RIP Jesus ‘Chuy’ Silva Jr: Bodyboarding champion Posted: April 5, 2013 by kirisyko in Bodyboarding, Water Tags: Arica, Bodyboard, Canary Islands

RIP Jesus ‘Chuy’ Silva Jr: Bodyboarding champion

Posted: April 5, 2013 by kirisyko in Bodyboarding, Water
Tags: Arica, Bodyboard, Canary Islands, International Bodyboard Association,Mexico, Puerto Escondido

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Jesus “Chuy” Silva Jr was one of the top riders on the world professional bodyboarding tour, representing not only himself but his native Mexico. He helped popularise the sport – once better-known as boogie-boarding – around the world, and not least in his home town of Puerto Escondido on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

His late father, Jesus “Chuy” Silva Sr, who died in 2009, had previously turned the Mexican resort into a magnet for “stand-up” surfers who now flock to tackle its famous pipeline, el tubo, by day and empty its bars of Tecate beer by night. While Chuy Sr was an internationally known stand-up surfing hero, Chuy Jr, at the age of four, decided to make his own mark by riding the short, rectangular bodyboard, usually on his belly, sometimes using the DK “drop-knee” technique of kneeling on the board, winning his first national event at the age of 12. Chuy Jr has died at the age of 25, not on the waves but on the motor scooter he used to get himself and his boards to the Zicatela beach in Puerto Escondido.

“Puerto Escondido is the heaviest beach break in the world,” said Rob Barber, who runs the UK’s only bodyboarding-specific school, part of the Newquay Activity Centre in Cornwall. “Waves travel through extremely deep water at great speeds and then detonate with great power on the coastal shelf, with consistent tubing waves of up to 40 feet attracting the world’s best wave riders. To Chuy, these were his home waves.”

Chuy Jr – his English-speaking friends loved saying his name because it’s pronounced Chewy – was a language teacher during the day, a bodyboarder at dawn and sunset. He was Mexican national champion in 2008 and 2009, when Mexico was one of bodyboarding’s greatest venues, and he went on to compete in world championship events of the International Bodyboarding Association, including those at Arica, Chile, and in the Canary Islands last year. His problem was in finding the sponsorship that was easily secured by his US rivals, but one of his proudest achievements came in an event in Tijuana in 2009 when he outscored the great American, Jeff Hubbard of Hawaii, the IBA world champion that year (as well as in 2006 and 2012). Silva didn’t just ride waves, he flew over them, doing back flips, rolls and “inverted airs” high above the crest.

He was born in Puerto Escondido in January 1988. “I first got into football, karate and swimming,” he said in a blog shortly before he died. His father’s reputation as a stand-up surfer was hard to follow but, having been given a boogieboard by his dad when he was four, Chuy Jr decided he could enjoy his waves better on his belly rather than his feet. Although people born near oceans had been riding makeshift planks or boards for centuries, if not millennia – notably in Polynesia – the boogieboard created by the Californian, Tom Morey, had added a sporting dimension in the 1970s. Young Chuy took to his board as though it was part of him, helped by swim fins (flippers) to give extra propulsion on the crest, face or curl of a wave.

When news of Chuy Silva’s death spread around the internet, tributes poured in from around the world. The International Bodyboarding Association wrote: “Chuy was a great personality with many friends around the world and will be remembered deeply forever… This is a sad day for bodyboarding… RIP Chuy Silva – your legacy will live on!”

His death, from head injuries sustained while coming back from a bar in the small hours, caused a massive debate in his home town, not over surfing or bodyboarding but over the safety of motor scooters. In a small town which is still largely poor despite foreign tourism, motor scooters are the equivalent of the family car, with both parents often seen with two or even three children clinging to them. Helmets are not mandatory, and are, anyway, usually beyond the family budget.

Jesus “Chuy” Silva Cabrera: professional bodyboarder: born Puerto Escondido, Mexico January 1988; died Puerto Escondido 13 January 2013.

Fire acrobats at Zicatela Beach, Puerto Escondido, Mexico

Ben Sims - The Afterparty (Adam Beyer Remix)

My Spanish Notes ¿Por qué no te echas un coyotito?

