"What's my life in these days?

It’s complex to describe the life of ourselves and even more is describing a life in “categories” such as “academic life”, “personal life”, “free time activities” and “perspectives for next year”. Life is a very changing “thing” that we can’t even explain. We try to drive it like a material thing: life planning with goals, strategies, and ideals and so on. Maybe I’m generalizing the life attitude of people. I thought I was a free mind man, living the live with careless. Although I planned my life unconscious –a libertarian life-, but I didn’t understood one thing of life: life is change.
The last year I met a nice woman, Cony, and we had one of each. In the summer Cony became pregnant, waiting a son of mine. Since the day we decided to take our son, my life has changed tremendously. All of my plans have changed in many ways, and so I still changing a lot. From the day that my son Lautaro arrived into the world, I feel like I’m broken in many pieces, trying to find a new order: new order of ideas, times, emotions, etc. I feel like I born again when my son born. In one face I’m very happy for Lautaro to come to the world, I love him more than any other person in the world. But in other face I try to find myself between all my “spiritual disorders”.
I have to divide myself into my many phases: The man who is lover; the man who is a son; the man who is a father; the man who is friend; the man who is politic; the man who is student; the man who is himself and tries to learn and growth what he likes most (like play guitar, studies of other subjects, making “trades”, etc.). And by all this, I have to rest.
Academic Life: pretty tight because the “condensed semester”, it’s stressing. Anyway, I love to learn and this keeps me in road.
Personal life: I’ve already mentioned it.
Free time activities: I don’t have too much free time, but when I do, I go to swim, play the guitar, write all kind of things, stroll with Cony, share with my family and friends, read many books, and, how not, rest.
Perspectives for next year: I see myself in the next year taking practice and career in CEPAL, MINVU, MOP or institutions like these. I think I will be working part-time, maybe I can be assistant in a social subject in university. These is a common perspective and can be “normal” or even desirable for many people, but I do really like to be a writer (in subjects of geography and literature), teacher, songwriter, trade maker and live in Valparaiso or far to the south of Chile.

My neighborhood

I have to say that i dont know too much about my neighborhood, and in my mind it’s basically the Street where i live –a small dead-end street called Manuel Sanchez, in Macul-. So, my street was a quiet place, with leafy trees, few cars, big houses and a small square at the end of the street –with many trees, bushes and grass-. Between my neighbors we used to say hello in the street and to be kind. I had like 5 friends in my street: Nicolás, Damián, Andrés, Francisco and Francisco –another one-. We used to play a lot in the street: soccer, tennis, water war, “25”, skate and so on. But one day, in 2007, a proprietary developer saw in my street the perfect place to maximize his benefits, the mayor (Puyol) saw the opportunity of increase the town people density and by this, increase other kind of capital inversions (Market rules) and also he saw in this the opportunity to bring to the people a “best service”, because the municipality is not more an organization statement: is a service provider and we are not neighbors anymore, now we are “USERS”. They called it progress. So, the building started its construction phase and my friends “across the street” went to other places in the city (the 2 Francisco, Andrés and Nicolás). Their parents sold their overprized houses, so, now they can live in Ñuñoa and “high” Peñalolén, because, as the municipality, their parents looked after progress. Today in my street, there is a 22 floors building with dozens of families. Today we don’t salute in the streets and there isn’t respect –because we are many person, many faces in the little street and some mother fuckers feel moral un-punishment in the anonymity-. My father lost his car –robbed from the pavement of my house), his laptop –Robbed from the house- and other items. So, we’ve progressed and we hope that with this, Manuel Sanchez will be a better place, like the other streets in which happened the same, lots of streets in Macul and Ñuñoa.
The propriety developer and the emprise says “Hey, the only law is the market law! The natural law of every man is to act and look after maximize his benefits! Jungle law!” And so… we are acting according to that. Some people thinks that this law will make progress, but it’s the progress of ones against others.
Ah, in other way, I live almost beside (but isolated) from a huge Hypermarket Lider® and some other surviving markets: Bazar, Hardware store, butcher’s and so on.

