Links for Sunday Brunch

She is the Matador

Neither Mari Paz Vega nor Eva Florencia is unique. As related in Ella Es El Matador (She Is the Matador), the new documentary airing on PBS’ POV (Point of View) series, there is a long and surprising history of women fighting in the Spanish bullring — and fighting to have the chance to do so. For all of Spain’s traditional machismo and the image of the matador as a quintessentially male figure, women have always wanted to fight bulls. A 1908 law banning women from bullfighting is testament to women’s determination to perform in the ring and not just shout “Olé!” from the stands.

Art and death

Guy Adams (The Independent, U.K.) on the murder of French film director Christian Poveda:

It was a senselessly violent end to a career spent exposing the senseless violence that has for years plagued El Salvador for years. The killing was also predictable.

Poveda had made himself a marked man, thanks to his film La Vida Loca (Crazy Life), which chronicled daily life among the 30,000-odd gang members whose activities have turned the tiny Central American nation of 5.5 million into one of the most dangerous places in the Western hemisphere…

You can’t go home (to mashed potatoes) again:

The Midwesterner in Mexico seeks sustenance during a stint in Grand Island, Nebraska:

Although a rigorous existing dinner schedule prevented us from checking out any Latino establishments for la cena, I have extracted a commitment from Mom & Dad to go suss out the coctel de camarones (shrimp cocktail) at Restaurante Ario after I leave. And we did manage to make it to El Taco Naco for a snack, arguably the most DF-esque option in town.

Tourism and its complaints

Dr. Lisa Wade (Sociological Images) dissects Washington Post travel writer Amit Paley’s article on Thailand, and gaping at the “colorful native costumes”:

The women she meets confirm that they wear traditional garb, continue traditional practices (such as the brass rings), and are even forced to remain in the villages, in order to attract tourists.  Men, largely, appear to be exempted from earning their keep in this way.

Paley says that one powerful male village member said that the women “must wear the dress because of tradition” and “spoke excitedly about its appeal to tourists and noted that half of the village’s income of $30,000 a year comes from tourism.”

A woman in brass rings told her “We do it to put on a show for the foreigners and tourists!”

The natives are … uh… restless

No need to go to Thailand for see strange and colorful native customs. Laura Martinez (“Mi Blog es Tu Blog“) presents a particularly rich example of El Paso cultural synergy: