Is This Why Chavez Wants to Police the Names Given to Kids in Venezuela?

Anyone who has read this blog knows that I am fascinated by what the NY Times calls "the culture of naming" in Latin America. The German, French or faux composite Spanish/French/German names spelled in a hybrid Spanish manner of some of my Puerto Rican relatives, those I read on name tags at the Asssociated Super Market, or see on the screen while watching Miss Universe...they all obsess me. Reyna, Yesenia, Jeanmarie, Delorean, Elvis, Harold, you name it! And now in Spain, too, my compatriots name their children Yonatan, or Yenifer. Fabulous.

Thanks to Simon Romero in Caracas, we learned that the dictator Chavez wants to curtail such practices and limit approved Revolutionary Bolivarian names to a set list. (see below under Real News/Miss Universe). His disgruntled Congressman Iroshima Perez is offended. And now we learn that the leader of the student group opposing the regime is named STALIN Gonzalez. Obviouly, this is pronounced EHS-TAH-LEEN. You cannot make this stuff up. Realismo Magico at its best. And I have been told by my beloved Venezuelan friends that there are cases of telenovela writers who are also avant-garde theatre authors with names like IBSEN (that would be their first name of course). I remember meeting a man from Peru who went by the first name LENIN. So the heroic student leader Stalin isn't an exception.

The Wall Street Journal

To Oppose Chávez, Youth In Caracas Rally Behind Stalin
That's Ivan Stalin González, Student-Movement Leader; A Broad Dissent on Campus
By JOHN LYONS and JOSÉ DE CÓRDOBA
November 24, 2007; Page A1

CARACAS, Venezuela -- As Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez attempts to push through what he calls 21st-Century Socialism, his biggest obstacle is an army of students led by a leftist named Stalin. Ivan Stalin González, who prefers to be called just plain Stalin, is president of the student body at the Central University of Venezuela, or UCV, Venezuela's biggest public university. During the past few weeks, Mr. González and other student leaders here have organized protest marches by tens of thousands of students opposed to a constitutional referendum set for Dec. 2. The proposed changes would dramatically expand Mr. Chávez's power and allow him to seek perpetual re-election.

The student movement has taken the government by surprise, highlighting an embarrassing irony for the fiery Mr. Chávez: University students, long a bastion of the left here as in the rest of Latin America, are overwhelmingly opposed to him. They have also emerged, along with the Catholic Church, as among the last major opposition to Mr. Chávez in a country where he already controls the congress, courts, army and most media outlets.

Students like Mr. González have traditionally played an outsized role in Latin America's turbulent politics. In the 1950s, University of Havana students led a struggle against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro, who forced Mr. Batista from power -- and who is Mr. Chávez's revered mentor -- got his start as a student leader at the university. In Mexico, a massacre of students and other protestors in 1968 helped inspire the creation of half a dozen small guerilla groups in the 1970s. And in Venezuela, UCV holds an important place in political history. In 1957, a student strike that began here eventually led to the downfall of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Half a century later, many Venezuelans hope Mr. Chávez will meet his political Stalingrad at UCV. "Student struggles have always preceded great historical changes," says Fernando Ochoa, a former defense minister who was jailed when he participated in the 1957 strike as a high school student.

Anti-Chávez sentiment on Venezuelan campuses burst into the open in May, when the government pulled the plug on RCTV, a television network critical of Mr. Chávez. Tens of thousands of students viewed the move as a blow to freedom of speech. They were also alarmed by Mr. Chávez's promises that the "revolution within the university" would be next -- likely expanding government control over areas like the curriculum. They took to the streets, creating a protest movement in campuses across the country. The Dec. 2 referendum has sparked a round of new protests. Caught off guard, Mr. Chávez has called the students "terrorists" and written them off as "pampered, rich mama's boys." UCV, which charges no tuition, has a range of students, from the scions of businessmen to the sons of taxi drivers.

Mr. Chávez's description also hardly fits Mr. González. The 27-year-old, sixth-year law student grew up in a poor household that dreamed of a Communist Venezuela. His father, a print-machine operator, was a high-ranking member of the Bandera Roja, or Red Flag, a hard-line Marxist-Leninist party that maintained a guerrilla force until as recently as the mid-1990s. Its members revered Josef Stalin as well as Albania's xenophobic Enver Hoxha. As a boy, Mr. González remembers packing off to marches with his sisters, Dolores Engels and Ilyich, named in honor of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. As a young man, Mr. González burnished his leftist credentials, joining Marxist youth groups and following his father into the Bandera Roja. He traveled to Socialist youth conferences in Latin America. Mr. González was still in his teens when Mr. Chávez was voted into office in late 1998. Even then, he says, he was skeptical about Mr. Chávez's socialist rhetoric, as are many Venezuelan leftists. Mr. Chávez, a lieutenant colonel who had staged an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1992, would be more authoritarian than egalitarian, Mr. González reasoned.


URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119586925917802724.html

Breaking News! The Pollocks Are Fake!

The totally Nerdolicious and charismatic forensic scientist James Martin wittily proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is something the Matter with the Pollocks!!!

If you want the straight story, the cache of alleged Jackson Pollock works found by the son of artists who were friends with the late Abstract Expressionist has been disputed for years, generating controversies among art historians, gallerists, curators, conservators, scientists and lawyers. Many of the disputed works are on view at the Boston College Museum in a show called Pollock Matters. But at a Standing Room Only panel organized by the International Foundation for Art Research, which I was extremely fortunate to attend, a leading expert on Pollock and two scientists raised serious questions against the attribution.

Here is the link to the NYTimes article:

Scientist Presents Case Against Possible Pollocks
By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: November 29, 2007
A large group of paintings discovered several years ago and thought by some to be by Jackson Pollock included many containing paints and materials that were not available until after the artist’s death in 1956.
For full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/arts/29pollock.html?ex=1354078800&en=e6e960a6e1929ed1&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The brilliant art historian and Pollock expert Pepe Karmel began the evening's lectures by demonstrating that the focus on materials since the works were first unveiled means that the issue of connoisseurship has been overlooked. He showed how, looking carefully at the color, composition, application of paint, and condition of the works, one can compare those with Matter provenance to known Pollocks and find notable differences between the two. Giving very specific examples, he demonstrated why there is something the matter with the Matter pictures which look like the work of someone who has taken Greenberg's paradigm of "all overness" literally, there are problems with scale, with the grounds used, and many other issues.
The works look more like Herbert Matter's known pictures than Pollock's, so, he suggested, could they be works by Matter experimenting "in the manner of Pollock"?

Then Richard Newman, a scientist from the MFA Boston spoke, he was very impartial in tone and summarized various studies conducted by scientists on these works.

