Culto Métrico (Portuguese Edition)

Alfonso resided in Seville for much of his later reign, and chose its cathedral as the burial place for both his parents, as well as as a second choice for himself. On Saint Ildefonsus, see note 42 below. A papal bull of granted twenty days of indulgence to anyone who visited the church on a Saturday the weekday singled out for the Marian cult , prayed for the soul of King Ferdinand, and practiced almsgiving.

From onward the cathedral benefitted from a papal privilege granting one hundred days of indulgence to all who attended the Feast of the Assumption August 15 , which the cathedral recognized as its own feast day, or any other Marian feast singled out by a procession. While they would have been expected to comply, there is only slight evidence that they did so. It seems likely that for a while some form of performance of the CSM in or around the church occurred as planned, drawing on the many clerical singers At the end of the eighteenth century it was claimed that the books of the CSM had been kept for many years in the archive of the cathedral, and that their contents were sung on the feasts of Mary, until King Philip II requisitioned them for El Escorial where manuscripts T and E arrived in Performing instructions are nonetheless found in some of the manuscripts, and an effort seems to have been made to facilitate the singing of selected cantigas according to the church calendar.

This does not correspond to the order of the feasts in the The feast should be identified with the Expectation December 18 , not with the Con- ception December 8 , as is often assumed. The four Marian feasts of Nativity, Annunciation, Purification, and Assumption were already commemorated in Rome before The feast of December 18 corresponds to the Feast of Mary, or of the Annunciation or Incarnation, which had been in the Visigothic calendar since ; its implementation, liturgical arrangement, and the introductory prayer for the Mass were attributed to Saint Ildefonsus of Toledo archbishop —67 , who wrote a famous treatise on the virginity of Mary, thus justifying the alternative name for the feast, Virginity, in the CSM.

The polemical feast of the Conception December 8 , adopted in England and parts of France before or during the twelfth century, was resisted in Spain until the fourteenth century, and was acknowledged by Rome only in Cistercians and Dominicans were utterly opposed to it, and even the Franciscans began to add it to their calendars only from the fourteenth century on- ward, not from as is often claimed. Post-reconquest Seville took its liturgical usages from Toledo. This is confirmed by a Seville sacramentary dating from the last quarter of the thirteenth century Seville, Biblioteca Colombina, ms.

A contemporary marginal note below the last song states that on the Vigil of Saint Mary in August i. This provides a link between To and the scriptural environment of E. The marginal note in To also agrees with the rubrics for the corresponding songs in E. The latter still precedes the cantiga meant for Purification February 2 , but it could in fact have been performed previously, either during the Feast of the Expectation which, from the time of Saint Ildefonsus of Toledo, also commemorated the Annunciation , or, more likely, at Vespers during the last week of Advent, during Vigils or sometime after Lauds before the main Christmas Mass, or even on Sundays The first gathering encompasses folios 1—8, the second folios 9— The contents of folio 9r are the continuation of the song begun on folio 8v the break falls in the middle of the first stanza.

Epigraphs for CSM , , , and are omitted entirely. Abbreviations have been resolved. To Finalis E D 0. Des quando Deus sa Madre [] F 9. Nenbre-sse-te, Madre [] D Maria Cristina Borges has demonstrated the architectural cogency and self-sufficiency of this subcollection in E, and remarked that the choice of loores to go with the original cantigas is thematically justified. The fact that this annex precedes the main body of E, rather than following it, seems supported by the respective prologue CSM But first I shall tell in pleasing melody of Her five feast days.

See, for instance, folio 14r in the twelfth-century Plenary Missal in the Biblioteca Univer- sitaria de Salamanca, Ms. Although from a codicological point of view this section indeed seems artificially attached to the main body of the volume, it may have been made expressly to occupy its current position, as an afterthought, when the book was nearing completion. It may have existed briefly as a book- let, but then was incorporated into MS E in order to complement and enhance that collection. Cantiga in To CSM was transposed down a fifth to D, the same finalis as in the preceding song.

Thus, the same pairing principle observed in the preceding feasts, using new or appropriate preexisting loores, is applied here too. This suggests that the FJC were eventually expanded along the same rationale as the FSM, though the end result has not survived. One may thus conclude with confidence that some form of paraliturgical performance in Seville, implying paired CSM, the start of an anthology of Marian miracles broadened the purpose of the codex by turning a work of personal devotion into an object suitable for rituals of public worship.

The rubricator, however, hesitates, either because he was used to providing refrain incipits in lines left blank by the first copyist or because he had CSM in E as a model and took a while to recognize the falsity of its refrain. This suggests that the FSM appendix could have been prepared after CSM was copied into the main body of E—that is, during or after its final stages of copying. The song may have been assigned afterward to the Octave of Epiphany. Modes of Transmission Aside from these liturgical instructions for selected feast days, the extant manuscripts of CSM offer few unambiguous clues as to how the cantigas were to be performed.

Who sang them, for whom, and where? What messages were they meant to convey, beyond the most overt praise of the Virgin Mary? Modern scholars have proposed a strikingly diverse array of answers to these questions, many of them quite speculative. In order to assess these competing claims, we will examine both the internal and external evidence. The enticing idea that the CSM reached a wide medieval audience cannot be reconciled with the exist- ing evidence, which, as noted above, suggests quite a limited circulation.

A careful evaluation of the internal evidence, both textual and formal, none- theless indicates that Alfonso did intend the CSM to circulate, and be per- formed, across a broad range of social classes, as part of an ambitious cultural program with both religious and political objectives.

