Tag: mexican/Archives

HV127- Behind the Beat

Photo, by Eleonora Alberto, of Cyro Baptista, surrounded by percussion instrumentsHearing Voices from NPR®
127 Behind the Beat: Inside Musician’s Minds
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-12-07

“Behind the Beat” (52:00 mp3):

“MITOW: Camille” (2006 / 6:03) Musicians in Their Own Words

From Musicians in their own words, an NPR series produced by David Schulman: The French singer Camille Dalmais, better known as Camille, has many voices inside her. She makes her music by overlaying everything from a sniffle to a growl to an operatic F-sharp. She speaks about the intimacy of the French language, spirituality and finding a natural music in the sound of everyday speech.

“Mozart’s Hidden Kitchen” (2007 / 6:49) Kitchens Sisters

From Hidden Kitchens, an NPR series by the The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & NIkki Silva): Imagine a Mozart Festival without a note of Mozart. Instead, more than 60 artists from around the world were invited to Vienna by director Peter Sellars and asked to pick up where the musical and social visionary left off, to create new works of art. Called “New Crowned Hope,” for the free-thinking Masonic Lodge in Vienna of which Mozart was a member, it was a month-long, genre-spanning event linking agriculture and culture, with food at its heart. It featured a Maori dance troupe; a Venezuelan street chorus singing a new opera by John Adams; new films from Chad, Iran and Paraguay; Mark Morris’ dance company; Chez Panisse founder and culinary activist Alice Waters; lunch ladies from across Europe; and farmers, chefs and seed-savers from throughout Austria. Aired on NPR Morning Edition. Mixed by Jim McKee of Earwax Productions. Music: John Adams, David Williamson, Frances Nelson, Sarah Folger & harmonia mundi, and Wieslaw Pogorzelski.

“MITOW: Cyro Baptista” (2007 / 9:12) Musicians in Their Own Words

From Musicians in their own words: Beyond-Brazilian musician Cyro Baptista is fluent in the musical languages of samba, cabela, and yoyoma. Also, squirrel. He proves it in this piece, and demonstrates how he narrowly averted disaster during a recording session with the fearsome-to-some-people soprano Kathleen Battle. Cyro’s secret weapon? A vacuum cleaner hose. (More at PRX).

Drawing of Sam and sax, from Long Haul Productions

“American Dreamer: Sam’s Story” (2010 / 26:09) Long Haul Productions

Sam is a talented and articulate young jazz musician, brought to the United States at age 5 by his Mexican parents. He stayed out of trouble, was drum major of his high school’s marching band, fell in love with playing jazz on the tenor sax, and got his diploma with honors — only to find that for an “illegal,” graduation marks a dead end. Though Sam dreams of attending college to study jazz performance, he hides his status from even his closest friends. He can’t legally work, drive, get financial aid, or even gain admission to some colleges. “American Dreamer” follows him from his high school graduation, through the following summer, as he struggles to raise money to continue his education and weighs the risks of working and driving illegally against his own desire to achieve his American dream. Aired on NPR Latino USA and All Things Considered.. A one-hour version is at PRX and Long Haul Productions (Dan Collison & Elizabeth Meister). Produced with help from the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Top photo of Cyro Baptista © Eleonora Alberto.

Mexico’s Drugs- Big Pic

The Big Picture, the Boston Globe photo blog, has some striking images from “Mexico’s Drug War.”

Members of the drug organization Cardenas Guillen

Yaneth Deyinara Garcia (center) and Sigifrido Najera (2nd from left), members of the drug organization “Cardenas Guillen”, are presented to the press at the headquarters of the Defense Secretary in Mexico City on March 20, 2009. (LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images)

HV048- Juarez, Mexico

Mexican military on Juarez streetsHearing Voices from NPR®
048 Juárez, Mexico: City on the Border
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-04-28 (Originally: 2009-01-28)

“Juarez, Mexico” (52:00 mp3):

We go to a war zone, just to our south:

“Cuidad Juárez” (52:00) Scott Carrier

Four years of reports on life in the Mexican border-town of Ciudad Juárez, with poverty and corruption, with daily drug-cartel murders and military violence. Told by photographer/Juarez resident Julián Cardona, author Charles Bowden, and host Scott Carrier.