Finally, James Martin presented for the first time the results of his research. He had allegedly been threatened with lawsuits if he spoke publicly about his research. This of course made listening to its unveiling all the more exciting. Martin, who works with the FBI among other institutions, combined police-type research, interviews, and the like, with hundreds of scientific tests. He enraptured the entire room, you could hear a pin drop, and there were gasps as he developed his arguments. It was like a live artworld version of CSI!!! Who knew that science could be so exciting? It is when a life-or-death issue is at stake: do we or do we not have a new body of work by one of the canonized Masters of American art? If so, how many millions are they worth?

Martin went over many inconsistencies in Alex Matter's stories regarding the date(s) the works were found and the location(s) where they were found. He also mentioned that he examined the warehouse records of the storage where they were found and that Matter and his mother had access to the space (this led me to ask if they knew the works were there all along or perhaps placed them there after Herbert Matter died?) He conclusively showed that the boards used in some of these works were not produced until the mid 1970s, he also discussed at length the pigments. Most of those were from the mid-1970s or later. Then and thankfully using layman's terms as much as he could, he explained why he learned that many of the works include these pigments from the 1970s-80s at the lowest layer, and then are covered over with pigments available starting in the 1960s. Some of these pigments available only as of the 1970s are used for the initials "JP" in some works. He added that for some, this type of situation may raise questions of intentional misattribution and fraud.

Of course, to my recollection, all three were careful not to literally say that the works are fake, but they presented scholarly arguments that convinced me for one, that they are.

I felt like I had been a witness to a historic event that will be part of art history.

Am I a Masochist? Miss PR Universe Asks

Update:
On Wed. news broke that several people questioned whether Ingrid Marie was actually attacked. Some called it a hoax.

She appeared on the TODAY show, hopefully the video URL below will be permanent. Don't miss the Second Runner Up, who looks like an understudy for the Rocky Horror Picture Show.



Update:
On Saturday, news broke that THERE WAS NO PEPPER SPRAY on either her gown or her make up brush!

"Am I a masochist?" new Miss Puerto Rico Universe Asks

Yesterday international wire services ran the spectacular story from Puerto Rico - the top contender for the Miss Puerto Rico Universe title, 24 year old Ingrid Marie Rivera, was doused with pepper spray introduced into her clothes and make-up. Attack of hives and itching notwithstanding, Ingrid Marie rocked it. Without losing her professional compusure, she stepped up on stage, finished her desfile, ran backstage, applied ice to the affected areas to combat the attack, and took the win that will lead her to represent us in the Miss Universe pageant. This news coverage has allowed my friends and me to enjoy reading the typical Islander names mentioned in the coverage, note that the queen is called Ingrid Marie, the use of German, French and English names is prevalent, thus the PR rep for the police is called Stephen Alvarez, the agent in charge Erick Vazquez, the head of the pageant, Harold Rosario. Then we have what I would call the "creatively capitalist-inflected names" such as that of Miss Arecibo: Delorean Torres. Clearly, she was born in the mid-eighties, and her parents were car buffs.



At the press conference following her win, Miss PR Universe asked rhetorically "Am I a Masochist?" in true telenovela fashion. Today's Island papers breathlessly explain that a police investigation is underway since besides the attack on Ingrid Marie, there was a bomb threat called in. When I was a kid, the bomb threats were made by pro-Independence guerrillas or allegedly staged by Romero Barcelo's government to make the independentistas look guilty. It seems that now the struggle is to represent the Island on the international stage that is Miss Universe. El Nuevo Dia also boasted that the story has received international coverage. Last night, I saw this story run on both BBC America (following a story about Chavez's sham vote to turn Venezuela into a Socialist dictatorship) and then on Anderson Cooper 360. AC seemed fascinated by the story, like any self-respecting gay man, and underscored Ingrid Marie's sang froid. But I wondered: why is this the only time they talk about the Island over here? It's as if it doesn't exist. Intelligent and well-educated Americans - living in NY a city that has more Puerto Ricans than the Island itself - ask me if we have a Puerto Rican passport (ask artist Adal Maldonado, who cleverly invents his own), what currency we use, and other surreal questions. Countless people I speak to do not know that PR is a US colony. I see it appear sometimes in USAToday (the McDonald's of newspapers as an ex used to call it) beneath the states, as a "territory."

As the story below from Reuters notes, "Beauty competitions are important stuff in Puert Rico," noting that Islanders have the "autonomy" to send a Delegate to Miss Universe- but not however, to have voting representatives in Congress. Thus Islanders fighting in Irak did not have the right to vote for the President or Congressmen that sent them to die. Another little-known fact, imaginary American reader!

So, are we masochists? I ask myself, obsessing on our "win" in the international arena of Miss Universe, which temporarily distracts us from obsessing on the question of our status vis a vis the US? Staging plebiscite pageants with the contestants "Commonwealth" "Independence" or "Statehood" that are non-binding in the US government's eyes, and which indeed, are rarely even noted by the the US media. When we call ourselves "Estado Libre Asociado" - Free Associated State, but USA Today and the US government refers to us as a "territory." On BBC's "Globe Trekker" they refer to the Puerto Ricans living in NYC: "100 years ago, the US opened its borders to Puerto Ricans, granting them US citizenship." Nice shout out from one waning imperial colonizing power to another! As if the US suddenly decided to generously open its doors, when they took the Island by force and gave citizenship in 1917, just in time to get islanders to go to war as cannon fodder.

By the way, Miss Venezuela is our top competitor, they've won 4 times. But we've won 5 times (Marisol Malaret, 1970, Deborah Carthy-Deu, 1985, Dayanara Torres, 1993, Denise Quinones, 2001, and Zuleyka Rivera, 2006 )!!!





Puerto Rican wins beauty contest despite sabotage
Mon Nov 26, 2007 2:27pm EST
By John Marino

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Someone doused her make-up and clothes with pepper spray, but Ingrid Marie Rivera put on a happy face and managed to win the beauty pageant that selected Puerto Rico's representative in the Miss Universe contest.

The 24-year-old from the town of Dorado was all smiles in front of the audience and judges during the competition, which ended on Friday when she beat 29 rivals. But backstage, she had to strip off her clothes and ice down her face and body to fight swelling and hives.

Pageant officials have vowed to get to the bottom of the attempted sabotage that tainted the pageant, an event that inspires passions in the U.S. Caribbean territory. Puerto Rico has produced five Miss Universe winners.

"It was a lot of sacrifice, and my tears were genuine," Rivera told reporters at a news conference on Sunday.

"At one point, I asked, 'Am I a masochist?' But I said regardless of the results, this is my goal. The more rocks there are in my path, the more thanks I will give to God for sustaining me."