These inten- tions were unfulfilled because of the ultimate failure of the monarch himself, and his posthumous denigration. The idea that the CSM had a very large audience in the Middle Ages has gained undeserved currency in modern Alfonsine studies. The fact that T and F are spectacular works of art has suggested to some modern inter- preters that they were meant as showcases: Artistic items of great value were to be seen in the treasuries of cathedrals, where many might have been displayed along with tapestries, jewels, and other priceless items.

Alfonso was very proud of the Cantigas. It is unlikely, then, that he would have kept the volumes hidden. Rather they should be seen as enameled writings accruing to the prestige of the monarchy: CSM claims that Alfonso X was cured by contact with the book of cantigas that traveled with him possibly To. A collection of CSM could thus acquire the thaumaturgic status of a relic, and accordingly deserve a magnificent wrapping, made of exquisite miniatures, generously inlaid with gold.

Keller, Pious Brief Narrative, Formal homogeneity is certainly a sign of coherent conception as opposed to piecemeal juxtaposi- tion, but it does not exclude relation to a living performance tradition, as we will shortly see in the discussion of form. The second argument is an argu- ment from silence, which is plausible only insofar as the survival of written descriptions, performance materials, or further manuscript copies of the CSM would be expected if they had actually been performed in public.

Such an expectation is misplaced, considering the potential role of oral trans- mission, the nature of the extant medieval documentation note sheets were typically disposed of and ad hoc performance arrangements disregarded , and the personal nature of the CSM enterprise which made its diffusion vulnerable to adverse political contexts. One must also consider the possi- bility that performance was locally initiated but not sustained because of in- sufficient practical support such as dedicated endowments, or confraternity statutes to ensure performance continuity for more than a few years , its documentary trail thus being reduced to nil.

Griffiths does acknowledge that some compositions might have been meant to have a larger impact as performed songs, as implied by the traces of courtly circulation and intended practical use of specific sets of the CSM explored above. She adds, however, that some songs, either singly or in small groups, may have been performed by clerics and court minstrels in public spaces, and possibly appropriated by jongleurs in those Marian sanctu- aries where the narrated miracles were located, thus extending their reach much beyond the court.

One is thus led to believe that the CSM represented an almost private, playful activity, akin to troubadour engagement among courtiers. It will be argued below that, on the contrary, the collection reflects an ambi- tious political and religious agenda, and that it was designed at the outset to have aural public impact both within and beyond the court.

In the remain- der of this section I will argue the more fundamental point that Alfonso con- ceived the CSM as a collection of songs that should be publicly performed according to either established clerical usage or the courtly tradition with which he was intimately familiar. In codex T fol. This represents the beginning of the project and seems to imply teamwork in the production of versified narratives.

On the facing page fol. At the center the king, with an open book, raises his left hand with the index finger pointing—a conventional gesture of command—toward the copyist on his immediate left and looks at him. This is the continuation of the text begun on the left, on another roll held by a cleric who is running the index and middle fingers of his right hand over the words written there—the beginning of CSM 1—on which tetra- grams are superimposed: On the far right we see three clerics standing and holding an open book, their gaze directed toward another cleric with half-open mouth, possibly a solo singer.

This foursome represents a mode of performance that is vocal, unaccompanied, and eccle- siastical: This suggests a paraliturgical context. Finally, on the extreme left stand three jongleurs, identifiable by their instru- ments: This figure appears in color in the online version of the Journal. The jongleurs, separated from the singers, are only partially active and not coordinated among themselves.

They may symbolize the melody that the cleric next to them will soon try to capture in musical notation. But it seems just as plausible that they are meant to embody the idea of ulterior circulation that was intended to occur in reality, giving fur- ther kinds of life both vocal and instrumental to the CSM. The image of minstrels singing a cantiga would not have been used if it were not a credible representation of what Alfonso intended to happen at his court.

This interpretation expands and qualifies the one proposed in Ferreira, Cantus corona- tus, , The Medieval Fate of the Cantigas de Santa Maria civil war of —47 , and he himself became an important author of Galician-Portuguese troubadour songs. The CSM were a direct continuation of the Galician-Portuguese trouba- dour tradition, both in their choice of the established poetic language70 and in their array of literary techniques.

In this context Galician retained its traditional association with poetry, while Castilian was used and actively promoted as a language of prose. Connections between the CSM and Galician-Portuguese secular poetry as practiced by Alfonso himself and his fellow troubadours involve versification, turns of expression, and a rich palette of technical and rhetorical resources, summarized in Parkinson, Alfonso X, the Learned, 10— Galician was the western vernac- ular of the Leonese kingdom, as opposed to the northeastern Asturian- Leonese which was not acknowleged then as an independent Romance language and surfaced in writing only in local juridical documents.

This was a complex enterprise that involved deliberate juxtaposition of courtly and non- courtly models. On the one hand, Alfonso manipulated poetic and metri- cal forms from within the troubadour tradition that would highlight the digni- ty of his subject, the Virgin Mary. On the other, he chose forms from outside the troubadour tradition that were familiar to popular audiences, including recent converts from Islam, in order to encourage the penetration of his songs beyond the limited courtly circle of the troubadours, especially into the recently Christianized areas where the Islamic imprint was still strong.

Se vos trobar sabedes, If you well know your art, a por que Deus avedes, she through whom you have God: The large majority of CSM, narrative or otherwise, depart from the clerical precedent of Gonzalo de Berceo, and from troubadour precedent as well, in the overall choice of metrical and musical forms. This formal scheme, which encompasses all the miracle songs and three-quarters of the others, has been associated both with dance forms, namely the Occitanic dansa or French virelai, and with the Andalusian song of the zajal type.