Juarez: Crime More Powerful Than Government

Police surround a dead body on Juarez street (Part 3 of 3) When people in Juarez, Mexico say ‘drug cartel,’ they mean not only street gangs, but also the government, the military, big business, small business, the upper, middle, and lower classes, the justice system, and the media. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Scott Carrier, “Juarez: Crime More Powerful Than Government” (7:46 mp3):

This Hearing Voices series was produced by Julian Cardona, Scott Carrier and Lisa Miller; Edited by Deborah George; Translation and Research by Molly Molloy, research librarian at New Mexico State University- Las Cruces; Additional assistance from Erin Almeranti, Elaine Clark.

Juarez: Street Gangs, Government Gangs

Police surround a dead body on Juarez street (Part 2 of 3) The Army invades the streets of Juarez, Mexico. Citizens die and disappear. And the military may be as guilty as the drug cartels. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Scott Carrier, “Juarez: Street Gangs, Government Gangs” (7:46 mp3):

This Hearing Voices series was produced by Julian Cardona, Scott Carrier and Lisa Miller; Edited by Deborah George; Translation and Research by Molly Molloy, research librarian at New Mexico State University- Las Cruces; Additional assistance from Erin Almeranti, Elaine Clark.

Juarez: Shooting Crime Scenes

Cover of Juarez book: man climbing over border fence (Part 1 of 3) Murders in Juarez, Mexico now number thousands per year. Photojournalists docuemnt each one. Is it true that “God has a purpose for this city?”. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Scott Carrier, “Juarez: Shooting Crime Scenes” (7:47 mp3):

This Hearing Voices series was produced by Julian Cardona, Scott Carrier and Lisa Miller; Edited by Deborah George; Translation and Research by Molly Molloy, research librarian at New Mexico State University- Las Cruces; Additional assistance from Erin Almeranti, Elaine Clark.

Exodus/Éxodo

Exodus/Éxodo is a new book (Amazon) with words by Charles Bowden and photographs by Julián Cardona . Excerpt:

Consider this: you get up at 5 a.m. You live in a one-room shack and pay $59 a month in rent. Your address is on the outskirts of the world’s second largest megalopolis, México City. You share this shack with your woman, a niece and your child. At 5:30 a.m. you’re on the bus, a ninety-minute ride for $2.45 a day roundtrip. You work in a tortilla shop for $1.64 an hour, eleven hours a day, six days a week. A gallon of milk at the store, the electricity that lights your shack, the fuel running the bus, all these things cost more than in the United States. Basically, everything costs more than in the United States — except labor.

Mexican civilization existed before the American people were even a thought. Americans have come to the game very recently, and like so many new arrivals believe they possess all the answers. At the moment, human beings are moving all over the planet to save their hides. Things have been upended, the moon rises at a strange hour, it is blood red, and dripping with hunger.

El Pastor

Scott Carrier and videographer Lisa Miller visit “El Pastor.” José Antonio Galván is a born-again preacher in Juárez, Mexico, who cares for homeless drug-addicted, mentally ill street people with no place to live but El Pastor’s shelter (Albergue Para Discapacitaros Mentales), out in the desert just south of the U.S. border.

“El Pastor” (Part 1 of 2)

“El Pastor” (Part 2 of 2)

Mexico ’68

On NPR ATC tonight: A half-hour of “Mexico’s 1968 Massacre” from Radio Dairies. “In the summer of 1968, students in Mexico began to challenge the country’s authoritarian government.”

Student hit by police

Armando’s Last Story

[More from Mexico. This is last story by slain newspaper journalist Armando Rodriguez, of El Diario de Juárez , translated by Molly Molloy, research librarian at New Mexico State University- Las Cruces…]

Dead man in canal was a street corner clown

The man assassinated

Tuesday night in the Diaz Ordaz viaduct

was

a street clown,

according to the state authority.