Pageant organizers say they suspected a member of the team handling one of Rivera's competitors was responsible.

Magali Febles, director of the Miss Puerto Rico Universe Pageant, said the person behind the "vile act" was "from inside."

"I am going to investigate this until the final consequences. When we have everything, I will announce who the person is because someone with these instincts is capable of anything."

Organizers also said Rivera's bags, containing clothing and credit cards, were stolen, and that a bomb threat called in on Thursday forced the cancellation of some preliminary events. Police were investigating the bomb threat.

Beauty competitions are important stuff in Puerto Rico.

The ability to field a Miss Universe competitor from Puerto Rico, as well as Olympic sports teams, is a factor in the island's endless political debate, brought about by its status as a U.S. territory with aspects of a state and an independent country.

The events are widely watched, the winners are front page news and the local press is filled with speculation about favorites in the days prior to the competition.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Reuters journalists are subject to the Reuters Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

Spanish Surnames Surge- Garcias Are Catching Up With Joneses

More from the NYTImes on the "culture of naming" in this case, about the encroaching list of Spanish surnames that appear on the US census of most common names. As someone with a so-called Hispanic surname, I find this very gratifying although my name doesn't appear in the interactive graphic (to go to the graphic, follow the permalink below). Now we're up to 13% (of those counted on the Census there must be millions more on the DL?) of the population, Lou Dobbs must be apoplectic over this. As usual with the NYTimes, buried within the text there is a completely absurd moment:

"As recently as 1950, more Americans were employed as blacksmiths than as psychotherapists." What, then, are we supposed to do with this factoid? Move to Buenos Aires, where there is "the highest ratio of psychologists and psychotherapists per person in the world"? (source: http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/37/10/15)

I can only hope that some of the Venezuelans with the names no longer approved by the dictator Chavez's Revolutionary Bolivarian Nomenclature (see below for post under Real News/Miss Universe) will find a means to emigrate to the US so that they can not only have "freedom" but also add to our percentage of Hispanic sunames: Iroshima Perez - welcome!
__________________________________________________________
In U.S. Name Count, Garcias Are Catching Up With Joneses

By SAM ROBERTS
Published: November 17, 2007
Step aside Moore and Taylor. Welcome Garcia and Rodriguez.

Smith remains the most common surname in the United States, according to a new analysis released yesterday by the Census Bureau. But for the first time, two Hispanic surnames — Garcia and Rodriguez — are among the top 10 most common in the nation, and Martinez nearly edged out Wilson for 10th place.

The number of Hispanics living in the United States grew by 58 percent in the 1990s to nearly 13 percent of the total population, and cracking the list of top 10 names suggests just how pervasively the Latino migration has permeated everyday American culture.

Garcia moved to No. 8 in 2000, up from No. 18, and Rodriguez jumped to No. 9 from 22nd place. The number of Hispanic surnames among the top 25 doubled, to 6.

Compiling the rankings is a cumbersome task, in part because of confidentiality and accuracy issues, according to the Census Bureau, and it is only the second time it has prepared such a list. While the historical record is sketchy, several demographers said it was probably the first time that any non-Anglo name was among the 10 most common in the nation. “It’s difficult to say, but it’s probably likely,” said Robert A. Kominski, assistant chief of social characteristics for the census.

Luis Padilla, 48, a banker who has lived in Miami since he arrived from Colombia 14 years ago, greeted the ascendance of Hispanic surnames enthusiastically.

“It shows we’re getting stronger,” Mr. Padilla said. “If there’s that many of us to outnumber the Anglo names, it’s a great thing.”

Reinaldo M. Valdes, a board member of the Miami-based Spanish American League Against Discrimination, said the milestone “gives the Hispanic community a standing within the social structure of the country.”

“People of Hispanic descent who hardly speak Spanish are more eager to take their Hispanic last names,” he said. “Today, kids identify more with their roots than they did before.”

Demographers pointed to more than one factor in explaining the increase in Hispanic surnames.

Generations ago, immigration officials sometimes arbitrarily Anglicized or simplified names when foreigners arrived from Europe.

“The movie studios used to demand that their employees have standard Waspy names,” said Justin Kaplan, an historian and co-author of “The Language of Names.”

“Now, look at Renée Zellweger,” Mr. Kaplan said.

And because recent Hispanic and Asian immigrants might consider themselves more identifiable by their physical characteristics than Europeans do, they are less likely to change their surnames, though they often choose Anglicized first names for their children.

The latest surname count also signaled the growing number of Asians in America. The surname Lee ranked No. 22, with the number of Lees about equally divided between whites and Asians. Lee is a familiar name in China and Korea and in all its variations is described as the most common surname in the world.

Altogether, the census found six million surnames in the United States. Among those, 151,000 were shared by a hundred or more Americans. Four million were held by only one person.

“The names tell us that we’re a richly diverse culture,” Mr. Kominski said.

But the fact that about 1 in every 25 Americans is named Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller or Davis “suggests that there’s a durability in the family of man,” Mr. Kaplan, the author, said. A million Americans share each of those seven names. An additional 268 last names are common to 10,000 or more people. Together, those 275 names account for one in four Americans.

As the population of the United States ballooned by more than 30 million in the 1990s, more Murphys and Cohens were counted when the decade ended than when it began.

Smith — which would be even more common if all its variations, like Schmidt and Schmitt, were tallied — is among the names derived from occupations (Miller, which ranks No. 7, is another). Among the most famous early bearers of the name was Capt. John Smith, who helped establish the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Va., 400 years ago. As recently as 1950, more Americans were employed as blacksmiths than as psychotherapists.

In 1984, according to the Social Security Administration, nearly 3.4 million Smiths lived in the United States. In 1990, the census counted 2.5 million. By 2000, the Smith population had declined to fewer than 2.4 million. The durability of some of the most common names in American history may also have been perpetuated because slaves either adopted or retained the surnames of their owners. About one in five Smiths are black, as are about one in three Johnsons, Browns, and Joneses and nearly half the people named Williams.

The Census Bureau’s analysis found that some surnames were especially associated with race and ethnicity.

More than 96 percent of Yoders, Kruegers, Muellers, Kochs, Schwartzes, Schmitts and Novaks were white. Nearly 90 percent of the Washingtons were black, as were 75 percent of the Jeffersons, 66 percent of the Bookers, 54 percent of the Banks and 53 percent of the Mosleys.

