El llano, en llamas de blanco y negro

El Llano En Llamas

Solo se me ocurre describir el libro como una de esas magnificas fotos a blanco y negro que transmiten tristeza, pero que los contrastes, los volumenes y la composicion no te dejan quitarle los ojos de encima para seguir admirandola a pesar del sentimiento trasmitido.

Es un libro de cuentos. Algunos son tristes y otros son muy tristes, pero entre todos forman una magnifica fotografia a blanco y negro de una realidad latinoamericana. En particular varios cuentos me movieron por su matiz gris, triste y tan cruelmente cercanos a la realidad como como "Nos Han Dado La Tierra", o tan tragicamente graciosos como "El Día del Derrumbe", o tan Macondianos/Comalianos como  "Luvina", o tan ignorantes y crueles como "Talpa" o simplemente tan magicos y grandiosos como "El Hombre".

Recuerdo que Facundo Cabral decia: "Cuando la gente le preguntaba, casi le reclamaba, a Juan Rulfo de porque hacia tanto tiempo no escribia el respondia: Porque la gente que me contaba las historias, se murió"

A continuacion, las noticas que tome en el kindle mientras lo leia:

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EL DÍA DEL DERRUMBE
excelente cuento. sobre la ignorancia y el verbo politico. la escena del tropel con el himno nacional de fondo es una caricatura fabulosa
==========
ANACLETO MORONES
que cuento mas gracioso!
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LUVINA
una suerte de comala en los cerros. un cuento triste con uma frase q muestra que "somos de donde estan nuestros muertos"
"Pero si nosotros nos vamos, ¿quién se llevará a nuestros muertos? Ellos viven aquí y no podemos dejarlos solos."
==========
TALPA
dolor sufrimiento y fe o creencias de curacion. tiene escenas asquerosas de heridas y de la pestilencia de estas
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EN LA MADRUGADA
la simplicidad del hombre campesino y su nula voluntad de defenderse
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EL HOMBRE
simplemente excelente cuento. un cambio de planos y narradores q me recordo a Artemio Cruz
==========
LA CUESTA DE LAS COMADRES
como la violencia para matar y rematar pueden venir de un hombre simple
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NOS HAN DADO LA TIERRA
el gobierno contra el hombre simple. la humillacion disfrazada de ayuda. un cuento triste
==========
PASO DEL NORTE
la rudeza de una naturaleza q hace a la familia nada pero conocidos

Free Walking Tour Medellin

FREE WALKING TOUR MEDELLIN

by Real City Tours (visit the official website)

Walk around Medellin's downtown (El Centro) with a local guide. Explore the historic districts and let this fascinating city come to life through stories, descriptions and urban legends.

The walking tours start at 10am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the ticket booth of the Poblado Metro station.

During the 4 hours of the tour you will discover the most traditional parks, squares and streets of the city. We will guide you through the history of Medellín, the culture of its people, The Paisas, and their stories. 

The free walking tour is based on tips, and therefore it is the best way to get to know the city no matter your budget. 

The tours are given in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Among others you will see:

• San Antonio's Park 
• San Ignacio's Park 
• La Playa Avenue
• Eastern Avenue
• Bolivar's Park and Metropolitan Cathedral
• Junin Pedestrian-walkway
• Coltejer Building
• Berrio's Park
• Botero's Square
• Carabobo pedestrian-walkway
• Cisneros's square (Light's square)
• City Hall
• Old railroad station

You can book your tour in advance writing us at: 

realcitytours@gmail.com

or calling at us at: 

(+57) 311 328 9905

Join us on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/FreeWalkingTourMedellin

By Real City Tours

My trip to Palestine and Israel

Bethlehem Check-Point to enter Palestine

My motivation to go to Israel was to see with my own eyes the reality* on the relationship between Israel and Palestine. And although I couldn't see much of it in the 6 days I stood there, it was enough to see and feel how sad and hard life is in the WestBank (I cant imagine how is it in Gaza Strip).

It's very sad to see the opportunities Palestinians have, to see how they are prisoners in their own land (protecting wall all around, barbed-wire all around, roads they can not transit in their own land, watching towers in their own cities, check points with metal detectors in the middle of their cities, their temples striped apart and under Israeli militar control, streets closed by militars...). It is sad to see the Jewish Settlements, it is sad to see that those are in the best lands in the middle of Palestine, to see the type of land they have left for agriculture...It was also very sad to see all the young people in Israel wearing an uniform, and being afraid of everyone who looks different that them.
It is sad to see how some of them have nothing, nor even the simple right to a nation and to move around their place, and it is also sad to see how those who have everything live with fear. It is sad to see how both parts grow up with hate and anger. In general it is very very sad to know this is the world we are living in, it's hard to see how lucky we are to live in the places we live in.
Don't expect me to judge or to explain the situation there. It's very complex to explain it here, just, as a person from this century, everyone should read and be aware of the political and social reality there.

t-shirt being sold in Jerusalem

The wall in the 21sth century!

