STL Hispanic Festival

On Friday September 17th, I headed to Soldiers Memorial Park in downtown St. Louis for the annual Hispanic Festival. The evening was a bit dreary, but all of the festivities really brightened up the night!

The scene was filled with beautiful and lively hispanic music, people dancing their hearts out, delicious feed, and margaritas galore! Here are a few snap shots of the event...

This was early on in the evening, and that little old lady up front stole the show! She had some mad dancing skills!

Up next, meet the contestants for this year's Miss Hispanic Festival competition. Lovely lovely ladies!

Dinner time! Dos tacos del pastor, y dos tacos de carne. Los tacos son muy rico!

I had to try a margarita.... and it was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

I spent the evening downtown with a friend, and had dinner with two men that were also enjoying the festivities. One of the gentlemen had spent a few years doing art excavation in some of the indigenous regions of Guatemala. He told us countless stories of crazy the interactions that he had with the people he met while he was working there. We had a really wonderful time hearing all of his tales about driving through the mountains, being welcomed into homes for meals, and learning about ancient indigenous art techniques. The world is so full of rich cultures and amazing people... It was really great to get a taste of that in good old St. Louis.

Festival of the Nations

On Saturday August 28 I went to Tower Grove park in St. Louis for The Festival of the Nations. While I was there I got a nice little taste of Peru...

I spent this past summer living in Lima, and made it a point to scout out as many Peruvian things that I could while at the festival....
I split a nice big Peruvian style lunch with my boyfriend. We had some delicious arroz con pollo con ensalada de cebolla, an anticucho de carne, and a papa rellena. La comida de Peru es muy rico!

And now on to my favorite part of the afternoon... INCA KOLA. INCA KOLA became one of my favorite sodas this summer, and I was quite overjoyed to be able to have some here in St. Louis. (I even brought a 6-pack home with me!)

After lunch we hung out at the main stage and were able to see a few dancers perform some traditional Peruvian dance...

While I was there I learned that there is a Peruvian cultural group in the city and was invited to look into it and check out some of the gatherings they host sometime. I really loved Peru while I was there this summer, and I think that I would absolutely love to look into visiting some of the events in the city sometime!

Amores Perros

A few days ago I watched a very interesting movie named Amores Perros. It is three stories that have no relevance to each other until one scene when each story is tied together.

The movie begins with a man named Octavio (on the far left). He is in a terrible car accident and then the movie cuts to three days earlier. He is in love with his brother's wife. Octavio also begins to earn a huge amount of money through entering his dog in dog fights. The second story is about the woman in the middle. She is a model who is married to an older gentleman and having an affair with a younger man who she decides to move in with. This is the woman who Octavio hits. The man on the left find the dog after the accident and takes him in. He is a hitman that is hired to kill an important man.

The message behind this movie is to show that love (for people, money, etc.) makes people do crazy things and can turn your entire life around.


-Danny Newgent

Fui a una fiesta de cumpleaños!

On September 5th, 2010, I attended a little boy's birthday party. Currently, I am dating a MEXICAN :) man and his entire family speaks no english at all. I have been with the same person for 3 years and every time there is a party for a special occasion, many parties like this occur. It is a great listening experience for me and I think i'm starting to actually pick some of it up! :)

The birthday boy is on the left, and my boyfriend's brother is on the right :)

Pinata time! :D

My family! :) I'm behind my sister on the left!

In my boyfriend's family, at every birthday party, it is tradition for the birthday boy/girl to get their face put in the cake! The kids really like when they do this!

I think Jesse enjoyed it too! :)

And here's Jesse and his Mom!

Overall, the birthday was a great time! All the kids had fun and Jesse made out like a bandit with gifts! :)

Feliz cumpleaños Jesse!

Ashley Kurtz

SPAN 101-009

El laberinto del fauno

With being home unwell I was able to watch a movie that I've wanted to for a while now. The film is called Pan's Labyrinth and was made by Mexican film maker Guillermo del Toro. It came out in 2006 and was highly acclaimed for it's visual effects and imaginative storyline. The story itself is based out of Spain in 1944 during the post civil war era when Francisco Franco was still in power. The main character, Ofelia, is traveling with her pregnant mother to live with her step father in the mountains while he fights off any remaining Spanish Maquis guerrillas. The life that Ofelia has is chaotic and violent and to escape it she creates a fairytale world involving an abandoned labyrinth near her new home where she is visited by fairies and Pan himself. She is told by Pan that she is a princess but in order to get back to her throne and with her king father she must prove herself by following three difficult tasks.

The story connects reality with fantasy very well and at times made me wonder if what was happening to Ofelia was real or in her head. The movie was visually beautiful and captivating, having both a curious charm and an eerily dark plot.

This movie contains violence and harsh language and has a few disturbing scenes.

Side note, I watched the movie with subtitles and left the original language playing. This is the first time I've watched a Spanish film while taking a Spanish class and I got a kick out of being able to understand snippets of words without looking at the subtitles......but I still need them, for now.

Hispanic Festival

Sorry I have not had my computer for a while so I didn't have a chance to post my blog until now! On Sunday the 13th I attended the Hispanic Festival at Soldiers Memorial Park downtown. I can still remember my parents taking me to this event when I was young and having a ton of fun with all of the toys, face paintings, and food. A few things have changed though, now that I am older I have memories of different things from the festival. I thought the empanadas were amazing and enjoyed a chicken one. I also had an apple empanada which was delicious. My boyfriend had a steak burrito which he said was very good as well. They had many singers and dancers, one which I thought was exceptionally great although I could not understand him. There were tons of people and booths with many types of Hispanic foods, I thought it was a great time! I have many more pictures but for some reason it will not allow me to upload them

Hispanic Festival

I got a pass from my wife on Saturday and went downtown to the Hispanic Festival. The weather was beautiful, the empanadas were excellent and the Pacifico was cold. Many Central and South American countries were represented. I enjoyed the dance demonstrations that were put on. An enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Greater Saint Louis Hispanic Festival

I went to the Greater Saint Louis Hispanic festival Saturday with my three children. I found it interesting and fun. Like most festivals many things cost too much for us. There was free face painting with little toys given away.

A young boy was doing the painting who was very sweet. He sat another boy down and asked him "do you speak more than one language?" Yes. " what language" Spanish. "Me too."

There was music, dancing, activities for children, jewelry, clothing, food and shows.

Alejandro Fernandez

In class, we were asked to describe the famous person in the picture we were given. Brandon and I got Alejandro Fernandez. No one knew who he was, so I did some youtubing, and watched a few of his music videos. It's not exactly my taste, but I bet he's highly liked in Spanish-speaking cultures.

Check it out! This song is called "Loco" ("Crazy")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW0Jct1qLPU&feature=channel

Festival of Nations

I spent this past Sunday afternoon at Tower Grove Park in St. Louis at the Festival of Nations.  At times, I’d just walk and listen.  Sometimes I get caught up in my little American bubble and I forget how little of this world I’ve experienced.  As I walked around, I heard many conversations spoken in several different languages.  There we were, people from all different walks of life, together in one place! It was a really cool experience!