My Spanish Notes

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¿Por qué no te echas un coyotito? Posted: 04 Apr 2013 08:22 PM PDT If there's one word in Spanish that probably everyone in the US learns, it's the word siesta.  I doubt that I need to explain what it means, but just to make sure no one gets left in the dark, a siesta is a nap. Me voy a tomar una siesta, me estoy muriendo de sueño I'm going to take a nap, I'm really sleepy Those of you who are really astute may have noticed "I'm really sleepy" is not a direct translation of "me estoy muriendo de sueño".  Literally "me estoy muriendo de sueño" is "I'm dying of sleep".  Sure it's understandable, but we just don't say that in English, or at least I've never heard it.   OK, It's time to get back on track. Tomar una siesta is a great way to tell people you're going to grab a few winks, but you're not going to impress anybody and it's kind of boring to be honest, at least when you compare it to some of the other options you have.  Let's take a look at these other options. Echarse una siesta Antes de salir a la fiesta me voy echar una siestecita para recargar pilas Before I leave for the party I'm going to take a little nap to recharge my batteries A siestecita is just a diminutive of the word siesta.  Use whichever one you prefer. Now we're starting to sound a little more native.  But we're not done yet, we're just getting started. Echarse un sueño Voy a echarme un sueñito I'm going to get a little sleep Sueñito is another one of those diminutives and it comes from the word sueño which officially means dream or to be sleepy.  You can also use the word sueño if you're not big on diminutives. Our next phrase involves the word pestaña, which means eyelash. Me voy a echar una pestaña, estoy muy cansado I'm going to take a nap, I'm really tired And of course you can use it in it's diminutive form. Me voy a echar una pestañita de 1 horita no más I'm going to take a little nap for just an hour, no longer So far all the ways we've looked at to say we're going to lay our heads down for a little bit are pretty neutral and should be recognized by all Spanish speakers, but this next one might be  exclusive to our Mexican neighbors. Echarse un coyote Ahorita que no está el jefe, me voy a echar un coyotito Since the boss isn't here right now, I'm going to take a nap ¿Por qué no te echas un coyote? Why don't you take a nap? And there you have it.  Three ways to say you need to recharge those pilas and one additional way to say it if you want to sound muy Mexicano. ¡Hasta la próxima!

Art Show in Zipolite

Tech May Be Whistled Language's Demise APR 5, 2013 11:30 AM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS

LIFE

Tech May Be Whistled Language's Demise

APR 5, 2013 11:30 AM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS

Still from the series "In the Americas with David Yetman."

 

MARK SICOLI

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In some remote parts of Oaxaca, Mexico, local men can carry on whole conversations across long distances of the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range. Rather than shouting across the rugged terrain, they make themselves heard though a complex series of whistles.

Researchers suspect the whistled talk could be as old as the earliest languages. But while some young people in the Oaxacan Cuicatlán District can still speak the language, the days of the unique form of communication is likely numbered.

Modern innovations, such as cell phones and walkie-talkies, are now more commonly used for long-distance communication. And the whistled language's roots -- the Chinantec spoken language -- is also itself threatened by the more prevalent usage of Spanish. A recent research project, "Documenting Whistled Speech Among Chinantecans," aimed to study the language before it's too late.

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"Whistled speech made the local Chinantec language portable across canyons, fields and along the steep slopes where the village houses cling to the hillsides, making travel physically challenging," project leader Mark Sicoli told Discovery News.

"Such rugged, inaccessible landscapes are the types of terrain where whistled versions of spoken languages have been developed in places as far from Mexico as the Canary Islands, Africa, Greece and Turkey, New Guinea, and St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea," added Sicoli, who is an assistant professor in Georgetown University’s Department of Linguistics.

Sicoli and his team traveled to the region in order to document and archive examples of whistled conversations transcribed in written Chinantec and translated to Spanish and English.

Sicoli also developed a map navigational task, which asked one speaker to whistle directions to a second speaker to follow on a map. The successful use of the whistling demonstrated just how effective this unique form of speech can be.

Most Chinantec words turned out to have a whistled counterpart. The archive, for example, includes whistles that translate to sentences like: "Do you have any edible fungus growing in your corn field?" "Where are you going?" "What are you going to do at noon today?" and "I'm going to eat tacos for dinner tonight."

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"Due to its acoustic range, whistling can substitute for standard vocalized speech over both short and long distances, alleviating pressure on vocal chords and overcoming the difficulties of communicating long distances over difficult terrain," Sicoli explained.

A short-distance whistled "conversation" is more like regular mouth-puckered whistling, while long-distance communications may involve the sports stadium-type finger in the mouth whistling. The researchers found that the language is spoken mainly by men, although women often understand the whistled language, even if they don't speak it.

