Learn Spanish by Stories: ¿Celebraste el Cinco de Mayo? ¿Por qué?

Monday, May 7, 2012

¿Celebraste el Cinco de Mayo? ¿Por qué?

¿Por qué se celebra el Cinco de Mayo?

Primeramente, NO marca la Independencia de México. La Independencia se celebra el 16 de septiembre.

La Batalla de Puebla

Una breve historia:

Había una vez, en un lugar bonito y no muy lejos de aquí, que el gobierno del país no tenía bastante dinero. México había luchado (had fought) una guerra de independencia contra España y por fin ganó en 1821. Después había muchos problemas y luchas, por ejemplo, la Guerra contra los Estados Unidos (1846-1848) y otras batallas en 1858. Durante esa época, México pidió dinero de varias naciones, incluyendo España, Inglaterra y Francia. Ya en 1862, Francia demandaba que México regresara su dinero. México no podía. No tenía el dinero.

Napoleón III de Francia quería el dinero y también quería establecer su imperio en México, así que invadió el país en la ciudad de Veracruz. El presidente Abraham Lincoln de los Estados Unidos quería ayudar a México, pero no podía porque estaba muy ocupado con su propia Guerra Civil.

Los franceses tenían un ejército muy grande y bien equipado, con 6500 soldados. En su marcha hacia la Ciudad de México, ellos encontraron la resistencia muy fuerte cerca de la ciudad de Puebla. Bajo el general Ignacio Zaragoza, los 4500 soldados mexicanos ganaron la batalla.

La victoria en Puebla fue (was) un momento de gloria para México. Pero más tarde, Napoleón III mandó 30,000 más soldados. Era el mejor ejército del mundo. Los franceses ganaron la guerra contra los mexicanos e instalaron como Emperador al duque Maximiliano de Austria con su esposa Carlota.

Pobre Maximiliano. A él y a Carlota les gustaba México, pero los mexicanos no querían tener un emperador francés. Los Estados Unidos ayudaban a México, y después de tres años de resistencia, los mexicanos terminaron el dominio francés y mataron a Maximiliano y a su esposa en la ciudad de Querétaro en 1867.

Hoy en día (nowadays) la fiesta del Cinco de Mayo se celebra con mucho entusiasmo en Puebla, pero no es tan (so) popular en otras partes de México. En los Estados Unidos es cada vez más popular como una celebración de la cultura mexicana, con desfiles, comida, bebidas y música mexicana. ¡Viva México!

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Cognates: words that are similar in two languages, in both spelling or sound and meaning.

Words that end in "or" are often identical in both English and Spanish. So, you already know these words! Spanish words that end in "r" are stressed on the last syllable (doc-TOR).
actor
doctor
color
director
doctor (also médico)
error
exterior
honor
horror
humor
motor
opresor
superior
tumor
vigor

PERSONALITY COGNATES:

The words below are all related to personality characteristics, so you can use them to describe someone. You might notice that most can end in -o (masculine) or -a (feminine). But others don't change their endings, they can refer to either a masculine or feminine person. For example, artista or dentista = an artist or dentist (m. or f.) idealista, optimista. Words ending in -l or -e don't usually need to change endings for m. or f., although they do add -s or -es for plurals. (Ellos son sociables y joviales. Sus amigos son elegantes.)

temperamental

- generoso, -a

- elegante

- creativo, -a

- organizado, -a

- independiente

- entusiasta

- idealista

- activo, -a

- energético, -a

- versátil

- sociable

- sentimental

- romántico, -a

- persistente

- agresivo, -a

- serio, -a

- práctico, -a

- selectivo, -a

- artístico, -a

- tímido, -a

- jovial

- reservado, -a

- intuitivo, -a

- optimista

- impulsivo, -a

Al cine / At the movies

El ciudadano ilustre, de Argentina. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4562518/

Me gustó mucho. La recomiendo. Besides being a fun and interesting film to watch, with plenty of twists and turns, it's really good for listening to Argentine Spanish dialect.

Warehoused (Almacenados) 2015 en Netflix

This occasionally absurd dramedy works on all levels. TWITTER

I really enjoyed this film about a young man reporting for work at his new job and his retiring boss, who has only a week to teach the new man all the details of the job. It's in understandable Spanish, with very little dialog, and wonderful repetition of several stock phrases.

Medianeras (Sidewalls) (Argentina) 2011

"Separated by the wall their apartments share, Mariana and Martin are the perfect couple. They have the same quirks, same tastes, same ideals and even the same neuroses--they're a match made in heaven. There's just one problem -- they've never met. " - Netflix.

Chico y Rita (Cuba)
An animated film about love, time and distance. Quite delightful, and I barely noticed it was animated. On Netflix.

La misma luna (Under the same moon)
This drama centers on a young boy's journey across the U.S./Mexico border to be reunited with his mother. Adrian Alonso stars as Carlitos, a Mexican boy living with his grandmother while his mother works as a maid in the U.S., hoping someday to send for her child. But when the grandmother dies unexpectedly, Carlitos must sneak across the border and seek out his mother.
This is a film for the whole family and it puts a very human face on the immigrant story.
Try watching it in Spanish with or without English subtitles. Then, find a scene you understand and play it several times to practice listening.

The Way, 2011
This film, directed by Emilio Estévez and starring his father Martin Sheen, is not in Spanish. But it is filmed in Spain, and France, and shows a man walking The Way, el Camino de Santiago. This is a pilgrimage to the supposed burial site of St. James the Apostle, Santiago de Compostela, a town in northwest Spain in the area of Galicia. One pilgrim from Ashland told me she had stayed in some of the same "albergues" (shelters) as Sheen and that the movie was very authentic in presenting the experience. I liked it very much and recommend it as a treatment of father-son relationships and personal growth as well as for the wonderful scenery. ¡Buen camino!

Even the Rain / También la lluvia

In my opinion, this is an outstanding film in every way. For students of Spanish, the contrast between the Castilian Spanish of the film crew and the Bolivian Spanish is wonderful to hear. You might also catch some local Quechua dialect. Available on Netflix.

What's it about? Read the info I lifted from the official website, www.eventherainmovie.com:

"A Spanish film crew led by idealistic director Sebastian (Gael García Bernal) and his cynical producer Costa (Luis Tosar) come to Bolivia to make a revisionist epic about the conquest of Latin America - on the cheap. Carlos Aduviri is dynamic as “Daniel,” a local cast as a 16th century native in the film within a film. When the make-up and loin cloth come off, Daniel sails into action protesting his community’s deprivation of water at the hands of multi-national corporations.

This fictional Fitzcarraldo-like quest to make a film against all odds is set against the back drop of the real life “Water Wars,” fought against the privatization of Bolivia’s water supply in the year 2000 and is anchored in the philosophies of historian Howard Zinn, as well as the stories of 16th century priests, Fathers Bartolome de las Casas and Antonio Montesinos, the first radical voices of conscience against an Empire."

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Monday, May 7, 2012

¿Celebraste el Cinco de Mayo? ¿Por qué?

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