 Colombian singer-songwriter Juan Fernando Fonseca already gets the crowds in his native country out of their seats and dancing with his Latin pop songs that blend vallenato and cumbia styles. Now he’s hoping to bring the Fonseca Phenomenon to the States. He sold-out nine of the 12 dates for his U.S. tour, which wrapped Friday.
Earlier this week, the 30-year-old singer-songwriter, known by his surname Fonseca, performed seven songs, including "Te Mando Flores," "Gratitud" and "Arroyito," in front of roughly 200 people at the Grammy Museum in downtown L.A., where he took the honor of being the first Latin artist to perform at the venue.
Read more about Fonseca over at our Pop & Hiss blog. --Yvonne Villarreal
Photo: Fonseca. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times
You may remember Colombian street artist Bastardilla from here on La Plaza a few months back.
Now you can see more of the mystery girl, who prefers to remain anonymous and allow her art to speak for itself, in this video from Nadja Drost on GlobalPost. The artist, whose name is Spanish for "italics," is determined to remain known only by her pseudonym. Fame, apparently, doesn't interest her.
But if she carries on creating such amazing work, she might not be able to stay in the shadows for much longer.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
 Hostage stories are hot property these days.
Bookstores in Colombia are full of gripping tales by former hostages detailing how they survived forced marches, military bombing runs, jungle-borne parasites and the abuse of sadistic guards, writes Juan Forero for the Washington Post in Bogota.
A few of the authors, explains Forero, have gone deeper, explaining their frailties under harrowing conditions or "recounting the inevitable human drama that unfolded in the jungle, from rivalries in makeshift prisons to the romances that blossomed between some hostages."
And Colombians are awaiting the release of a book by former hostage Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian former presidential candidate who was liberated last year after being held for more than six years by the Colombian rebel force FARC.
The books have generated a swirl of controversy in a country where people tend to be wary of airing intimacies in public. Some critics have strongly rebuked the trend.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Image: In "Out of Captivity," three Americans describe their experiences as hostages of FARC. The book was launched in New York late last month but is selling well in Bogota. Credit: HarperCollins
Writer Amy Turner of The Times (of London) profiles Colombian popstar Shakira in this article, pondering the star's combination of sexuality and philanthropy: Shakira, she of the bum-gyrating, belly-wriggling Latin pop songs Hips Don’t Lie and Underneath Your Clothes, is being kissed by nuns. Around her swarm photographers, reporters, fans and minders, as you'd expect of a 40m-album-selling artist; "Shaki, Shaki, over here," they shout. She poses for pictures, patient as the sisters, smiling serenely. She has just stepped offstage, but she's not wearing her usual low-slung hipsters or bikini top, and she hasn't been gyrating tonight. She's all in black -- a sleek, smart shift dress -- and her trademark tousled curls are soberly straight.
Last year, we covered the launch of one of Shakira's latest philanthropic ventures ALAS (Wings) here in Mexico City -- see the video below and click here for more details.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
If you speak a little Spanish and recently have spent a bit of time anywhere near the border, you've probably heard a narcocorrido, a ballad sung to danceable norteño-style music with lyrics that romanticize the drug trade, writes Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times book section.
Rutten writes that "The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellín Cartel" is the literary equivalent of a narcocorrido -- "without the redeeming virtue of a catchy, polka-inflected beat." The book's cover bears two additional subtitles: one informing us that this is "the true story of Pablo Escobar"; the other that the author, Roberto Escobar, is his brother.
But the reviewer is unimpressed with Escobar's account of his brother's cocaine empire which, according to Forbes magazine, accounted for 80% of the world's cocaine traffic: This oddly flat and, frankly, repellent book is certainly not confessional and is, in fact, less a memoir than it is an apologia for the brother Roberto quite obviously admires still. Pablo's drift into criminality is, in his brother's mind, at least, the inevitable consequence of growing up poor and ambitious in a violent, underdeveloped society. The fact that hundreds of thousands of other young men growing up in similar circumstances didn't elect to better themselves by profiteering on misery and death is airily passed over; Pablo, after all, was 'a born leader.
Read the full review here.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: A visitor tours a Colombian ranch once owned by Pablo Escobar. Credit: Luis Benavides / Associated Press
Juxtapoz, the San Francisco-based arts and culture magazine, is raving about a Colombian street artist called Bastardilla.
The artist, says the magazine, sent them a link to her Flickr page, which features photos of her work.
"Not only do we rarely receive mail from Colombia, but we hardly ever see such a wealth of great artistry from an artist we were not yet familiar with," says Juxtapoz on its website.
Bastardilla's work is impressive, using paint and an extraordinary array of colors to adorn Bogota's public spaces. But it appears she's not chasing fame. In an e-mail to La Plaza, she said she wanted to remain anonymous. She did reveal, however, that she's a 27-year-old woman living in Bogota.
See Bastardilla at work in the video below, embedded from her Vimeo site at http://www.vimeo.com/bastardilla.
*Brillo en las calles / Shine on the streets* from B a s ta r d i l l a on Vimeo.-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: One of Bastardilla's works in Bogota, Colombia, from her Flickr page and courtesy of the artist.
More affordable computers and an expanding broadband network are two of the factors helping to push Internet use in Latin America, according to a survey conducted by Pyramid Research for Google.
The Miami Herald reports that the recent expansion of Internet users in Latin America has been dramatic.
In 2007, for example, Colombia added 5.4 million Internet users, or about 12% of its population of 45 million -- an 80% increase in the number of Colombia's Internet users that year.
Brazil added 7.4 million Internet users in 2007 (17% growth), Mexico more than 2.2 million (an 11% increase) and Venezuela 1.58 million (38% growth).
Read the full report through the link above.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
The National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia threatens to sue "Mother Goose & Grimm" cartoonist Mike Peters, after the publication of a cartoon strip that the group claims "attacks the national dignity and the reputation of coffee from Colombia" by linking organized crime and coffee, according to the Associated Press.
In the comic strip, which you can see here, a character says: "Y'know, there's a big crime syndicate in Colombia. So when they say there's a little bit of Juan Valdez in every can, maybe they're not kidding." The joke plays off a former marketing slogan used by the federation, AP says.
Juan Valdez is a fictional character that has appeared in advertisements for the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia since 1959, representing the Colombian coffee farmer.
The lawsuit against Peters will reportedly be filed tomorrow and seek at least $20 million in damages, as well as demand a retraction from any newspaper that published the Jan. 2 cartoon.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Chris Kraul reports: The president of a failed Colombian financial services firm suspected of laundering drug profits and bilking thousands of mostly poor investors of millions of dollars has been arrested in Panama and deported, officials said Thursday.
David Murcia Guzman, 28, founder of the DMG financial services firm, was detained Wednesday night near Panama City as he prepared to flee to Costa Rica, where there is no extradition treaty with Colombia, Colombian National Police Chief Oscar Naranjo told reporters.
DMG is one of 40 financial services firms in Colombia under investigation for running suspected pyramid, or Ponzi, schemes. The firms, which attracted investors with promises of extraordinary returns, are suspected of simply paying early investors and enriching promoters with money from people who invested later, police said.
Read more of "Figure in alleged Colombia scam extradited" here.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
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Chris Kraul
Mexico City:
Deborah Bonello
Ken Ellingwood
San Diego:
Richard Marosi
Washington:
Nicole Gaouette