Daily Headlines: May 3, 2016 (Updated)

* Mexico: Some 40% of drivers in Mexico City are barred from using their vehicles today after smog levels of the already polluted air of the metropolis spiked yesterday.

* Brazil: A 72-hour ban on the use of WhatsApp in Brazil affecting some 100 million users has reportedly led to a surge in registration for rival messaging app Telegram.

Update: A Brazilian appellate judge on Tuesday lifted the restrictions against using WhatsApp. 

* U.S.: Broadway musical “Hamilton”, created by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, received a record sixteen Tony Award nominations.

* Cuba: For the first time in decades a U.S. cruise ship docked in Havana though not without controversy over a former ban on Cubans barred from returning to the island by sea.
YouTube Source – DW (English) (Video uploaded on July 2014).

Online Sources including Update – ABC News, USA TODAY, Quartz, CBS News, Ars Technica

Titulares de las Americas

There are some news stories from Latin America that are covered by covered by the local press but overlooked or ignored by the English-language mainstream media sources. Here are just a few of these stories that have caught our attention:

* Argentina: Camila Sanchez, a two-year-old girl in a vegetative state since her birth, has been in the center of the debate over the right to life in Argentina. Legislators have discussed several proposals that would permit a "dignified death", which has been strongly advocated by Sanchez' mother. The bills have run into some opposition such as the mom of ex-Soda Stereo front man Gustavo Cerati.

* Mexico: There has been increased criticism of President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug offensive in the aftermath of an arson attack that killed at least 52 people. In an interview given to the EFE news agency acclaimed author Carlos Fuentes called on "help from Israeli, French or German police to combat crime" in Mexico. Fuentes also called on the decriminalizing of some drug use; a position he has stated before as part of a working group of intellectuals and former leaders critical of regional counternarcotics policies.

* Colombia: An anti-violence protest in solidarity with some twelve local theater groups will be held this Tuesday in Bogota. These groups, including some from the most impoverished neighborhoods of the city, were the aim of intimidation allegedly by the "Aguilas Negras" (Black Eagles) criminal gang. "It's a threat against our culture, civil society, and the country," said one of the targeted actors who will participate in the march on the same day that the gang ordered the actors to leave the Bogota.

* Peru: The mother of a Peruvian nanny jailed in the U.S. urged President Ollanta Humala to intervene on her behalf. Luz Fernandes claimed that she has felt "abandoned" by the Peruvian government in the legal battle to help her daughter, Ada Cuadros. A retrial is expected to start soon for Cuadros who was originally sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly killing a fourteen-month-old child that she was babysitting.

Video Source - C5N via YouTube
Online Sources - La Republica, Trme, Milenio, El Universal (Mexico and Venezuela), Clarin.com, Radio Santa Fe, El Observador, El Espectador

Today’s Video: The Passion

Appropriate for Easter is the following depicting an updated version of the Passion for an audience in Rio de Janeiro's Cidade de Deus (City of God) favela:

Video Source - Associated Press via YouTube

Karen Olivo triumphs at Tonys

Karen Olivo won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Anita in the revival of “West Side Story”.

"I'm completely unprepared for this. ... I just want to dedicate this to everyone who has a dream," Olivo said in an emotional acceptance speech after receiving deserved acclamations from the 800+ Tony voters.

Olivo’s award was the only winner for “West Side Story” which got four nominations including one for Argentina’s Josefina Scaglione as Maria. The revival has been praised for incorporating more Spanish lines and lyrics to songs as well as taking a closer look at bigotry and racism.

Olivo took a gamble by leaving her leading role in the Tony-winning “In the Heights” for a supporting role in “West Side Story”. But as she observed in a March interview, the chance to play Anita was too good to pass up:

"[The decision] was more about the role itself. It’s an amazing and iconic part," adds Olivo, who’s of Dominican, Puerto Rican and Chinese descent.

"And it had more to do with the actual [show], which I have known and loved since I saw the movie when I was 5 or 6. It was the sort of thing I would want to do regardless of where I was in my career."

The evening was dominated by “Billy Elliot” which won ten Tonys though its composer Elton John was upset for best score.

Image- newsday.com (Karen Olivo (right) received praise and honors at last night’s Tonys).
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, New York Daily News, TonyAwards.com, AP, The Ledger

Today’s Video: Los Tiburones contra Los Jets

A new version of “West Side Story” has just opened on Broadway. The version is somewhat updated from the original theatrical version which debuted in 1957. The most notable difference between the two, however, has been the translation of several songs and lines into Spanish.

With help from Lin-Manuel Miranda- creator of Tony-winning musical "In the Heights"- two of the musical’s best-known songs ("I Feel Pretty" and "A Boy Like That") become "Siento Hermosa" and "Un Hombre Asi." "It was a tall order, but a really fun challenge," said Miranda as the songs are performed splendidly by Argentine Josefina Scaglione as Maria and Karen Olivo as Anita.

Aside from the language changes the new version also takes on a “gritty realism” by taking on bigotry and racism.