The latter most probably provided the model for the CSM, for the reasons outlined below. Specialists in Andalusian Arabic and Hebrew poetry hold widely divergent views on the ultimate origins of the zajal—whether to see it as an imitation of earlier Iberian Romance song or as a local adaptation and expansion of an Arabic poetic precedent.

Romance philologists also disagree on the ultimate origins of the virelai—whether it is an imitation of an Iberian precedent or a pan-European derivation from popular or Latin models. What we can confi- dently say is that in the thirteenth century the zajal was a long-established, popular genre in southern Spain, including its Mozarab population, and that it is almost certain that Alfonso was personally acquainted with zajalesque It was not conquered by Castilian or Aragonese knights, unlike other towns and regions of Andalusia, nor was its population and culture initially displaced by northern, Christian newcomers.

Alfonso, as an infante, led the occupying Christian army and resided in Murcia, then es- sentially a Muslim town, for at least a couple of months in both and They fought together at the siege of Seville in —48, to which the Granadan king contributed cavalry, and began a close friendship that lasted at least until Indeed, his rule encouraged the spread of Muslim-inspired Christian architecture.

Of the rare surviving zajal-like secular songs in Galician-Portuguese, the earliest secure examples are authored by Alfonso X and two other troubadours When for four months in the king shared his dwellings with his former enemy the Emir of Morocco, who had come to his rescue with an army, he felt unsurprisingly comfortable and reinvigorated within this environment: References to the secular Galician-Portuguese cantigas follow current scholarly usage in identifying their manuscript sources and numerical position within them.

Four of the abovementioned cantigas use the most usual form of the zajal, AA bbbaAA. O genete B , V 74 , by Alfonso X, may also be interpreted as a zajal, although the manuscripts fail to repeat the initial lines as a refrain. There remain only two zajals of a later date: Pois min amor non quer leixar B bis, V is a zajalesque version of a cantiga by Airas Nunes, who was in the service of Sancho IV between and , and who may have previously been a collaborator of Alfonso X.

Updated biographical profiles of the medieval Galician- Portuguese authors, digital reproductions of the sources, and alternative editions can be found in the Cantigas Medievais database, http: I wish to thank Stephen Parkinson for his help in tracing potential cases of zajal form in secular cantigas.

Zajalesque formal schemes occur in no more than twenty-four cantigas. Before the mid-thirteenth century the scheme aaabBB appears in only three songs: With one exception these zajal troubadour songs employed the satirical regis- ter, which lent itself to contrafaction the use of an existing melody for a differ- ent text ; this choice of form found little echo in the secular manuscript tradition, yet it pervades the CSM.

The connection between the CSM and southern Iberian song is reinforced by the fact that the music uses a kind of rondeau form found only in the Andalusian tradition, with an initial repeat in the strophe of section B rather than section A, as in the French variety. The virelai, whose origin is disputed, is also found in the Andalusian musical heritage. Musically, only 11 of the CSM use typical troubadour forms, whereas have initial refrain and mel- odic recapitulation in the strophe. Of these, are of the virelai kind, while 86 correspond to the Andalusian rondeau and 19 to the French rondeau.

The zajal probably used both the virelai and the Andalusian rondeau forms. The simpler way to explain the formal, metrical, or musical novelties of the abovemen- tioned satirical songs and the CSM in the Galician-Portuguese context is therefore to assume that they were directly inspired by the Andalusian zajal. The connection with the zajal is recognizable even if the strophic structure of the poems is varied, thereby enriching the Galician-Portuguese metrical and rhyming vocabulary: The same could also be true of Afonso Paez and Johan Servando, both of unknown whereabouts. This formal register was rooted in the mixed local culture of Toledo and of the newly occupied southern territories, forming an arc around the kingdom of Granada, from Seville in the west to Murcia in the east.

Had the king been mainly concerned with the entertainment and approval of his courtly circle, the appropriation of familiar troubadour forms or Latin conductus and sequences, in the wake of Gautier de Coinci, or some upgrade of the repeti- tious epic or lai narrative styles, would have been the most obvious choice. While such forms appear in the CSM, they are quite rare. As Elvira Fidalgo has argued, it invited easy public access to the miracle, as well as its easy diffusion, on account of its familiarity among the minstrels.

Once the model had been chosen, the internal organization of the narrative unsympathetic toward the thesis of Arabic influence on Romance poetry: This is the more probable when the last line fails to repro- duce the rhyme and length of the previous lines; see Page, Owl and the Nightingale, 69— The proposal maintains the current regulatory policy for products covered by the directive, and in particular does not change provisions for radio equipment used by radio amateurs.

Following implementation of the revised directive, the Commission will consider whether further revision of the directive is necessary. European companies have great difficulty in acquiring funding from the capital markets, since they do not have adequate cash liquidity to carry out many investment projects or to offer sustained support for research and innovation activities,. In Portugal, several financial instruments supporting SMEs through venture capital and business angels are under implementation. The manufacturer has developed a procedure for inspection and repair of the cracks which will be carried out during routine, scheduled maintenance.

Accordingly, the sole liability for the answer remains with EASA. The Commission will send the Agency's reply to the Honourable Member as soon as received. In een recent interview plaatst een gerenommeerd Prof. Bij BEN-woningen zou dit reboundeffect zich in omgekeerde zin kunnen manifesteren. Verder noemt de Prof. Want terwijl de terugverdieneffecten zich voo. Welke maatregelen neemt de Commissie, samen met de bevoegde overheden, om een antwoord te bieden op deze gevolgen? Overweegt de Commissie om op basis van deze kritiek, de doelstelling te herzien?

