Author Archive

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Movie Review

Director: Pedro Almodóvar Year: 1988 Runtime: 90 minutes Rating: Rated R Language: Spanish Country: Spain IMDB rating: 7.6/10 Tomatometer: 88% Mujeres Al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) is a wild and ridiculous comedic drama written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. And by ridiculous, I mean in [...]

Juanes Biography

Juanes is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist who is an international superstar and one of the biggest Latin American artists on the planet. Born as Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez in the Carolina del Príncipe, Antioquia, Colombia on August 9th, 1972, his stage name is derived from the contraction of Juan Esteban. Juanes’ music fuses traditional [...]

Tesis (Thesis) Movie Review

Director: Alejandro Amenábar Year: 1996 Runtime: 125 minutes Rating: Rated R for strong and perverse violent content, brief strong sexuality and strong and some drug content. Language: Spanish Country: Spain IMDB rating: 7.6/10 Tomatometer: 89% With his debut film, Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar came through with the psychological suspense thriller Tesis, showing his promise of [...]

Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) Movie Review

Director: Pedro Almodóvar Year: 1999 Runtime: 101 minutes Rating: Rated R for sexuality including strong sexual dialogue, language and some drug content. Language: Spanish Country: Spain IMDB rating: 7.9/10 Tomatometer: 93% Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) is an amazing film by the internationally acclaimed Spanish director, Pedro Almodóvar. He creates an environment [...]

Rubén Blades Biography and Music

Rubén Blades, born on July 16, 1948 in Panama, is a jack of all trades but best known for being one of the giants of salsa and Latin-American music. As a singer-songwriter, he’s performed and recorded with many of salsa greats including Ray Barretto, Larry Harlow, and Willie Colón on the way to becoming a [...]

Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside) Movie Review

Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside) tells the real life story of Ramón Sampedro, a paraplegic in Spain, who fought the courts for 30 years for his right to die. Ramon was involved in a tragic accident when he jumped into the ocean while the water was receding and broke his neck, rendering him paralyzed for [...]

Buena Vista Social Club Biography and History

The story of the Buena Vista Social Club dates back 1930s and 1940s Havana, Cuba. It was a fraternal social club where local musicians could gather to play, dance, and have fun with all sorts of activities. At the time, fraternal clubs were very popular in Cuban society and there were a variety of them [...]

Kinky (the band) Biography

In this week’s music feature, we return to rock with a profile on the Mexican band Kinky. Originally formed in Monterrey, Mexico in 1998, Kinky blends rock, electronica, as well as Latin music to form a unique funky sound. They are a five member band comprised of guitarist an lead vocalist Gilberto Cerezo, lead guitarist [...]

Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) Movie Review

Director: Alejandro Amenábar Year: 1997 Runtime: 117 minutes Rating: Rated R for some strong sexuality, language and some violence. Language: Spanish Country: Spain IMDB rating: 7.8/10 Tomatometer: 84% Abre Los Ojos is a command that translates in English to “Open Your Eyes”.  It is the original film that the remake Vanilla Sky is based off [...]

Maria Full of Grace Movie Review

Director: Joshua Marston Year: 2004 Runtime: 101 minutes Rating: Rated R for drug content and language. Language: Spanish Country: Colombia IMDB rating: 7.6/10 Tomatometer: 97% Maria Full of Grace tells the story of María Álvarez, an intelligent yet stubborn 17 year old girl living in a small village outside of Bogata, Colombia. The movie starts [...]