Latinoamrica - Tumblr Posts
Camboriú on Flickr.
Camboriú Nocturno
Floy 1 1/2 on Flickr.
mi perrita Floy recién llegada a la familia
butterfly on Flickr.
Butterfly
88 on Flickr.
Butterfly 88
Cataratas Iguaçu on Flickr.
Floy mordiendo un hueso on Flickr.
Mi perrita Floy mordiendo un hueso
pata de guanaco on Flickr.
Desierto Florido. Region de Atacama
Camino a La Paz on Flickr.
La Paz, Bolivia
Chuncho - Glaucidium nanum por José Miguel Alfaro Rojas Por Flickr: Lago Cabrera Hornopirén Región de Los Lagos Chile
Patagioenas picazuro
Known in Brazil as Pombo da asa branca (white wing pigeon) is a pretty big guy that sounds like an owl. They're beautiful and commonly found in many countries of South America.
honestly oscar isaac saying viva latinoamerica after seeing coco won an oscar is a big mood
Costa Rica:
Nicaragua:
Perú:
Paraguay:
Bolivia:
Venezuela:
México:
Chile:
Argentina:
Brasil:
América Latina, me encanta verte crecer.
Fuego (relato corto) por Ang Deorum
Ha sido una noche larga, la luz de la luna se ha esfumado como una exhalación en medio del campo. La taza humeante entre mis manos me dice que las historias que dejé de contarle, se harán realidad cuando la última estrella deje de brillar en el cielo y el horizonte se pinte de vino tinto o violeta.
¿Qué pasará cuando mis párpados se cierren y deje de soñarle? Él siempre ha estado a mi lado cuando las nubes han oscurecido y mis pies se han fatigado. Él siempre ha estado conmigo cuando las gotas de agua salada de mis ojos se ha secado, y el dolor de mi pecho ha callado.
El mal sabor del té de hierbas me reseca los labios; pienso en lo que va a pasar y siento que no podré explicarlo. Esta tarde lo vi, con su traje de gala y su mejor sombrero. Sonreía con vasta serenidad y sus ojos le robaban la luz al sol.
Me sentí como la peor de las personas, pues cuando besó mis labios al despedirse, el ácido de mi resentimiento se filtró en su lengua, infectando sus venas. Sentenciándolo a una lenta y dolorosa muerte que rompería como las olas contra las rocas en una tarde de marea alta.
Bebo un sorbo de mi té de hierbas, y aprieto los labios. Quema; tal como debe quemar el sabor de la venganza en medio del limbo, donde no estás totalmente a oscuras, pero cuando la luz aún no aparece.
Otro sorbo de té, y la taza ahora solo alberga el calor de lo que una vez estuvo lleno de energía, energía que al desvanecerse, solo deja un cuerpo vacío, un recipiente bien estructurado, pero inútil.
Una bola infernal se eleva en el horizonte, empapando el oscuro sendero del alba con un tono naranja rojizo lleno de esquirlas humanas y materiales. ¿Acaso los humanos no somos materiales? Materiales que se desintegran aplicando leyes que nosotros mismos hemos creado.
La estructura en donde me encuentro, se sacude llena de pánico, consciente de que una horda de personajes lúgubres y curiosos, llenos de preguntas y acusaciones-¡Vaya que sí! ¡Sus acusaciones son las mejores!-podría llegar en cualquier momento y sacarme con las manos en la espalda. No lloraría por la pérdida de mi marido, no lamentaría la pérdida de mi hijo mayor, solo me aquejaría el no poder volver a ver la sonrisa de mi pequeño, ese de rulos y hoyuelos que corre a mis brazos cada vez que puede, cada vez que quiere. Ellos, los integrantes de la muchedumbre, me condenarían sin darme derecho a alzar una sola palabra a través de las paredes de aquella asfixiante casa de madera llena de recuerdos creados por dos individuos que pronto acabarían con la paz de mi alma, llevándome a este momento, a esta decisión.
Recorro los pasillos por última vez para llevarme al limbo, al cielo o al infierno, la imagen de la misma casa que un día vi llena de luz, ahora manchada de oscuridad y miedo. Temor y odio. ¿Cómo alguien puede mantenerte en el aire por tanto con tantas mentiras y después dejarte caer sin el mínimo atisbo de compasión?
