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Pianist, 12, wins international competition; will play at Carnegie Hall

Alexander Vivero of Guadalajara became a composer at 6

by the El Reportero’s news services

March 26, 2021 – Like many 12-year-olds, Alexander Vivero likes to play with his friends online, watch movies, and read. He’s currently almost finished with the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian. However, in one way, he’s pretty different: the middle-school student is busy rehearsing a Beethoven piano sonata to perform at Carnegie Hall. The Guadalajara native will play at the fabled musical venue after winning an award in the American Protégé International Music Talent Competition. Alexander won first place in the competition’s school students’ category for entrants 12 and under.

“I’m really happy because I never expected it,” he told the newspaper Excélsior.

“I’m excited because it means my teacher … and I are doing well.” Alexander’s music teacher, Joel N. Juan Qui of the University of Guadalajara, posted an enthusiastic message on his Facebook page on Friday with an image of the award letter the teen prodigy received from American Protégé, saying, “Study mijito [my son]! Next stop, NY, Carnegie Hall!” Not yet a teenager and still with a bedroom full of stuffed animals, the young pianist already has an impressive list of accomplishments under his belt.

He became a recognized composer at just 6 years old when he was selected by Yamaha México to perform a piece he had written for piano, La ardilla saltarina (The Jumping Squirrel) at the Roberto Cantoral Cultural Center in Mexico City.

He has already composed several pieces in his short life, one of which, El Circo (The Circus), was performed on March 3 by the Chamber Orchestra of Zapopan, for which he is currently composing yet another work. In October, he won an award in the Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition in Bonn, Germany.

He also plays several instruments besides the piano, including the violin, cello, drums, and saxophone. And music isn’t even his only area of excellence: he’s also a polyglot, speaking English, French and German, and he’s currently studying Italian. Milenio (sp), Excélsior (sp)

You could boost your brain health with olive oil

How olive oil benefits your brain

by Brocky Wilson

04/07/2021 – The brain benefits of high-quality olive oil make it a best brain food. Learn how to choose genuine extra virgin olive oil (and avoid widespread fake oil). The health benefits of olive oil are legendary. It’s a major component of the Mediterranean diet which is widely considered the healthiest way to eat for health and longevity. People from this region are some of the healthiest and longest-living people on the planet. Some of the wellknown health advantages of olive oil include its ability to help boost the immune system, increase bone density, prevent heart disease, and reduce risk of diabetes. Another equally important, but often overlooked, benefit of olive oil is its contribution to good brain health. Benefits of olive oil for brain health and mental wellness As a key part of the Mediterranean diet, olive oil may be in part why people who live in longevity zones like Ikaria, Greece rarely suffer from depression, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. Here’s a look at some of the ways olive oil helps keep your brain healthy now and helps protect it from future degeneration. Olive oil is high in brainprotective antioxidants Your brain uses a lot of oxygen — 20 percent of your total intake. This makes it especially vulnerable to oxidation caused by free radicals. If you’ve ever seen a cut apple turn brown or an old car get rusty, you’ve seen oxidation at work. A similar process happens in the cells of your brain. The health benefits of olive oil are believed to be largely due to its high level of polyphenols. Olive oil contains over 30 phenolic compounds that are potent antioxidants and free radical scavengers. Polyphenols also play an important role in keeping bottled oil fresh. Olive oil is high in essential brain vitamins Olive oil is a significant source of vitamins E and K, two vitamins with proven brain benefits: Vitamin E Vitamin E helps prevent mental decline as we age. It’s an effective antioxidant which helps protect the brain from free radical damage. Vitamin E, especially in the presence of vitamin C, helps to maintain a good memory, slow memory loss, and significantly reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Vitamin E can minimize the damage caused by a stroke by redirecting blood supply after the event Vitamin K Vitamin K is found mainly in green leafy vegetables. If you don’t eat as many of these as you should, you can get the vitamin K you need from olive oil. Vitamin K helps keep your brain sharp as you age and boosts your brain processing speed. It can improve your ability to remember words, a big problem for many of us as we get older. Vitamin K is believed to play a role in preventing Alzheimer´s since patients are often found to be deficient. Olive oil increases brain-boosting chemicals Another surprising benefit of olive oil is that it boosts levels of two cbrain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor (NGF).) These compounds encourage the formation and repair of brain cells. BDNF is a protein that stimulates new brain cell formation. BDNF can offset the negative effects of stress on the brain. Low levels of BDNF are associated with depression.) Olive oil helps protect the brain from degenerative diseases The last brain benefit of olive oil is that it can ward off cognitive decline. Higher intake of monounsaturated fats improves memory and other cognitive functions in seniors.  Eating a Mediterranean diet high in olive oil can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by up to 40 percent. Olive oil is an essential part of the MIND diet.

