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Ancestral Memories at MCCLA

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Masks by José Manuel.Masks by José Manuel.

José Manuel has been influenced by the cultural patrimony reflected in Mexico’s rich prehispanic culture.

The exceptional beauty of the colorful masks, sculptures and paintings representing animals, guardian spirits to native people are the source of inspiration for artist Jose Manuel. His use of vibrant color is influenced by the bright and expressive colors commonly used by the artists of his hometown Michoacan, Mexico.

Artist José Manuel Islas is a self-taught artist from Michoacan, Mexico, now residing in Daly City, California.

Exhibition date June 26 – July 20, 2013, at the Mission Cultural Center’s Inty Raymi Gallery. Gallery hours: 11 a.m. -5 p.m. At the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission St., San Francisco. 415.821.1155.

6th Annual Explorations in Afro-Cuban Dance and Drum Program

It is a unique, intense, and unforgettably fun opportunity to experience Cuban drumming, dance and song with a combination of great Cuban instructors that live in Cuba, NY, Southern and Northern California and other states and countries along with exceptional non-Cuban instructors. They only convene once a year for this program!

If you are into Afro-Cuban music and/or dance, you don’t want to be anywhere else during this remarkable week. Folks come to Arcata from all over the world for this highly inspirational program. Highly recommended!

16th Annual Explorations in Afro-Cuban Dance and Drum Program at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, p.m. July 20 – 27, 2013. For more info call 707. 826-3731. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9IXBUlkfkc&feature=player_embedded.

Consulates of El Salvador are launching TPS-Mobiles and extended schedules

Consulates of El Salvador in different cities in the United States are launching a series of TPS-Mobile in the coming days in order to bring the re-registration process to the Temporary Protection Statutes (TPS) closer to compatriots in their respective jurisdictions.

The Ambassador of El Salvador in the United States, Ruben Zamora, reminded his fellow Salvadorans that “it is important that Salvadorans do their TPS re-registration as soon as possible to enjoy migration stability for other 18 months. Reenrollment is the best insurance with or without an immigration reform.

If there is an immigration reform, Salvadorans with TPS could enter a special category. If there is no reform, re-registration will guarantee more stability in this country”. Re-registration ends on July 29, 2013.

The Embassy of El Salvador reminded that our advice to TPS is completely free and that there is immigration legal assistance for special cases. Any questions regarding re-registration can be made at the 1-888-30-111-30 hotline or at the Embassy hotline at 202-595-7500. You can also visit our Facebook site, www.facebook.com/embelsalvadorusa and twitter @El_Salvador_EMB.

Buena Vista Horace Mann School, 3351 23rd St. San Francisco, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Boxing

The Sport of Gentlemen

Boxing” de Molina

July 19 — At Salem, N.H., (ESPN2/ESPN Deportes):

Olusegun Ajose vs. Hank Lundy, 10 rounds, junior welterweights;

Ryan Kielczweski vs. Miguel Soto, 8 rounds, junior lightweights;

Alexis Santos vs. TBA, 6 rounds, light heavyweights;

Chris Gilbert vs. Eddie Caminero, 6 rounds, junior middleweights;

Julian Pollard vs. TBA, 4 rounds, heavyweights;

Russell Lamour vs. TBA, 6 rounds, middleweights; Gerald Schifone vs. TBA, 4 rounds, super middleweights.

At Las Vegas (Showtime):

Ishe Smith vs. Carlos Molina, 12 rounds, for Smith’s IBF junior middleweight title.

July 20 — At Indio, Calif. (FSN/Fox Deportes):

Frankie Gomez vs. Demarcus “Chop Chop” Corley, 10 rounds, junior welterweights;

Randy Caballero vs. Miguel Robles, 10 rounds, junior featherweights.

At London:

Dereck Chisora vs. Malik Scott, 10 rounds, heavyweights; Carl Frampton vs. Fabian Orozco, 12 rounds, junior featherweights;

Gary O’Sullivan vs. Billy Joe Saunders, 12 rounds, middleweights; Frank Buglioni vs. TBA, 8 rounds, super middleweights.

At Huntington, N.Y:

Chris Algieri vs. Mike Arnaoutis, 10 rounds, junior welterweights.