Tomo un trozo de papel y una pluma: «Quien sufre en silencio, se llena de cicatrices. Heridas no curadas cuya sangre no derramada se acumula y le engulle, con el sabor del óxido y la sal, dejándote con ganas de más. Te acostumbras a saborear tu propio dolor, y llega el momento en el que quieres saborear el de otros.»
No hay miedo ni remordimiento en mi interior. El reloj de la sala bajo las escaleras suena su última campanada y cierro los ojos. ¿Hay una vida después de esta? No lo sé, pero si la hay, no creo tener derecho a vivirla.
Lo último que siento, es lo que ellos sintieron: fuego. Fuego en mi piel y en mi alma. Fuego que devora sin compasión todos los pecados y las faltas.
Te regalo un atardecer atípico, con una belleza tan subjetiva como la vida misma, pero con una fuerza tan real que es capaz de abrazarte sin que te des cuenta.
Here in Venezuela, the goverment is mining on ecosystems that were once protected, slowly destroying whole mountains and devastating the local fauna and flora. And nobody cares.
Now the Kusari Tepuy has been destroyed so some rich assholes could celebrate a fucking birthday party, and they are just walking scot-free.
I hate it here.
EDIT:
Adding this to the post proper because some of you are stupid and it makes my blood boil.
Not everything bad you hear about my country’s situation is “made up CIA propaganda”. Sure, a lot has been exaggerated about Nicolás Maduro’s goverment and his late predecessor, Hugo Chavéz. That’s true. That being said, there have been a lot of bad things too, the Arco Minero being one of them. That’s also true.
And the #TepuyParty? That was not Maduro. That was not something caused by our so-called “dictatorial regimen”. The ones who did that are just very, very wealthy people, most of which (if not all of them) are actually from the opposite political party. They have nothing to do with the Chavista political party, believe it or not.
So unless you are Venezuelan yourself and living in Venezuelan soil right here right now, you better shut up before you write something this stupid.
In other words: Cállate gringo.
On “Dead” Cultures and Closed Spiritual Practices: Why Colonialism Is Still A Problem.
Let me start this by saying that, as far as my knowledge of Paganism and Polytheism as a whole goes, I’m what the internet witch community calls a “Baby Witch”. I’m stating this out of the gate because I know there will be lots of people, including witches who have more experience on the craft than me, who might decide to ignore what I have to say based on that fact alone, stating that I’m not knowledgeable enough to give my opinion about this.
Here’s the kicker: I’m a ‘baby witch’, yes, but I’m also a twenty-six year old Venezuelan woman. I’m an adult. I’m Latina. I’m a Christian-raised Pagan,but I’m also a Latinoamerican woman over all other things including that. I grew up on this culture, these are my roots. It is because of this background than I’m writing this post today.
Looking through the “Paganism” and “Witchcraft” tags of this website, I’ve seen a few posts throwing indigenous deities and spirits’ names around on lists alongside deties of open cultures. Yes, you can know better by doing your own research and not going by what just a random Tumblr user wrote on one post (as I hope its the case with everyone on this website), but the fact that pagan beginners are still getting fed misinformation is still worrisome to me.
There’s nothing like reading a so-called expert putting Ixchen (Maya), Xolotl (Nahuatl) and Papa Legba (Vodou) on the same damn list as Norse, Hellenic and Kemetic deities and tagging it on the tags aimed at beginners who might not know better to truly ruin your morning. I’m not mentioning user names here: If you know then you know.
To quote @the-illuminated-witch on her very good post about Cultural Appropriation:
“Cultural appropriation is a huge issue in modern witchcraft. When you have witches using white sage to “smudge” their altars, doing meditations to balance their chakras, and calling on Santa Muerte in spells, all without making any effort to understand the cultural roots of those practices, you have a serious problem.
When trying to understand cultural appropriation in witchcraft, it’s important to understand the difference between open and closed magic systems. An open system is one that is open to exchange with outsiders — both sharing ideas/practices and taking in new ones. In terms of religion, spirituality, and witchcraft, a completely open system has no restrictions on who can practice its teachings. A closed system is one that is isolated from outside influences — usually, there is some kind of restriction on who can practice within these systems.”
A counter-argument I’ve seen towards this when someone wants to appropiate indigenous deities and spirits is to use the “dead culture” argument: Extinct cultures are more eligible for use by modern people of all stirpes. It is a dead culture and dead religion. It would be one thing if some part of the culture or religion was still alive, being used by modern descendants, but the culture died out in its entirety and was replaced, right? They were all killed by colonization, they are ancient history now, right?