Terry Aguayo contributed reporting from Miami.






http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/us/17surnames.html?ex=1353042000&en=ec5870741a27e1e1&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

New Spanish Civil War videogame

Several people who know about my obsession with the Spanish Civil War wrote or forwarded articles about a new Spanish Civil War video game. The creators claim that the game is scholarly, based on historical research, and designed it so that you can choose which side you fight on, the fascists or the Republicans. So you can fight the war over and decide who wins. My sister pointed out that no one would dare make a video game where one would fight WWII and get to choose "Hitler" or the "Allies"!

Yet when it comes to Spain, things are murky. Abroad and within the country many still minimize what happened or justify and indeed long for the longest-running fascist dictatorship of the 20th century - Franco ruled from 1939-1975. Half a million people or more fled to exile, historians estimate that another half a million were killed, tens of thousands were in concetration camps, languished for decades in prisons, worked as slave laborers, were summarily shot without trial, starved by being disallowed to work and through expropriation of their belongings. Censorship prevailed, women were denied basic freedoms (until the early 1970s they could not carry out legal procedures or obtain passports without their husband's approval, and there was no divorce until Franco died). This is just a brief summary there was more. (A great book is called Victimas de la Guerra Civil that includes essays by several historians; and La Iglesia de Franco by Julian Casanova which details the shameful collaboration of the Catholic Church in maintaing not just the state propaganda apparatus but also the prison system).

I have an "excuse" to be obsessed: my family were Republicans, many fought on that side, including my grandfather, which led me as a teen to begin to read about this event. My grandfather got angry the one time I asked about the war - he was a quiet gentle soul and this is only time I ever saw him lose his temper. Since he refused to discuss the matter, being the stubborn person that I am, I resolved to find out more. For about 26 years I have been reading and then going to archives to find papers related to relatives' military service, and political activities. This is typical for what is known as the Grandchildren's Generation. Theorists who write about the inter-generational nature of trauma discuss the ways in which those of us who didn't experience the event directly feel compelled to understand what happened when the direct survivors are too devastated, fearful or unable to discuss the matter. And the generation that follows in the case of Spain was often also kept in the dark about their parents' activities and since Franco's regime lasted 40 years, brainwashed in the schools to believe his propaganda. So, unlike other genocides, the survivors and their children have NOT been able to discuss the matter, fully understand what happened, see perpetrators prosecuted, have truth and reconciliation committees, public trials and the like.

In terms of finding information, I have been able to de-brief other family members, so I have vague stories that don't provide the kind of hard facts that would allow me to follow up in an archive. This type of hearsay gives me a general sense of what is for me extremely gratifying: my family were Reds! This information of course makes it extremely easy for me to process these tragedies, unanbiguous as it is, and I know many of my friends either do not know anything, or have split families, some Franco partisans or collaborators, other Republican sympathizers. Some of my dearest friends are: a child of Italian Fascists who came to support Franco during the war, a grandchild of a Republican mayor of a town who was shot, etc. But we are all friends which proves Franco didn't win despite the horrifying situation in present-day Spain, where democracy is built on forgetting and injustice.

My family research was facilitated to some extent by the fascists' extreme efficiency, which led them to create archives to document and orchestrate their repressive state apparatus. So for example in Salamanca are papers organized by province containing materials belonging to organizations loyal to the legal Republican government, left or center left political parties, groups, union members, subscribers to certain magazines and papers, Masons, etc. all collected as Franco's forces occupied areas. Obsessively organized and in many cases underlined with red pencils, with photographs taken from IDs glued onto albums, information cross-referenced in typed index cards, you can reconstruct why your grandfather was watched by the police, disallowed from working, jailed, etc. So in the case of my granfather, I found an index card (there are 3 million of them) with his name with the references to boxes, files and folios typed beneath, so Politico-Social, Alicante, etc. The documents are: records of the 1936 election where the Republican Left Popular Front alliance legally won. He was representing his party - a moderate left entity - in a district as a supervisor to vouch for the legality of the voting and he signed off on the results. I recognized his signature. He signed his sentence without knowing it. At another archive, I found his brother who has the same name as my father. This archive has some records related to prison sentences. The various papers tracked his sentence and location: he was sent to a concentration camp, then to a prison, later he was given life parole, and internal exile, which meant he could never return to his home town. He didn't live long after he was released the conditions in the camps and jails were such that many didn't survive to see parole. I still have to connect the dots, but in the Salamanca archive I found a paper where a comrade had vouched for his political reliability. This detailed the degree to which he was committed to the Republic and metioned that he joined the same moderate left party as my grandfather, in 1932. He also was at the same electoral site and signed the same document as my granfather. This apparently was enough. Imagine if you voted for Al Gore and that was enough to shoot you on sight, or send you a slave labor camp and leave your family starving.

However, because the "Transition" to "democracy" in Spain was negotiated thanks to a pact of silence and general amnesty, what scholars call a "Pact of Forgetting" was agreed to by politicians and thus the fascists remain unpunished. They have also in many cases been allowed to control access to certain archives, so the full information remains off limits. Now, thanks to the Socialists, a law is about to be passed known as the Law for the Recuperation of Historial Memory. This does not overturn sentences, call for trials for human rights abuses, promise reparations or anything of the kind, but is mostly symbolic. Public entities must remove images of Franco or of his regime, for example, and archives must give full access to victims or their families. Again, imagine that you live in Germany and there are still portaits of Hitler or swastikas in towns throughout the country. Governmental entities must not obstruct the exhumation of the tens of thousands of remains of people killed under the dictatorship. The costliness of doing DNA testing to identify remains already thwarts the volunteer efforts being carried out to return relatives' bodies to families.



Neo-Nazi and Fascist groups are allowed to hold public demonstrations in Spain. Recently, a group murdered a young man who was at an anti-fascist protest. Anti-fascists then requested a permit from the Right-Wing Madrid mayor's office to hold a demonstration but were denied. The Right-Wing Mayor of Madrid DID however grant permission to fascists who held their annual salute to Franco and the leader of the paramilitary fascist Falange Party, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera for the anniversary of their deaths November 20. This is one of countless examples of the ways in which members of the Right Wing party flagrantly display their support for the dictatorship. Several have recently stated their opposition for the Law of Historical Memory and defended Franco's dictatorship as necessary for Spain.


To see a video about the video game, pardon the redundancy, you can go to the site below:
http://videos.abc.es/informaciondecontenido.php?con=2969

Fatal Abstraction?

I just came back from the PINTA art fair. The question: is the name a reference to Columbus' vessel on which he sailed to the New World, or, is it a play on the Spanish for "to paint" was not answered. But I THINK it may be the latter since the vast majority of works on display, were in fact, paintings. And not just any paintings, but abstract geometric paintings. So, I asked myself, is this a Fatal Abstraction?