Daniel Everett, a professor of global studies and sociology at Bentley University, pointed out that "many of the world's languages may be whistled. English's limitation to consonants and vowels is a restriction to one channel of discourse, while whistled languages illustrate that human languages need not be so constrained."

Everett added, "When we study languages like these, we learn that the perimeters of human capability are more encompassing and contain more richness than we would have otherwise known."

It is unclear when whistled speech first emerged.

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"Hypothetically, whistled speech could be as old as the earliest languages," said Sicoli, adding that it could even have been a component of proto-language -- the precursor of human language used by earlier hominid species.

"Whistling itself is something that has been self-learned by at least one ape," he added. "Bonnie, a female orangutan at the National Zoo in DC, taught herself to whistle for what seems to simply be the pleasure of it. What Bonnie shows is that, anatomically, whistling would have been in the range of potential sound-making behavior of archaic Homo sapiens, including Neanderthal and earlier hominids like Homo erectus and Australopithecines."

While whistled speech is likely very old, it may be fading fast as technologies like phones and radios make it possible to communicate across long distances and as Mexico's main language, Spanish, infiltrates more of the country.

"When a language is lost, we lose knowledge of ways and content of human speech and minds that can never be recovered," he continued. "Thus parts of the puzzle of human identity and the joy of human experience remain forever hidden from us."

For a description and audio of the language, click here.

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Lila Downs: a voice bridging two worlds The Mexican-American singer’s journey has taken her from Oaxaca to Minneapolis and back (with a stop or two along the border)

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Posted: 10:07 a.m. Monday, April 1, 2013

Lila Downs: a voice bridging two worlds

The Mexican-American singer’s journey has taken her from Oaxaca to Minneapolis and back (with a stop or two along the border)

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JOHNNY LOPERA 2013

Singer Lila Downs grew up in Mexico and the U.S., and the dual cultures influence her music.

By Wes Eichenwald

Special to the American-Statesman

The story of singer and songwriter Lila Downs’ journey toward self-discovery, along with topics she explores in her own work, can serve as lights illuminating Mexican-Americans and their struggles navigating dual countries and cultures.

Yet Downs’ background is not typical for many Mexican-Americans. Her father, Allen Downs, was a Scottish-American artist and filmmaker and a professor at the University of Minnesota. He met Downs’ mother, Anita Sánchez, a Mixtec Indian from Tlaxiaco in Oaxaca state, when he walked into a Mexico City club where she was singing. Lila (pronounced Lee-la) was born in Oaxaca in 1968. Allen Downs — who was 20 years older than Anita — died when Lila was 16. Lila grew up splitting her time between Oaxaca and Minneapolis, lived for a time in California and graduated from the university where her father had taught. Youthful identity crises led her down several lifestyle cul-de-sacs, including a well-publicized period as a camp follower of the Grateful Dead, before she found her true compass in embracing, exploring and celebrating Mexican music and folk culture in all its aspects.

Her many fans respect Downs, who plays April 9 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, as a serious voice of this culture, winner of this year’s Grammy for Best Regional Mexican Album for her latest CD, “Pecados y Milagros (Sins and Miracles)” and a star of the world-music circuit. In conversation, though, she’s anything but humorless. Over the phone from Oaxaca she chats cheerfully in American-accented English, breaking into frequent laughter, about her tours, songwriting and home renovation plans.

Over her 20-year career, Downs has charted the length and breadth of traditional Mexican music, including songs from the Mixtec, Zapotec and other native cultures. An intimate ranchera, a ballad of an injured soul expressing her pain, might be followed by a kick-up-your-heels cumbia or banda number. In concert she’s been known to encore with an exquisite cover of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” as a nod to an earlier life filled with nights singing American jazz standards.

Downs’ voice soars effortlessly between falsetto and heartbroken contralto as she slips personae on and off with a born actress’s ease. On “Pecados y Milagros” traditional rancheras such as Juan Záizar’s “La Cruz de Olvido” sit comfortably next to capable originals like the brassy “Mezcalito,” composed by Downs and her husband and longtime musical partner, Paul Cohen. It sounds simultaneously old-school and up-to-the-minute, with an indefinable but distinct playfulness behind it all.