My Best Holiday

My best holiday in the life was the one that i mentioned in "My favourite field trip" post. But now i will not mention the first part of the holiday - when i was in LafkenMapu- (even it's part of my best holiday, i don't mention it because it could be too reiterative). It was in the last January to half February of 2010.
Fabian and me triped from Lafken Mapu to Puerto Montt making car ride and taking local bus. In the road we saw wonderfull landscapes of the coast: Mehuín, Queule, Tolten, and so on. In Puerto Montt we met Carlos "el furby" and Christian "el cabro loco". The next day we go to Puerto Varas, in Lago Llanquihue. Then to Saltos del Petrohué with a venezuelan family who take us to there. The next day we go to the town of Puelo (we walked beside the Reloncaví) , we stayed the night in a lonely parcel and a huge bull frightened us and throwed us out from there at midnight. So we had to sleep beside the road. The next day we went to tagua tagua lake, there was raining hard and by miracle we found a deserted house to camp in. The next days we saw and made lots of things: Go to Llanada Grande, go to traditional fests, to the Blue Lake... go back to Puerto Montt and then go to Chiloé: a semi-friend of Carlos helped us in there to be "under roof". We was in Ancud, Castro fest, Ahui beach and so on.
I did lots of things with my friends, so this holiday is unforgettable, i learned lots of things and i wait and hope to do it again!!

The stereotypes in LA

Each one of us has a mental perception that is generalizing the reality and its parts: When we talk about a territory, a comune, a region, a gender (male or female), an age (old, young...), politics (Right, Left, other groups), and so on. One of this way of generalize the reality is the stereotype, but I think that a stereotype is build by the massive communication net and all kind of publicitation in the society.
Today I'm gonna talk about the massive Idea about LatinAmerican stereotypes for the main known countries, and then mention what is my own vision about these countries:
Mexicans: They are dirty and lazy people, that is very friendly and kind. They are good at parties and loves to drink a lot of tequila. Also they are very loud and cheerful. I personally think that they are the most like a chilean: gray sad people plunged in their jobs, working a lot and being very submissive to the boss.
Cubans: They are comunists that dances very well, with a rythmical nature. They are very charming and dirty. I personally think they are very diverse, so it’s hard to stereotype them, anyway i think they are joy people with a lot of sensitive for society.
Brazilians: They are good to soccer and well dancers. They are also good lovers and charming. They haven’t many negative aspects but I can mention that they are violent and mean. I personally thinks that they are very polarized: poors and riches. The Rich are these that we found in the Elite World making tourism, taking photos, always happy. We don’t know much about poor brazilian people, maybe they are a little violent, but humble and charming.
Peruvians and bolivians: They are dirty, lazy, uglies, inferiors and all this kind of things that the Chilean Elite tell to us after the Saltpeter War . I personally think that they are a incredible rich people that has an awesome diversity of natural landscapes and cultures, and this is their richness (i think more Bolivia than Peru). I think too that they are very humble and faithful.
Argentinians: They are very charming and womaniers, unorganized and charlatans. I personally have to add that they are incredible arrogant and snobby, but very creatives, social and culturally compromised.
Chileans: The “Jaguars” from LatinAmerica, polite people. International robbers and charlatans. I think we are a nation of coward-sad people that sucks the penis of the boss; we love the owners of our nation and our lifes; we admire our conquerors and we want to be like them. Our youth is full of idiots that copy the modes from the youth of Empire Nations (G-20) and we aspire in our lifes to have a nice car, a nice house, a nice wife and a shiny job; So we use to sell our culture, our environment and all this kind of things.

Again I remind that this Post is a stupid generalization of the people.
Anyway I think like the Capitalist Global World will become the nations and the people more like the description I wrote for the chileans: I think we are the the LatinAmerican Vanguard of the capitalist society model: the non-thinking consumer machine.

Inside Chile I know-see the next Stereotypes:
North: dark-skinned people, with completely black hair, small and almost don't talk.
Center: An idiot that think he is better than others.
South: Kind people that speaks like singing and is a little fat. Descendants from germans or mapuche. They are like Huasos, a little rude too.

Urban: Snobby sad people, flytes that pick pockets to everyone, racist-fascist-stupid cuicos and so on...