The Chevron disaster in Ecuador

The company, ordered to pay $19,000 for throwing taking toxic waste into the Amazon, accused the plaintiffs of corruption of judges

Ermel Chávez of the Front for the Defense of the Amazon show a stick just taken out of a “pool” of oil. (PHOTO BY ORSETTA BELLANI)

by Orsetta Bellani

“I was born 200 meters away from the oil well, being raised in this disaster was normal for me. Only when I moved to another place I realized that life is different over here”, says Donald Moncayo, who spent his childhood in and around the town of Lago Agrio, in northeastern Ecuador. Lago Agrio is located in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios and has been the scene of one of the largest environmental disasters in the world: between 1964 and 1990 the U.S. oil company Texaco – merged with Chevron in 2001- poured around 68 billion liters of toxic water and 680 thousand barrels of crude into the Amazon.
“Chevron opened ‘pools’ near every oil well, where it dumped toxic waste,” explains Ermel Chavez, leader of the Front for the Defense of the Amazon. “The pools were not coated and therefore fluids leaked into rivers and aquifers. Texaco drilled more than 300 wells in the Ecuadorian jungle and created some 880 pools: this area is completely contaminated.”

What in Sucumbios is called “pools”, are actually giant oil puddles in the middle of the jungle. Communities live around the wells abandoned by Chevron, people drink water from wells and children play near the pools. The Texaco disaster has not only had a serious impact on the ecosystem, but also on the health of the population. In this area, the rate of cancer, spontaneous abortions and congenital malformations are the highest in the country. In addition, the environmental crisis forced the displacement of indigenous peoples of the area, whose health and life is directly linked to the health of the territory.

“Drilling mud and testing oil were thrown to the pools, as well as the waters that resulted from washing the wells. In 1996, Chevron began repairing 150 pools, by covering them with dirt. Now I will show that it was not an actual repair,” complains Donald Moncayo, a resident of the area, while getting a sample of ground from the repaired pool. He submerges it in a water-filled boat, and shortly it becomes oily and black as oil. However, after the false remediation, the Ecuadorian state freed the company from all liability.

The story of the Chevron-Texaco legal process is very long: in 1993 a group of people – who later formed the Front to Defend the Amazon, bringing together some 30 thousand people – sued Texaco, and in February 2011 a Sucumbios court ordered the company to pay $ 9.5 million to fix the damage and to offer public apologies. The apologies haven’t been offered, and the following year, the court applied the established penalty: doubling the fine. Now Chevron has to pay $ 19,000, the highest fine imposed on transnational environmental damage.

“The process is however not over. We won here in Sucumbios but the sentence hasn´t been enforced, we are working on that,” said Pablo Fajardo, head of the legal team of the Amazon Defense Front, the David that beat Goliath. “Chevron paid nothing. A judge ordered the seizure of their shares and dividends but the company is no longer in Ecuador. Anyway, we managed to impose an international convention intended for the measure to be effective in other countries such as Argentina, which is freezing Chevron’s money in a special account on behalf of those affected in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We expect to act the same way in other countries: we are expecting a ruling in Canada to go ahead with the judgment, our goal is to continue to collect the last penny they owe us to clean all this.”

However, in early June, the Argentina Supreme Court overturned the seizure of the assets of Chevron Argentina and on October 15 a new process will start in New York, in which the company asks for penal, financial compensation and a public statement admitting that the Sucumbios judgment was obtained illegally.

“The company says it is a fraudulent statement, but the damage here, the evidence is so strong that you do not need corrupting a judge. Let them prove they did not pollute the environment,” said the lawyer Pablo Fajardo.

 

Study: Children with ‘early nutrition programming’ reduces disease later in life

by Karen Foster
Prevent Disease

Long-term EU funded research with more than 1000 children has found ‘early nutrition programming’ can deliver significant health benefits later in life — including big reductions in obesity.

According to a previous study by University of California, San Diego bioengineers, free fatty acids created during the digestion of infant formula cause cellular death and severe intestinal conditions.

Another study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, supports several others that show substituting cow’s milk for breast milk might promote heart disease later in life.

Project leader, professor Berthold Koletzko from the University of Munich, said the 2-year+ EARNEST project showed that infants up to two years of age fed lower protein formulas closer to breast milk weighed less than infants fed high-protein formulas.

The weight differential continued after six months when both sets of infants moved onto similar diets. If projected forward the difference would be as high as 13 percent at age 14-16.