Zo ja, op welke manier en wanneer? Zo neen, waarom niet? De Commissie is niet op de hoogte van het interview waarnaar het geachte Parlementslid verwijst. Zonder duidelijk bewijsmateriaal kan de Commissie de stellingen van de professor emeritus niet naar behoren beoordelen. In a recent interview, a renowned emeritus professor from the Catholic University of Louvain cast serious doubt on this target. The professor warns, first of all, of three possible rebound effects of the NZE target:.

The high price of such homes would lead to the construction of more detached houses in suburbs, which could be detrimental in terms of efficiency, energy performance and environmental impact. The professor also describes this target as antisocial because it may make new homes unaffordable and a privilege of the lucky few. Because while cost is recovered mainly in the long term, the home still needs to be paid for at the start. It is also not certain whether the often very high investment costs of pushing down the energy consumption level can yield sufficient added value.

The professor also describes the target as irrational. From what I hear in my region of Flanders, the supply is currently lagging behind the demand, there are also problems with material supply and because of that not all the commissions can be carried out in the field of social housing, for example.

And, finally, there are also many issues regarding health problems in passive houses, mainly triggered by malfunctioning ventilation systems. What measures is the Commission taking, together with the competent authorities, to counter these effects?

Is the Commission considering the possibility of reviewing the target, based on this criticism? If so, how and when? The Commission is not aware of the interview referred to by the Honourable Member and, without any significant substantiating evidence, it is not in a position to properly assess the claims made by the Emeritus Professor. Griekse militaire aankopen voor miljarden euro's. Losse wapenaankopen maken geen deel uit van de programmavoorwaarden.

Are these arms purchases part of the conditions for the bailout, as widely reported? Do they amount to state aid from France and Germany to French and German manufacturers via the bailout mechanism and the Government of Greece? Can the Commission comment on whether it feels that military spending is a suitable priority for the Greek Government, given the impact of the financial crisis on the Greek economy and society at large? Is the Commission prepared to verify the facts of the case and, if the report is accurate, take this up with the Greeks?

Is the Commission prepared to turn off the money supply to Greece immediately and to encourage Greece to leave the euro area as soon as possible? The Commission is not aware of any plans by the Greek authorities to acquire the abovementioned military equipment by the amounts indicated. Moreover, the amounts mentioned in the question are neither consistent with the information received during discussions of the medium-term spending plans between Greece and the Commission, IMF and ECB staff teams in the context of the Greek economic adjustment program.

No individual arms purchase is part of program conditionality. The construction of a metre-high dam is planned for irrigation and hydroelectric purposes by DEI on the River Aliakmonas in the Elafi area, Grevena region. The River Grevenitis will be almost entirely flooded from the city of Grevena to its confluence with the Aliakmonas. A preliminary environmental impact assessment has been completed and the full environmental impact assessment is at the completion stage.

Has the Commission been informed by the Greek authorities about this project? What measures does it intend to take so that these areas are not destroyed? What measures does it intend to take to avoid this potential destruction? The Commission has not been informed by the Greek authorities about this project. Flypassagerers rettigheder forordning EF nr. According to my information, it would appear that many EU citizens who have their claims upheld by their National Enforcement Body do not receive the compensation they are entitled to because the airline in question ignores the request by the National Enforcement Body.

How will the Commission ensure that EU citizens can receive the compensation they are entitled to, without having to initiate long and costly legal proceedings against a particular airline? There are no statistics on the number of complaints upheld by a National Enforcement Body NEB and rejected or ignored by the airline concerned. The Commission does not think that an airline should ignore a decision from a NEB. The Commission constantly verifies that the NEBs carry out their obligations properly and provides its views when appropriate.

Although the NEB can provide passengers with a well-founded opinion on the circumstances of their specific case, the NEB opinion on individual cases is not legally binding in the sense that it cannot be enforced without a court decision, where in any event it can be used as evidence. In the preparation of the review of the regulation, the Commission is looking to other means in order to ensure full respect of passenger rights. Elektro-Autos — mangelnde Infrastruktur. Trotz ihres enormen Potenzials ist die Nachfrage nach Elektro-Autos noch gering.

Hauptproblemfeld scheint nach wie vor die mangelnde Infrastruktur von Ladestationen zu sein. In diesem Zusammenhang laufen bereits Kooperationen mit Einkaufszentren, Restaurantketten, Parkgaragen etc. Informationen zu Projekten sind auf folgender Website zu finden: In spite of their enormous potential, the demand for electric cars is still very low.

It would seem that generous subsidies are still not enough to persuade end-users who are concerned about flexibility and suitability for daily use to switch to more environmentally-friendly electric cars. The main problem still appears to be the lack of infrastructure, in the form of charging stations. Are figures available at EU level concerning the use of electric cars and the development of the necessary infrastructure, in the form of charging stations, in the Member States?

Have best-practice comparisons been conducted at EU level and what measures are being planned for the future? Information on projects is available on the following website: A recent call of the European Green Car Initiative includes research on improving the convenience of the charging infrastructure by developing wireless systems. These projects will most probably be launched by the end of Could the Commission state what action it is taking to promote water conservation in the Member States?

The Commission is currently analysing the river basin management plans to see to which extent Member States have included, for instance, measures for water conservation. The result of the assessment will be published in the third implementation report, as part of the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources package, which will come forward at the end of The Blueprint will also cover possibilities for water efficiency in the Member States.

