When I first heard about the project I was really impressed. I think that we are in need of a documentary that shows the country without the stereotypes. We need to hear about the positive things Colombia has to offer. It is more than just coffee. Colombia has beautiful flowers, delicious food and awesome fashion designers. The world has to learn about it.

The people behind the idea of the documentary needs your help. They want to raise money to make this project happen. You can visit their site A Journey to Colombia to learn more and make a donation (which is tax deductible)

So here it is your opportunity to make this great project happen. Your donation wheter it is 10 dollars, 100 dollars or more would make the difference!

Do you have plans for Sunday, March 3rd in the afternoon? If not, I have the perfect idea for you

How about a place where foodies will have the opportunity to taste some of the best food around LA? 
The annual LA Weekly Plate that is held each year at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles will be taken place this year on March 3rd.

So far the following restaurants are confirmed: Border Grill, Canelé, Eva, Fred 62, Huckleberry, Jitlada, La Casita Mexicana, Little Dom's, Lukshon, Mo-Chica, Night + Market, Nickel Diner, Oinkster, Parks BBQ, Phillippe's, Picca, Tom Bergin's and Valentino. Imagine. But you can be sure that there will be more announced soon.



Where:
Petersen Automotive Museum
6060 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036

On December 31st we say good bye to the old year and prepare ourselves to receive the New Year. All around the world people have different traditions and ways to receive the New Year.

In Colombia those traditions are in the form of some rituals called "agueros". They are actually some rituals that were performed back in the time on Spain and France and that after the years took the form of the now days agueros in Colombia.

This “agueros” are followed on December 31st to bring on good fortune in the New Year.  For example the tradition of wearing new clothes so the rest of the next year you will always have new clothes in your closet. We also eat 12 grapes during the final 12 seconds of the old year asking for a wish for each grape for each respective month of the year.

There is also an “aguero” of wearing yellow underwear wearing them inside out and changing them at midnight for good luck on the next year. The same “aguero” with red underwear is for good love during the year.

Another “aguero” is to broom our homes and clean them very well to take out all the bad energies; we do "saumerios" or cleansings of the homes to get rid of bad energies.

There is also an “aguero” about burning the old year (Año Viejo). We make a puppet full of fireworks and it is burned at midnight to get rid of bad feelings on the past year.

Another “aguero” is to go out at midnight with a luggage or suitcase and go around the block for travels in the next year.

All families get together with food, deserts, ron, aguardiente (alcohol beverage) and of course the grapes and champagne to toast at midnight.

The rituals (agueros) are for prosperity, health, love and happiness. However the way I see it they are more to keep families together having fun and looking forward to a better year. And I know this, because even though in my family we do not believe on this agueros we still do some of the things just to keep the culture alive and have fun.

Now, you might decide to try out one of them, they might not change your luck in 2013 but I will assure you they will provide your family with some laughs and happiness.

Happy 2013 everyone, thanks for reading and keep connected, we will have more to share with all you in the next year.


Feliz Año Nuevo

El Cielo es Real

Libro por: Todd Burpo & Lynn Vincent

Creo que sin importar realmente de que religión eres, siempre toda la gente ha tenido curiosidad por saber que pasa después de la muerte. Hasta Hollywood ha hecho películas acerca del tema, con fantasmas, algunas han sido de miedo, otras cómicas, pero al final, siempre queda la pregunta de si todas estas cosas son una fantasía o son reales.

El Cielo es Real es un libro que cuenta la historia de un niño de solo 4 años, que después de tener una cirugía de emergencia, le cuenta a su padre y familia la experiencia casi increíble que tuvo, una experiencia de muerte. El niño describe como su alma dejo su cuerpo y el podía ver a los doctores operándole, y como visito al cielo, conoció a Dios y también vio a familiares que ya estaban muertos y que él nunca había conocido.