Small rental homeowners assistance program launched

by Isabella Bloom Ethnic Media Services

Jie Wang owns three rental properties in Oakland. Her whole family relies on income from tenants paying their rent. Many have lost their jobs during the pandemic. Eviction moratoriums protect tenants who can’t pay part or all of their rent. But small housing providers like Wang still have mortgages, utilities and other expenses. A lack of government support puts pressure on them to sell their properties. “Nobody can escape from this coronavirus,” Wang said. “I have a very good relationship with all my tenants.

I try to help them.” Wang spoke on a recent panel hosted by Ethnic Media Services along with other housing rights advocates and researchers. The panel discussed the risk of treating all landlords the same. The word “landlord” stirs up connotations of large real estate corporations, wealthy enough to maintain their properties through the pandemic. However, small landlords, often referred to as mom-and-pop landlords, have been hit hard by losses in income due to tenants who have been at least partially unable to pay their rent during the pandemic. According to the Urban Institute, individual investors like Wang rather than large conglomerates own more than 75 percent of oneto-four-unit rental properties.

In addition, mom-andpop landlords of color are more likely to own duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. Their rent rates tend to be cheaper, so they’re also more likely to draw minority tenants. Maeve Brown is the executive director and founder of Housing and Economic Rights Advocates, a statewide nonprofit law office that provides free legal services to low- and moderateincome Californians.

She works with many people of color who have never had any training on how to manage their properties and consistently charge below-market rent rates. “Another key part of the story here is our failure to appreciate what small landlords are actually providing — our failure systemically to recognize that they really are affordable housing providers,” Brown said. “If localities and our state government actually recognized the truth of that, that should have an impact on the policy choices that they make.” Mom-and-pop landlords often are also more connected to their communities and tenants. John Wong, the founding chairman of the Asian Real Estate Association of America, has lived in San Francisco for nearly 67 years and been a realtor for over 40.

In the briefing, he described the relationships he’s experienced and witnessed between mom-and-pop landlords and their tenants. “I talk about this spectrum of housing providers because I think it speaks to our response to COVID,” Wong said. He added that mom-andpop landlords tend to know their tenants personally. “The relationships have typically been very, very amicable,” he said. Rent relief programs like the $2 trillion CARES Act have primarily benefited larger, wealthier real estate corporations, leaving behind mom-and-pop landlords. “The policy choices that the state has made have just made no distinction between large landlords and small landlords,” Brown said. “State policy choices have squarely placed the burden of nonpayment of rent on the shoulders of small landlords — of small, affordable housing providers.”

The danger with placing that burden on momand-pop housing providers is that it pressures them into selling their properties to investors and real estate conglomerates. The result is that California will lose more and more of its affordable housing.  “If they lose their property, they’re probably going to lose it to an investor who will charge as much money as the market can possibly bear,” Brown said. Landlords of color are also more likely to have a mortgage and lower income, so the pressure to sell during the pandemic is higher, according to Urban Institute.

There may be new hope for mom-and-pop landlords and their tenants in the form of a new rental assistance program, but it comes with a caveat. The new California rental relief program intended to help the state’s most vulnerable renters and landlords opened March 15.

The program, which comes from Senate Bill 91, extends the eviction moratorium to June 30 and draws from $2.6 billion in federal funds for rent relief.  “The SB 91 moratorium and the state rental assistance program, in my opinion, is the most important thing to have for smaller mom-and-pop housing providers,” Wong said. Tenants and landlords both have to fill out certain parts of the on line application, available on the California state website Housing is Key. The first group of eligible renters are those with greatest need — households making 50 percent or less of the area’s median income, or anyone who has been unemployed for at least 90 days.

The next group includes households making 80 percent or below the area’s median income. Undocumented tenants are also eligible. Data from Urban Institute shows that, throughout the U.S., less than a third of tenants and less than half of landlords are aware of federal rental assistance programs. This is why John Wong aims to spread information about rental assistance programs to mom-and-pop landlords, especially those who may be linguistically isolated. “I personally have a heavy focus on making sure that individuals who have English as not their primary language have access to information that these funds are available,” Wong said.