“This research has enormous potential for improving the health and well-being of future generations, reducing costs for health care and social services, and for enhancing the productivity and wealth of societies,” said professor Koletzko.

The infants in the trial were from five EU countries.

The researchers pointed to non-nutritive elements of breast milk that may deliver health benefits and could explain the weight findings.

The concentrations of aluminum in infant formulas are up to 40 times higher than are present in breast milk. These concentrations are all several times higher than are allowed in drinking water. They are clearly too high for human consumption and certainly too high for consumption by such a vulnerable group as pre-term and term infants.

Previous research has highlighted the potential toxicity of aluminum in infants with confounding disorders (including, prematurity, poor renal function and gastrointestinal disease) and fed infant formulas and these studies when viewed alongside aluminum’s known connections with medicine and human disease should at least deter complacency concerning this issue.

Nestle and Mead Johnson Nutrition recently dismissed calls to remove genetically-modified organisms (GMO) from their infant formula products in the US and now evidence is coming forth on long-term risks related to infant formulations.

Epidemiological research has indicated a relationship between infant formula feeding and increased risk of chronic diseases later in life including obesity, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Researchers stated that the comprehensive metabolic implications of formula vs breast-feeding play a role in long-term health risks.

EARNEST partners also developed evidencebased recommendations for dietary fat intake in pregnancy, during breastfeeding, and in infancy.

It explored parental decisions on nutrition and lifestyle, and the messages that influence those decisions. Professor Koletzko said his experience of the project was like that of a, “mountaineer, who has reached one summit, only for another to appear behind it. More research is required to fully understand how environmental factors adversely affect long-term outcomes and the extent to which the mother is able to protect her child against them.”

More about the project can be found here.

Karen Foster is a holistic nutritionist, avid blogger, with five kids and an active lifestyle that keeps her in pursuit of the healthiest path towards a life of balance.

Puerto Rican mayor in hot water after raising his monthly salary

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Isabelo “Chabelo” de MolinaIsabelo “Chabelo” de Molina

People in recession-battered Puerto Rico were fuming Wednesday over the news that the mayor of a town of 40,000 near San Juan increased his monthly salary from $6,500 to $8,000.

By comparison, the mayor of San Juan – a city of around 400,000 people – receives $10,000 a month.

The pay hike for Mayor Isabelo “Chabelo” Molina’s pay hike was approved by the city council in Vega Alta, controlled by the main opposition PNP party, media outlets said.

The councilors also voted to increase their per diems for attending sessions from $64 to $100, Primera Hora newspaper pointed out.

Mexico sees 7.5 percent increase in international visitors

Mexico registered the arrival of 5.2 million international visitors by air in the first five months of 2013, an increase of 7.5 percent over the same period last year, the Tourism Secretariat announced on Thursday.

The United States remained the main tourist market for Mexico, providing 2.8 million visitors in the first five months of the year, a figure 7.2 percent above that registered during the same period in 2012.

During the same time span, 944,000 tourists arrived from Canada, 154,000 from Britain, 129,000 from Argentina and 113,000 from Brazil.

Just in May, 880,000 international visitors arrived by air, a 14 percent increase from the same month in 2012.

Tourism generates about 9 percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product, is the country’s third leading source of hard currency after oil exports and remittances and employs 2.5 million people.

Last year, Mexico welcomed 23 million international tourists and took in more than $11 billion in revenues from tourism.

Venezuela questions relations with Spain following Bolivian plane incident

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that he will re-evaluate relations with Spain in light of this week’s incident involving Bolivian head of state Evo Morales’ plane, which had to divert to Vienna after several western European countries barred the flight from their airspace.

“What Spain’s government did is disgraceful, trying to search the aircraft of a South American president,” Maduro said in Caracas on his return from an official trip to Russia and Belarus.

“What does that Prime Minister (Mariano) Rajoy believe, that we South Americans are your slaves?,” the Venezuelan leader said.

Morales did not arrive back in Bolivia until shortly before midnight Wednesday, more than 24 hours after he left Moscow, where he attended a conference of gas-exporting nations.

The Bolivian presidential aircraft spent 13 hours on the ground in Vienna as Austrian authorities searched the plane for former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has released documents exposing Washington’s massive surveillance of global telephonic and Internet communications.

The diversion to Vienna came after Portugal, France and Italy barred Morales’ plane from their airspace, apparently on suspicion that Snowden was onboard.