Example: “If white people are worshipping Egyptian deities now, then why can’t I worship [Insert Aborigen Deity Here]?”
To which I have two things to say:
Ancient Egypt’s culture was open and imperialistic, meaning they wanted their religion to be spread. This is why Kemetism is not Cultural Appropriation, despite what some misinformed people might tell you. Similar arguments can also be made for the Hellenic and the Norse branches of Paganism, both practiced by people who aren’t Greek/Norse.
Who are you to say which cultures are “dead” and which are not?
Religious practices such as Vodou and Santería certainly aren’t dead, not that it keeps some Tumblr users from adding Erzuli as a “goddess” on their Baby Witch post, something that actual Vodou practitioners have warned against.
Indigenous cultures such as the Maya and the Mapuche aren’t dead, despite what the goverment of their countries might tell you. The Mapuche in particular have a rich culture and not one, but two witchcraft branches (The Machi and the Kalku/Calcu). Both are closed pagan practices that the local Catholic Church has continuously failed to assimilate and erase, though sadly not for lack of trying:
“The missionaries who followed the Spanish conquistadors to America incorrectly interpreted the Mapuche beliefs regarding both wekufes and gualichos. They used the word wekufe as a synonym for ideas of the devil, demons, and other evil or diabolical forces. This has caused misunderstanding of the original symbolism and has changed the idea of wekufe right up to the present day, even amongst the Mapuche people.”
For context, the Wefuke are the Calcu’s equivalent of the Familiar, as well as reportedly having more in common with the Fae than with demons anyway.
This and other indigenous religions are Closed because it is wrong for foreigners to just come and take elements from marginalized groups whom are still fighting to survive and that they weren’t born into. To just approppiate those things would be like spitting in their faces, treating them and their culture like a commodity, a shiny thing, a unique thing to be used like paint to spruce up your life or be special.
I know some of you are allergic to the word “Privilege”, but on this situation there really ain’t a better word to explain it. You weren’t born here, you don’t know what it is like, you are only able to see the struggle from an outsider’s point of view.
If a belief or practice is part of a closed system, outsiders should not take part in it. And with how many practices there are out there which are open for people of all races, there is really no excuse for you to do it.
Why Colonization Is Not “Ancient History”
If you have kept reading all this so far, you are probably wondering “Ok, but what does Colonization has to do with any of this?”
The answer? Everything.
With the general context of culture appropriation out of the way, let me tell you about why the whole “dead culture” argument rubs me the wrong way: Here in Venezuela, we have a goddess called Santa Maria de la Onza, or Maria Lionza for short, whom’s idol statue I have been using to illustrate this little rant. If you happen to know any Spanish, you might recognize the name as a derivative of Santa Maria, aka the Virgin Mary, and you are mostly correct: Her true indigenous name is theorized to have been Yara.
And I say “theorized” because it is a subject of hot debate whether she was really ever called that or not: Her original name, the name by which she was adored and worshipped by our ancestors, might have been forever lost to history.
That’s the legacy of colonization for you: Our cultures were stolen from us, and what they couldn’t erase they instead tried to assimilate. Our ancestors were enslaved, their lands and homes stolen, their artwork and literary works destroyed: The Maya and the Aztec Empire were rich in written works of all kinds, ranging from poetry to history records to medicine, and the Spaniards burned 99% of it, on what is probably one of the most tragic examples of book burning in history and one that people rarely ever talk about.
People couldn’t even worship their own gods or pass their knowledge of them to their children. That’s why Maria Lionza has such a Spanish Catholic-sounding name, and that’s why we can’t even be sure if Yara was her name or not: The Conquistadors couldn’t steal our goddess from us, so they stole her name instead. Catholics really have a thing with trying to assimilate indigenous goddesses with the Virgin Mary, as they tried to do the same with the Pachamama.
On witchy terms, I’d define Maria Lionza as both a deity and a land spirit: Most internet pages explaining her mention the Sorte mountain as her holy place, but it is more along the lines that she is the mountain.
You’d think that, with Venezuela and other Latinoamerican countries no longer being colonies, we’d be able to worship our own deities including her, right?
As far as a lot of Catholics seem to think and act, apparently we are not.
