Daily Headlines: January 27, 2014

* Mexico: Acclaimed Mexican poet and novelist Jose Emilio Pacheco died on Sunday at the age of 74.

* U.S.: Puerto Rican Robi Draco Rosa, Los Angeles-based group La Santa Cecilia and jazz collaboration Paquito D'Rivera and Trio Corrente were among the Latino winners at yesterday’s Grammys.

* Peru: A court cleared several former senior Peruvian officials including ex-President Alberto Fujimori of planning the forced sterilizations of some 2000 women in the 1990s.

* Honduras: High levels of violence, economic inequality and political divisions are some of the challenges to be faced by Juan Orlando Hernandez who will be inaugurated today as the next president of Honduras.

Video Source – Europa Press via YouTube

Online Sources- Bloomberg; CNN; GlobalPost; Huffington Post

Juanes, Nortec Collective get Grammy nods

Nominations for the Grammy Awards were announced in a glitzy, overhyped ceremony live last night.

Rapper Lil Wayne led the field with eight nominations, closely followed by Coldplay with seven and three artists including Kanye West with six. In addition, John Mayer received five nominations and the Jonas Brothers even got a nod.

(Despite such choices I haven’t totally lost my faith in humanity…yet).

Colombian Juanes- who dominated the Latin Grammys last month- was nominated for Best Latin Pop Album. That same category also included Mexico’s Luis Miguel (he’s still around?) and Argentine Jorge Drexler (who I thought would be snubbed).

Speaking of snubs, there were some surprise non-choices made in other Latin music categories. Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Kany Garcia won best new artist at the Latin Grammys but was shut out last night. Mexican rockeros Cafe Tacvba won two Latin Grammys but didn’t get a nod in the Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album category. (Nortec Collective and Locos Por Juana were deservedly picked in that category).

You can check out all the nominations here; could Lila Downs or Gilberto Gil upset Youssou N'Dour in Best Contemporary World Music Album?

Image- AP (“Singer Juanes accepts the song of the year award at the 9th annual Latin Grammy Awards on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 in Houston.”)
Sources- Chicago Sun-Times, New York Times, Reuters, AP