The way the rent relief works is 80 percent of a tenant’s rent owed between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, will be paid directly to the landlord, so long as the landlord agrees to forgive the remaining 20 percent of the back rent. But this new rental assistance program doesn’t distinguish between small and corporate landlords. For mom-and-pop landlords like Jie Wang, absorbing the remaining 20 percent of unpaid rent can be a crippling blow after a year of unpaid rent. “I’m open to the low-income renter,” Jie Wang said. “As long as I can survive, I will receive all the tools to help me and to survive this very difficult situation.”

246 fully vaccinated people in Michigan test positive for COVID-19; 3 dead

Pins for Beaumont Health Care workers after receiving their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are seen next to a syringe at their service center in Southfield, Michigan on December 15, 2020. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

by Zachary Stieber

 

Michigan data shows 246 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 more than two weeks after being fully vaccinated against the virus that causes it.

The potential breakthrough cases were recorded between Jan. 1 and March 31.

Eleven of the residents were hospitalized and three died, a spokesperson with the state Department of Health and Human Services (MDDHS) told The Epoch Times via email. The people who died were all 65 years of age or older.

Data about hospitalization status for 129 cases was incomplete and for the other set, hospitalization status was reported as unknown.

The fully vaccinated cases were identified through weekly reviews of data on all confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. State officials compare the data to records of every person who has been fully vaccinated.

Fully vaccinated means two weeks has elapsed since a person has received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“These are individuals who have had a positive test 14 or more days after the last dose in the vaccine series. Some of these individuals may ultimately be excluded from this list due to continuing to test positive from a recent infection prior to being fully vaccinated. These cases are undergoing further review to determine if they meet other CDC criteria for determination of potential breakthrough, including the absence of a positive antigen or PCR test less than 45 days prior to the postvaccination positive test,” the spokeswoman said.

“In general, these persons have been more likely to be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic compared with vaccinated persons. Please note, to date, more than 1.7 million Michiganders have completed their COVID-19 vaccine. Some of these cases may be ruled out via additional investigation,” she added.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer’s vaccine is considered 95 percent effective in preventing severe symptoms of COVID-19. Moderna’s is 94 percent.

Johnson & Johnson’s is approximately 67 percent.

“While the majority of the population develops full immunity within 14 days of completion of their vaccine series, a small proportion appear to take longer to mount a full antibody response,” the MDHHS spokeswoman said. “We expect to see breakthrough cases with any vaccination, including all the COVID-19 vaccines. The number of potential cases identified to date is not in excess of what might be expected with vaccines with 95 percent efficacy. Studies indicate that even if vaccinated people do become ill, they are far less likely to experience severe illness requiring hospitalization or resulting in death.”

The potential for breakthrough cases is why officials still encourage Michiganders to take precautions while out in public, such as wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing even after they are fully vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is creating a new website to provide additional information about investigating  breakthrough cases. The site is expected to launch within the next several weeks. It will include summary data from all states, Michigan officials said.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told reporters last week that “zero percent of the people in our hospitals right now have been vaccinated, which tells you the vaccines work.”

Whitmer said during a press conference on Tuesday that the efficacy rates mean some people who get the vaccines will not gain complete protection.

“We’re delving into the numbers” on breakthrough cases, she said. “What we do know, though, is that this vaccine can save your life. This is a virus that none of us knows how our body is going to react to it. For so many it has been fatal or devastating, or for many we’re still learning how long are the impacts of this virus going to impact them, afflict them. So this vaccine still is the best way to protect yourself.”

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state’s chief medical executive, said that the shots “are some of the best vaccines that we have.”

“We’ve now got vaccines that are over 95 percent effective. And even if you do get COVID-19, and once you’ve had a vaccine, it is highly unlikely that you will be hospital ized or die,” she said.

Other states have also seen breakthrough cases. In Washington state, authorities reported last week that they found evidence of 102 such cases, with eight of the patients requiring hospitalization and two dying.

In a letter published on March 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine, a group of California physicians reported that out of 36,659 health care workers tested after receiving one or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, 379 tested positive for COVID-19 at least one day after vaccination. Thirtyseven of them tested positive after getting two shots, mostly within two weeks after the second injection.

“The rarity of positive test results 14 days after administration of the second dose of vaccine is encouraging and suggests that the efficacy of these vaccines is maintained outside the trial setting,” the doctors wrote.

