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Metamorphosis of a ventured sculptor

by Contessa Abono

Barry ZitoBarry Zito

Irene Feiks, a sculptor who has traveled throughout the country and dedicated her life to her passion of sculpting clay, is set to open a new gallery of her work from the last decade and more.

Opening reception will be held on Jan. 31, at 7 to 9p.m. and will be located at the Consolation General of Mexico on 532 Folsom Street San Francisco.

Please R.S.V.P. at 415.354.1721.

SF State celebrates Homecoming games

The annual homecoming basketball game will be held Feb. 8th when the SF State Gators will host the Chico State Wildcats.

As part of homecoming, the SF State Alumni Association is hosting a pre- and post-game receptions at “The Pub” located in the Cesar Chavez Student Center on the SF State campus.

Game times are 5: 30p.m. for the women’s game and 7:30p.m. for the men’s game.

Reception will be at 6p.m. and immediately following the men’s game.

Admission to both games and reception is free for SF State Alumni Association members with RSVP, $5 for non-association members with RSVP and $10 for the reception at the door.

To RSVP and pay online click Homecoming.

For more information, please contact Ella Chichester at ella@sfsu.edu  or call 415-405-3648.

Giants 2008 winter FanFest set for Feb. 9

Bruce BochyBruce Bochy

The KNBR 680/Giants Winter FanFest presented by the Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau will take place at AT&T Park on Feb. 9, from 10-3 p.m. Admission to the FanFest and parking in Giants Lot A is free.

This year’s FanFest at AT&T Park will feature the KNBR live broadcast stage at homeplate, which will provide more fans the opportunity to watch the broadcast from any Lower Box or Club Level seat in the ballpark.

The broadcast will also be carried live on the highdefinition scoreboard in centerfi eld as well as on themultitude of HD fl at panel screens located throughout the ballpark.

Matt CainMatt Cain

Fans will have greater access to the ballpark than in the past, with the opportunity to go “behind the scenes” with self-guided tours of both the Giants and Visitors clubhouses, batting cages, dugouts and press box.

There will be two levels of interactive games and activities, a Kids Zone and access to the fi eld’s warning track.

Giants manager, Bruce Bochy, and many of his players and coaches, including the newest Giant, Aaron Rowand, and teammates Barry Zito, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Dave Roberts, Brian Wilson, Kevin Frandsen and Dan Ortmeier are scheduled to sign autographs, pose for photos and participate in Q&A sessions throughout FanFest.

In addition, Giants broadcasters will be in attendance along with all of the KNBR 680 radio personalities.

The Giants and KNBR will also welcome a number of Giants alumni to FanFest as the season-long celebration begins to commemorate the Giants 50th Anniversary in San Francisco.

Giants six-game packages for the 2008 season will be on sale, which include tickets to the Dodger’s and A’s series and select Fireworks nights, along with season tickets and group tickets. Giants individual game tickets will go on sale March 8.

Comedian Mimi Gonzalez spreads laughs around Valentines

Tim LincecumTim Lincecum

InnerRising Productions Presents Comedian Mimi Gonzalez, “I Used To Be So Hot” A Special Valentine’s Comedy Event Feb. 14 through Feb. 16. Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia St. San Francisco. All shows will be fi lmed for a live feature length concert film.

Mimi is said to take her audience on a drive ­by snapshot of one queer comic’s tour of the American psyche.

Mimi González grew up as the only female of seven children from a Cuban psychiatrist father who married ten times. She loves to joke about her family and is said to have a warm LatinAmerican humor.

More information at ­www.mimigonzalez.com.

Officials denounce Governor’s proposed education cuts

by Contessa Abono

Superintendente Carlos GarcíaSuperintendente Carlos García

On Jan. 17 local and state offi cials, parents and students gathered at the San Francisco Unified School District headquarters to send a clear message to the governor regarding his proposed cuts to education. “This is a time to stand united for children. Kids didn’t create this fi scal crisis and their progress shouldn’t be undermined because of it,” said Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

Currently, California’s per pupil spending is one of the lowest in the nation; according to a recent Education Week report, California spends an average of $1,900 less per student than the national average.

School officials are waiting for more details of the Governor’s proposed budget and will perform further analysis to determine the impact of the reductions. According to San Francisco schools’ superintendent Carlos Garcia, the district is preparing for a fi scal state of emergency.

Garcia said that the SFUSD would be expected to cut as much as $40 million from its budget. The cuts for San Francisco’s public schools would be part of the largest one-time, statewide cut to education since voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978.

