Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Un Proyecto/Summer Project

Listen to the Ana Tijoux song, Mar Adentro. If you like it, see if you can come to understand the rap. Send me the lyrics--Spanish and English--when you think you've got it.

 

Sunday, June 16, 2013

International Sports & Culture Day

Spanish classes tangled up with the students from Japanese classes for crabwalk, watermelon smashing, guerilla mariachi, singing, dancing, tug of war, fútbol, apple passing, and more. Fue un día muy divertido.

  

  

Honduras Claims Unwanted Title Of World’s Murder Capital

       

Latin America is riddled with crime, and no place is more violent than Honduras. It has just 8 million people, but with as many as 20 people killed there every day, it now has the highest murder rate in the world.

It would be easy to blame drug trafficking. Honduras and its Central American neighbors have long served as a favored smuggling corridor for South American cocaine headed north to the U.S.

But there are a number of factors that have contributed to Honduras' out-of-control killings. It involves not only geography but gangs and a government teetering on the edge of collapse.

In this violent country, the most violent city is San Pedro Sula, where more than 1,200 people were killed last year.

The outskirts of town are the roughest part. We were told that the safest time to drive there is in the early morning when the gangs are still asleep.

As we enter the neighborhood of Rivera Hernandez, our driver tells us we should roll down our tinted windows so that people can see us. If they can't get a glimpse of us, it will make them more suspicious.

He also crosses himself a couple of times as we enter the colonia, or neighborhood.

Gangs fight viciously for territory here. Caught in the middle are residents who pay them so-called taxes, for everything from a safe bus ride to running a small shop.

Gang And Police Collusion

The gangs have hit the Oseguera family hard. We meet the mother, Angela Oseguera, and her sister Xiomara at the front gate of the extended family's modest home.

Read the rest of the story...or listen to it from NPR.

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