Vaya Con Muñoz 5.28.16

This week Puerto Rico is on the table, almost literally, as the House Committee on National Resources voted to create a seven-member fiscal control board. Its sole mission is to pay back Wall Street $72 billion in debt. That means lowering the minimum wage to $4.25, closing more schools, reducing health and safety services. It means chaos and destruction so that greedy hedge funders get 35 cebts on every dollar they lent. There’s a better way to pay back debt. It’s called, responsibly. But the US Congress is not interested.
Also on the program, filmmaker and critic Larry Hott looks at “Last Days in Vietnam,” an extraordinary documentary by Rory Kennedy. Great timing. President Obama was just there.
Here’s a link to watch a preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTWX-BB4aAA
Olga Tañon’s fitting mega hit, “Que se vaya” marches us out of the show. It is dedicated to the proposed fiscal control board.

Vaya Con Muñoz 5.21.16

Sanders in Puerto Rico: A Special Report from our far flung correspondent, my Aunt Melo, who loves him. We stay on the theme of politics with film critix Larry Hott, who reviews two documentaries about Democratic primaries, one on the national level and the other that took place in Newark. And we say farewell with “Volver,” an iconic song by the Argentinian Carlos Gardel.
In the picture, my fabulous aunts: Carmen, left, and Melo, right.
Here are links to film clips:

“Primary” by Robert Drew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK5e6bTCC54

“Street Fight” by Marshall Curry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_1086493761&feature=iv&src_vid=R8jtAASYdLw&v=u6EkpsYtrsE

Vaya Con Muñoz 5.14.16

Marla Goldberg and I talk about bigotry and the Republican Party and their monsterous creation that makes racism and all the other isms perfectly OK again – and what we can do about it.
Also, filmmaker Larry Hott reviews two films about law and justice. We include links to watch previews.
“Tales of the Grim Sleeper”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gh2dOxMAvM

“The Mind of Mark DeFriest”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkqrhztseJs

And we say “hasta la vista” with Celia Cruz signing “Guantanamera.”

Vaya Con Muñoz 5.7.16

Marla Goldberg and I just can’t stop talking politics. She’s all about Bernie and I am with Hillary. We’re still friends even as we disagree in a big way. Also this week, the best film critic in the English-speaking world, the award-winning filmmaker Larry Hott joins Vaya con Muñoz for a weekly segment on the movies. These are not about silly Hollywood movies; these are thoughtful and thrilling movies. Our inaurgual segment starts with a review of the 1922 film by Robert J. Flaherty, “Nanook of The North.” You can watch the entire film in high def here. As Larry points out, it’s relevant today because of climate change.
You can see “On Thin Ice in the Bering Sea,” four ten-minute films by Florentine Films/Hott Productions and Tom Litwin at the NOVA/PBS link below. If you have trouble getting them to play on your system, the direct links to the films are on Dropbox at the links below.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/extremeice/thinice.html

The interviewees talking about the different words for ice is in Film #1 at 6:04 and ends at 7:00.

The woman serving the walrus meat meal is in Film #2 at 3:37 and ends at 4:55.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pjw0s5eg0631pah/1VOD_Ice1%20yt.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wrda3m948b2kjdn/4VOD_ICE4%20yt.mp4?dl=0

In case you didn’t know already, Hott has been producing documentary films since 1978, when he left the practice of law to join Florentine Films. His awards include an Emmy, two Academy Award nominations, a George Foster Peabody Award, the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, the Erik Barnouw Award, five American Film Festival Blue Ribbons, fourteen CINE Golden Eagles, screenings at Telluride, and first-place awards from the San Francisco, Chicago, National Educational, and New England Film Festivals.

Hott was the Fulbright Fellow in Film and Television in the United Kingdom in 1994. He received the Humanities Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities in 1995; a Massachusetts Cultural Council/Boston Film and Video Foundation Fellowship in 2001; and the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in 2001 Hott has been on the board of non-fiction writers at Smith College and has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Cultural Commission, and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. In 2009, 2010, and 2012 Hott presented his films in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Algeria as part of the American Documentary Showcase, a program of the US Department of State. In 2015 he was a Fulbright Specialist in Vietnam teaching documentary in Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts Sciences, the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America.

His recent films for national PBS broadcast include Through Deaf Eyes, American Masters John James Audubon: Drawn From Nature, Niagara Falls, The Return of the Cuyahoga, Imagining Robert and The War of 1812. He has recently finished three films for broadcast:Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America, Rising Voices/ Hótȟaŋiŋpi: The Revitalization of the Lakota Language and SciTech Band: Pride of Springfield.

For more information see: www.florentinefilms.org

Vaya Con Muñoz 4.30.16

4.30.16 La Gran Maestra, Professor Emeritus Sonia Nieto talks about why multicultural education and diversity is fundamental for a more just world. Learning about ourselves helps us understand the world. And don’t get us started on teaching to the test! That notion gets an “F.” Author of several books, including her recent autobiography, “Brooklyn Dreams: My Life in Public Education,” Professor Nieto’s distinguished career continues as she travels nationwide and overseas talking about diversity in education. We end with a taste of “Love Bizarre” with Sheila E. and Prince.

Vaya Con Muñoz 4.23.16

Art historian and curator Cynthia Velázquez in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the artist Jessie Amaury, who is working ona new mural in the northwest city. The country is in a catastrophic economic downturn, but art, like water, finds paths to travel, drop by drop, forges new paths. You can click here to join the Arecibo es Color Facebook page, or search for it from your FB page. Also on the program, a homage to Prince, who gave me courage to express passion and love. We play “Take Me With U”and as much as we can “Dirty Mind.”And, Marla Goldberg reads from her essay. It’s about her personal relationship with President Obama. Ooh

Vaya Con Muñoz 4.16.16

4.16.16 Long live teachers! Alicia López, a 7th and 8th grade ELL teacher in Amherst, talks about her blog, maestrateacher.com, the vital role of a multicultural education and what she would do if she were queen of public education. Also, Marla Goldberg reads speaks frankly about poop, and we end with rock n’ rollers Juanes and Miguel Bosé singing a balladey-rockish, “Nada Particular”

Vaya Con Muñoz 4.9.16

Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of Small Business Computing.com, a technology and business-growth resource for small business owners, managers and entrepreneurs. This is not a geek out fest, but it’s still a lot of fun and informative! Also, Marla Goldberg reads from her work, a shirt essay about shoes. And today we listen to Angelique Kidjo sing her own version of Santana’s “Samba pa ti” (“Samba For You”).

Vaya Con Muñoz 4.2.16

Shannon Rudder, executive director of MotherWoman, and Annette Cycon, the organization’s founder, talk about the support that is available to mothers in the region. MotherWoman supports and empowers mothers to create personal and social change by building community safety nets, impacting family policy and promoting leadership and resilience of mothers. MotherWoman is having its annual benefit dinner on April 13 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke starting at 5:10 p.m. Register here: https://www.razoo.com/us/story/Motherwomang2wg

Vaya Con Muñoz 3.26.16

We have a conversation with Alberto Sandoval Sánchez, Professor Emeritus at Mt. Holyoke College, about one of Puerto Rico’s renown painters, Francisco Oller, and how in the 19th century he was painting inclusivity into his work. “ El velorio,” —“ The Wake’—being among the most famous of Oller’s work. On March 23, we commemorated the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico on March 23, 1873, and talked about Oller’s work, the Puerto Rican’s diaspora and other topics related to identity