Major increase in students at City College of San Francisco

Enrollment for the spring semester 2008 which begun Jan. 14 at City College of San Francisco is up from the pervious semesters with an increase of 2,400 more students.

Philip R. DayPhilip R. Day

The college has responded by increasing the number of credit sections by 120. The College usually offers around 3,500 credit sections per semester. It also offers 1,120 free noncredit sections per semester.

This is said to be due to the recent opening of the new Mission Campus and the Ocean Campus including the Community Health and Wellness Center with a new full-sized pool.

But the University of California and California State University systems are considering expected cuts in revenue caused by the state’s $14.5 billion budget deficit.

“It is important for the community to know that with all of the discussion regarding the State Budget crunch and the responses of the CSU and UC systems to the crisis that the door remains open at City College of San Francisco,” said Dr. Philip R. Day, Jr., Chancellor of City College of San Francisco.

Enrollment of new credit students continues through February 1. Noncredit students can enroll anytime during the semester. Easy on-line registration is available at www.ccsf.edu.

Healthy Kids programs may Prevent 1,000 child hospitalizations, saving $7.3 Million

New data show that Healthy Kids, a locally-funded health insurance program for children, saves the State of California and the federal government up to $7.3 million annually in health care costs by preventing more than 1,000 unnecessary child hospitalizations per year. The study findings are to be released in full in the February 2008 issue of Medical Care.

To find out more visit www.communityhealth.usc.edu.

­Money put towards firefighters cancer fund

Scott Health and Safety, a premiere manufacturer of innovative respiratory protection equipment is presenting a check of $5,000 to the San Francisco Fire Fighters Cancer Prevention Foundation.

“It is know that Firefighters suffer higher rates of cancers than the average population,” said Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White.

Between the support of companies such as Scott Health and Safety and the good work that the S.F. Firefighters Caner Prevention Foundation is doing, Firefighters will have a much better chance of living longer, healthier lives.”

Border homesteading

by José de la Isla

José de la IslaJosé de la Isla

­RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS– I met Marta Sánchez at her office, in a strip center next door to El Paraiso café, in Alton, just north of Mission, Texas. Marta heads La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) in Alton, a non-profit organization of the United Farm Workers union.

It provides outreach services on an idea originally conceived by César Chávez for rural communities. I am here at the invitation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation looking into issues affecting families.

The office is a whirlwind of activity.

Today, Marta is dealing by phone with the aftermath of a scam by Malcolm L. Webber (aka ‘Grand Chief Thunderbird IV’) who sold “Kaweah” Indian tribal memberships to undocumented immigrants. Marta says perhaps 200 to 300 people in this county were offered $400 memberships, but I was told some may have paid as much as $1,200.

The scheme worked through evangelical church networks. The marks were allowed to believe tribal enrollment would allow them to apply for U.S. citizenship.

The LUPE office has heard from about a hundred people in Mississippi, Georgia and California taken in by the fraud.

Over coffee at the Pic N Pac, Marta tries to characterize her work in the rural colonias. These are the subdivisions her constituents have homesteaded, even though they lack many services.

We agree on “inocente,” in the Spanish sense — meaning lacking street smarts. “Viven de la palabra,” she adds. They still take people’s word for it. Her words are reminiscent of Robert D. Putnum’s observation, who wrote in Bowling Alone about how lack of trust contributes to declining membership in civic associations. Marta’s mission seems to be to re-establish it.

She hears from employees who have been short-changed or who go altogether unpaid by contractors.

Often workers simply lack an understanding about what recourse they have. Euterio, for instance, who is now an office volunteer, learned how to take his complaint to small claims court. He prevailed and now teaches others about their rights.

Euterio’s point is that an injustice gets an appropriate response.

“Those abuses are in abundance,” Marta says and explains the advocacy and education role played by LUPE. Recurring are problems that arise from contracts-to-buy colonia lots and the circumstances around which people lose their investments.

Texas had about 1,400 colonias as of 2002. Broadly speaking, they are neighborhoods and subdivisions — mostly plotted land, but not always — along the U.S.-Mexico border. The term is used mostly to mean the underdeveloped communities that represent a modern-day homesteading movement.

About 400,000 people from El Paso to Brownsville call a colonia home. Most of them are in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the poorest parts of the United States. These rural, unincorporated communities of 20 or more dwellings are physically isolated from urban areas and mostly don’t benefit much from tax-based improvements administered by towns and cities.