Immigrant Oakland tenants stand up to callous landlord

Tenants refuse to be forced out, suing on fifteen claims that could result in more than $1million in damages

Submitted by Public Advocates

OAKLAND – After months of protesting conditions at their building in Oakland’s Fruitvale district, tenants announced a lawsuit today against landlord BYLD2 LLC who they accuse of ignoring repairs to dangerous living conditions as part of a scheme to force them to vacate. The tenants, joined by attorneys from David M. Levin Law Office, Public Advocates Inc. and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, shared graphic details of the squalid conditions they’ve been forced to live under. From cockroaches running out of faucets, to rat infestations, to holes in floors, to collapsing ceilings, to broken stoves, non-existent water pressure and no hot water—the Spanish-speaking immigrant tenants at the 1821 28th Avenue apartments are enduring deteriorating conditions designed to displace them and to gentrify their neighborhood. The lawsuit, Rivas v. BYLD 2 LLC, is being filed in the Superior Court of Alameda County on behalf of 26 plaintiffs, twentyone adults and five children. “For the 15 years I’ve lived here I’ve paid my rent, and taken care of my apartment as best I could,” said Angelica Rivas, a mother of two young daughters who live with her. “I and my daughters don’t deserve this—to find dead mice in our clean dishes and food, live with 8 months of no hot water in the shower, mold everywhere because the landlord believes making money on the building is more important than we are.” “The claims we are filing today on behalf of these tenants show that the owner’s willful neglect and negligence has left these families—including children and seniors—living in conditions that are blatantly illegal under state and local laws,” said David Levin, lead counsel in the lawsuit. He added, “we are confident in the strength of the claims and we expect that this negligence will subject BYLD 2 LLC and owner Michael You to liability for a wide range of violations.” “We are asking the court to hold Michael You accountable for violating the law and to order immediate repairs,” said Public Advocates Staff Attorney Ruby Acevedo. “The outcome of this case will shine a light on landlords who subject their tenants to atrocious living conditions and who willingly violate state and local laws. Landlords need to know they cannot allow these living conditions to persist. Their profound neglect and greed will not be tolerated and they cannot exploit tenants who are of limited resources and income,” said Acevedo. “The 28th Avenue tenants should inspire other tenants who have endured unjust housing conditions that they too can organize and fight for their safety, health and dignity,” said ACCE Staff Attorney Jackie Zaneri. “Too often, we see speculators who purchase small rental properties, engage in a campaign to remove the tenants, and then sell the property for a large profit. The tenants have sent a message to speculators that the business model of displacement and purposeful neglect comes with a price,” said Ms. Zaneri.

Corazón del Barrio Virtual Open House

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

 

Come and enjoy our 44th Annual Corazón del Barrio! Our open house is an event for the community made by local artists Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Online program, Zoom, Facebook Live, Youtube Channel MCCLA. Free. All ages. ¡Access is free!

For more information about the workshops materials and registration visit our website www.missionculturalcenter.org

Orquesta Adelante will be playing Outdoors from 3 to 4 p.m. in front of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.  We will be Live Facebook streamed on ‘The Mission cultural Centers Event page Corazon Del Barrio’ & the Event page ‘Music in the Mission.’ Please join the events to Hear Live stream

Orquesta Adelante will also be playing on March 20 in Santa Cruz at 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for a Santana Tribute at Joe’s Pizza & Subs. They also will be playing at La Raza Park in SF on Saturday, April 10 for Suzanne Cortez Birthday and her Album Release of her original music.  For more info of upcoming events go to OrquestaAdelante.com

 

Online – Bilingual Storytime – Live with Jazz and Friends!

Special live English/Spanish bilingual storytime with Armando through Zoom with stories supporting our transgender youth of all colors. Ideal for ages 3-5. However, the whole family is welcome! RSVP required for Zoom identification and password. Feb. 26.

Contact Pam Evans pevans@redwoodcity.org

 

Get Involved and Help Shape the Future

Are you or someone you know interested in getting involved with your local government? Are you interested in contributing your voice, making an impact in your neighborhood and the entire City?

Your civic participation is always important in advising and maintaining critical city resources and infrastructure.

The City welcomes and encourages your active participation by serving on a Council-appointed Board or Commission, and is seeking volunteers to fill vacant seats. Join other volunteer members in shaping policy initiatives and services affecting the community.

The City is recruiting for two (2) seats on the Library Board and one (1) seat on the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission.

Recruitment is open from Jan. 12 through Feb. 21, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Apply today! www.redwoodcity.org/bccrecruitment.