“Many of the songs that I chose (for the CD) are old songs that I kind of was avoiding all my life, but at this point I really needed to do them, and I felt like I needed to cry with them,” she says. “I realize now, after we’ve been performing these songs for about a year and a month, that I’m actually singing these songs to my country, to Mexico. And I didn’t realize that when I chose them.”

And if Downs’ music descends from her mom’s love of rancheras, she admits that her videos — all saturated colors and exotic images — might owe a bit to her dad’s visual sense.

“I would imagine that that’s something that I developed thanks to him,” she says. “He was very interested in the beautiful side of art that permits for freedom, where there’s no classification of any kind. And I really respect that, and I’ve tried to be true to that as an artist. On the other hand I am also part Indian, so at one point it was a conflict for me. But now I feel like they both enrich each other and the aspects of being a visual artist, that can be kind of cold at times, are complemented, for me, by my Indian ancestry, which (has qualities of being) incredibly kind and tender and always giving.”

It’s hard to separate Downs’ music from her equally compelling biography, and the singer herself doesn’t object. “For me, in order to talk about music, it’s important to talk about my cultural background,” she says. “But I love it when you can just go with the music. Music is the most amazing thing, and in the end it doesn’t matter how you concoct whatever it is that you do. The importance is what you achieve through those messages, or through the beauty of music.”

When asked, she responds with an enthusiastic yes that she’d love to record an album of standards from the Great American Songbook. “We’re always involved in these other projects. But it’s one of my passions, I always practice with my standards.

“I began singing jazz, really, as a performer, and then performing some Mexican songs and then some cumbias — it was pretty eclectic here in Oaxaca,” she says. “We would work here for the tourist season, which is basically all year round. And that’s how we survived on, what was it, like 200 pesos a night, and it was great. Then we decided to go to Mexico City, because we had some friends there, and then started working at a club. And then things just kind of spun out of control!”

Do some of her compatriots still gripe that she’s not 100 percent Mexican, whatever that might mean? “Oh, yeah, of course,” she says. “I think mainly it’s been an issue for the Mexican nationals, that either I’m not Indian enough — and also possibly in the Mexican-American community, (that) I’m not American enough. Those are issues that people who are of mixed race and mixed culture, I guess it’s part of who we become, you know.”

Do audiences in Mexico view her presentation of their national music as exotic? “I grew up in a place, Oaxaca, that’s very unusual in terms of its ethnicities and also the way we express our pride and in general, a celebration about roots,” she says. “But I think things have changed since quite an important political and cultural movement happened in 1994 that created an awareness in Mexico, at a national level, towards indigenous roots. I kind of came around at the time that it created a scene, musically speaking, and a reception for it. I think that also happened in Europe and the U.S. — maybe less so in the U.S. The U.S. is a little bit oblivious of what happens elsewhere.

“Our audiences are very special people who do pay attention, and who are reading the papers and are interested in knowing more about other cultures,” she adds. “We’ve been very fortunate in that respect. But yes, definitely every country has its own difference in their approach, and what they think Mexico is. Some of them have beautiful ideas of who we are, and crazy ones, too. So it’s about learning who they think we are, and then kind of working with that as well, and I find that fascinating.”

Downs is well aware of Mexico’s image — not without justification — as a place where beauty exists closely alongside poverty and danger. “It’s a little scary here and there, you know. But at the same time you know what the reasons are for all of this, and you kind of understand where it’s coming from. So, yeah, you’ve just got to be strong, and as a musician you feel like it’s your duty, somehow, to go and perform for these places, especially those that are more affected by the violence, because they are the people who really do need a few songs and a couple of tequilas to forget their woes.”

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Lila Downs

When: 7:30 p.m. April 9

Where: Dell Hall at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 W. Riverside Drive

Cost: $25 – $60

Information: 472-5470; www.thelongcenter.org

Huatulco Mexico March 2013 848

Huatulco

HUATULCO 

Positioned on the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca, Huatulco is a relatively recent tourist development in Mexico. 

The Pacific Ocean laps the shores of Huatulco's 36 stunning beaches, spread across nine bays, with all boasting warm waters and golden sands. 

Huatulco has a wide variety of accommodations from rooms for rent, small economy hotels, luxury oceanfront villas and vacation condominiums, as well as several luxury resorts standing on or near the shores of Tangolunda Bay. 
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/mexicophotos/mxhuatulcophotos.htm
A hard-working street vendor in Huatulco. 


A large percentage of Huatulco visitors arrive by cruise ship; others fly in from Mexico City and Oaxaca.