Arriving to Israel from India felt like arriving to Europe. Israel itself looks great: Organized, clean, green in many places, nevertheless seeing all the young people in a green uniform and the locals with machine-guns in the middle of the street makes your thoughts start running and changes your mood.

I took the Old Jerusalem as my head-quarter. I stood there 6 days in a pretty old hostel that looked (and probably was) like 1000 years old. Although it has been the coldest hostel ever, people there were amazing and I got great time and indications from them!
I gave two full days to Jerusalem, mainly to the walled city.
The Old Jerusalem is divided into four quarters (Christian, Armenian, Jewish and Muslim). You can imagine which is the richest and which is the poorest. Although many sad realities there, the Old Jerusalem is one of the most incredible places I've been in, and I was lucky enough to see it covered by snow.

The other parts of Israel I went were Nazareth and Tiberias. Nothing special there, just it was nice to be in places I'd heard about since I was a child (My family is very religious and I went to a Catholic school).

Then I went to Palestine. One day I went to Bethlehem and Ramallah, the second day I went to Hebron (the situation there is horrible!) and to Jericho, next to the dead-see (the lowest point on earth). It was amazing to be in the west bank, and to see and live all the things there.

The view of Jericho from the mount where they say Jesus was tempted by the evil.

I am very glad I had the chance to go there, and I wouldnt mind to go again. Specially because the food is great. I just hope next time I go there, the political reality is better. That's the real victory for Israel, for Palestine and for the human kind as a whole. I just hope next time I go there, they follow the advice in this wall:

Make Hummus, not Walls

* I believe there are many realities, or at least I've seen several in the places I've lived in. But any of those realities I've seen with my eyes was always better than the one shown in the media.

Religious views and reflection after a trip to Holy Land

Let's start for my vision about religion:
I believe religion is an invention of the human beings.
In my opinion, the thought of religion being an invention, does not make religion bad or fake. Religion in my view is within the same category of many others of our inventions, let's put one as comparison: Science.

Science is an invention of humans to explain, interpret and mainly predict the world. The difference of science is that when a new model predicts the world better than the old one, it simple adopts the new model and re-adapts. Science is an invention for us to understand the world and predict it. And we invented it because we needed to solve those issues.

In the same way, I believe we (as humanity) invented religion because we needed to solve some issues. We needed to explain creation and death, we needed to give hope to the desperate ones, we needed to organize society, to control reproduction, diseases and other health and economic issues. Those needs are that universal that all societies found and documented have had religion. (take care, the fact that nowadays we have better ways to solve those issues does not denies the origin of religion as an invention to solve real-life problems)

Now, let me believe that I made myself clear explaining that Science and Religion are both inventions of human beings to solve real problems of humanity.

In that sense, I believe none of them are bad, evil, stupid or wrong, nor it is to believe on any of them. Not because we've used religion to kill people we can state religion is bad. It would be the same to say that science is bad, evil, stupid and wrong because we created the atomic bomb thanks to it. Religion has rescued people from suicide, depression and has given hope, energies and sense of life to people in deep existence problems. In the same sense science has saved lives through medicine just to put an example.

So none of them are bad in itself, the problem is in the subject who uses the invention.

I am not against religion, as I believe everyone has the right to believe in something, as I believe everyone has the right to choose how to orientate its political and sexual life.

But during my trip to the Holy Land (and a bit in India too), I realized something is wrong in how religion is lived: It is very sad that religions (or religious people) tend to worship objects (such a wall-the wailing wall-, a rock-the temple of the rock-, or a "grave"-the holy sepulcre-) instead of worshiping the greatest creation of those gods: Us, the Human Beings! And that twisted view, of worshiping objects instead of humanity has led us to humiliate, dominate, torture and kill each other, it has led us to kill the greatest creation of those gods. That's ironic, wicked and dam sad!!

Holy Sepulchre Church - People worshiping a stone

Heavily armed Jewish settler in Hebron worshiping a wall

unarmed Jew worshiping the wailing wall 

Poorly armed Muslim protecting the Temple of the Rock, where muslims worship a rock

Discussion: I still have parts of my vision that I haven't clarified yet. One of them is regarding the symbolic nature of the human beings. One could say that they are not worshiping objects but symbols, which as humans, makes us unique. I still have to thing about it.

So far my only conclusion, is that religions should worship the human being and nature as a whole, rather than particular human beings and particular objects from the nature.