Poll: NSA surveillance most serious Obama scandal

by Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com

An informal Infowars.com poll posted earlier this week shows that 50 percent of respondents rank the NSA surveillance revelations as the most serious Obama administration scandal to date.

The Benghazi scandal comes in a distant second with 20 percent of the votes, followed closely by the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups.

Obama’s drone strikes and the wiretapping of journalists trail with 9 percent and 4 percent respectively.

In response to the NSA’s Stasi-like surveillance of Americans, a number of “Restore the Fourth” demonstrations were held around the country on the 4th of July.

The demonstrations were hosted by Fight for the Future and Restore the Fourth, two organizations dedicated to preserving the Fourth Amendment.

Demonstrations in defense of the Fourth and the Bill of Rights were held in San Francisco, Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C., and other cities around the country.

The movement also enjoys a strong online presence. It is popular on Reddit, Imgur, 4chan, WordPress and other sites.

“The tech community is really rallying behind this and really recognizing that if their users are suspicious of using their services because they think the government could be watching them, that’s a huge hit to their business model,” Evan Greer, the campaign manager for Fight for the Future, told NBC News on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Benghazi scandal heated up earlier this week after Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, subpoenaed four State Department officials to answer questions about the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate on September 11, 2012. The issuance of a subpoena means the Obama administration can no longer drag its feet on answering questions about the incident.

The Obama administration’s “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Associated Press journalists after the Justice Department illegally collected phone records in an effort to discover sources behind a news story on Yemen has all but disappeared from the news.

In June, Associated Press president Gary Pruitt said during a speech delivered at the National Press Club that “the chilling effect is not just at AP, it’s happening at other news organizations as well. Journalists from other news organizations have personally told me it has intimidated sources from speaking to them… Now, the government may love this. I suspect they do. But beware the government that loves secrecy too much.”

On Wednesday, a researcher with the Center for Naval Analyses, a group that does contract research for the Pentagon, said Obama’s drone program kills ten times the number of civilians killed in manned airstrikes in Afghanistan.

Despite the study, officials in the Obama administration insist illegal drone strikes kill few civilians. The officials claim between just 20 and 50 civilian deaths since 2008, while the Pentagon reports just 50 civilian deaths over a ten-year period or less than 2.5 percent of deaths from drone strikes in total between 2001 and 2011.
The apparent lack of interest in Obama’s drone war reflected in the Infowars.com poll may be a microcosm of a larger and more disturbing trend.

A national study released late last month by Duke University’s Institute for Homeland Security Solutions and non-profit research house RTI International found that 57 percent of the general public supports the use of drones, including domestic use of the unmanned aircraft for applications other than missions in Pakistan, Yemen and other Third World countries.

Militarized police gone wild across America

by Marvin Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin Ramirez

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: We have seen an incredible increase in police violence against the citizenry on the part of the police around the nation, where not even children, the elderly, people in wheelchair, peaceful protesters marching denouncing injustices in the part of the bankers or the government, have escaped the abused. I received the following article, written by Mike Adams, editor of Natural News, which makes a exceptional narrative of what our society is becoming under our current oppressive government’s militarized police force, a corps that it is supposed to be there to protect us, but instead it has become our oppressor.

Because of it length, El Reportero will publisher in two or three parts, depending on the availability of space.

Terrorizing citizens, shooting pet dogs, behaving like occupying military force

by Mike Adams

America is rapidly devolving into the oppressive police state we’ve been warning readers about. Right now, cops are exhibiting thuggish, out-of-control “mafia” behavior as they run loose across America, terrorizing innocent citizens, shooting up the vehicles of people who are merely driving cars on public roadways, taking warrantless blood draws from drivers, shooting pet dogs of people who are merely filming police, raiding farmers at gunpoint over raw milk and terrorizing young women for buying bottled water and cookie dough.

All of these are real and happening right now in America. The cause behind them? Police are being “militarized” through federal training while being given weapons of war through federal grants. Police departments across the country are now being handed armored assault vehicles, surveillance drones and full-auto assault rifles. Along with this equipment comes a training and engagement posture that is increasingly aggressive and militaristic, subjecting more and more Americans to the kind of “theater of war” engagement tactics that the U.S. military would typically use at a roadblock in Afghanistan, for example.

Military tactics and equipment now used by your local police

“In recent years, police departments have widely adopted military tactics, military equipment (armored personnel carriers, flash-bang grenades) — and, sometimes, the mindset of military conquerors rather than domestic peacekeepers,” writes TimesDispatch.com.