A few of the condos, beach resorts and restaurants on the edge of Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco.

A sunny day, warm sand and no particular place to go; a piece of heaven in Huatulco

Colorful buildings in Huatulco, Mexico.

On a beautiful day in Huatulco enjoying lunch or dinner on water's edge is a wonderful experience.

Souvenirs for sale in Huatulco, Mexico.

This is the La Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe church located near the city's main square. Inside a 65 foot tall image of the Virgin of Guadalupe (the largest in Mexico) is painted in its dome.

I couldn't resist posting the photo of these two kids in Huatulco. They were waiting for (as it turned out) their big brother to leave school so they could all ride home together on his scooter, and they did! 

Feliz Pascua con ZBB Today at 6:00pm Livelula Bar

Brian Legg

Feliz Pascua con ZBB

Today at 6:00pm

Livelula Bar

Mazunte, Mazunte, Mexico Vacation Rentals And Rooms For Rent ... Rent from people in Mazunte, Mazunte, Mexico from $40/night. https://www.airbnb.com/s/Mazunte--Mazunte--Mexico

Mazunte, Mazunte, Mexico Vacation Rentals And Rooms For Rent ...
Rent from people in Mazunte, Mazunte, Mexico from $40/night.
https://www.airbnb.com/s/Mazunte--Mazunte--Mexico

Alleluia Improvisation (Ambient Piano Music)

S A T U R D A Y Saturday!!!

la reta de break en puerto Angel

Decorating Eggs 2013

Just Ice - Thank God Its Friday (Tgif Riddim)

70's Disco music - Love and Kisses - Thank God Its Friday 1978

Zac Brown Band - Chicken Fried (Full Version Video)

Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song [OFFICIAL VIDEO] +

Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

It's FRIDAY! :) !!!

Brian Legg invited you to "Feliz Pascua con ZBB". Feliz Pascua con ZBB Sunday, March 31 at 6:00pm Location: Livelula Bar

Brian Legg invited you to "Feliz Pascua con ZBB". Feliz Pascua con ZBB Sunday, March 31 at 6:00pm Location: Livelula Bar

Brian Legg invited you to Zipolite Beach Billies's event: ZBB Live! @ Babel Cafe Saturday, March 30 at 9:30pm - Sunday, March 31 at 12:30am in UTC-06 at Babel Cafe Zipolite

Brian Legg invited you to Zipolite Beach Billies's event: ZBB Live! @ Babel Cafe Saturday, March 30 at 9:30pm - Sunday, March 31 at 12:30am in UTC-06 at Babel Cafe Zipolite

Zipolite

Zipolite Sunset

Señorita Turismo, Puerto Escondido 2012 1/7

Lost in Time: Zipolite, Mexico "You're going to like it here in Zipolite," Daniel Weiner, the owner of Brisa Marina hotel said with a wry smile as he handed me the keys to my quarters. ...(Read ... www.hispanic-americans.com/.../63057-Lost%20in%20Time-...

Lost in Time: Zipolite, Mexico
"You're going to like it here in Zipolite," Daniel Weiner, the owner of Brisa Marina hotel said with a wry smile as he handed me the keys to my quarters. ...(Read ...
www.hispanic-americans.com/.../63057-Lost%20in%20Time-...

Free Yoga Class not for Beginners - 16 minutes

Published on Mar 27, 2013

http://solstice-mexico.com Free Yoga Class not for Beginners - 16 minutes yoga workout with Brigitte Longueville.

This yoga class was recorded on a beautiful beach in Mexico and is not suitable for beginner level yogis and yoginis.
Hope you enjoy it!
Namastè,
Brigitte

Visit my Youtube channel: http://youtube.com/SolsticeYogaCenter

Join me on facebook: http://facebook.com/SolsticeYogaCenter

Free Yoga Class not for Beginners - 16 minutes

Tom Lally

Tom Lally

I first stayed on Zipolite in 1983. There were only two places to stay at that time. Glorias Ashram up on the hill and Victor and Maria's near the road entrance. It was about $1 per night in a hammock. This is picture of Victor from almost 30 years ago.

Babel Cafe ...

Washing Clothes in Mexico

Live at A Nice Place on the Beach con Louis Girardeau Juteau

Fíestas. En el adoquín

Giancarlo Bruniera

about an hour ago via mobile 

Fíestas. En el adoquín — at Playa Zipolite,Zipolite,Oaxaca,Mexico.