Marriage license granted to gay couple in Argentina

A gay couple received a marriage license in Buenos Aires today, a victory in their legal battle to become "man and man" during World Aids Day on Dec. 1.

A judge ruled last week that a ban on gay marriage violates Argentina's constitution and then granted the couple, Jose Maria Di Bello and Alex Freyre, permission to wed.

“On December 1st we will become man and man,” a teary-eyed Di Bello said as a clerk gave him the documentation, according to the Associated Press.

Freyre and Di Bello sued the city after they were denied a marriage license earlier this year. Judge Gabriela Seijas ruled that the nation's provisions for equality may not be violated by restrictions allowing only heterosexual marriages.

World Aids Day features efforts around the globe to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

-- Efrain Hernandez Jr.

Oliver Stone's new documentary heads 'South of the Border'

In his new documentary "South of the Border," Oliver Stone is shown warmly embracing Hugo Chávez, nibbling coca leaves with Evo Morales and gently teasing Cristina Elizabeth Fernández de Kirchner about how many pairs of shoes she owns, writes Reed Johnson.

These amiable, off-the-cuff snapshots of the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina, respectively, contrast with the way these left-leaning leaders often are depicted in U.S. political and mass-media circles. That's especially true of Chávez, the former military officer turned democratically elected socialist leader, who has become the ideological heir apparent to Fidel Castro and the bête noire of Bush administration foreign policy officials.

In setting out to make "South of the Border," which is scheduled to have its world premiere this week at the Venice Film Festival, Stone, a lightning-rod figure himself for the better part of three decades, says he wanted to supply a counterpoint to the prevailing U.S. image of Chávez, who's frequently represented in stateside op-ed pieces and political cartoons as a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure.

Read on here.

See more posts here on film, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and culture.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Recession hits Argentina's tango industry

Tango, Argentina's seductive, complex dance, isn't going to be able to hot-step its way through the financial crisis and the H1N1 flu outbreak. The country's tango industry has been badly hit by a drop in tourists put off by swine flu and the global recession, according to this report by the BBC:

"At the moment we are seeing a fall of around 70% in the number of people coming to see the shows," says Luis Veiga, president of Argentina's chamber of tango venues.

Some tango shows have been forced to close temporarily, and some might now have to close down altogether if things don't improve, he adds.

Read the rest of that report here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

The mystery of Lucrecia Martel's 'The Headless Woman'

Mark Olsen writes, for the Los Angeles Times:

It's an all-too-familiar situation: You're driving along, slightly distracted, and then a bump in the road brings that sickening feeling.

So begins 'The Headless Woman,' the third feature from Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel, opening in New York City on Wednesday and in Los Angeles on Sept. 4. A woman (played with masterful opacity by Maria Onetto) just keeps driving, and as the film unfolds it becomes increasingly unclear as to whether she hit something (a dog? a young boy?). Nevertheless, Onetto's character becomes increasingly disconnected from her upper-middle-class life, having seemingly left behind something of herself on that dusty stretch of empty road.

Read his full article here.

See the trailer in the video above

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Che Guevara images withdrawn from auction for lack of buyer

Five photo negatives of the Cuban revolutionary figure Ernesto "Che" Guevara that went on sale at the Mexican auction house Louis C. Morton over the weekend were withdrawn from the auction after failing to attract a buyer, Milenio newspaper reports.

Mexican students might love the Argentine now credited as one of the most important figures in the Cuban Revolution, alongside Fidel Castro, but it doesn't appear that art and antique buyers feel the same way.

One of the negatives up for auction was an image of Guevara addressing the First Latin American Congress of Youth in 1960.

The bidding for the negatives started at 80,000 pesos (around $6,075) but were withdrawn due to the lack of interest, reports the newspaper.

As we reported in January, when the first part of Steven Soderbergh's film "Che, the Argentine" premiered here, Guevara is popular among the sprawling student population in Mexico City, where he and Castro, then an exiled lawyer, planned the Cuban Revolution over dinner and cigars on July 3, 1955.

The myth and heroic image of Che have replaced a real understanding of the complex man that he was. His face is often seen emblazoned on flags and T-shirts at student protests and commonly evoked as a universal symbol of social struggle.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Image: Alberto Korda's 1960 photograph of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, not one of the negatives up for auction, has been painted, printed, silk-screened and sketched on nearly every surface imaginable. Credit: Alberto Korda.

Finland's tango fever

Though half a world away from Argentina, the shy Finns have a passion for the melancholy music and dance, writes the Christian Science Monitor's Stacy Teicher Khadaroo.