Designer offers compensation for use of indigenous, Oaxacan designs

Zimmermann seeks agreement with members of the Mazatec community

 

by Mexico News Daily

 

An Australian fashion brand has offered to pay compensation to indigenous artisans whose designs it was accused of plagiarizing and proposed negotiating an agreement to allow it to sell its culturally “inspired” garments.

Zimmermann, a fashion house that has stores around the world, withdrew a dress from its 2021 collection last month after facing accusations by members of the Mazatec community in the Cañada region of Oaxaca that it plagiarized the design of a traditional huipil, a loose-fitting tunic commonly worn by both indigenous and non-indigenous women in Mexico.

The cut of the company’s Riders Paneled tunic dress, the birds and flowers embroidered on it and its colors all resemble a traditional Mazatec huipil. 

Zimmermann apologized for using the design “without [giving] appropriate credit to the cultural owners of this form of dress and for the offense this has caused.”

“Although the error was unintentional, when it was brought to our attention …, the item was immediately withdrawn from all Zimmermann stores and our website. We have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again in future,” it said in a social media post.

Days after the company issued its apology, members of the Oaxaca Institute of Crafts (IOA), a state government organization, spoke with Malcolm Carfrae, a fashion consultant hired by Zimmermann to liaise with Mexican artisans.

“He told us that his intention is to offer a direct apology to the artisans and the community of Huautla de Jiménez because they recognized that [the dress design] was plagiarized,” IOA director Nadia Clímaco said Monday.

“And they want to provide some economic compensation,” she said, adding that the IOA was asked to determine an appropriate amount.

“We let him know that we can’t take that decision,” Clímaco said, explaining that the institute would need to consult with the Mazatec artisans.

She said that Zimmermann subsequently sent a letter to the IOA in which the company raised the possibility of the Mazatec community granting permission for its tunic dress to be sold. (It was advertised for US $850 before being withdrawn.)

Clímaco said the fashion brand proposed commercialization “under the terms that the members of the community consider appropriate.”

The IOA chief said the proposal was taken to artisans in Huautla de Jiménez, located near the border with Puebla, because only they can decide if they want to effectively license their traditional designs. A decision could take some time because there are different opinions in the town, Clímaco said.

Some people say “my identity is priceless,” she said, while others, acknowledging the difficult economic situation they currently face, were more open to the idea of negotiating an agreement to allow Zimmermann to sell its dress.

To date there is no agreement, Clímaco said, adding that the IOA is providing legal advice to the artisans.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Black History Month: Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson at SFPL

Compiled by the El Reportero‘s staff

 

VIRTUAL EVENT – The Newbery Award-winning duo of Last Stop on Market Street returns to SFPL for a lively discussion about their new work with Sheryl Evans Davis, Executive Director of the Human Rights Commission. Written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson, Milo Imagines the World will be available in February 2021.

Book available for purchase from the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Signed bookplate by the author and illustrator plus Milo Imagines the World poster included.

“America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, a fact that disproportionately affects people of color,” said de la Peña. “This is the backdrop of our new collaboration, inspired by Christian’s own childhood. But Milo’s journey to visit his mom is about so much more than forced separation. It’s also about joy. And imagination. And curiosity. And the power of self-expression. It’s about the importance of being able to move beyond lazy stereotypes.”

“Milo’s story is my story,” said Robinson. “Like Milo, I grew up with an incarcerated parent. I rarely, if ever, saw stories that reflected this reality. As a child, I felt a lot of shame and embarrassment and thought it was something I had to keep secret. But many kids share this experience, and Matt and I want to send the message that they are not alone.”

Matt de la Peña is the Newbery Medal-winning author of Last Stop on Market Street. He is also the author of the award-winning picture books, Carmela Full of Wishes, A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis and Love, and seven critically acclaimed young adult novels. Matt teaches creative writing and visits schools and colleges throughout the country.
Christian Robinson has received a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for his art in Last Stop on Market Street. He is the bestselling author and illustrator of the picture books Another, You Matter, and has illustrated many more, including Carmela Full of Wishes, the Gaston and Friends series, School’s First Day of School and The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade.

Friday, Feb. 5, 2021 from 2 – 3 p.m. Online Services, San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Downtown Street Closures Starting this Friday to Support Outdoor Dining and Retail
As part of the City’s Uplift Local efforts to support outdoor dining and retail opportunities in Palo Alto, new street closures will go into effect this Friday, February 12.

