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The Mexican Society is very glad to invite you all to the Mexican Party March 2009, which will be on Friday 20th March, starting at 7.30pm, in Beorma Bar, Guild of Students. Come and enjoy a cheerful evening full of nice people and many Latin rhythms, like salsa, cumbia and merengue for you to dance.
If you don’t know dancing, don’t worry, there will be salsa demonstrations and nice people to show you the basics Latin rhythm moves.
Come and meet new people from all around the world, practice your Spanish, interchange laughs or just enjoy the sparks of energy!
When: Friday 20th March, starting 7.30pm
Where: Beorma Bar, Guild of Students
Cover: £2 members, £3.50 non-members
We all in the Mexican Society will be extremely delighted to see you there.
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On behalf of the Mexican Society, I would like to invite you next Friday 31st October at 6.30pm, Staff House 1st floor, to meet the representatives of our group for the current academic year.
It will be a good opportunity to give them your comments, as well as to let them know your expectations and all the enquiries you may have.
We hope to see all of you.
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The Mexican Society is proud to announce and publish its Film Week, which will be held from 11th to 15th February in the Learning Center (R28 in this map). All movies are going to start at 6pm. After the Friday’s movie, everybody is invited to the Staff House, where the Society is going to invite its members the first round of drinks.
Admission is free and all movies will have English subtitles.
We are going to have the opportunity to watch the following films:
| Date: Monday 11/02
Place: LG32
Title: Wolf (El Lobo)
Country: Spain
Director: Miguel Courtois
Writer: Antonio Onetti
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Based on a true story, El Lobo is about an infiltrator in the ETA terrorist group, whose mission, in the early 1970’s, brought down a fourth of its members. El Lobo is inspired by the life of Mikel Lejarza, Lobo (Wolf), the Spanish secret agent who infiltrated ETA between 1973 and 1975. Lobo contributed to the fall of one quarter of the terrorist activists of the organization, including several Special Forces members and some top-level figures of the group. Lejarza’s infiltration destabilized the terrorist organization at a time when its actions where becoming a perfect justification for the most conservative arm of the Franco regime to take full powers and stop the democratic process in Spain.
| Date: Tuesday 12/02
Place: LG34
Title: Mystic Stones (Piedras Verdes)
Country: Mexico
Director: Angel Flores Torres
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One woman searches for peace in a life that offers her little respite in this melodrama from Mexico. Mariana has lived a life that began in chaos when her mother was killed in an accident before Mariana was born; the baby was saved, and then sold to a wealthy couple . As she grows to adulthood, Mariana finds herself often feuding with her adopted mother. In time, Mariana becomes involved with Carlos Gallardo and pursues an increasingly decadent lifestyle with him until he falls to his death from a window during an argument. In a panic, Mariana runs away, finding solace with Sebastian, a stable and spiritually oriented man. As Sebastian follows his higher power, Mariana tries to find some closure regarding her troubled childhood by searching for her long-lost biological father.
| Date: Wednesday 13/02
Place: LG34
Title: Nine Queens (Nueve Reinas)
Country: Argentina
Director: Fabián Bielinsky
Writer: Fabián Bielinsky
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Early one morning, Marcos observes Juan successfully pulling off a bill-changing scam on a cashier, and then getting caught as he attempts to pull the same trick on the next shift. Marcos steps in, claiming to be a policeman, and drags Juan out of the store. Once they are back on the street, Marcos reveals himself to be a fellow swindler with a game of much higher stakes in mind, and he invites Juan to be his partner in crime. A once-in-a-lifetime scheme seemingly falls into their laps - an old-time con man enlists them to sell a forged set of extremely valuable rare stamps, The Nine Queens. The tricky negotiations that ensue bring into the picture a cast of suspicious characters, including Marcos’ sister Valeria, their younger brother Federico and a slew of thieves, conmen and pickpockets. As the deceptions mount, it becomes more and more difficult to figure out who is conning whom.
| Date: Thursday 14/02
Place: LG32
Title: Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate)
Country: Mexico
Director: Alfonso Arau
Writer: Laura Esquivel
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The film mainly concerns the life of Tita and her two sisters, Gertrudis and Rosaura. All three sisters live along with their mother, Mama Elena, in a ranch on the Mexico/Texas border at the beginning of the 1900’s. As the youngest of the sisters, Tita is forbidden by family tradition to marry or have children, instead she is to tend to her mother until her dying day. As a result of her father dying the day after her birth, Tita has been brought up in the kitchen of the ranch and has learned much about food and the important role it plays from Nacha, the cook. Unaware of the family tradition, a local boy, Pedro, falls in love with Tita (and she with him). He informs Tita of his intentions to ask for her hand in marriage, but this request is refused. However a compromise is suggested that Pedro marry Rosaura instead, Pedro agrees to this as he realises that marrying into the family will be the only way he can be near his true love. While she understands his reasons for marrying Rosaura, Tita is unable to talk to, or be near, Pedro as her mother forbids it. However, when Tita is made head cook for the ranch she soon realises that she can communicate her desire for Pedro through the food she cooks for the family.
| Date: Friday 15/02
Place: LG32
Title: The Young and the Damned (Los olvidados)
Country: Mexico
Director: Luis Buñuel
Writers: Luis Alcoriza and Luis Buñuel
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Behind every beautiful city are poor children. In the slums of Mexico City, a gang of unruly youths take out their frustrations on those less fortunate than themselves. They rob from a blind man, they attack a cripple, they kill animals. The gang leader is El Jaibo, a vicious teenager who has just been released from prison. He sates his revenge by beating another young man to death, witnessed by his young acolyte Pedro. In a vain attempt to win his mother’s affection, Pedro tries to make an honest life and starts an apprenticeship. But, thanks to Jaibo’s intervention, Pedro ends up being arrested for theft. Taken to a center for rehabilitating child criminals, Pedro has one last chance to start a new life. Unfortunately, fate, aided once more by Jaibo, has other idea.
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The Mexican Society is glad to announce our Piñata Workshop, which is going to be hold next
Saturday 1st December from 12 to 4pm in the Thomson Training Suite (first floor in the Guild). We are going to learn how a piñata is made and everybody will have the opportunity to design and make its own piñata. After the workshop we are going to hit and try to crash all
piñatas made, obviously, with surprises inside.
- When: Saturday 1st December
- Time: From 12 to 4pm
- Where: Thomson Training Suite, first floor Guild of Students
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November 1st, All Saints Day, and November 2nd, All Souls Day, are marked throughout Mexico by a plethora of intriguing customs that vary widely according to the ethnic roots of each region. Common to all, however, are colorful adornments and lively reunions at family burial plots, the preparation of special foods, offerings laid out for the departed on commemorative altars and religious rites.
The Mexican Society is glad to invite you to the commemoration of this special holiday. Our celebration is going to be two-fold. The first will consist in setting up an offering for our relatives who have left this life, which could include their favorite food and beverages, and can be decorated with candles, flowers, photographs of the departed and candy skulls, among many other things.
The second part is related to writing a Calavera, which is a satirical verse making fun of and alluding the Death. Their message usually includes an ironic sense of battle between the Death and those who are alive.
So, if you would like to celebrate with us and participate whether bringing something for the offering, or writing a Calavera, or both of them, please join us.
- When: Friday 9th November 2007
- Time: From 4pm until 8pm
- Where: Thompson Training Room, Guild of Students
A Calavera example from past years is given as a comment to this post. If you want to write yours, feel free to do it in the same way.