Do the changes make a great play even better or is this a case of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”? See for yourself:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Online Sources- MSNBC, NY1, BBC News, New York Daily News

Ingrid Betancourt – the movie?

The tale of recently freed Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt could soon be shown on the silver screen according to AFP. The report cites Colombia’s RCN who claimed that a film based on her rescue along with 14 other hostages will be produced "jointly by a Hollywood production company and under RCN-Cine supervision." (Perhaps Meryl Streep could play Betancourt while her eldest son Lorenzo can be played by Zac Efron?)

What about other forms of entertainment? Over the weekend Betancourt admitted that she has plans to write a play based on her time in captivity. In remarks made to Le Journal du Dimanche:

"I shall return to Colombia in a few days. Meanwhile I want to see France, all of France. But I also want to be alone with my children ... I want to give this time to my family, to the father of my children whom I adore, who fought an extraordinary fight for me."

Asked whether she would write a book about her experience, she replied: "I'll write a play."

In other developments:

• Colombia’s government denied reports from Switzerland that a $20 million ransom had been secretly paid to guerilla captors and has even accused a Swiss diplomat of funding the FARC.
• While Betancourt has been open in her praise of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, she also warned him and others to “change the radical, extremist vocabulary of hate” they engage against the guerillas.
• Could Betancourt receive the next Nobel Peace Prize? Chilean President Michelle Bachelet will try to make it so.
• “There were daily incidents and conflicts” among hostages including the threat of sexual abuse against Betancourt according to former hostage who spent four years in captivity at Betancourt’s side.
• Lastly, the following is video from the Colombian government (as reported by Al Jazeera English) of the operation to free the hostages:

Sources- CNN, ABS-CBN News Online, Canadian Press, azcentral.com, AFP, YouTube, the Telegraph, ABC News Online

Today’s Video: “In the (Washington) Heights”

Earlier today we mentioned how “In the Heights” won four Tony Awards including honors as best musical. The musical’s creator- Lin Manuel Miranda- was inspired by his surroundings in the upper Manhattan to create a theater piece which may soon go on a nationwide tour.

The following video is an excerpt from a Tony Awards special where Miranda tours around the Latino enclaves in Washington Heights and also discusses the impact the musical has had on the community.

Sources- Playbill.com, The Latin Americanist, YouTube

“In the Heights” honored at Tonys

A hip-hop musical inspired by Latino life in New York City neighborhood earned four Tony Awards last night. “In the Heights” had been nominated for 13 awards and in the end was given nods as the year’s top musical along with best original score for the theater, best choreography and best orchestrations.

The musical struggled off-Broadway and took a big gamble to be produced on the Great White Way against “heavily marketed mega-musicals”. Yet the risk paid off as “In the Heights” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda accepted several honors:

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the music and lyrics for "In the Heights," rapped his way through his acceptance speech for best score, saying: "I know I wrote a little show about home. Mr. Sondheim, look, I made a hat. (a reference to a lyric in Sondheim's 'Sunday in the Park with George') But there never was a hat — it's a Latin hat at that!"

Also recognized at the Tonys was Brazilian opera star and Broadway newcomer Paulo Szot; he received best musical leading actor for his role in the revival of “South Pacific”.

Sources- courant.com, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Guardian UK, BBC News, Bloomberg,

Image-New York Times

Video of the Day: Chita Rivera

Yesterday was the 75^th birthday of Puerto Rican singer and dancer extraordinaire Chita Rivera. Rivera is best known for her performances on Broadway, such as this one from “Kiss of the Spider Woman”:

Sources- YouTube, Wikipedia

Weekly Debate: the Anne Frank musical

A musical based on the “Diary of Anne Frank” is set to open in Madrid next month. The adaptation of the Holocaust text into a musical may be interpreted as in poor taste, yet The Anne Frank Foundation supports it:

Having been rewritten for films, plays and TV dramas, the story of the Jewish girl hiding out with her family in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam has never before been made as a musical. The Anne Frank Foundation, which jealously guards the rights to the diary - it once turned down Steven Spielberg when he wanted to make a film - has given its support. Jan Erik Dubbelman said: "This production respects the message of tolerance, within the tragedy, that we want to keep alive. Being in Spanish, it can also help to take the message of Anne Frank to Latin America."

The director of the play told BBC News that “the thing we want to do is through the music, to understand the story better.” In addition, the title character will be played by 13-year-old Isabella Castillo; Castillo’s mother was a Cuban refugee who fled to Belize before settling in Miami.

What is your opinion on the musical? Is it tacky and in bad taste or will it help promote the legacy of Anne Frank? Will the play’s “message” really make an impact on Latin Americans? If you could, would you go watch the musical?

Please express your point of view via the poll located on the right-hand column and/or as a response to this post.

Image- Boston Globe (“Isabella Castillo, who plays Anne in a Spanish theater troupe's version of "The Diary of Anne Frank," sat in the office of Otto Frank, Anne's father, at the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam. (Peter Dejong/Associated Press)”)

Sources- Ynetnews, BBC News, Guardian UK, New York Times