Colonias also face waterrelated problems, such as availability, affordability and even access to clean drinking water, drainage and sewage disposal. This multiplies the already serious, if not critical, lack of adequate health care, education, low-cost food, and other necessities. These property owners haul their own trash.

Politically, the late, legendary San Antonio congressman Henry B. González, then chairman of the Banking Committee, drew attention to colonias in 1988. He brought the Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis to the border to sway public opinion and Texas’ 29 electoral votes.

During the 1990s Texas congressman Alberto G. Bustamante, as a member ­of the Select Committee on Hunger, drew attention to nutritional problems in colonias. As recently as November 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited colonias in nearby Laredo as part of a visit to the border and the international bridge there.

This election season, let’s see if any of the presidential contenders have the courage of conviction to address issues of border security by addressing the colonias.

[José de la Isla, author of “The Rise of Hispanic Political Power” (Archer Books, 2003), writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail joseisla3@yahoo.com.] ©2008

The truth about these elections

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin Ramirez­Marvin Ramirez

It’s interesting to see – like a wrestling circus – how the only two competing political forces, the Democratic and the Republican parties, compete to become the one and only who will continue guarding the status quo.

The winner will guard the system in which a private corporation – the Federal Reserve Bank – continues printing the money of our nation, and charging interest by the second on every dollar it lends – or every dollar we spend at the store. This is the cause of our huge national debt that we won’t be able to pay, ever! And this is the reason why inflation exists, if you didn’t know it.

And the money available that these candidates have to spend in the biased media is such, that the whole thing is like a whole enchilada from which every private interest gets a bite from it. All those fat corporations who practically own everything, including our own lives are actually financing this whole scheme that keep the North American people so much in the dark and poverty.

The status quo – to make it easy to sustain itself by printing the money for the nation – provides the conglomerate media the assurance that it can own every medium under their belt. Not too long ago, the Bush administration got rid of the last laws that protected us from media monopoly, and which allowed small, local media to exist and bring diverse voices into the political and social spectrum of our communities. Now, that they have practically almost wiped out all local and independent media, they have sole rein on our lives. There should be a law that prohibits holding broadcasting license for more that 20 years. The airwaves, remember, our own by humanity, in this case, the state is the guardian.

“Barack Obama raised a staggering $32 million in January, cash aplenty to advertise all through the expensive Super Tuesday states and beyond,” reported the Associated Press.

Who is giving away all that money, anyway? And every four years, only these two political parties participate in the election campaign, and only these two party candidates are the actors in the biased media. Don’t you think folks that there is something wrong with this ‘democracy?’

Have you noticed that most of everything we do and experience in our daily lives has been advised (and advertised) on our TV set? From our city violence to our dislocated culture, to our disproportionate credit card spending to our lack of saving and our lack of direction in our lives to our sugar addiction? The tube has being dictating to us what we should eat, drink, wear, listen, and do, since we started getting our notion as individuals.

And this election is no different. They dictate to us what options we have in electing our representatives, but none of those offi cials really is elected to work for us.

Have you also noticed the huge amount of promises these candidates recite during each election time? Why is it happens only during election time?

I think it’s about time that we all start looking at small political players and ­parties despite who are being shown to us on the small screen, and start turning that TV off more often, if we want to start getting back our own humanity and lives.

This election is a sham and a shame. A truthful candidate would advocate for the abolition of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Mission tenants claim wrongful treatment

­

by Contessa Abono

Landlord keeps tenants in precarious situation: Willaim Villalta feeds his 4-month baby, Mariana, in their small room. Below, looking over the roof, he shows El Reportero the house he rents in. where his landlord stores his personal items in the garage. (photos by Stephen Morrison)Landlord keeps tenants in precarious situation Willaim Villalta feeds his 4-month baby, Mariana, in their small room. Below, looking over the roof, he shows El Reportero the house he rents in. where his landlord stores his personal items in the garage. (photos by Stephen Morrison)

In a crowded building in the Mission District, more than 20 people who make up the families who live there sighed in relieve when the city of San Francisco turned their gas services back on after a month without it. This happiness was short lived.

The tenants say the owners have not provided heat, have shut off the water services, gas and garbage pickup to the building, and have threatened to shut off the electric service.

­Building owner Larry Wong has also allowed the shut off of gas service leaving tenants without heat and hot water. To date gas service has not been restored.

Philip O’Brien the tenant’s attorney says the tenants have been paying their utilities on time. However, he says, “they have went without gas for one month. That means not hot water and no oven.”

