Daily Headlines: May 6, 2008

* Brazil: Going to visit Rio de Janeiro? A company is offering tourists tours of the city’s poorest neighborhoods including the “chance to meet armed drug dealers.”

* El Salvador: Let’s hope this doesn’t give Don Francisco any wild ideas – a former Salvadoran TV host has launched himself as a presidential candidate.

* Mexico: A mass quinceañera party was recently held in Mexico City for a few hundred impoverished familes.

* U.S.: Little by little, plans for a national Latino museum are coming true.

Image- NPR (“Brazilian soldiers patrol the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro, March 2006.”)

Sources- MiamiHerald.com, chicagotribune.com, Christian Science Monitor, BBC News

Today’s Video: Julia Alvarez

We continue this week’s theme of famous Latin American women in literature with a look at Julia Alvarez.

Alvarez- who is of Dominican background- has written numerous acclaimed books of fiction and poetry. Despite this, her 1991 novel “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents” has been the subject of controversy after a South Carolina school board recently banned the text. In an interview published last month Alvarez noted how the book’s outlawing of her book reminded her of her childhood under infamous dictator Rafael Trujillo.

The following video clip is another interview of Alvarez discussing her most recent book on quinceañeras. Alvarez explains why she wrote on the subject despite her initial reluctance as well as “what writing is all about”.

(Video link):

Previous videos this week:

• Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni
• Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sources- SFGate.com, The Latin Americanist, Wikipedia, YouTube, Independent Weekly, Vivirlatino