My favourite beach

I really haven't a favourite beach; I can't make a hierarchy to say wich of them I love more, almost all have something special and unique to me.
I will talk about my favourite beaches: In the south of Chile, I love the coast from La araucanía. It's a cloudy coast full of beaches. The sea turns in an emotive black tone: cold, deep, angry, huge... the landscape calls to reflect a lot and that is what i do when i go there: sit, watch to the sea and think a lot of things.
In the Central zone I love the mediterranean weather and all kind of beaches: rocky beaches, soft sand beaches and the cliffs... so you can walk in the rocky beaches (like Punta de tralca) and look for crabs, snails, pretty rocks (I really love to do this), and so on... you can also walk between one beach and other. In soft sand beaches (like El canelo) I preffer to swimming and make "playita" in the waves. It's very fun. You can enjoy a lot sitting on a cliff (a little dangerous but nice) and looking to the sunset or the wide sea.
More to the north the beaches have soft sand, warmer waters and higher waves (Like beach "Socos" in Tongoy or beach "Cabancha" far to the north in Iquique), so I preffer to swimm a lot, make playita, do bodyboard and this kind of things, or taking sun talking with friends or reading something interesting.
I can't say how often i go to these beaches I mentioned, but I can say that I go almost every summer to the beach, it depends on the vacations plan that I make with my friends.
The last time, this summer, I went to "playa socos" and "playa grande", in Tongoy town.

My first CD

Before I had a CD i used to listen cassettes in the radio. I liked a lot to groups like Molotov, then I was like 8 years old and my first Cassette was "Donde jugaron las niñas". My first CD was a gift from my brother Rodrigo, it was "The dark side of the moon" by the british band "Pink Floyd". It was in my 12 years old birthday.
In that moment I didn't understand that music too much, it sounded too weird for me. Anyway it started to change the way i saw the music, not only as a "melody with rythm", but as a complex art filled with different emotions and intentions, with different ways to express it, lyric content and a different way to understand the sound. Actually i love to Pink Floyd, i think they are creators of a new path, mixing several art tendencies (surrealist, impresionist, realist, and so on) and styles with music, lyric and graphic expression, all in one scene.
The songs i like best of this album are: "Breathe", "Money" and "Time". Maybe are the most melodical song, but they have an awesome content too, talking about greed, illness, the meaning of life, aging and so on.
My favourite album of Pink Floyd is "The wall". They talk about the power abuse, the war, the economic systems, the meaning of life, and how the man is abused and teached to follow a way that doesn't allow any diversity or freedom: the way that the boss, the general, the president and the jerarchys want you to do. I like it because it shows how life is a lot wider than the "Progress" idea that drive us to war.

Correction to Beligomita

My favourite field trip

One of the field works that I most liked was the field work of Cultural Geography, with the proffesor Enrique Aliste,(P/ . The site) the site was Huasco, located in the third region of Chile. Before all (WE/ Above all), this place is the most far to north that I've been in my life. Initially, I'didn't feel good because I was sick, but then, when we arrived to Huasco and we saw the wonderfull scenery,(P/ without comma) I got better. I think that Huasco made me undesrtood what it is the mean of territory, one of the main concepts for our career. The people was very nice, welcoming (WE/ kind), kind, and was a beautiful life experience and definitely the best field work that I ever had.
I got closser (SP/ closer) with my friends and I think this area marked a turning point in my career, my life, even in how I see human groups today, because there we saw large contingency issue closely, (SM/ like) Pascua Lama.

There have been other field works that I liked very much, that even relate more (WE/ That relate even more) to what I like most of Geography. However, the field (SM/ work) of Huasco goes beyond (WE/ goes against or goes away) my personal taste of geography, but it was the experience that I liked (SM/ most).
See you the next week!!!