A key element of the Blueprint is the review of the Water Scarcity and Droughts policy. The Water Scarcity and Droughts policy lays down a water hierarchy under which water demand management should come first, and alternative supply options — such as desalination plants — should only be considered once the potential for water savings and efficiency has been exhausted. Given the wide regional diversity of the problems with regard to water scarcity and drought, the water hierarchy is not a regulatory obligation, which allows for regional approaches to deal with these challenges in the most cost-effective way.

Water stress in Argentina and Brazil is raising concern over the levels of world production and world stocks of maize, wheat and soya. Countries such as Spain and Portugal, where bullfights are legal, are using EU funds for activities relating to bullfighting, such as the renovation of bullrings.

There are also examples of this happening in Portugal. The plaque displayed to mark the inauguration of the renovated bullring has EU logos on it. This shows a lack of respect for true European cohesion and solidarity. Spending public funds on bullfighting festivals is the norm in countries in which bullfighting still takes place. However, some Member States are also using all kinds of EU funding to finance everything from rearing the livestock involved to repairing the equipment used for bullfighting. It is highly problematic that a poster advertising an activity that is banned in most Member States should bear the corporate image of the European Union.

Projects financed by both cohesion policy and rural development policy have to comply with applicable Union and national law. The related EU programmes are implemented under shared management. It is the responsibility of Member States to select the projects which may best contribute to the objectives of these policies, to ensure respect of the applicable rules and conditions and to keep a record of these projects. The Commission's responsibility is to ensure compliance with EU legislation; it includes, in particular, audits focused on the management and control systems established by Member States.

Both policies can support the preservation of cultural heritage for making places more attractive to invest in and can work as a driver for socioeconomic development. This is a subject Member States decide upon themselves. In the case of the Galician village mentioned in one of the questions, the ERDF did not support the bullfighting festival.

Can the Commission indicate how it plans to ensure that the recommendations and conclusions contained in its new proposals for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety of offshore oil and gas prospection, exploration and production activities are carried out? Can the Commission indicate what penalties will be handed down to individuals or companies that do not comply with the new proposals regarding the regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety of offshore oil and gas prospection, exploration and production activities?

The Commission's proposal referred to by the Honourable Member aims to establish a clear set of obligations on national administrations, regulators and the industry, covering different types of oil and gas activities undertaken offshore. While the responsibility for safety of operations remains with the industry, the proposal aims to create very strong national regulators who will be properly competent and endowed with resources to fulfil their supervisory duties effectively.

In addition, the provisions on transparency will promote diligence and compliance by putting both industry and supervisory bodies under closer public scrutiny. The best regulatory practice will be further promoted by the provisions on cross-border collaboration and by the establishment of a new forum for cooperation between national regulators, stakeholders and the Commission EU Offshore Authorities Group. Moreover, in order to ensure compliance and to complement the supervisory duties of national authorities, Member States will be obliged to define penalties which should apply whenever transgressions are identified.

The precise nature of the penalties will be left for Member States to determine, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. Contaminare cu OMG a orezului importat din India. The French authorities, who are legally obliged to follow up in tracing and removing any contaminated product from the market, carried out an investigation. The results of this investigation were that remaining stocks of the contaminated basmati rice were removed from the market, and that the importing company instigated additional controls on subsequent imports, which were negative.

The investigation also concluded that due to the mixing of lots at the point of import the exact origin of the contaminated lot could not be conclusively established. No further alerts have been issued by any Member State concerning lots of basmati rice contaminated with non-authorised GM rice originating from India. The Romanian authorities take the view that, with regard to businesses in the agricultural sector, farm subsidies are taxable, being subject to corporate tax and value added tax.

This is being disputed by the businesses concerned, which argue that this constitutes discrimination against them since they are being treated less favourably than owners who are natural persons and exempt from tax. As regards direct taxation, and in the absence of specific harmonisation measures Member States remain in principle free to design their tax systems as they see fit, provided only that they comply with the general rules set out in the Treaties.

The same would apply in regard to a system in which subsidies are subject to direct tax in regard to some taxpayers, but not in regard to others. The VAT treatment of subsidies depends on the type of subsidy. Given that the Honourable Member did not mention the type of subsidies concerned, the Commission is not in a position to provide a specific answer on this aspect. The regional education authority responsible for Borgomanero Novara, Italy has announced its intention of making access to central kindergartens dependent on citizenship as the main criterion, thereby excluding non-Italian children.

As a result, children of non-Italian EU citizens could be deprived of decent education in areas situated near their home. Can the Commission make known its official position regarding the conformity of such a decision with EU anti-discrimination law? In any case, the Commission will keep the Honourable Member informed of the outcome of its investigation. Less than one month from the signature of an agreement between the Israeli prison authorities and Palestinian inmates with a view to ending a hunger strike by the latter, the Israeli authorities have repeatedly infringed the agreement, leading to resumption of the action.

While the signature of the agreement between the inmates and the authorities was in effect a promising development, it has unfortunately remained a dead letter. It is too early to assess long term prospects for the agreement that ended the large scale hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. Some Progress has been made towards the full implementation of the agreement. The practice of solitary confinement has been radically curtailed and family visits from Gaza are now taking place. This strategy is intended to step up EU support for human rights in the region.

Since it is clear that this strategy has not been effective in improving human rights in the countries concerned, what changes to the strategy are being considered by the Commission? The promotion of human rights and democratisation forms a key part of the EU's Central Asia Strategy. The EU is not limiting human rights discussions to these regular human rights dialogues.