Of course, if we see the patrons who chaired the gala committee for the art fair, among them is the prominent Venezuelan collector Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, who through her collecting, patronage, support for academic, publication and curatorial endeavors, has put geometric abstraction on the map. And thanks to her pretty-much single-handed generosity, MoMA finally realized that Latin American art should be part of their agenda. Finally.

As she has said in more than one interview, her love of art she grew up with in Venezuela coincides with her goal to show North Americans that Latin American art is not the "Chiquita Banana" "folkloric" figurative (mostly Mexican) art. She particularly loathes Frida Kahlo. (ay, bendito! poor Frida, as if it wasn't bad enough that her entire work and life have been totally trivialized -Hayden Herrera's bio should have been called "Frida, Diego, he's just not that into you") So now we can study these amazing works of art, which when I was in school people barely spoke about, frankly, though these were NOT excluded from big surveys like the one in England in 1989 or at MoMA in 1992. And works that 10 years ago no one was selling, especially not selling, now proliferate in the auctions, and completely dominate this fair. If someone was to walk into the fair who knew nothing about Latin American art, they would walk away thinking: wow, these people really are suffering from Fatal Abstraction! And, that the only countries that produce art or deal in it, are in the Southern Cone. To be fair, I did see ONE Mexican artist represented, Gunther Gerszo.





Then there was my favorite thing about fairs (as you my imaginary reader recall from my discussion of the Asian Art Fair) - the "VIP Lounge." The one at PINTA was PRICELESS. Because I took it to be a neo-Conceptual art piece which in an ironic way was poking fun at corporate sposorships and the privatization of culture. And I was thinking this because of a work by the fabulous artist Yoshua Okon, who made a video that comprised solely of logos for corporate and Mexican governmental entitities with a voice over that read their names out loud, acknowleging their support in an endless loop. But of course it wasn't it was just a clever way to display the names of the corporate partners.

Let's talk about the fashion, so we were Latin Americans and there was a lot of tight black skirts or dresses, a lot of cleavage (uncharacteristically, I didn't take my colleagues and friends on a one-way trip down the Panama Canal but instead wore a high-necked top), lots of rhinestones, very high heels, and what I like to call Puerto Rican neutrals - animal prints and metallics. To a Puerto Rican, this is the equivalent of Navy Blue or Camel. So if Diana Vreeland was still with us, she'd make a maxim about this like she did with "Pink is the Navy Blue of India." There were a lot of really bad face-lifts worn by women with unnatural shades of yellow hair. And furs.

And it's not an art fair until something or somebody gets hurt: I heard many many glasses shatter and break, someone literally fell into a booth, a professor at an Ivy League University told me that he bumped into a Soto while looking at another, and the little sculpture fell to the ground! So fatal abstraction it is.

The Native Informant paradigm

Put in an EXTREMELY simplistic way: the native informant assists anthropologists who come to a community as outsiders, sometimes acting as translators. To some, this seems like an apt parallel with the role that some curators or art historians are asked to play, or, purposely play. Thus the thread in this blog, which refers to an article about this very problem. And to another, this one by Mari Carmen Ramirez where she spells out the role of a curator who acts as a "broker" and there the financial markets analogy is apt.

Then there are artists who are given few options other than to perform the role of native informants themselves. A very brilliant curator and art historian who sadly died 10 years ago, leaving the artworld and my world much worse off as a result, wrote something that I think states the difficulty perfectly. In an article titled "Asian American Exhibitions Reconsidered" Alice Yang discussed the problematic aspects of grouping artists according to geographic categories in the context of late 1980s and early 1990s identity politics and multiculturalist paradigms. (which, as we see in exhibitions such as the Caribbean-themed show at the Brooklyn Museum, seem to be having a revival) She wrote:

Group exhibitions that showcase artists from the same racial group have become, for not only Asian Americans but many artists of color, the main venue for their work's exposure. Indeed, these exhibitions can help to increase the artist's visibility and are laudable in this regard. Yet, in the end, they perform a circumscribed role, often serving an institution's interest in balanced programming more than the artist's need for in-depth, criticial evaluation. While such exhibitions can be instructive, they are also panaceas for a broader problem- the failure to integrate Asian American artists more fully into a wide range of exhibition formats and other cultural discourses that cut across racial discourses. They reveal a tendency toward rigid classification along racial lines that can contribute to an ossification of concepts of identity." (....)[Then she writes about contestatory shows that challenge stereotypes]: "While this oppositional approach forms a major part of the postmodernist enterprise, it also treads dangerous waters. For identity is defined here as a form of negation, in opposition to notions of the "norm" or the "stereotype." In the end, reduced to the logic of a closed circuit, this approach grants such tropes a kind of elaboration that only affirms their centrality."

So this is the "double-bind" and the reification of the invisible norm. And I had to be sarcastic about it after the hideous art fair and the Caribbean exhibition, and not to bash Brooklyn but there they did also the Feminist show, which claimed to undo sexist categories only to reinscribe them, and, most problematic of all, relegated most of the non-Western artists or artists of color to the section on "IDENTITY" as if Whiteness, or Westernness were not an identity.

Todas las Parejas Tienen Sus Altibajos

Historic cover of HOLA magazine



What is probably the biggest story ever for the Spanish Royal family since the marriage of the Crown Prince Felipe to the lower-middle-class, divorced TV reporter Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano broke yesterday - the eldest Infanta (who should be the heir but for unknown reasons isn't) Elena, is separating from her husband. Ironically the story broke on Martes y Trece, ni te cases ni te embarques, which means, Tuesday the 13th, don't marry or embark on a trip because this is Spain's version of Friday the 13th. Fascinating, so I know how to code switch, one of the many things I can do in terms of switch-hitting but that is neither here nor there.

I am FASCINATED by Elena because I KNOW her. And you are saying, how does this trashy academic run with minor European royalty? This is my closest brush with royalty after my High School fan letter to Princess Stefanie of Monaco, which included a portrait of her that I drew after a photo in HOLA. Karen Kilimnick, I did it first!!!!!!

I met her when she was living in NY and her husband was here getting treatment for his stroke (which some said was caused by strenous workouts and others attributed to other reasons), at a swank NY hotel, though officially they were "staying with friends" presumably to avoid angering Spanish taxpayers who foot the bill for these personable but anachronistic personages. Her small Court in exile, including her Lady-in-Waiting, Rita, and others, wanted to entertain HRH by taking her to see ballet, exhibitions etc. and it so happens that I was part of one of those visits through chance. I learned a lot about Protocol, such as, you greet her first, even if your REALLY REALLY good friend approaches you as you walk in a room, you MUST ignore her in favor of the Infanta. The Infanta walks into a room, we follow, she leaves, we leave. She gets served first. And, my personal favorite, you NEVER ask her a question.

