Senora Elefante Nomkhubulwane

Last Tuesday, I wandered over to the esplanade of the cultural Center Paso del Norte just in time for the wrap up of a celebration of senora Elefante, here called Nanabi, who has travelled fropm South Africa to call attention to a variety of environmental concernsincluding the plight of elephants in the world and the necessity for recycling. Made of recycled tires by Andres Botha, and standing 9 feet tall,  she is on a world tour. Here there were lots of students, scout troops and the Mayor of Juarez, among others.

There were large displays highlighting various environmental concerns. It was a joy to see the city taking time out from all of the other horrors going on to pay attention to this. She will be on the esplanade for awhile, and then is going to El Paso, where there will be a

celebration at Chamizal on the 13th and then installation at the zoo until her next move across the United States.-david sokolec

Views from my new apartment

Poor Baby

Anyone can just go and buy curtains

david sokolec

Puppet theater-who needs hi-tech

I went to the ex-aduana museum last Saturday to see what proved a really good if difficult film called Olga, this was a brazilian film based on a book detailing a true story of World War 11 horrors. In any case, I arrived early and discovered the auditorium packed with children qand their parents who were watching a puppet theater production by a group called La Charca. It was fairly simple, funny, often interactive ( they were asked questions), and the kids seemed enthusiastically involved. Given the museum’s theme and that the celebration of the Mexican Independence is coming up the theme was patriotic, but by no means jingoistic. What I realized is how in an age of expensive video games, and movies with extraordinary computer generated effects, small kids and maybe big kids and adults can be every bit as entertained by good simple funny  narrative. That’s all-tell me a story has always been what we want and I’m not sure that has ever changed, despite all the electronic drugs we’ve been force fed over the years.-david sokolec

Change in film schedule

I just received a notice that the film schedule listed below has been postponed one week so that tonight’s film will be shown next week, and then the schedule will continue from there

Film Series-Great novels on film

Throughout the year there are always organizations here putting on little mini film series. The library by Parque Borunda is beginning a film series tonight (Weds) showing films of cinematic interpretations of some great Latin American writers.Begins at 6.

The series is free and as you can see the first one is Nobody Writes to the Colonel.

ESCRITORES LATINOAMERICANOS PARA NO OLVIDAR 2

CON EL PROPÒSITO DE DIFUNDIR LA LITERATURA EN TODOS LOS ÁMBITOS

Y EN ESTA OCASIÓN A TRAVÉS DEL CINE

PRESENTAMOS LA CARTELERA DEL MES DE AGOSTO

05 DE AGOSTO        EL CORONEL NO TIENE QUIEN LE ESCRIBA

12 DE AGOSTO         LA TREGUA (ARGENTINA)

19 DE AGOSTO         LA CASA DE LOS ESPÍRITUS

26 DE AGOSTO        ARRÁNCAME LA VIDA

LA CITA ES EN LA BIBLIOTECA ARTURO TOLENTINO A UN COSTADO DEL PARQUE BORUNDA,

TODOS LOS MIÉRCOLES DE AGOSTO EN PUNTO DE LAS 6:00 DE LA TARDE, ENTRADA LIBRE.

Juarez is about its people

I saw this young woman hanging laundry and she seemed to reflect a certain humanity. It is not necessarily easy for her, but the white dress, the cleanly washed clothes all reflect the way people here try to do the best they can. . Among the urban grit, there is always  beauty. -david sokolec