pocoyo, a 4-year-old boy, interacting with his friends Pato (a duck), Elly (an elephant) and Loula (a dog). Viewers are encouraged to recognise situations that Pocoyo is in, and things that are going on with or around him. The narrator usually speaks explicitly to the viewers and to the characters as well. Each character has its own distinctive dance and also a specific sound (usually from a musical instrument), and most episodes end with the characters dancing. Many episodes also involve parties.
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”’
I have posted a few articles about Puerto Rico, my country, recently. After doing so, this book came to my attention and I read it in two days. I am currently re-reading it again.
The events richly detailed, extremely well documented and researched took place before and around the year that I was born.
I’m getting an education about my country now as an older adult.
My eyes are opening to information that I wasn’t aware of.
This is serious, historical facts.
Every Puerto Rican should be aware of them and should take the time to read this book. I’m not blatantly marketing for it. It’s beyond that.
It’s the history of my country …. in the hands of two empires: Spain and the United States.
“There will be war to the death against all Puerto Ricans.”
Puerto Rico Chief of Police, E. Francis Riggs
When it won the Spanish-American War in 1898, the U.S. acquired Puerto Rico as a new “possession.” The American who led the invasion, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, promised “liberty” to Puerto Ricans. He also promised “prosperity” and “the advantages and blessings of enlightened civilization.”
This never occurred. Puerto Rico was stripped of her land and natural resources by U.S. banking syndicates. By 1934, the theft was so extreme that Puerto Ricans organized an island-wide agricultural strike.
In response to this strike the Yale-educated Chief of Police, whose father owned the Riggs National Bank, promised that “there will be war to the death against all Puerto Ricans.”
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”’
Pocoyó is excited to celebrate Easter with his friends!
Pocoyo (Pocoyó in Spanish) is a Spanish pre-school animated television series created by Guillermo García Carsí, Luis Gallego and David Cantolla, and is a co-production between Spanish producer Zinkia Entertainment, Cosgrove-Hall Films and Granada International.
Two series have been produced, each consisting of 52 seven-minute episodes. English actor and comedian Stephen Fry narrates the English-language version and José María del Río narrates the Castilian Spanish version of the first two seasons, while Stephen Hughes narrates the third season, called Let’s Go Pocoyo.
The U.S. Government says they are extinct, but they are not. Most likely you might know them as Latinos, a Spanish speaking person of Latin American (the Spanish speaking part of the Americas, south of the U.S.) descent. Not all, but many modern day Tainos are unaware of their lineage. To understand how that could happen you must know the story from the beginning.
Approximately 1,500 years ago, the Arawak people of South America began migrating northward along the many scattered islands located between South and North America, an area we now refer to as the Caribbean. For a thousand years their population grew and the people lived in harmony. The people covered all the islands of the Caribbean, the major ones as they are now known: Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola as well as all the smaller ones: the Bahamas, Bimini, Jamaica etc.
Certain groups of island people identified themselves as Lokono, Lucayan, Carib, Ciboney, Arawak, but most islands were primarily inhabited by people who called themselves Taino, which stood for “the good people” in their language. The different groups intermarried extensively to strengthen ties amongst themselves.
Theirs was a beautiful culture.
They were aware of a Divine presence whom they called Yocahu, and to worship and give thanks was a major part of their lives. They had a social order that provided the leaders and guidelines by which they all lived. They hunted, fished, cultivated crops and ate the abundant fruits provided by nature. They were clever and ingenious and had everything they needed to survive. They had beautiful ceremonies that were held at various times – birth, death, marriage, harvest, naming and coming of age, to name a few.
They had special reverence for the Earth Mother (Atabey) and had respect for all living things knowing that all living things are connected. There was little need for clothing due to the tropic heat, but upon reaching puberty both males and females would wear a small woven loincloth. Puberty was also the time at which they were considered old enough to be married. The population estimates for the Taino people at the height of their culture are as high as 8,000,000.
That was in 1492 ….
In 1492, the Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, was loaned three small, old ships from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain for a questionable voyage across the sea in which he hoped to reach India or China. Although Marco Polo had sailed around the world 300 years earlier, and the Norsemen 500 years earlier, there were few sailors willing to sail into the unknown, so the King and Queen released some prisoners early to accompany Columbus on the voyage.