She is very down-to-earth, friendly, loves double entendres, worries about her figure, and is constantly taking photos with her little digital camera (see the bio below for her love of photography). I have a photo of us, which I was told was developed by taking it to a safe lab via DIPLOMATIC POUCH. Imagine, a photo of me, traveling to Spain and back via diplomatic valise for security reasons, to protect her privacy. Which as I discuss below, is all for nothing. Elena does not really like art. She asked to have Cubism explained to her and didn't like Picasso, she asked someone at another museum the difference between Monet and Manet. Which is a great question. She said she can't tell the difference, so she thinks, dancers, landscapes. One is also not supposed to correct them, so she couldn't tell Elena, no your royal highness, that would be Degas, Monet.

She has never been what one could call a "Glamour Girl" (a term that has been used to describe me, however), she dresses informally and unpretentiously when not undertaking official duties and is quite athletic -she loves to ride horses. But once she wed the aristocrat Don Jaime de Marichalar, a dandy if there ever was one, that changed. It was a bit like the Spanish version of "Funny Face" or "Now Voyager" from frumpy Habsburg-faced french braided horsey girl to international fashion icon. Don Jaime, who likes to wear CAPES, bracelets, almost always carries a fan, has been known to wear Paisley trousers, dons elaborate pashminas, velvet trousers, is best friends with ex-1970s Supermodel now fashion stylist Naty Abascal, Valentino, Karl Lagerfeld and others in Paris, is always in the front row at Fashion shows. He allegedly co-owns the Manolo store in Madrid. Don Jaime is also quite nationalistic, according to some eyewitnesses his cell phone ringtone is the Spanish national anthem, he often dons the Spanish flag as an accessory somewhere (cord from which the cell hangs, flag dangling from the rear-view mirror of his car, etc.) Things just won't be the same without him.





This divorce story was a big deal because it is unprecedented and has been referred to by a royal commentator as an index to the "vulgarization" of the Spanish Monarchy. The reason is that the story was not released via an official royal press release, but rather confirmed by the Casa Real to a particular Barcelona-based journalist. So rather than treating everyone the same way, and issuing a press release, the power rests on a journalist who gets a "scoop" which they then have to confirm like any other person. I argue that this already started to happen when they began sending TEXT MESSAGES to announce things like engagements or the birth of the daughter of Felipe.

Then, to add insult to injury, members of the King's family begin to answer questions of journalists posted on the streets that basically stalk celebs on the streets in Spain, shoving mikes (known as alcachofas because the foam makes them look like an artichoke!) in their faces. (See the the HOLA story below.) And the scandal gets covered in shows like DONDE ESTAS CORAZON (DEC) which is my favorite and last about 5 hours consisting of a panel of gossip journalists discussing the latest news, idle speculation, innuendo, and outright slander, mixed in with interviews of people who are paid to come talk about their life or to accuse someone of something sleazy.






LA

FROM HOLA MAGAZINE:

INFANTA CRISTINA: 'MI HERMANA SE ENCUENTRA BIEN, TODAS LAS PAREJAS TIENEN SUS ALTIBAJOS'
Primeras declaraciones de la Duquesa de Palma tras el anuncio de separación de los Duques de Lugo
14 NOVIEMBRE 2007
El primer miembro de la Familia Real española en pronunciarse en torno al anuncio de la separación de los Duques de Lugo ha sido la infanta Cristina. La Duquesa de Palma llevaba esta mañana al colegio en Barcelona a sus tres hijos mayores y respondía a las preguntas de los periodistas: “Mi hermana se encuentra bien, está tranquila, gracias”, ha dicho la hermana menor de doña Elena, y añadió: “Ha sido de mutuo acuerdo, todas las parejas tienen sus altibajos”.

Doña Cristina, vestida con un traje de chaqueta y pantalón gris claro, una bufanda de cuadros, un bolso negro y el pelo recogido en una coleta, volvió a asegurar que la separación no tendrá consecuencias legales y añadió un “Esperemos” cuando una de las reporteras le dijo si confiaba en que el tiempo pueda arreglar la situación.

Se encontraba en Barcelona
La infanta Cristina se encontraba ayer en la ciudad condal cuando se produjo el anuncio de la separación de doña Elena y don Jaime de Marichalar. La Duquesa de Palma, que ha estado siempre muy unida a su hermana, ha sido uno de sus grandes apoyos en los últimos meses. Juntas viajaron a Croacia el pasado mes de agosto con motivo del aniversario de boda de doña Cristina y don Iñaki Urdangarín, y juntas pasaron las vacaciones en Mallorca con sus hijos.

Source: HOLA.COM (the BEST site ever, my bible)

This bio is the greatest, http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2007/11/13/espana/1194975423.html, because it discusses Elena's academic credentials, her love of horsemanship, ballet dancing, bullfights, and photography.

It's all about Latin America

Sadly, I had to miss the "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Chinese Art" lecture, but am now gearing up for tomorrow's VIP Preview of the new Latin American Art Fair in town. Mind you, this one is better timed, as it, unlike the Orientalist, oops I meant Asian, coincides with the auctions. Well played. Now this particular fair is called PINTA. Which I guess is good because on the one hand, we want to get away from reductive nationalist/essesntialist/geographic/homogeneizing categories. Though not so much that the native informants or cultural brokers are unable to take care of bizness. What I would like to know is, why Pinta? Is it a sly reference to one of Columbus' vessels, the Nin~a, the Pinta, the Santa Maria? Is it a pun on the Spanish word for "paint"? Maybe tomorrow I will find some answers, and let's hope the gallery boys are as handsome as the ones at the Asian Fair!

It's all about Asia

At the Christie's Contemporary previews there were two main themes:
1. Chinese, Japanese and Korean artists' works were included. (see photo with Murakami LV in the center)

2. Rich people have a fetish for dressing like they are about to go hunting when visiting auction previews, art fairs and galleries. This appears to be an international phenomenon, based on my visits to ARCO, for example. There, however, I believe the Spaniards to actually go shooting, as they would in the UK. But here, the closest they get to hunting is the Barney's Warehouse Sale. Nonetheless, there were plenty of those tufted navy or olive drab car coats, tall rubber rain boots from Scotland, riding boots (however, I have to cop to my own pair, guilty as charged) lots of Burberry plaid. And more HERMES bags than are probably in Anna Wintour's special closet. I also saw something even my feverish fashion obessed mind could never have imagined: a pale beige mink PONCHO with a turtleneck. (rocked by an anorexic, flat assed, peroxide blond, naturally)

3. The Chinoiserie/Asian Fetishism exploded however at the Asian Contemporary Art Fair. We missed the panel with curators, the talk by Rob Storr and Xu Bing (Rob Storr is like a saying they have in Spain: Es como el perejil, esta en todas las salsas, which roughly translates to: he's like parsley, in every sauce)

As we walked in we were greeted by a revewing stand of over life-sized metallic hued Mao figures. (pictured)
Subtle as a sledgehammer but it got way more orientalist after that. We were rubber-stamped as we walked in, with a RED STAR on each hand. (pictured) I am surprised that they didn't hand us chopsticks or fans. But it's the frisson of Communism that does it for the Americans. As those of us from their little-known, neglected Colony Puerto Rico know, what the gringos REALLY want is to hit exotic Red Cuba. (same for the Spaniards)

We began to notice a thrilling parallelism between certain kinds of multiculturalist-identity politics style native informant artists' works from Latin America and those from Asia. This was especially true of some Mexican artists we kept comparing to some Asians, for example, we saw an Asian Julio Galan. This led me to imagine a show called CHINOS POBLANOS pairing Neo-Mexicanists and Chinese, for example.