President Obama famously said, during the gun control debate of 2012, that, “AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets of America.” Yet it is his administration that’s putting weapons of war on the streets of America via local police departments. By arming police and training police in the hardware and tactics of military warfare, the Obama administrations is doing an end-run around Posse Comitatus and effectively putting wartime troops on the streets of America.

As part of all this, federal law enforcement have been training with so-called “no hesitation targets” that train them to instinctively shoot pregnant women, children, young moms and old men.

These targets — whose existence was first denied, and then downplayed when the denials didn’t work — offer irrefutable proof that the corrupt, criminal government currently running the USA is actively planning to engage women, children and senior citizens with weapons of war.

This is, of course, on top of the long-confirmed two billion rounds of ammunition the Department of Homeland Security has ordered (and partially acquired) in an attempt to stockpile enough ammunition for a 20-year war with the American people. Once again, this stockpiling of hollow-point ammo by DHS was first denied, then downplayed, and now has been called a “conspiracy theory” even thought it is confirmed by the federal government itself which says it needs the ammo for “training purposes.”

The IRS is now being trained with AR-15 rifles, and DHS has also purchased thousands of armored assault vehicles that are mine resistant and bulletproof.

Meanwhile, the Boston marathon bombing proved that local police will now act completely outside of law and initiate Martial Law in a manhunt for a teenager. It wasn’t declared Martial Law, of course… it was called “shelter in place,” meaning you could not leave your homes. Once the lockdown was in place, Boston police went door to door, yanking citizens out of their homes at gunpoint, screaming at them to put their hands up or be shot on sight. This was all done completely without any warrant or any suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of homeowners.

It later turned out that the entire Boston marathon bombing was meticulously planned in advanced by the Boston police and was run as a “terror drill” to terrorize Boston and give the police some much-needed practice in running a police state oppression scenario. This is all 100 percent confirmed and openly admitted. Even the Boston Globe reported, on June 8th:

The scenario had been carefully planned: A terrorist group prepared to hurt vast numbers of people around Boston would leave backpacks filled with explosives at Faneuil Hall, the Seaport District, and in other towns, spreading waves of panic and fear. Detectives would have to catch the culprits. … But two months before the training exercise was to take place, the city was hit with a real terrorist attack executed in a frighteningly similar fashion. Now, apparently, local law enforcement can simply utter the word “manhunt!” and completely ignore all citizens’ rights, the Bill of Rights, due process and state and federal law. Police have become rogue gangs with complete immunity from all crimes even while they are the ones committing crimes on a massive scale. They can pull you over for no crime whatsoever, stick their fingers inside your anus and call it a “roadside search” while using the same glove on you that they just used on somebody else’s anus. (True story. Click here for source.)

July 4th – A celebration or a memorial service?

by Simon Black
Sovereign Man

Amid all the barbecues and fireworks today in the Land of the Free, it may be worth a short pause to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson some 237-years ago:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Powerful stuff.

In one of the most eloquent treatises in history, Jefferson lays out that human beings are born free. And that we create governments in order to stay free.

Further, whenever governments become destructive to this effort, human beings have a right to dissolve the government and create a new one.

Jefferson then lays out an entire laundry list of grievances against the British King that have compelled the colonists to throw off the chains of tyranny and form a new government. This “long train of abuses” includes:

– He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

– He has obstructed the Administration of Justice.

– He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny

– For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments

As the modern, dysfunctional version of the US government has become little better than the court of King George III, one might make the exact same arguments today.

– They have employed a multitude of offices, from the National Security Agency to the US Postal Service, to illegally spy on their citizens.

– They have used the power and intimidation of tax authorities to bully political opposition groups.- They have authorized the military detention and drone assassination of their own citizens.

– They have indebted future generations who will not be born for decades, and squandered the nations wealth on fraud, waste, and foreign military folly.

– They have destroyed the primary function of the free market by awarding supreme monetary authority to a tiny banking elite.

– They have passed tomes of new laws and regulations which criminalize everything from collecting rainwater to childhood lemonade stands.

I’m sure you would have a several more to add to this list. And I’d be curious to hear from you about it.

By Jefferson’s own standard, it seems rather clear that the government – most governments – have become destructive against their higher purpose: to safeguard the people’s liberty.