El niño, Colton, le conto la historia a su papa, un pastor de Nebraska y el libro escrito  por Lynn Vincent autora de libros que ha tenido mucho éxito en las listas de New York, es una historia que con toda seguridad va a causar muchas controversias, pero que te mantendrá interesado en continuar leyendo, para saber que mas pasa.

El libro es demasiado interesante y la historia es emocionante.

Disclosure: Recibí  una copia PDF del libro como  parte de Hispano Bloggers pero todas las opiniones son 

Latinos living in the US need to be informed about political changes. They affect us in several ways, such as immigration, education and health among other aspects.

Following and understanding political campaigns can be difficult and Nuvotv is going to make it easier for us. We Decide: Latinos and the 2012 Election a TV show premiering on nuvoTV on Aug. 19 at 8PM (ET/PT) and presented by today show's Natalie Morales. She will serve as moderator for a panel of high-profile politic experts that will be answering questions from a live audience and also from people from social platforms such as twitter. The focus of the show is to inform the audience how the presidential candidates are addressing the issues that affect Latinos.

The show will provide information about how the Presidential candidates will be handling the issues that Latinos are concerned about every day. The statistics show that Latinos have a higher rate of unemployment, poverty and we struggle with education.  How each candidate will handle the issues that concern us (Latinos) will dictate our future for the next 4 years.

It is not easy to make an educated choice, but as Latinos we need to think on how the president campaign will affect us. It is my opinion that regardless of how you like and choose, we need to think about the rest of the Latino population and the problems that we face every day. 

Issues affecting Latinos and other statistics: (source: Pew Hispanic Research)

Latino Poverty Rate (Greater increase than any other ethnic group)
2006 – 20.6%
2010 – 26.6%

Children Living in Poverty
African American – 4.4 million
White – 5.0 million
Latino – 6.1 million

No High School Diploma Adults 20 or older
White – 14%
Asian – 15%
African American – 23%
Latino – 41%

From personal experience going through the process of immigration it is not easy and having advocates helping our community is fundamental. We also need help understanding the meaning of the new health care reform and how things are still not on set stone and might change affecting our population drastically. 

Being informed and understanding the ideas of each candidate will make choosing the candidate to vote for. I think that having a TV show with experts can give us some clarification on all this issues. 

Latinos have a huge impact on the votes as shown on the Pew Hispanic Research 
2008 Presidential Election 
Eligible Whites who votes – 66%
Eligible African Americans who voted – 65%
Eligible Latinos who voted – 50%  

So let's make our voice be heard with an educated decision.

For more information follow We Decide on Facebook and other social media
We Decide: Speak up & Make a Difference:  http://bit.ly/PeSXhW 
We Decide Gives Latinos a Voice: http://bit.ly/Ne13F1 
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/Ne1AGO

Disclosure: I am writing this post in collaboration with Latina Bloggers Connect and nuvoTV and I am being compensated for it; however all opinion are my own.

A few weeks back I heard for the First time about Tommy Torres and I felt in love with his music (I blogged about it) The songs are very romantic and easy to listen to.

Now Tommy Torres has a new single out. 11:11 the new music video is a very different video, but it has you glued to the TV (or computer) waiting to see what else happens.  The video starts with him tied up to a chair in a room full of toys and then he finds his way out to be playful with his lady.

The video actually relates to the lyrics of the song. The song is about a couple that friends call boring, because they stay at home and are not our partying. I feel very identified with the song. I have already party hard when I was younger, but now with a kid on board I rather have a family night.

This does not mean, as the song says, that after a while, while relaxing and cuddling on the bed, things cannot turn out to be fun.  Actually the name of the song 11:11 is because it is at that time that the couple after some cuddling start having fun with each other (I know you know what I mean… caliente!)

The rhythm of the song is very romantic and I can say that it would be a great song to listen while you cuddle with your partner in bed on a Friday night, as the song goes…

It will certainly help you to be in the mood for a romantic night and to learn to enjoy quiet nights at home. Fun does not have to be going out to dance; family quiet nights at home can be really great too.