Like in Spain, CHINA seems to stand for all of Asia, and here, it was China that was the main signifier for the branding of the fair but there were other artists from other places. It was MAO MAO MAO, Tiannemen Square, Red Stars, Model Operas, Chinese landscapes, Shanghai Girls, but oddly, no Pandas. A pity. There was even Revolutionary Chinese Lladro. (pictured but sorry it's oriented -oops bad choice of wording - incorrectly on its side) And a huge model opera faux Socialist Realist picture including a lovely detail of Jeff Koons schtupping Cioccilina draped in a US Flag.

The highlights were: seeing the series of Ai Wei Wei photos where he gives the finger at various Chinese landmarks which reminds me of the Anselm Kiefer series that got Buchloh in trouble at Interfunktionen back in the day; and very handsome and helpful men on staff at one of the galleries.

I don't think I can subject you (my imaginary reader) to the so-called VIP room which was red inside and offered sushi, green tea, red sofas, bamboo flower arrangements but sadly no opium, though to view the people literally dozing on said couches, you wouldn't know this.

Well, at least I have the upcoming lecture at the Asia Society "Everything you always wanted to know about contemporary Chinese art" to look forward to. The Long March towards greater understanding of Asian art continues.

Overheard on the B train

Yesterday I was actually on the train and not listening to Hector Lavoe, The Cure or Estrella Morente on my iPod. Which allowed me to listen in on one of those fantastic conversations that make riding the NYC Subway a wonderful experience. Girl A: "Do you watch that reality show on E! with that girl...." Girl B: "Kim Kardashian?" Girl A: "Yes, I don't know WHY they make such a big deal about her big booty... if she was Dominican, black or Puerto Rican"

This reminds me of that silly column in the NYTimes METROPOLITAN DIARY, which is always about some rich people writing in with stories like "My son Madison and I were riding up to the Upper West Side after his violin lessons and he took out his Stradivarious...." And it always strikes me that the conversation above is more like what I overhear. My all time favorite was on the B38 bus one evening Girl A: "You know [name] she got a grill, and I told her, girl you've been living in Brooklyn too long!"

Walter Mercado

I grew up spending many Dec. 31 evenings watching the annual Walter Mercado TV Special -what would Walter predict for the new year? My entire family wanted to know. Walter a Spaniard born in Puerto Rico, is ageless, which is to say, he has had so much work done that he is irrecognizable. A cross between my Puerto Rican grandmother, Liberace and L. Ron Hubbard, Walter has been spiritual advisor to generations of Puerto Ricans, Latin Americanas and Latinos. His classic sign-off wishing us peace and "mucho mucho mucho AMORRRRRR" is the least flamboyant element in a camp repertoire that includes caramel colored shellacked hair (used to be worn in a french braid, now he's a bit more butch), elaborately-brocaded and sequined capes, Baroque jewelry, and discreet make-up.

Back in the day, Walter kept it lo-fi, issuing LPs with his predictions, later hosting his own show, but now he is on the internet, on PRIMER IMPACTO, sindicated in newspapers like El Nuevo Dia (San Juan) and he issues a magazine. WALTER 2008 just hit the newstands. The magazine is a fabulous reminder of early 1980s lo-tech magazine self-publishing design and illustration elements. Everything about it, the fonts, the generic illustrations and the lay-out remind me of a bad high school year book from the 1980s. The content itself is of course priceless. I found mine on the NYC subway, it's a great way to prepare for the coming year by reading about tantric love, flowers and your sign, love predictions for the new year, your rising sign and you, etc.

Facebook

I have been inducted into the virtual world of Facebook. As if obsessing on my (personal and work) mail wasn't enough, there is this blog, and my telephones. I remember when there was neither email nor cellphones. We coped just fine. I wrote letters. Receiving them was lovely-one friend in particular with the initials JJF - wrote the most amazing letters, so detailed, beautifully-written, and to this day he sends postcards! Then I held off on getting a cell phone, until 9/11 when my mom said that my sister and I needed one "in case of emergencies" -but of course, now an "emergency" is my sister and I getting separated at Bloomingdale's "Nena, donde estas, con~o!" "En los better shoes, sube pa'ca."

So this Facebook thing, I see how it's faster than email because it's like chatting, and how it saves you time spent attaching photos or sending them through the mail, now everyone I like can see what I did on my travels. But there is quite a bit of narcissism involved. And why are we so willing to be complicit in our own self-surveillance? There is a benign aspect to sharing where we are and what we are doing at every moment, post photos, disclose what our tastes in books, films etc. are. But there is a positively Big Brotherish aspect as well, or at least a potential. I guess I go there because as a child, I did brielfly live under a fascist dicatorship where books, films and other cultural products were censored and one's moves were under surveillance. Although too young to perceive this myself, I grew up knowing that one half of my family was persecuted for their politics.

On that note, my theory is that "Big Brother" was launched as part of a strategy to de-sensitize us to surveillance. It became titillating, sexy, voyeuristic and sadistic. Watch people make idiots of themselves, learn strategies designed to further brute competitiveness, survival of the fittest, rather than empathy or collaboration. In any event, now there are virtually no private areas left. So it is interesting how willing I am to disclose what I am doing ("trying to wake up"). And how Facebook uses the language of news broadcasts - "feeds." So is this part of a new kind of consciousness? A form of spectatorship based on a 24-hour broadcast news cycle where there is more and more "breaking news" inflation. This is made manifest in the crawl, the "disaster theme music," and the changes to the nomenclature: the "breaking news" became "developing story" then "happening now" etc. etc. etc. This gets us to where there is this alleged idea that you are witnessing something in real time and that you MUST NOT walk away, lest you miss something. One extemely smart friend (who found a way for me to see "Superstar, the Karen Carpenter Story, see below) speculated that this breaking news inflation started with 9/11. So now our lives are a bit like that, aren't they?

