by Felicia Mello

The Best of Latino Cinemagastos Newyorrican percussionist John Santos plays congas during the grand kickoff of the International Latino Film Festival in San Francisco. At left, the photo of legendary musician Israel ‘Cachao’ López. (photo by Dania P. Maxwell)

Cuban musician extraordinaire Israel “Cachao” López may have passed away this year, but his spirit was alive and kicking at Friday’s opening of the International Latino Film Festival in San Francisco. Hundreds packed the Castro Theater for a screening of “Cachao: Uno Mas,” a documentary celebrating the life of the Grammy winning bassist known internationally as the father of the mambo.

It was the first of dozens of films in languages from Mapuche to Portuguese and, of course, Spanish and English—that will show throughout the Bay Area over the next two weeks as part of the twelfth annual festival.

­“We have accomplished our mission: we brought together filmmakers from all over Latin America and the United States and defined the festival as a crossroads where all this talent can develop,” festival director Sylvia Perel told the crowd.

A collaboration of professional filmmakers and film students at San Francisco State, “Cachao: Uno Mas” alternates concert footage of López with intimate conversations between the maestro and other musicians inspired by his work, including actor and conga player Andy Garcia, who co-produced the film. Audience members at the Castro couldn’t resist clapping and singing along.

López grew up in a musical family and began playing the bass as a child in 1926. He and his brother, Orestes López, took traditional Cuban danzón music and jazzed it up to appeal to a new generation, spawning the mambo craze that swept the world.

“It was only when we were sleeping that we weren’t playing music,” López says at one point during the film, describing weeklong descargas, or jam sessions, where he and other musicians would camp out in the woods to play. A Beethoven fan, López combined Western classical influences with an understanding of the importance of rhythm in Afro-Cuban music.

“Cachao to us is like Louis Armstrong to jazz players,” said local Latin percussionist John Santos, who appears in the fi lm and performed at a post-screening party at the Kabuki Hotel. “He allowed percussionists to shine by taking them from the back of the orchestra, putting them in front and letting them take solos.

At the party, guests grooved to the infectious beat of the congas while Santos and his group dedicated songs to Cachao and even one to Barack Obama.

The festival runs through November 23 and will include a tribute to director Gregory Nava, whose groundbreaking 1983 film El Norte educated Americans, including thousands of California schoolchildren, about the immigrant experience.

“We celebrate that fi lm as one that showed for the fi rst time an image of immigrants with humanity and dignity,” said Perel. “It is as current today as ever before.”

For more information, visit www.latinofilmfestival.org.

­­­by the El Reportero news services

­The Oct. 26 municipal elections were expected to provide a preview of how the Chilean electorate was beginning to lean with the December 2009 presidential elections in sight. Overall, the outcome was inconclusive, except inasmuch as it showed the Partido Demócrata Cristiana (PDC), one the main parties in the ruling Concertación alliance, taking a beating which just may leave it out of the presidential contest.

The rightwing opposition Alianza won more mayoralties than in 2004, but overall fewer than the ruling Concertación, which also won more seats on city and town councils. In terms of the number of votes attracted, the two main alliances were not very far apart. One consequence of the elections is that the results appear to have persuaded former president Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) to reconsider his refusal to run in 2009.

Ecuador’s “transition” raises doubts

President Rafael Correa and his Alianza País (AP) party won a resounding victory for the ‘yes’ vote in the national referendum on the new constitution [RA-08-10] on 28 Sept. 28. Since it formally entered into effect on Oct. 20, the country has entered a so-called ‘Transition Regime’ that is to reform most of the country’s institutional framework in preparation for the next ‘phase’ of what Correa calls his “citizens’ revolution”.

This will begin when presidential, legislative and municipal elections are held in the first quarter of next year. A number of temporary institutions will rule in the interim, leading critics to decry the politicization of the judiciary and the subordination of almost all of Ecuador’s legal and political institutions to the executive.

Will Obama’s victory herald a new dawn for US-Latin American relations?