Today shouldn’t be a celebration… it should be a memorial service.it may be worth a short pause to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson some 237-years ago Or at least a time to reflect heavily – when will enough finally be enough? When will it be time to act?

Malo returns to action in Oakland

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Malo band (1970s)Malo band (1970s)

In an evening that promises one of a kind, the legendary Malo band returns from – the grave? Not really from the grave, but from a quasi retirement after so many years fronm their stardom times, and after so much new stuff out there that doesn’t compare to the good old times. Everything is here, right where it was born: the SF Bay Area.

Friday July 19, Malo & La Gente @ The New Parish, 579 18th St, Oakland, California. For more info please call at 415-371.1631, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Cover is $20/$25.

Memorias Ancestrales at the MCCLA

José Manuel has been influenced by the cultural patrimony reflected in Mexico’s rich prehispanic culture.

The exceptional beauty of the colorful masks, sculptures and paintings representing animals, guardian spirits to native people are the source of inspiration for artist Jose Manuel. His use of vibrant color is influenced by the bright and expressive colors commonly used by the artists of his hometown Michoacan, Mexico.

Artist José Manuel Islas is a self-taught artist from Michoacan, Mexico, now residing in Daly City, California.

Exhibition date June 26 – July 20, 2013, at the Mission Cultural Center’s Inty Raymi Gallery. Gallery hours: 11 a.m. -5 p.m. At the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission St., San Francisco. 415.821.1155.

6th Annual Explorations in Afro-Cuban Dance and Drum Program

It is a unique, intense, and unforgettably fun opportunity to experience Cuban drumming, dance and song with a combination of great Cuban instructors that live in Cuba, NY, Southern and Northern California and other states and countries along with exceptional non-Cuban instructors. They only convene once a year for this program! If you are into Afro-Cuban music and/or dance, you don’t want to be anywhere else during this remarkable week. Folks come to Arcata from all over the world for this highly inspirational program. Highly recommended!!!

16th Annual Explorations in Afro-Cuban Dance and Drum Program at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, p.m. July 20 – 27, 2013. For more info call 707. 826-3731. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9IXBUlkfkc&feature=player_embedded.

Latin Grammy winner sie7e’s new song on optimism

by the El Reportero’s news services

David Rodríguez LabaultDavid Rodríguez Labault

Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Sie7e, the winner of a Latin Grammy in 2011 for best new artist, is promoting his latest single, “So what,” in which he presents a positive and optimistic message about dealing with the problems of daily life.

David Rodríguez Labault said Monday in an interview with Efe that the intention of his new song, which will be included on his next album, is to say “‘so what?’ to the problems and the things that bother us” in daily life.

“If this comes out bad for me, put on a good face. If you have a problem, you decide if you want to transform it into a crisis or resolve it,” the 36-year-old artist said.

Sie7e said “So what” was produced by Philip and Shane Lawrence, known for their work with Bruno Mars; Jeanvyes Ducornet, who has produced songs for Carlos Santana; and Puerto Ricans Dave Marrero and Rodolfo Barrera.

The performer dubbed the team involved in the single “the feel-good society” for combining the retro style with modern touches to achieve perfect harmony and create “So what.”

“So what” includes elements of reggae and funk and features “barriles” and “timbao,” percussion instruments used in Puerto Rican and Brazilian musical genres, respectively.

Famed tenor Plácido Domingo hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism

Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo remains in a Madrid hospital, where he is being treated for a pulmonary embolism, the Royal Theater reported Tuesday.

While the 72-year-old artist “is being successfully treated,” the illness will prevent him from singing Daniel Catan’s opera “Il postino” at the Plaza de Oriente coliseum, a production in which Domingo was to have portrayed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

Domingo is expected to make a full recovery, although, “on the orders of his doctor, he will have to remain under … supervision and rest for three to four weeks.”

The tenor, who on OaklandThursday was scheduled to offer a press conference to announce his return to the Royal Theater with “Il postino,” was going to sing in five performances starting July 17.

His illness will also prevent him from directing the Valencian Community Orchestra in a free concert next Sunday in Madrid.

Since the reopening of the Royal Theater in 1997, Domingo has participated in practically every season.

Domingo will be replaced as Neruda by Vicente Ombuena, who has already played the role at Mexico’s Fine Arts Theater and in the Municipal Theater in Santiago, Chile.