Nevertheless, this person has not been identified,

but it was reported

that he was between 25 and 30 years old,

1.77 meters tall,

delicate,

light brown complexion,

short black hair.

The victim’s face was painted as a clown,

green with a red nose,

reported the State Prosecutor’s office.

He wore a red polo shirt,

a navy blue sweatshirt, blue jeans,

white underwear,

gray socks labeled USA,

gray and white Converse tennis

and a dark beret.

The body was found in the Diaz Ordaz viaduct,

at Norzagaray Blvd in the colonia Bellavista, on November 11 at 9:40 pm.

The body was found on its side,

with bullet wounds in the right side,

chest and head.

At this time, the motive for the murder is unknown as well as the

identities of the murderers.

Juarez Journalist

[Scott Carrier is working on an HV Hour about the murders in Juárez, Mexico, starting with his NPR series, then moving onto the current much, much worse situation. The following are some emails from Scott…]

Yesterday Armando Rodriguez, the journalist who’d written most of the stories (901) on this year’s executions in Juárez Mexico, was himself executed:

Armando Rodriguez (Photo courtesy of El Diario de Juarez)

Juarez journalist slain

El Pasa Times staff report 11/13/2008

A Juarez journalist known for his work as a crime reporter for El Diario de Juarez was gunned down Thursday morning in front of his home, the newsapaper’s Web site reported.

Armando Rodriguez was preparing to take his daughter to school in Juarez when a gunman approached his car and fired several shots at point-blank range, according to accounts provided by the newspaper. Rodriguez reportedly died at the scene.

The assailant then fled to a waiting car carrying other men and sped off in an unknown direction.

Rodriguez was the police beat reporter for El Diario de Juarez and had become an expert on the brutal drug cartel violence that has gripped Juarez for the last several years.

“He was a good person and a good reporter,” said KINT-TV (Univision Ch. 26) reporter Pedro Villagrana, who has worked closely with Rodriguez for more than a decade.

Word of Rodriguez’ slaying quickly spread throughout the Juarez and El Paso journalism community. Some members of the Juarez media including his colleagues at El Diario de Juarez gathered at the crime scene to mourn his death, according to the newspaper Web site.

Juárez has always been a violent place. No rule of law. People get killed and nobody is arrested, not even an investigation. What’s new now is the rate of murders. There are more than 100 executions each month in Juárez, 1300 this year alone. Last year there were about 300.

Paula Flores attends the burial of her daughter Sagrario Gonzalez, a maquiladora worker abducted and killed in April 1998.
Paula Flores attends the burial of her daughter Sagrario Gonzalez,
a maquiladora worker abducted and killed in April 1998.
(Photo © Julián Cardona)

More…

Bowden on Juárez

Mexico’s Red Days” by Charles Bowden in GQ on the escalating Juárez, Mexico murders:

The killings have the cold feeling of butchery in a slaughterhouse, and they are everywhere: done in broad daylight, on streets, in markets, at homes, and even in Wal-Mart parking lots. Women, children, guilty, innocent—no one is safe.

These are red, endless days.

HV013- Crossing Borders

Women with children crossing desertHearing Voices from NPR®
013 Crossing Borders: From Mexico to US
Host: Marcos Martinez of KUNM-Alberquerque
Airs week of: 2012-01-18 (Originally: 2008-05-28)

“Crossing Borders” (52:00 mp3):

A Tale of Two Countries:

In “Sasabe,” a Sonora, Mexico border town, Scott Carrier talks to immigrants on their hazardous, illegal desert crossing, and to the border patrol waiting for them in Sasabe, Arizona.

Luis Alberto Urrea reads from his books Vatos and The Devil’s Highway, about death in the desert.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña imagines “Maquiladoras of the Future,” fantasy border factories.

“And I walked…”, by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler, is a sound-portrait of Mexicans who risk their lives to find better-paying jobs in the United States.

And sounds from the Quiet American’s one-minute vacation.

Photos © 2004 Julián Cardona from Sasabe, Sonora, Mexico :