You can watch the video 11:11, Tommy’s new song on YouTube and subscribe to www.youtube.com/TommyTorresWML

The Flower Festival: Medellin, Colombia is known as the city of eternal spring. The weather is very nice and feels like spring all year long. That type of weather is perfect for great agricultural products such as coffee and also beautiful flowers.

On the first week of August there is a festival in the beautiful city of Medellin (Antioquia) called the Flowers Festival (La feria de las flores). The festival is usually around 10 days long and offers different activities such as Equine Festival, Music, and Classic car parade, among others. One of the most popular events is the “Silleteros” that is a parade of display of beautiful flower arrangements.

The fist flowers parade was held on 1957 and since then the festival has been growing in a fast pace and now it counts with more than 140 cultural events.

The men and women that take place on the parades are very proud and show the tourist the beauty of the flowers and the city.

If you are looking into traveling for vacation to another country, maybe you can plan your next vacation here.

En agosto en Medellín la ciudad conocida como “Ciudad de la eterna primavera” debido a su maravilloso clima como de primavera todo el año. Este clima es perfecto para la agricultura de productos como el café y para crecimiento de flores muy lindas.

En la primare semana de agosto, la cuidad de Medellín (Antioquia), celebra un festival conocido como la feria de las flores. El festival dura aproximadamente 10 días y tiene diferentes actividades como la cabalgata equina, música y el desfile de carros clásicos. Uno de los eventos más populares es el desfile de Silleteros, donde los campesinos desfilan con arreglos de flores.

La primera feria de las flores fue en 1957 y desde entonces la feria ha continuado creciendo y en la actualidad cuenta con más de 140 actividades culturales.

Los hombres y mujeres que organizan y llevan a cabo los desfiles se sienten muy orgullosos y muestran a los turistas la belleza no solo de las flores, pero también de la cuidad.

Si estas buscando unas buenas vacaciones para conocer un nuevo país, esta sería una oportunidad perfecta.

Today, July 20th, we are celebrating the  202nd anniversary of our nation’s independence.

Hoy el 20 de Julio estamos celebrando 202 años de la Independencia de Colombia.

Lakeshore is a store that I visit pretty often with my son, because they have everything that we need for educational crafts. They offer Free crafts for kids every Saturday morning.

Lakeshore store location near you.

For future dates you can see the calendar

Calendar of events for FREE crafts during July

My son and I enjoy visiting different places. We like variety. Our weekends are full of activities to have fun. I always make all our activities not only fun but also an opportunity for learning.

What a best way for learning that visiting the museum. We went to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History located in the beautiful mountains of Santa Barbara, CA.

It is a small museum, which is perfect to visit with your kids, that way you are able to finish visiting all the exhibits before they are tired.

For our visit the main exhibits were DinoMania and Butterflies Alive. Both exhibits were just perfect for my son that loves Dinosaurs and also has enjoyed before being able to walk around the butterflies and even have them land on him.

If you are coming to Santa Barbara try to stop by and visit the museum. It is really worth it.

Mi hijo y yo siempre disfrutamos cuando visitamos lugares diferentes. Nos gusta la variedad. Nuestros fines de semana siempre están llanos de actividades divertidas. Yo siempre trato de que nuestras actividades sean no solo divertidas pero que también nos permitan aprender cosas nuevas.

Que mejor manera de aprender que visitando un museo. Fuimos al Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History que se encuentra en las hermosas montanas de la ciudad de Santa Barbara, CA.


Es un museo pequeño, lo que es perfecto para visitar con los niños, porque se pueden visitar todas las salas sin que los niños estén muy cansados.

En esta visita, las principales salas de exhibición eran DinoMania y Butterflies Alive. Ambas exhibiciones fueron apropiadas para mi hijo al que le encantan los dinosaurios y porque también siempre ha disfrutado caminar en el salón lleno de mariposas que a veces hasta aterrizan en el.

Si visitas Santa Barbara, trata de visitar el museo. De verdad es maravilloso.