U.S. Hispanics played a key role in the comprehensive victory of Senator Barack Obama over Senator John McCain in the US presidential elections on Nov. 4. In his victory speech Obama promised “a new dawn of American leadership” – Latin American countries will hope this extends to US foreign policy.

With Obama sure to be preoccupied with domestic economic and fi nancial travails, Latin American governments will not expect the U.S. to radically overhaul its regional foreign policy or indeed its foreign-policy priorities, but they will be hoping for greater emphasis on multilateralism, dialogue and consensus, and a more nuanced treatment of the region to refl ect its political diversity and complexity.

MEXICO – Forces of the Mexican opposition denounced Wednesday a masked delivery of Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) oil company to private firms.This fact came to light after recent statements by Mexican Energy Minister Georgina Kessel. Legislators from the Progressive Wide Front (FAP) warned Wednesday that Kessel’s statements, saying that 70 percent of ­PEMEX exploration and production is already in the hands of private companies, proves the fear expressed regarding the energy reform in Mexico.

The legislative package on the transformation of the Mexican oil industry only tried to legalize the contracts to energy transnationals, said FAP representatives. FAP is composed of the organizations Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and Trabajo y Convergencia.

The statements by Kessel this week demonstrate the reason of the National Movement in Defense of Petroleum, led by former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, about the government’s privatizing intentions, FAP leaders said.

In the opinion of opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) member of parliament Jose Murat, Mexican Energy minister’s was not an ethical confession, proving the illegal sale of Mexican crude oil.

(Latin News and Prensa Latina contributed to this report.)

­­­­by Jose de la Isla­­

­Federico Peña

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition to the White House is off to a fast start. Two days after the election, three associates close to Obama were chosen as the leaders of the transition team. Not one is Hispanic.

­By week’s end 12 members of his transition “advisory board” were announced.

Obama-insider and nationaicampaign co-chair Federico Pena was selected as the one Hispanic in the dozen. Pena had served President Bill Clinton as Secretary of Transportation and, later, Energy. A former two-term mayor of Denver, he was one of the frst big-name Hispanics to endorse Obama in his primary battle with Hillary Clinton.

Additionally, the 13 key transition staff leadership positions were filled to direct policy and appointments through the team’s day to-day activities. None were Hispanic.

The President-elect’s transition network is mostly made up of volunteers and, based on past history, might include up to 1,000 members It will be headquartered in office space set up for 500 people at a nondescript office building in downtown Washington, D.C.

The “Qbama-Biden Transition Project,’’ the advisory board to deal with strategies to rescue the economy, includes Roel Campos, a former Security and Exchange Commissioner, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Also serving on this team are such notable financial and economic policy advisors as Robert Rubin, Warren Buffett and Paul Volcker.

Joined by Vice-President-elect Joe Biden, Obama met with that team Nov. 7, prior to his fi rst post-election press conference.

The team will be incorporated into the planned White House economic summit Nov. 14 with the G-20, which will include Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for the first time. Spain is home base to two of the world’s top 20 banks.

Former Federal Communications Commissioner Henry Rivera, now a partner with Washington, D.C., law fi rm Wiley Rein, will reportedly take charge of Obama’s FCC transition team. His name drew immediate outrage from right-wing talk-radio hosts as a step toward dis­mantling commercial talk radio and renewal of consideration for a “Fairness Doctrine.”

The Associated Press reported Nov. 6 University of Texas at Brownsville president Juliet García would soon join Obama’s transition team.

The bulk of the transition work will be done by the advisory boards comprised of subteams which are underway at every government agency identifying their issues.

Team members will likely fi ll many of the appointed positions. Janet Napolitano, an advisory board member, has been mentioned as a candidate for Attorney General.

Temo Figueroa, who spearheaded Obama’s victorious national Latino election strategy, told Weekly Report that getting elected was only part of the job. He reminded this reporter that the effort was for “ensuring all the work pays off for our community.”

Prior administrations have been slow in identifying Hispanics for key assignments. Obama’s does not yet stand out in this respect, either. Hispanic Link.

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