The human rights situation in all five countries remains of serious concern. The EU is committed to further develop relations and support political, social and economic reforms in the region and human rights continue to form an important part of its agenda. Egypte is lid van de OIE: Doelstelling van deze organisatie is het wereldwijd bevorderen van dierenwelzijn.

In Egypte is daar in de praktijk niets van te merken; in tegendeel zelfs. Op internet circuleert een filmpje, een compilatie van dierenbeulerij in Egypte: Veroordeelt de Commissie de betreffende dierenbeulerij die in het filmpje te zien is? De Commissie heeft van een organisatie voor dierenwelzijn een film over het slachten van dieren. In practice, one would not guess this fact from seeing what happens in Egypt itself; rather the contrary, indeed. A film clip is circulating on the Internet which presents a compilation of instances of cruelty to animals in Egypt: A number of environmental organisations have called on Denmark and Sweden to impose a total ban on eel fishing.

What is the situation regarding eel stocks in general in Europe, and what regional and national differences are there in the state of eel stocks? In which EU Member States are eels still being caught — and how many are caught in each country? The stock of European eel, which is a single stock, is considered to be in very poor shape across the board. Based on the available scientific information, the trend in the eel stock prior to the implementation of the eel regulation and the CITES trade ban could have led to a collapse of the stock. The information available does allow the Commission to estimate the effect of a total fishing ban on eel in any Member State or areas.

A temporary total ban on eel fishing could have a positive effect on the stock, but this effect would be difficult to quantify based on current scientific knowledge. Verlassene Liegenschaften aufgrund der Krise. Auf Grund der anhaltenden Wirtschaftskrise und hohen Arbeitslosigkeit ist in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika eine hohe Abwanderung aus den Gemeinden festzustellen.

Due to the continuing economic crisis and high unemployment, many people in the United States have moved out of the areas in which they used to live. A knock-on effect of this is that properties in which people can no longer afford to live are simply abandoned and the local authority has to look after them. What would the procedures be for dealing with such an eventuality? Are there already plans to prevent the situation reaching this point? Population loss has been affecting many EU regions and is expected to continue for the next decades.

In Greece, although emigration seems to have increased in the wake of the crisis, homes appear not to be abandoned, mainly thanks to close family ties; the Greek law grants some protection to home-owners with difficulties with loan repayment. In Latvia and Lithuania, in spite of massive depopulation, the market has been able to reabsorb abandoned or unfinished homes.

In Ireland, there is indeed a significant number of homes abandoned at various stages of completion; these are a burden to their local communities. The European cohesion policy as a whole supports the Member States and regions with investments in smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in their territory. It is planned to increase expenditure in the area of external relations from 5.

How can this in fact be achieved, however, in the wake of the latest, dramatic, developments in the European Union Spain and Cyprus need ESM aid, Italy is teetering on the brink , especially in the light of such problems as the high youth unemployment rate in many EU Member States and the need for greater investment in the labour market in general? The Commission proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework MFF means that overall annual spending over the period will be stabilised at the level of the current MFF in real terms.

Europe must more than ever look outwards and engage in the world. Our security and prosperity depend on what happens beyond our borders, which is illustrated by the recent developments in the Southern Mediterranean. The proposed increase is also necessary in order to respect the EU's formal undertaking to commit 0.

What are the requisites for this post? Are those designated public servants, business representatives or experts? The Commission would like to draw the attention of the Honourable Member to the website of the SME Envoy Network which contains the names of all national Envoys and, were applicable, their official deputies: All SME Envoys are governmental representatives and occupy a senior position in their national administration.

Some Envoys are members of government Ministers and State Secretaries , others are senior level administrators. The Commission looks forward to continuing the good cooperation with the members of this network. This allows a very direct and lively exchange of views and increases the efficiency of the network. Dieselabgase werden nunmehr als Karzinogene der Gruppe 1 eingestuft. According to a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer IARC initiated by the World Health Organisation, diesel fumes cause lung cancer and are even more carcinogenic than second-hand cigarette smoke.

There is also evidence linking diesel fumes to bladder cancer. Diesel fumes are now classified as group I carcinogens. Is the Commission going to reintroduce a proposal to tax CO 2 emissions? If so, when will the next initiative be taken? If not, can the Commission give a detailed account of its reasons for not taking such an initiative?

The EU budget only covers health costs indirectly, through the sickness insurance of EU employees. This includes costs that may be associated with lung cancer caused by diesel fumes. The Commission is also not aware of any study that would provide the exact statistics on lung cancer cases caused by diesel fumes alone, or any established methodology to calculate health costs of lung cancer caused by diesel fumes. This proposal is still under discussion in the Council.

Welche Schritte gedenkt die Kommission angesichts dieser Ergebnisse zu unternehmen? In the review on the Thematic Strategy of Air Pollution further measures at national or possibly EU level to speed up the phasing out of old vehicles with high tailpipe emissions will be considered. Presently, the Commission has a good overview of the occurrence in the Member States of the key pollutants and specifically for particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and ozone, whereas data are less complete for individual hydrocarbons and PAHs. An increasing number of EU citizens are being given long prison sentences in the United Arab Emirates for bounced cheques which were written as security for business transactions and were never intended to be cashed.

Those arrested can only be released upon repayment of their debts, which is difficult in custody, and suffer under harsh prison conditions in the meantime. This will supplement bilateral efforts being made by countries including EU Member States whose citizens are serving sentences in Emirati prisons because of these alleged offences. He has been held in an Israeli jail for three years under an administrative detention order despite never having been formally charged or put on trial.