But it's fun and I love keeping in touch with my friends. And the whole etiquette of this remains to be discovered - what do I do when the guy I have a crush on asks to be my "friend," for example? Hours of madcap entertainment will surely ensue!!!

Eva, que hace ese hombre en tu cama?

My fascination with IRIS CHACON - el culo de America - probably began in utero but all I can remember is watching el chou de Iris Chacon as a child. EVERYONE watched this show, entire families sat tranfixed as Iris did modified stripper meets Vegas showgirl moves barely clad, her Puerto Rican Venus of Willendorf physique on show. Iris was escorted by her bevy of polyester clad salsa-dancing Chacon Dancers and she normally rocked a sequined numbers featuring a bra top and g-string, Iris worked her voluptous boricua body. A great book about the phenomenon is "Una Noche con Iris Chacon" and of course thanks to the magic of You Tube (if blogger ever fixes the glitch I can attach video evidence) you can witness her spectacular choreography. I finally saw her - twice - here in NYC at Escuelita, a Latino trannie bar whose performers all quite zaftig and fabulous with names like Natacha all resemble Iris.

Iris is now apparently a vegetarian, and doctor of natural medicine. As my brilliant boricua friend and fellow Chacon devotee asked rhetorically, "I suppose she ate many alcapurrias and piononos made with faux soy meat" - adding " it seems she found the way to reconcile eco/animal-friendliness with the booty-enhancing effects of trans fats! that's what I call cultural negotiation."

On top of this Iris is now apparently Born-Again, which she finds a way to reconcile with her vedette moves onstage and the ever-present g-string. Fabulous!

(here is a link to a bio: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0149415/bio - I should add that there are errors such as the name of her daughter, which is actually KATIRIA, a name surely NOT on the dictator Chavez's list of Approved Bolivarian Revolutionary Names)

Then there's her Nemesis, Olga Breeskin, whom I took to be Argentine and had fantasized that she must now be living in semi-retirement in Buenos Aires, hanging up her g-string to pursue Lacanian psychoanalisis full time. But alas, all I was able to find out is that she is actually Mexican, and that she and Iris co-starred mano a mano in "Eva, que hace ese hombre en la cama" a cheesy 1970s Mexican-Spanish production, a star vehicle for Manolo Escobar (camp crooner beloved during the waning years of Franco's dictatorships, generations of tourists have sung along to his sinister nationalistic ditty "Que Viva Espan~a").

Now that thanks to a(n other Boricua) friend (the cultural Puerto Rican mafia at work) I was able to see "Superstar, the Karen Carpenter Story," (more on that later) this Eva film is now my Holy Grail of Cinematography.

As the photos I found which you see here attest, Almodovar didn't invent anything!!!! Iris is the sultry "redhead" and Olga the one with the black Priscilla Presley bouffant.

Women's Rugby in Iran

________________

This unbelievable but true article was shared by a fabulous Persian friend.
My favorite parts are the ones about "letting off steam"

UPDATED ON:
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2007
14:03 MECCA TIME, 11:03 GMT

NEWS SPORT
Iranian women tackle rugby

Women in Iran enjoy the physicality of rugby,
and play the game as a way to let off steam [AFP]

Rugby and women may not seem an ideal combination in Islamic Iran, but females are enthusiastically taking up the rough sport amid official encouragement for them to participate in physical activities.
Women in Iran proudly see themselves as the most liberated in the Middle East, but are still expected to combine their careers and leisure activities with traditional expectations of childbearing, cooking and cleaning.


All women must cover their heads and bodily contours in Iran, with the rugby field being no exception.

Players wearing the 'maghnaeh', a garment that fully covers the head, shoulders and neck, along with a loose blue waistcoat, a long-sleeved dark T-shirt and loose tracksuit trousers run from rucks to mauls all over the field.

It is not the most appropriate uniform for playing rugby, but the players don't seem to mind, especially when the game allows them to let off steam in a way that is unimaginable elsewhere in their lives.

"This is not a violent sport for women at all, despite what people think. We need to discharge our energy."

Zahra Nouri,
Tehran team captain

"I am extraordinarily interested in rugby and it does not matter what I wear. It is not uncomfortable," said 16-year-old Sahar Azizi, a high school student.

Elham Shahsavari, a 24-year-old Iranian woman, believes she has found a sport perfect for her, and is a member of the Tehran women's rugby team.

"In early 2006, Gorgan University advised me to play rugby because of my physical power," said the well-built Shahsavari, who overcame objections from her family who worried about her travelling to training in a Tehran suburb.

"Rugby Union was just my thing."

The rugby revolution


The team's Islamic dress may hinder them
against Western opposition [AFP]

A quarter of a century ago, in the early years of the 1979 Islamic revolution when competitive sports for women were strongly discouraged, it would have been unthinkable for Iranian women to play a sport as physical as rugby.

However much has changed since then, even if women playing sport in Iran still have a long way to go before they are truly competitive at an international level.

In the 1990s, encouragement from Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of then-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, helped women to take up sport again.

Initially women mainly participated in stationary sports such as archery and shooting but now compete in a wider range of physical activities including strength-based disciplines like rowing, martial arts and rugby.

Alireza Iraj, Tehran women's rugby coach, admitted that the team's Islamic dress would make it impossible for them to play against sides from Western nations as "the long sleeves and loose clothes gives the opponents an easy chance to grab them."

"They have to play with Muslim countries who have similar clothes," he said.

Letting off steam


Iranian women are encouraged to play sport as
they rise towards international level [AFP]

As a man coaching a female team, 37-year-old Iraj knows he has to stay in line with one of Iran's Islamic rules which states that members of the opposite sex cannot touch each other unless they are married couples or immediate members of a family.

When advising the team on how to tackle, Iraj keeps a decent distance away from the women and then instructs one of the players to demonstrate how to grab an opponent rather than carrying out the move himself.

"This is not a violent sport for women at all, despite what people think. We need to discharge our energy," said Zahra Nouri, team captain.

Pouran Taherabadi, the mother of one of the players, was happy to see the level of physical activity, saying it would make it easier for her to deal with her energetic daughter at home.

"It is good for us that she has the chance here to discharge her energy," she said.

"I have nothing against it."

The Tehran women's rugby team was set up in 2003 and a year after it won the national championship.

Other women's rugby teams in the country are from Golestan, Kerman, Kermanshah, Semnan, North Khorasan, Shiraz and Isfahan.
Source: Agencies

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E4107D6E-2825-419E-BA27-BA32348A49D3.htm