Selena

April 16, 1971
March 31, 1995

Que en Paz Descanse.

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Ni te cases, ni te embarques...

Marte, Dios romano de la guerra (Ares en la mitologia griega)

The saying goes like this "En un martes, ni te cases ni te embarques, ni de tu familia te apartes". Popular lore in the Spanish-speaking world has it that this is not an auspicious day to get married, to start on a journey or to separate yourself from your family.

This day of the week (martes) is named after the Roman God of War, also known as the God Ares in Greek mythology. The day of the week, the month of March and the planet are all named after him. In Spanish, the day is spelled martes, from the latin Martis Dies, day of Mars. However, the planet is spelled Marte which is the name Martis in Spanish.

The sign Aries in western astrology is named after Ares. Which it means that on this day we happen to be on the realm of his day, his month and his sign.

Other associations: the color red, fire, sports and the military. The alchemist used to associate him with iron (metal).

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Aguas de março

Tom Jobim

With all the rain that we have been getting lately around here I can't help but to think about "Aguas de março" one of my favorite songs of my music idol: the late Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida (Tom Jobim). Traditionally, March is amid the rainy season in Brasil. At this time, the summer season is drawing to a close and leaving the stage for the autumn down in the southern hemisphere. Here are the lyrics in the beautiful Portuguese language. Aguas de Março means literally "Waters of March" but the most adequate translation would be "Rains of March". Click on the link or the title of this post to visit "Clube do Tom" the website dedicate to his life and to hear this song with Real Player plus other masterpieces of the greatest musical genius of the XX century.

Incidentally, the melody of this song was converted to a worldwide jingle for
Coca Cola a few years ago with great success.

Aguas de março

É pau, é pedra, é o fim do caminho
É um resto de toco, é um pouco sozinho
É um caco de vidro, é a vida, é o sol
É a noite, é a morte, é um laço, é o anzol
É peroba do campo, é o nó da madeira
Caingá, candeia, é o Matita Pereira

É madeira de vento, tombo da ribanceira
É o mistério profundo, é o queira ou não queira
É o vento ventando, é o fim da ladeira
É a viga, é o vão, festa da cumeeira
É a chuva chovendo, é conversa ribeira
Das águas de março, é o fim da canseira
É o pé, é o chão, é a marcha estradeira
Passarinho na mão, pedra de atiradeira

É uma ave no céu, é uma ave no chão
É um regato, é uma fonte, é um pedaço de pão
É o fundo do poço, é o fim do caminho
No rosto o desgosto, é um pouco sozinho

É um estrepe, é um prego, é uma conta, é um conto
É uma ponta, é um ponto, é um pingo pingando
É um peixe, é um gesto, é uma prata brilhando
É a luz da manhã, é o tijolo chegando
É a lenha, é o dia, é o fim da picada
É a garrafa de cana, o estilhaço na estrada
É o projeto da casa, é o corpo na cama
É o carro enguiçado, é a lama, é a lama

É um passo, é uma ponte, é um sapo, é uma rã
É um resto de mato, na luz da manhã
São as águas de março fechando o verão
É a promessa de vida no teu coração

É uma cobra, é um pau, é João, é José
É um espinho na mão, é um corte no pé
É um passo, é uma ponte, é um sapo, é uma rã
É um belo horizonte, é uma febre terçã
São as águas de março fechando o verão
É a promessa de vida no teu coração.

(Rio de Janeiro, 1972)

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Se habla español

If you are interested in a little Spanish Conversational practice come to hang out with the North Tampa Conversational Spanish Group.

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La Música de Pedro

The real name of mi amigo Pedro is really Peter Fleming, a very fine gentleman of Scottish stock and former student of mine. He is a big fan of blues music. So much so that he recently received a national award from the Blues Foundation for his extraordinary support of "the cause" which in this context means 'keeping the blues music alive'. My congratulations to Pedrito Fleming and here is the announcement on that regard as posted on the website of the Blues Foundation:

Sponsor: bandVillage, Peter Fleming
Sarasota, Florida
Conceived by its founder, Peter Fleming, as a better way to promote independent musicians, encourage live music, and most importantly encourage fans to support those musicians, www.bandVillage.com is a global music portal providing musicians, fans, and venues with services to keep independent music alive. Peter has taken time from bandVillage and its parent company 1030 Consulting LLP to donate hundreds of hours designing, building, and maintaining www.blues.org, The Blues Foundation’s website. bandVillage is also a sponsor of the 2005 International Blues Challenge.