The EU has a long standing concern about the extensive and disproportionate use by Israel of administrative detention. All detainees have the right to be informed of the reasons for their detention and be subject to a fair trial without undue delay. The increase in poverty and malnutrition in a number of Member States as a result of the economic crisis has meant that women are a particularly vulnerable group.

What health and nutrition strategies does the Commission intend to implement with a view to preventing undernourishment and malnutrition? The Commission has foreseen — in its proposal for the next multi-annual financial framework. Member States are responsible for the delivery of health and long-term care. The Commission does not have the competence to intervene on nutritional care in care facilities.

As healthcare is delivered in the Member States, potential costs caused by malnutrition affect national budgets which are the responsibility of national authorities. The strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity-related health issues. Welche negativen Auswirkungen hat es nach Auffassung der Kommission, wenn Kinder und Jugendliche Gewalt verherrlichenden interaktiven Medien ausgesetzt sind? Journalists, child advocacy organisations, parents and psychologists argue that the sexualisation of girls is an increasing and wide-ranging problem that is harmful to girls.

Has the Commission examined the broad issues raised by advertising aimed at children? The Commission is aware of reports indicating that hypersexualisation of children might have a negative psychological impact on the development of children; that hypersexualisation concerns both girls and boys; that it is a threat to gender equality as it accentuates gender stereotypes and that there are several potential negative impacts ranging from poor body image and eating disorders through to sexual violence and abuse. Finally, in , the Daphne programme may co-finance specific practical projects that aim to bring about attitudinal and behavioural change in the context of sexualisation, in order to prevent violence against children, young people and women.

The Connecting Europe Facility proposal envisages supporting the Safer Internet Centres, activities of which could include sexualisation-related awareness campaigns. Currently, policy on maternity leave varies widely across the European Union. Some governments have warned that the proposed week fully paid leave will further burden taxpayers. Criticism has also come from business leaders who say increased maternity leave could endanger gender equality in the workplace.

Discussions have continued, but the Council is not in a position to anticipate at this stage their outcome or duration. Since then, no further progress has been achieved and no specific discussion on possible gradual implementation of the revised Directive has taken place. The EU is about to formulate a bilateral agreement with Cuba. The Parliament, as far as I understand, is following this process with great interest. Three priority sectors were identified for this Strategy Paper: Democracy and human rights were not included as top priorities in this strategy paper.

There is a great need for clarification on how European aid to Cuba over the next budget period will be targeted at improving democracy and human rights. Why are efforts for democracy and human rights not among the top priorities in the current strategy paper? What steps does the Commission aim to take in order to make democracy and human rights top priorities in future strategy papers and in the upcoming bilateral agreement negotiations?

Democracy and human rights are at the centre of EU relations with all countries, including Cuba. These questions are and will continue to be addressed in the context of the EU-Cuba political dialogue and in contacts at all levels with the Cuban authorities both in Brussels and in Havana. This was discussed with the EP on the occasion of the adoption of the Country Strategy Paper which addresses important priorities for Cuban citizens and supports the ongoing reform process in the agriculture sector. There has been no decision by the Council to launch negotiations for a bilateral agreement with Cuba.

This work is ongoing. Has the Commission collated any data relating to child mental health at EU level subsequent to the publication of this background paper? Does the Commission consider that EU action has adequately addressed the issue of child mental health so far? Statistics on specific mental and behavioural disorders for all age groups, including suicidal attempts, are addressed by a Eurostat Task Force for developing a regular data collection on diagnosis-specific morbidity statistics.

Finally, children and young people are an important target group of the work under the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being. As everybody knows, Greece is facing a major economic crisis that has forced many small and medium-sized companies to shut down, resulting in increased unemployment. New measures to reduce smoking are to be implemented. Among them is a measure to make all packages identical, with large labels warning consumers of the health hazards of smoking.

However, according to fears expressed by the Greek Chamber of Commerce and Industry, such alterations will push down the price of cigarettes, leading to increased consumption. More seriously, it is feared that younger people will choose to smoke cheaper cigarettes of poorer quality. Attention is also drawn to the loss of significant tax revenue. With the aforementioned side effects in mind, does the Commission think that now is the appropriate time to put in place new measures on the smoking industry in Greece?

The economic, social and health impacts of different possible measures are being carefully analysed before any decision is taken on this matter. Is the Council aware of the timetable which the Spanish Government intends to follow in order to request this aid? Does it not consider it necessary to draw up a new calendar for its objectives? Does the Council see a possibility of reopening ESM negotiations to establish a line for the direct recapitalisation of financial bodies? Does it see a way to eliminate this feature? These measures should lead to increased European control and regulation of the financial system.

Or do they simply maintain the idea that each State is responsible for its own financial system? The recommendation establishes headline deficit targets of 6. The Council is currently analysing the details of the Commission proposal and has not yet established its position. Did the Commission regard this request as admissible? What was its final decision regarding funding for the centre? Given that over three months have now elapsed from the launching of the programme, can the Commission say whether Greek SMEs have evinced any interest in loans under the new liquidity instrument?

As agreement with financial intermediaries is under negotiation, information is not available at this stage on the level of interest expressed by SMEs for the new guarantee mechanism. Synergies between funds should be exploited further for other measures e. Women's Entrepreneurship targeting women aged Can the Commission say whether lobbies are governed by framework regulatory provisions in all EU Member States?

Does it consider that further initiatives by the Commission itself and the Member States in this area will be necessary? The Treaties do not confer any powers on the European Union concerning the regulation of lobbies by the Member States. The Commission therefore has no plans for any initiative to draw up rules for them.