The Catholics here like to go out of their way to shame us, to call us “cultists”, to ostracize us, with a general call to “refrain from those pagan beliefs” because they go against the Catholic principles. Yes, the goddess with the Catholic-sounding name, a name she happens to share with a Catholic deity, apparently goes “against Catholic principles”. You really can’t make this shit up. (Linked article is in Spanish)
This is just an act of colonization out of many, of not wanting to stop until the culture they want to destroy is gone. Don’t believe for a second that this is really their God’s will or anything like that, they are just trying to finish what years of enslavement and murder couldn’t. They might not be actively killing us anymore, but they still want us dead.
So no, colonization is not some thing that has long passed and now only exist on history textbooks: It is still happening to this day. It is by treating it as old history that they can keep doing it, and it is by pushing the narrative that our indigenous cultures are “dead cultures” that they try to erase our heritage.
Because we are not dead. We are still here, we are alive, we have survived and we’ll keep on surviving, and our gods and goddesses are not yours to take.
¡Chao! 🐈
Okay people, we are already in the month of April and as you may know, yesterday the five channels (including NatGeo Kids) broadcast for the last time that we will never see those channels that we always love again...
Even it affected me a lot knowing that I will never watch my favorite Kingdom Force series ever again...
I know it's hard to get over all this that happened yesterday, and well I didn't come here to talk about my depressed state, not anything like that, I want to share with you this magnificent surprise drawing that my great friend @/LuisstarCross16 (Twitter), He made me that wonderful drawing of Luka, Jabari and Norvyn as a tribute to the series and the channel.
I will definitely miss my favorite series including NatGeo Kids who was always by my side during those four years (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ💞✨💞✨💞✨💞
Well I hope you all like them (◠‿◕)✨👌
COLOR VERSION
Paradoja
¿Alguien conoce el significado de esta palabra? Es probable que sean pocos los que utilicen este termino con propiedad, pero la gran mayoría nos vemos enfrentados a paradojas todo el tiempo, aún no pareciéndolo. Paradoja es una contradicción, dos pensamientos opuestos enfrentados en un mismo concepto, como por ejemplo, un judío nazi.
Y sin querer ser tan extremo, vemos paradojas en muchas acciones sociales y que nos afectan a todos, como comerciales de navidad que abalan la comunión familiar y el amor fraternal, pero terminan con un gigantesco descuento del regalo más caro que hay en la tienda; o más contemporáneo todavía, miles de personas protestando y reclamando en redes sociales por un presidente que ellos mismos como nación eligieron. Son muchas las personas "paradójicas" que te hacen creer que piensan de una manera y luego dicen o hacen algo que demuestra todo lo contrario, un fenómeno sicológico que llamo: El mal de la Chimoltrufia, cuyo lema era "yo como digo una cosa, digo otra". Y es curioso que un personaje tan divertido pueda generar un patrón de comportamiento tan nocivo.
Para demostrar este "mal" cito una situación bastante rara a mi parecer. En un grupo de trabajo en el que participaba, llego una chica a prueba, cuyo color de piel resaltaba por lo oscuro. Habrá trabajado un par de días y luego se retiro, argumentando a un compañero que encontró un lugar donde le pagaban mejor. Este último, comentando la situación al grupo, dijo que seguramente se había ido a trabajar a un café topless. Desde mi más sincera ingenuidad, y no entiendo el porque de las risas, pregunto si ella le había mencionado que su nuevo trabajo sería ese, a lo que me responden que no, era sólo una suposición hecha por su color de piel, y siendo más textual, me dijeron que: "seguramente se fue a topless, si hay están plagados de negras". Para poner las cosas en orden, pregunte si ellos, desde su punto de vista, el café topless era el lugar de trabajo más indicado para una persona de color, a lo que la respuesta unísona fue un sí; les respondí que entonces yo, una persona blanca, desde mi punto de vista el mejor lugar para trabajo para mis compañeros latinos era el narcotráfico. La paradoja de esta historia es que, el mismo comentario hecho por una persona blanca es más racista que el hecho por una latina, ya que existe una valoración diferente según tu color de piel para hablar de racismo. ¿Raro no?
Son muchas las veces que uno puede escuchar un comentario despectivo sobre un inmigrante de piel oscura de personas, que paradójicamente, consideran el racismo como un acto despreciable. Así como mujeres feministas que no dejan a su hijo varón aprender a cocinar o gente budista en ventas telefónicas. La humanidad como tal ya tiene desafíos tan grandes por desarrollar, como para inventarse más dificultades de convivencia entre nosotros mismo.
Y ello nos lleva a la última paradoja de la cual deberíamos librarnos, el de estar en una vida tan sencilla, pero también en sistema de vida terriblemente complicado.