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Florida Latino Forum

I just got this fresh from Tony Morejon, a well-respected leader of the latino
community in the city of Tampa and the County of Hillsborough. It is a brand new
forum but I don't doubt that is going to get caliente pretty soon.. Feel free to pass it
on to others.

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Spanish Eyes (Al Martino)

The voice behind "Spanish Eyes" and "Cuando, cuando, cuando"

Click on the tittle of this post to visit a nice website that contains the lyrics of the song, plus you get to hear it playing and there is also a little history. Only thing is that they list erroneously Mr. Martino as a Spanish singer.

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Cuando, Cuando, Cuando

I was at Cappy's yesterday. Cappy is mi barbero. I love this place. Everything is old fashioned, not because he set it out to be like that. Mind you, Cappy has been running this barbershop at the same Nebraska avenue location since the mid 60's. So, this is a place where I get a decent haircut and get to surround myself of the authentic "Americana Vibe" of yesteryear. To some degree, not too different from the barbershops of my childhood back in the caribbean. In any event, there was this vintage radio, sitting on top of a really vintage (and perfectly working) refrigerator that holds the soda bottles and cans that the clientele can buy for 50 cents. That radio is permanently tuned to a local AM station that plays oldies, big band, jazz-era tunes and lots of Sinatra, Crosby, and other great crooners from the days when there was actually good taste in the world of music. The old radio (that is "antique" to the truly connoisseur) was soothing the air with this song that says "Cuando, cuando, cuando". I have heard it before and became curious about the singer and the story behind it. Sometimes, the world wide web turns out to be a dry well for the precise information that you are digging for. However, this much I got: that lovely song is an old hit of Al Martino, an italian-america crooner from Philly. He was the voice behind "Spanish Eyes" also. More on that one later, cuando sea posible.

__________________________

Julio Vasquez

Spanish Tutoring by a Pro!
http://julionet.com/

Professional Translations
English - Spanish
http://tampatranslator.com/

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La estación de las flores

Llego la primavera. The Spring season has just made its grand debut. In ancient times this was considered the start of the year. According to the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, this is the etymology of the word: Del lat. vulg. prima vera, y este del lat. primum, primero, y ver, primavera). In other words it means first season.

Disfrute de la que los italianos llaman "La stagione splendida" (the splendid
season).

Worth noting is the fact that this is the start of the Autumn season (otoño) down in the southern hemisphere where great part of South America is located. Check that link out for a different version of the season.

This image is the painting by Salvador Dali entitled: "I Primi Giomi Di Primavera."

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Viejo Buen Amigo Poeta

One of the many books published by Dominican award-winning poet Rene Rodriguez Soriano.


Rene Rodriguez Soriano is one of the finest poets of his generation that could be comfortably placed at any cardinal point of the Latin American intellectual cartography and dress the Spanish language with its best garb. A personal friend of mine for more than 23 years and an old colleague from my days in the advertising industry. At one point, we were copywriters for different agencies that were located in the same building. He was on the 6th floor and I was on the 5th floor.

Today he is in Miami and I am in Tampa. Close enough.

The book pictured with this post “Canciones Rosas para una Niña Gris Metal” was pasted-up into life form on top of a draftman's table that sat in the living room of my then apartment, overlooking the old colonial city of Santo Domingo, its harbor and the Ozama River, way back in 1982.

Ah, those were the days of sharing “ginebra importada”, the poetry of Antonio
Machado, the songs of Alberto Cortez and a quest for the meaning of our youth
through the magic of exquisite Spanish prose.

Con saludos a Miriam, Jairo y Piero.

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Otro cumpleañero: Salvador Dali

The late master of surrealism: Salvador Dali had his very own worldwide fiesta last year. 2004 was the year of his centenary and since he is having another birthday in about two months we get to celebrate once again this great immortal of the arts.

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Feliz Cumpleaños número 400 para Don Quijote

This year is the celebration of the "IV Centenario de Don Quijote" yes, that's right 400 years and the Don is still battling windmills and romancing his dulcinea throughout the world in an everlasting showcase of the power of a classic masterpiece like few others have ever been written.

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Bienvenido to the new blog for Julionet.com

I sincerely hope that all my web site visitors will enjoy the postings that I will be publishing to the blog on an ongoing basis.

Un abrazo para todos.

Julio.

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