O’Brien also pointed out to El Reportero, that there are children living in the building, including three newborns and seven children living there.

One of the tenants William Villalta says that the living conditions at the building are terrible. He says he has been fixing broken windows and doing work around the house because the landlord would never do it.

“The landlord always says he has no money or no time to fix anything, and that he won’t even pay our gas bill. But he is the first one at the door for his money when rent is due,” says Villalta.

582

Apparently rooms in the basement were being rented four of five people to a room, but since the rainstorms of December and January, the basement has flooded over from leaking pipes and sewage.

According to Villalta none of the tenants had complained to the city, and the city inspectors were not involved until neighbors had begun to complain about the garbage that was piling up.

“This is the worst case I have ever seen,” says O’Brien. “The city inspectors finally came in and turned the gas on when they came on Christmas eve but now since it has been turned off again, the city has been dragging their feet.”

Now that both parities have lawyers involved, the tenants hope the situation will improve. “The landlord sees us as immigrants. We come to the U.S. with no papers to work, no credit cards, so he thinks he can do this to us,” says Villalta.

The property is a 12 unit residential hotel of singleroom occupancy, a former two-fl at building that was divided and rented as rooms ­to multiple unrelated tenants by owners since 1999.

The residents generally resided at the property for 3 to 5 years with some living in non-conforming basement and attic space, while paying rent directly to the owner. “It’s like the landlord doesn’t care about this building, it could be a nice place if he would fix it up,” says O’Brien.

At press time, Wong did not return calls to comment on the situation.

­

Lost allies will face the consequences: El Salvador’s Flores

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Francisco Flores PérezFrancisco Flores Pérez

‘INDEFENSIBLE’: Former El Salvadoran president Francisco Flores Perez said that Beijing had no right to insist that its allies sever relations with Taipei.

Countries that have turned their backs on Taiwan will one day face the consequences of their actions, former El Salvadoran president Francisco Flores Perez said in Taipei.

Flores also said that China had no right to force its allies to sever relations with Taiwan as a condition to establishing ties with Beijing.

In an interview with the Taipei Times conducted on Friday, Flores, who led the Central American country from 1999 to 2004, said it was “morally indefensible” for China to require countries to dump Taiwan in order to become China’s ally.

“The request is morally indefensible because it is an intervention in another country’s sovereignty and China has no right to make such demands,” he said.

Flores asserted that, in the era of globalization, countries benefit where  there is a diversity in their foreign relations. However, the diversity should not come at the expense of another sovereign nation, he said.

When asked if he believed Costa Rica’s abrupt break-up with Taiwan last June could trigger a domino effect in Central America, Perez declined to comment, except to say that countries that snuggle up with Beijing, thinking that they would profit from an economic boom, are suffering from an “illusion.”

(The Miami Herald and Taipei Times contributed with this report).

Bolivia back at brink of institutional breakdown

Bolivia has been taken again to the brink of institutional breakdown, with the opposition rejecting the new constitution approved by the constituent assembly as illegal, and four departments approving statutes of unilateral autonomy which clash openly with the new draft constitution. The government accuses them of promoting secession and plotting a coup, and has said that it will use the military against any attempt to ‘divide’ Bolivia.

Nebot leads massive protest in Ecuador

Around 120,000 people joined the protest march led by Jaime Nebot, the mayor of Guayaquil, on 24 January. The size of the anti-government demonstration, in which all the protesters wore white, was bigger than either the government or Nebot had expected. The demonstration reinforces Nebot’s role as the leader of the opposition to the government of President Rafael Correa. The big question for him is whether he can expand his support beyond Guayaquil.

Chávez pushes for withdrawal of international reserves from U.S. banks

CARACAS: The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, urged his Latin American allies to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from U.S. banks, warning of a looming U.S. economic crisis.

Chávez made the suggestion Saturday as he hosted a summit aimed at increasing Latin American integration and countering U.S. infl uence.

“We should start to bring our reserves here,” Chávez said. “Why does that money have to be in the north? You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

To help pool resources within the region, Chávez and other leaders launched a new development bank at the summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA.

The left-leaning regional trade alliance supported by Chávez is intended to offer an alternative, socialist path to integration while snubbing U.S.-backed freetrade deals.

Chávez pushes for withdrawal of international reserves from U.S. banks Chávez noted that the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, visited Colombia in recent days, saying “that has to do with ­this summit.”