On October 12, 1492 after two months at sea Columbus and his crew finally spotted land. Upon reaching the land, Columbus fell to his knees, thanked God for a safe voyage and planted a flag in the ground, claiming the land for Spain – as the Tainos who had lived there for 1,000 years watched from behind trees and bushes.
The Taino had never before seen white men, clothed people, people with beards or ships like that – they thought these people must be from heaven. So the Taino came out to greet them, as was their custom, and brought the travelers – who surely must have been tired and hungry – food, drink and gifts. Such strong swimmers were the Taino that some of them swam right out to the boats some three miles offshore.
The Tainos are the indigenous people of the Caribbean, including part of Florida. We are different from Hispanics and Latinos. Hispanics are people from Spain. Latinos are people from Southern Europe. Before 1492, there were no Afrikans or Spaniards on our land, or people of any other race. There were only Tainos. Some people may think of us as “Native Americans” or “American Indians”. While the etymology of these terms can be debated, this is correct.
“Latino” comes from “Latin“. Latin is the root language of all the Southern European languages, known as the “romance languages”. From “Latin America” comes the colonial identity “Latino”. The term “Latin America” was coined by the French economist, Michel Chevalier. It was a political move to ally the conquered now Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking part of “the Americas” with “Latin Europe” in their struggle with “Teutonic Europe,” “Anglo-Saxon America” and “Slavic Europe”.
Our people have been used as pawns to fight Europe’s wars, against each other.
As for Hispanic, “Hispania” was the name the Romans gave to the Iberian Peninsula during their conquest. From “Hispania”, you get “Espana” and “Spain”. From “Hispania” you get “Hispanic”. In my head, I pronounce it, “HiSPAINic” for clarity, because the term only describes things from Spain, just like “Latin” is for all things Southern European.
There is a reason Tainos got tricked into calling themselves “Hispanic” and “Latino”. After colonization began, we forgot who we were. Queen Isabella of Spain was one of many monarchs who instituted laws forbidding us from practicing our indigenous religion, forbidding us from speaking our indigenous language, and making slaves out of us. They did this on purpose. Why? For power. For our land. If they stole who we were, it would be easier to govern us, because we would start thinking that they were us.
Why are we taught to call ourselves “Hispanic” and “Latino” instead of Taino? Why don’t we think of ourselves as Native American, American Indian or Indigenous? It’s all political. We are taught to claim our identity through our conquerors from 1492 because it hides us from the truth of our history. When people are robbed of their history, they are robbed of their humanity. We should be proud of being Taino. When we call ourselves “Hispanic” and “Latino”, it prevents us from being proud of our heritage. It also keeps us from the rights we deserve, like the right to govern our own land.
Knowing who you are gives you happiness and a purpose. If this is your first time being exposed to Taino knowledge, please share with your friends and family who are Taino but don’t know it yet. Use this knowledge to inspire others to reclaim their Indigenous pride and fight for our people’s rights.
For someone who has gone their whole life not knowing who they really are, this knowledge can be shocking. Some might not know what to do. We, the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, experienced genocide, leading to the death of 95% of our population. Our people have psychological damage from not knowing who we are and being denied our ancestral pride. Let us heal this psychological damage by being supportive of each other. After more than 500 years, it is time for the Tainos to wake up. Let’s do this, together.
You know what “Hispanic” and “Latino” really mean now.
Welcome to being Taino. Welcome to finding out who you really are and who you were always meant to be. Be Taino. Every time you call yourself Taino instead of “Hispanic” or “Latino“, you are making a difference and you are honoring your people.
Topo Gigio wishes all of you a very Happy New Year!!
Topo Gigio was the lead character of a children’s puppet show on Italian and Spanish television in the early 1960s. The character, created by artist Maria Perego, debuted on Italian television in 1959 and has been customarily voiced by actor Giuseppe “Peppino” Mazzullo and later Davide Garbolino. The Italian nickname “Gigi” is a derivative of Luigi (“Louis”), so Topo Gigio could be translated as Louie Mouse.
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
It Is What It Is 