My favourite Field trip

My favorite field trip wasn't really a field trip like a university student, but as a student of my own life. It had two stages: First stage I went with some friends to the coast of the ninth region of la Araucanía. There we worked, helped and learned from the local people and their culture. The subject could be about aproach to the local people territorial experiencie. My own subject was about a lesson of Diversity and how the Vertical Power can be resisted and combated. Who taught it? Maybe no one, but if some one taught it, was the local people, the friendship, the humility and myself.
I started from la Araucanía in a cloudy and rainy morning to the south with one of my closest friends, we taked car ride. The landscape was awesome. We went to Puerto Montt, where we met another 2 good friends to start the second stage of the trip by taking car ride to different zones of the Región de Los Lagos. In this second stage we shared with a lot of kind people and learned from them, we saw water falls, rural towns, native woods, awesome lakes in the Andes zone and learned to survive there. Also we went later to Chiloé (Ancud). We made friends along the trip and enojoyed some traditional fest.
This trip changed the way I see the life and my own life... it made me feel a great huge world, with lots of lovely landscapes, cultures, misteries and experiences. I think this trip is a step... a way to "make this life free an beautiful. To make this life a wonderful adventure" like Chaplin said.

The Youtube project tool

Today i want to talk about a very special social network to me: Youtube project. Youtube is a website created to share videos and media with all the people around the world, for free.
I started using this network when not much people used it (in may of 2006). I think its a great plataform to approach people to the world events. In youtube you can find thousand of tutorials of anything you want; you can find some of the music you like: live concerts, exclusive publications, and so on... You can find amazing notices of the world wide happening... you can share your opinion with other people to debate contents or anything you like. But... not all is perfect: in 2009-2010 youtube was bought by the google company and then started to be comercializing, censoring the online contents. Now you can't see all the artists and videos.
Anyway youtube is a great plataform, i use it almost everyday, mainly to listen music, because its easier than download it and you can create your own playlists and albums with music. Thats why i like Youtube, and i think it can be a powerfull media to conscientize society... or to make society stupid...
I think that this social network is less invasive than other networks like facebook or twitter, because it doesn't control that much your social relationship.

Mauricio Redoles: Chilean experimental musician

The first time i listened to Redoles in the radio, was around 12 years old and couldn't understand very much his music, honestly i did not liked it... when i was more old i started to understood a bit more of his music: it was full of cultural contents, about the people, the Yungay neighborhood, the politic happenings, methaphoric messages, sarcasm and black humor. The music of Redoles can be very confusing, at the time he mixes Andes folk with rock and all kind of rare music, with perturbing lyrics, poetic interventions, and so on. I really wanted to see Redoles at alive to see his curious performance. Finally i went to one of his concerts in early march of this year, in the FeCh House.

I really liked it, despite that the sound wasn't really clean, but the performance of Redoles was really amazing with lyric changes and curious monologues between one song and other. Redoles mean to me a new way to music compose, art exhibition and social content. Its hard to interpret the music and lyric at the beggining but once that you think about it maybe you'll find an interesting art, full of things and symbols of the chilean daily life.

My Favourite Movie

My favourite movie of all is "Life is Beautiful" (La Vita è bella) by the italian director and actor Roberto Benigni.

It's about an italian-jewish man named Guido (Roberto Benigni) who fell in love with a woman of the italian fascist aristocracy named Dora and escapes with her to create a new family, getting a son named Giosue, just a little before the start of the World War II. The fascist gobernment decides to deport some of the jewish population to a nazis concentration camp, this decition affects directly to Guido, his uncle and his son, so they were deported into a train to germany. Also Dora, that is a non-jewish woman, decides to go into the same train with her family and run the same destiny.

Along the movie Guido makes Giosue to believe that the concentration camp is just a hard and funny game in what they have to collect points to win a war tank. Dora is in a nearby concentration camp sector for women, and is resisting the Holocaust beside Guido and Giosue. Finally Guido is murdered by a german soldier just after he hides Giosue of the nazis. The next day the nazi concentration camp is invaded by the USA imperialist forces: Giosue thinks that the tanks are the prize of the game that Guido told him about. In the way of the tank caravan Giosue meets his mother in the way.
Its a very emotional movie that shows how we can resist the bad situations with the attitude of happiness. Some people says that is a fake movie that doesn't show the real hard time of the Holocaust, but i love how the movie can show the Holocaust in a different way of the traditional sad and seek WWII movie, it can make you feel from very happy to sad, that's why i like this movie: a different point of view; different emotions.
I saw this movie when i was child in 1997 and i didn't understood it very well. Anyway i have seen it lot of times more and i ever have new elements to check and reflex about the film. I think of this movie as a Life Lesson: an art.