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Spain, 15M movement: How did we reach this situation? And now, what’s next?

Mónica Boixeda

On one hand, there is the will of a great part of the society to create a new system, and on the other, another major part has voted right wing –except in the Basque Country, where once again, they have given a lesson to justice in real democracy as the winning party, Bildu, at first was not allowed to run for the elections up until two weeks before but ended up winning the elections in most of the region. How did we reach this situation? The mismanagement of the crisis by politicians -and notice that I do not say government, but politicians as, before such socio-economic debacle, don’t you think they should have joined forces to chalk it? While (most of) European countries put their efforts together to overcome the economic crisis, the Spanish politicians seem like kids in the school yard throwing dirt at each other. Corruption in high political and economic circles (and in medium and small circles, too.) This State, traditionally bandit, remains faithful to its political customs with more than 50 defendants who have been able to submit to the municipal elections (for more info: http://bukowski.lacoctelera.net/post/2011/05/20/espa-a-pol-ticos-imputados-corrupci-n-pueden) A two-party system of camouflaged democracy that contributes to a feedback circle to alternate terms of a stalled government, leaving little or no options for people who bet on a change in the system. Just to get an idea of the absolute power of the banks, consider how the “Banco Santander” contributed to the current financial crisis and to sustain corrupt regimes. This bank helped launder money from Equatorial Guinea´s President Teodor Obiang acting under national laws not to...

The Gaze of the Samurai: The drawings of Akira Kurosawa in Madrid

Mónica Boixeda

The ABC Museum in Madrid is holding an impressive exhibition of the storyboard of the Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa until 12 June. Entitled La mirada del samurai: Los dibujos de Akira Kurosawa (The Gaze of the Samurai: The Drawings of Akira Kurosawa) this exhibition provides a view of his complex body of work, which marked an era in international cinema and drew the world’s attention to Japanese culture. The exhibition is comprised of 120 drawings made by Kurosawa that were used for reference during the shooting of Kagemusha, The Shadow Warrior (1980); Ran (1985); Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990); Rhapsody in August (1991); The Sea is Watching (2002) and Not Yet (1993). Akira Kurosawa was born in the Omori district of Tokyo, Japan in 1910. His father’s side of the family were once samurais, but now worked in education and commerce. Kurosawa was passionate about drawing and also cinema, which had only recently arrived in Japan. His first job in the industry was narrating silent films, though this ended when talkies appeared. In 1938 he enrolled as a director’s apprentice in the Toho film studio where he worked with Kajiro Yamamoto. These weren’t easy years for filmmaking in Japan because the government had tight control over productions, ensuring that they adhered to their nationalist agenda. During this period Kurosawa produced films which largely served as propaganda for the militaristic government. However, Kurosawa’s free-thinking tendencies led him to join unions and write impassioned columns in defence of labour rights. This point of view was reflected in his film, No Regrets for Our Youth, which is about the dramatic life of a...

The Paintings of Don Rigoberto by Mario Vargas Llosa

Mónica Boixeda

Not only does it possess the function of maintaining the existence of our species in the world – but it is also an enormous part of our lives, in terms of pleasure, motivation and satisfaction – there is no question that sex is important, and art has been one of the things to help us realise this through time. In the case of literature, there are many works which approach the erotic and sexual wonderfully, reaching impressive new heights each time. Such is the case with “Los cuadernos de Don Rigoberto” (“The Paintings of Don Rigoberto“) by Mario Vargas Llosa (winner of Nobel Prize for Literature 2010) – the authors second sexually themed novel (the first was Elogio de la Madrastra), presenting an exciting, intriguing fusion of sex, art, fiction and reality. Don Rigoberto, an ordinary, everyman in his 50s, fights the monotony of his life with his imagination. He is the protagonist of the novel, and the subject of its erotic fantasies – like that in the second chapter of the book, when we see Lucrecia, his wife, in bed, naked, excited and spreading honey on herself – to later release the kittens that Rigoberto has given her, and letting them follow their senses. There´s another person who creates tension in the novel – a young man who takes sex to its limits; to the very borderline of the morally acceptable. He is called Fonchito, and is the teenage son of Don Rigoberto, and step-son to Lucrecia – a slim, intelligent man who awakens Lucrecia´s sexuality with his games (she is after his step-mother – if she was...

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