“The empire doesn’t accept alternatives,” Chávez told the gathering, attended by the presidents of Bolivia and Nicaragua, the vice president of Cuba, Carlos Lage, and other leaders. Chávez warned that U.S. “imperialism is entering into a crisis that can affect all of us” and said Latin America “will save itself alone.”

Latino-Afro-North American unity

by marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin Ramirez–Marvin Ramirez

Times are difficult as they are. The economy going down, while the biased media tries to pretend otherwise, and the awaking of the hardest core of anti-immigrants voices sounding as if they came out of hell.

Let’s not forget the threatening building of the fence along the Mexican-U.S. border, which is being built to stop everyone of us from getting out when the international bankers foreclose on the U.S. for the trillions-plus dollars owed to them.

Meanwhile, from the street of our cities to the prison system, some Machiavelli mind has been creating ways to divide the Latino and the African-North American communities to conquer us both much easier.

But just as if those communities have realized the necessary for unity, the first Hispanic, in the history of this country, was the note speaker at the prestigious Birmingham’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Breakfast. We are all now celebrating the beginning of the Black History Month in the United States, and the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Calling herself ‘a child of Dr. King’s hope,’ the first Hispanic to give the keynote speech at Birmingham’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Breakfast drew upon the common history, struggle, and dreams of the African American and Latino communities to attack hate in the American political debate. The 22nd annual breakfast is one of the nation’s leading events celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” read a statement from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).

In her speech, Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the NCLR, urged members of both communities, to “renew their commitment to realizing Dr. King’s dream of civil rights protections for all North Americans, challenging both communities to confront injustice, especially the recent rise in hate speech in the media and in the presidential primaries surrounding the issue of immigration.

Among her criticism, included the 20 year-old backlog to legal entry into the United States for crippling the North American immigration system.

The statement added: “Murguía specifically went after commentators who have spread prejudice through their programming.

Glenn Beck, a CNN commentator, was singled out for offering an offensive joke on his radio program which suggested building a giant refi nery to produce ‘Mexinol,’ a fuel made from the bodies of illegal immigrants coming here from Mexico.”

­It’s time that Latinos recognize the necessary to unite our energy and soul along African-North Americans’ to defeat our common enemy: lack of education and opportunities beyond dead-end jobs at Wall-Mart-type companies. Happy Black History Month!

Boxing

Saturday, Jan. 26 – at Berlin, Germany (HBO)

  • Alexander Povetkin v Eddie Chambers

Feb 2, 2008 – at MSG, New York

  • Samuel Peter vs Oleg Maskaev

Saturday, Feb. 2 – at Kempton Park, South Africa

  • Corrie Sanders vsOsborne Machimana

Feb 16, 2008 – at MGM Grand

  • Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor
  • Zab Judah vs. Carlos Quintana

Feb 23, 2008 – at MSG, NYC

  • Klitschko vs Ib­ragimov

Saturday, March 15 – at Las Vegas, NV (PPV)

  • Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez

Pinturas de Fe – The Retablo Tradition Mexico and New Mexico

by the El Reportero staff

Bill SantiagoBill Santiago

A new exhibit of international folk art from New Mexico brings devotional paintings of saints, archangels, the Virgin Mary, and La familia Sagrada.

Retablo, derived from the word for Baroque wooden altarpieces, are inspired by the period of Spanish rule and Catholic evangelization beginning in the 1720’s. In addition to nearly 70 retablos, the exhibition includes several ex votos, crated for public display in a church or shrine, and painted wooden home altars. The exhibition runs from Jan. 12 through April 6.

A lecture called Images of Mary-Sacred, Secular and Stylized by Pamela Gasparovich Thomas, M.A. to be held Feb. 29 5-6 p.m. at Soda Activity Center. Reception following, 6-7 p.m.

Free to members and children 12 and under; $5 general admission.

Public tours of the exhibition on Wednesday, March 5, 12:15 p.m.

Sunday, March 30, 4 p.m.

The Gallery will be closed March 21-23 for Easter.

Hearst Art Gallery hours are Wed. through Sun. 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. $3 suggested donation. Free Parking. For information on the exhibit or to book group tours call 925.631.4379.

The Funny of Latin Dance- Standup Bill Santiago from Comedy Central

Calling all salsaholics, tango freaks, bachata addicts, merengue maniacs, chachaficionados, and bailamosapiens Standup comic Bill Santiago, from Comedy Central, riffs on his feet, about his feet and yours, hunting for the funny of Latin Dance, as he workshops material for his next cable special.