University Avenue between Ramona and Bryant will be closed for pedestrian-only access. The half-block of Ramona north of Hamilton will also be closed to vehicles. In addition, staff work continues to engage the businesses on the other blocks, including a potential implementation of a one lane closure/one-way traffic pattern on University Avenue from Kipling to Cowper. More details coming soon.

 

Scholar’s mission: help modern readers discover a Mayan creation story

Book enables modern readers to connect to an ancient story

 

by Rich Tenorio

 

When Ilan Stavans first learned about the Popol Vuh as a teenager growing up in Mexico City, he was fascinated by the millennia-old Mayan tale. Decades later, Stavans reconnected with the text and saw it as comparable to other foundational narratives from world civilizations, such as the Bible. Yet he noted a key difference: unlike these classics, the Popol Vuh had remained obscure.

Now Stavans — an acclaimed scholar of the humanities, Latin America and Latino culture at Amherst College — is helping modern readers connect to the ancient story that began as an oral tradition among the K’iche people, who are part of the Maya.

Stavans has released Popol Vuh: A Retelling, a book-length version of the narrative that he hopes will interest a mainstream audience. The book features illustrations from Salvadoran artist Gabriela Larios, whose artwork provides a crucial dimension, Stavans said, as does the foreword by Homero Aridjis, Mexico’s former ambassador to UNESCO.

“My intent in this retelling was to insert the Popol Vuh into the canon of world classics, sagas that represent the birth and development of a nation,” Stavans said. “I have always been puzzled by the total absence of pre-Columbian indigenous aboriginal narratives that tell the story of the various peoples of the Americas prior to the arrival in 1492 of the Europeans in a way that is comparable to The Iliad and the Odyssey, to the Nordic sagas of Beowulf and other similar stories, and even to religious texts like the Bible, the Ramayana, and the Quran.”

Stavans drew multiple comparisons between the Popol Vuh and these texts.“If you see the Ramayana, if you see the Bible, you see literary texts that tell us stories about the gods and humans interacting,” he said. “Stories like the Ramayana are about genealogy, explaining how a people acquired its identity, what its mission is in life.

”That’s what he sees in the Popol Vuh, which he describes as “a beautiful story” about “how the world was created. At the center of it are fallible humans. Within the humans, there’s a kind of selection of one people that is going to honor the deities. That people are the K’iche.”

Stavans lamented that when he was younger, the Popol Vuh and another foundational Mayan text, the Chilam Balam, were treated as anthropological or archaeological items, not as books. He said that he was “angry at the way [that] throughout Mexican history, indigenous cultures had been, like many people in time, fossilized, turned into fossils, seen as historical artifacts, historical entities, not incorporated in any meaningful way into the lens of daily life in Mexico, and even less so in Mexican culture.”

 

Myke Towers signs global distribution deal with Warner Music Latina

by the El Reportero‘s news services

 

After a two-year courtship, and rising above offers from multiple competing labels, Warner Latina and Warner Records have jointly signed an exclusive global distribution deal with Puerto Rican rising star Myke Towers and his independent label, Whiteworld Music.

The deal was spearheaded by Warner Music Latina president Iñigo Zabala, who brought Towers to the attention of Warner Records global heads at a time when music in Spanish is a global force, a fact highlighted by Towers’ remarkable success as an independent artist.

In the past 12 months alone, the 27-year-old has placed seven songs on the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, two songs on Billboard’s Global Ex U.S. chart, six songs on the Spotify 200 chart (more than any other Latin act) and is currently No. 8 on YouTube’s Global artist chart while his video of “Bandido” with Juhn is No. 2 on the service’s Global chart this week.

No wonder that while Towers sings in Spanish, Warner sees him as a completely global act. “He is one of our most important signings of the past year,” Warner Records Co-Chairman & COO Tom Corson says bluntly.

That import has already been tested, most impactfully in “Me gusta,” the Anitta track released last September where Warner paired Towers with the Brazilian star and Cardi B.

As it turns out, Towers has been on Warner Latin’s sights since 2017, when he first started releasing music. But the label’s approach began in earnest in 2019, after he collaborated with Warner Music Latina group Piso 21.

“We formally contacted him in April 2019, when he released his single ‘Si Se Da,’” says Zabala, president of Warner Music Latin America & Iberia. “At that point, it was clear he was a very, very special artist. We always presented to them [Towers’ management] that we were the better partner to help them globalize Myke’s music. It’s been a long conversation, but it’s been very successful.”

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