"Finland. A nation of reindeer, saunas, Nokia cellphones, and its own special version of ... tango?

"Yes. It seems the melancholic music is a perfect match for the typical Finnish soul. 'It's a little bit sad, and it's beautiful,' a woman tells me at a dimly lit Helsinki restaurant that regularly hosts dances. Paradoxically, when she moves to these sad melodies, she feels happy. (She didn't want to be named, her reason being another national trait: shyness.)

"When Finns first laid their eyes on performances of the Argentine tango nearly 100 years ago, they latched on and soon made it their own. By the 1930s, songwriters were penning original Finnish lyrics, setting the stories in their own snowy landscape."

Read more about the Finnish passion for Tango here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Top 10 cafes in Buenos Aires

Looking for advice on where to enjoy a caffeine-filled afternoon in Argentina's capital? Well, Oliver Balch, an Argentina-based journalist and author of the book "Viva South America," lists the top cafes in Buenos Aires for Britain's Guardian newspaper. He writes:

The city's cafes are more than just venues for intravenous pick-me-ups. They're where friends meet for a gossip, where neighbours pop in to read the freebie paper, and where office workers wile away their afternoons when the boss is away.

 

Buenos Aires, Panama City and Santiago among men's favored cities

The Latin American cities of Buenos Aires, Panama City and Santiago have been included in a global list of 29 cities where men would most like to live, reports Reuters.

The list, assembled by  AskMen.com, put Chicago at the top, helped perhaps by President Obama's association with that city.

AskMen.com used eight rating categories -- livability, sports and entertainment, culture, fashion, sex and dating, health, power and money and the good life -- when judging the winners.

Ratings took into account a list of factors including the rate of unemployment, income growth, ratios of single women to men, the cost of a pint of beer and the rate of male heart disease. An initial list of 60 was cut to 29.

AskMen.com's editor-in-chief James Bassil said the unexpected appearance of cities such as Panama City and Santiago reflected that "the cost of living is low and there is cool development and suddenly they are appropriate places to live in 2009."

Click on the AskMen.com link to read the article on its website.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Guadalajara International Film Festival underway in Mexico

The Guadalajara International Film Festival, one of Mexico’s most important film events, kicked off Thursday.

The festival, which runs until March 27, is expecting visits from such figures as Gael Garcia Bernal, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro and actor and director John Malkovich, who was recently in Mexico overseeing the production here of the play “The Good Canary.”

Serbian director Emir Kusturica, who along with Garcia Bernal will be honored with one of the festival’s top prizes, is expected to unveil his documentary on Argentine football legend Diego Maradona.

Colombia is the guest of honor this year. Documentaries and both short and long film features by Colombian directors will be screened at the event.

The festival received more than 650 film entries seeking to compete for its coveted prizes.

A number of Mexican films will premiere during the festival, and the festival will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Check in here for reporting from the Guadalajara International Film Festival on La Plaza. You can check out the festival's YouTube channel here.

See a review of one of the films showing at the festival -- writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga's "Sin Nombre" -- here in today's Los Angeles Times.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: The poster for this year's festival. Credit: http://www.guadalajaracinemafest09.com/es/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/cartelficg24rgb.jpg

Q&A: Steven Soderbergh Makes Hay of "Che"

Steven Soderbergh, director of the two-part movie "Che, the Argentine," about the life of the doctor turned revolutionary, answers questions about the epic in an interview with the Oregonian here.

Q: Inevitably, you've been attacked for glorifying a Communist and killer.  How do you respond to that charge?

A: All I can say is if you can't sit and watch the whole four-and-a-half hours and understand that it's not a glamorization of his life or a commercial for his ideology, then you haven't looked at it objectively. And there are things on the screen that you have chosen to ignore or not see. I stand behind the movie, and I feel that in 10 or 20 years' time it will be viewed for what it is, which is a dispassionate portrayal of certain periods in his life. For people who entirely define Che by what happened at La Cabana [NOTE: a Cuban prison where executions were held after the Revolution], the only part that will be satisfying will be the last 30 minutes of part two, which will be like political porn for them. I had total creative control over the movie. Nobody was telling me what to do. His actions never really had an impact on my upbringing or the upbringing of anyone around me. I came into this not knowing much about him. And I came away admiring certain aspects of his character and disagreeing with certain other aspects of his character. And there's no question: we're very clear that this guy killed people. We're very clear on that. And he was willing to be killed. Again, if you're anti-Che, you've gotta be happy with the way it ends. He's executed, without a trial, in a 12-by-12 room, and he would've been the first person to say, 'That's the risk I took.'