Come hear and help shape his take on the syncopated reconquista of American dance fl oors by the cadera-centric body language of la raza, aka the vida loca people. Be ready to share your dance stories, about every kind of Latin dancing.

Show is on Jan. 25 8 p.m at La Peña in Berkeley. La Peña Cultural Center at 3105 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley.

The cost is $12 at the door and $10 in advance or with student discount.

For more Information call 510.849.2568 or 415.748.8997 or visit www.billsantiago.com, ­www.myspace.com/billsantiagocomedy, www.lapena.org.

Find a Place to Chat Nicaraguan Style

Nicaraguan residents in the Bay Area of San Francisco are meeting monthly to learn – via teleconferences – different aspects of current Nicaraguan reality.

Each meeting a different offi cial or leader from Nicaragua will attend to expose different topics and to answer questions from participants.

For more information call Raul Valdivia at 408-569-4292 or Victor Molina at 650.630.0585

The New Russia

Former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott will offer his take on the New Russia, refl ecting on the path of U.S.-Russia Relations, since the Soviet break-up and the end of the Cold War. As a leader in the Department of State for seven years, Talbott was the architect of the Clinton administration’s policy toward Russia and the other states of the former Soviet Union.

He is currently president of the Washington D.C. based Brookings Institution, the nations most prestigious think tank.

Lecture will be held on Thurs. Jan. 31. 5:30 p.m., Check-in, 6 p.m., Program. 7 p.m., Book signing.

JW Marriott Hotel, 500 Post St., San Francisco $15 for Members, $30 for Non-Members Premium (seating in first few rows): $45 for Members, $65 for Non-Members.

To buy tickets call 415/597-6705 or register at ­www.commonwealthclub.org.

The John Santos Quintet

Featuring John Callo way on fl ute and percussion, Saul Sierra on bass, Marco Diaz on piano, John Santos on congas and percussion and Orestes Vilato on timbales and bongos.

Show starts at 9:30p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26th Mojito 1337 Grant Ave. in San Francisco’s North Beach. For more information call 415.398.1120.

Foreign Language fi lm category will miss Spanish

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

An scene of the film Stellet licht, by Mexican filmmaker Carlos ReygadasAn scene of the film Stellet licht, by Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas

OSCAR SHUT-OUT: No Spanish-language films will be listed in the Foreign Language category when Academy Award nominees are announced this week.

The Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences revealed this month a short list of nine possible nominees to be voted on by a special committee. They were culled from a total of 63 submissions At least five of them will be selected.

A single film from Latin America is among nine contenders: the Portuguese language O ano em que mous pais sairam de ferias (The year my parents went on vacation), submitted by Brazil.

Spanish-language films submitted for consideration included several festival favorites, none more prominent than Spain’s El orfanato (The orphanage) from debuting director Juan Antonio Bayona. Now screening nationally, the fi lm (produced by Mexico’s Gabriel Del Toro) may still contend in other Oscar categories.

Also absent from the list are Mexico’s Stellet licht (spoken in a German dialect used by Mexican Mennonites) from Carlos Reypadas and XXY, the  6Argentinian entry from Luisa Puenzo, daughter of Oscar-winner Luis Puenzo.

The Spanish language may not be completely absent. A ditty penned by Shakira for the film Love in the Time of Cholera has qualified for consideration in the Best Original Song category.

Nominations are to be announced Jan. 22 in Los Angeles.

PHILLY FRIDA: Two rarely-seen, privately-owned paintings are prominent in an exhibition opening next mont:h in Philadelphia to mark the centennial of one of Mexico’s best-known artists.

Carlos ReypadasCarlos Reypadas

Titled Frida Kahlo, it opens Feb. 20 at the Philadelphia Art Museum, where it will be seen through May 18. It is being touted as the most ambitious U.S. exhibition on the Mexican artists in 15 years.

The show includes the paintings Yo y mis pericos (1941) and Magnolias (1939), exhibited for the first time, as well as several iconic Kahlo works never shown before in this country, including Las dos Fridas (1939) and the portrait Diego y Frida (1944).

Frida Kahlo was seen through Jan. 20 at the WalkerArt Center in Minneapolis and afier Philadelphia, the exhibition will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (June 16 September 28).

The Philadelphia museum will also show, Feb. 16 to May 11, an exhibition devoted to Mexican painter Juan Soriano, who died in 2006 at 86. Demonio fragil: Juan Soriano en Mexico is thefirst major U.S. exhibition by the antist. Hispanic Link.

(For an expanded version of this column, visit ­hispaniclink.org).

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