Concerning the interinstitutional agreement with Parliament at European level and joint initiatives, the Commission recalls that this agreement provides that the common register will be subject to review no later than two years following its entry into operation. Should any measure be envisaged to improve the functioning of this register, it will have to be considered by both institutions within this process due to take place in To which main areas of the Greek project did the Commission queries principally relate and has Greece replied?

Regarding the infrastructure projects proposed by Greece in the draft annual programme for External Borders Fund, the Commission requested additional clarification on financial aspects, timeframes and procurement procedures. So far, Greece has not submitted a revised programme addressing these requests.

Convenzione sui lavoratori domestici. La Convenzione sui lavoratori domestici stabilisce le norme sul lavoro ratificate dall'Organizzazione internazionale del lavoro nel giugno che tutelano i lavoratori domestici. Human Rights Watch ha pubblicato un articolo che plaude agli sforzi profusi finora e che auspica la ratifica della Convenzione da parte di un numero maggiore di paesi. L'Unione europea promuove standard occupazionali a livello internazionale facendo leva su vari strumenti, sia attraverso le sue politiche interne che con le sue relazioni estere.

Nearly a year later, Uruguay became the first country to ratify the convention, which cannot go into effect until it has been ratified by at least two countries. The Philippines are poised to be the second to ratify the proposal, and other countries including Belgium, Benin and Mauritius have promised to do likewise.

According to information released by the International Labour Organisation, domestic workers make up the largest segment of the nearly Their plight can easily go undetected, as they may be hidden away in private residences, where some then become voiceless victims of physical and sexual abuse. Human Rights Watch has published an article praising the efforts made thus far and encouraging more countries to ratify the convention. The European Union promotes international labour standards through various means, both in its internal policies and in its external relations.

Ales Bialiatski, the Belarusian human rights activist and head of the Viasna Human Rights Centre, who is currently serving a four-and-a-half-year term in a maximum security prison, is being persecuted by the prison authorities, according to letters sent to Valentin Stefanovich. In the last six months he has received three reprimands — for irregular footwear, not having the correct stripes at the workplace, and sleeping at the workplace. Cunningham traces the romantic vision of woman and argues that Acosta's works represent a subversion of the romantic ideal.

• Navigation menu!
• Routine Abdominal Exercise.
• EUR-Lex Rochtain ar dhlí an Aontais Eorpaigh?
• The Baby Faced Ace.
• Madelines - Book of Change.

Overall, this collection provides an interesting sample of Soledad Acosta de Samper's writing, situating her within the historical context of the 19th Century and at the same time offering some possibilities for a modern reinterpretation and reevaluation of her work. While her exclusion from the canon is perhaps justified, her work nevertheless provides an interesting look at 19th-Century Colombian popular culture.

Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota. This rather brief tome presents, for the fast time, significant and new information on the life and fictional writings of Clemente Palma The stated intention is to analyze the Peruvian's fiction within the context of his own essays on literary theory and criticism. The next chapter is devoted to the novels and the final chapter consists of three and one half pages of concluding remarks. The study is followed by ample chapter notes and an excellent bibliography. Originally conceived as a doctoral dissertation, Breaking Tradition The result is the limited critical acumen and literary insight that often characterizes such efforts.

Moreover, this reader's curiosity was curtailed too many times by Kason's dependence on others' critical expertise and historical overviews of literary movements. The impression is one of overly simplistic definitions of such concepts as the fantastic and of superficial commentary on the historical events that Kason deems significant to her analysis of Palma's fiction The result is a prose that seems to lack a luster of its own. Kason's study is of merit despite its several critical and stylistic shortcomings.

1. O Egregio Encuberto;.
2. ?
3. ?
4. I also Came from Your Tummy! Right, Mom?: My Open Adoption Story.
5. Origine du prénom Maryvonne (Oeuvres courtes) (French Edition).

One strength is the essayist's particularly keen insight into the contradictions between Palma's negative personal and critical views on such subjects as spiritism, decadence, satanism and the appearance of the same in his fiction. Her long-range discussion on this matter is second only to her brief, but perceptive and well researched commentary on the relation between Clemente and his more illustrious father, Ricardo.

It is within the light of their individual creative careers, in fact, that the title of Kason's study takes on its real meaning -this study amply demonstrates why Clemente may well have favored the extremist views of the likes of the decadents or fantastic writers in order to avoid the comparison of his fiction with his father's more nationalistic and historical Tradiciones Peruanas.

The book should be read, nonetheless, because Kason has brought fight to bear on an important writer with whom time and historians have dealt in a shortsighted fashion. We would expect that this is only the first of Kason's efforts to unravel the mysteries that obscure the life and writings of Clemente Palma. Handelsman has arranged this book in three parts.

After all, he was a vice-presidential candidate and the founder and President for many years of La Casa. Of course, Handelsman's edition of Cartas al Ecuador will be of use, especially to those interested in the turbulent political history of the country, and in the personality of one of its most polemical and controversial figures. University of Minnesota, Morris. For more than two decades the poets of literatura de cordel -heirs to the medieval itinerant singer poets as well as to the Reformation authors of broadside sheets- have been on the wane as folk artists, largely superseded by electronic media.

At present there is more cordel activity in cosmopolitan Rio de Janeiro than in the traditional venue of the Brazilian Northeast. No longer a vital source of entertainment, news, propaganda and moral instruction for the Brazilian Nordestino, literatura de cordel has been taken up by folklorists, collectors, universities and museums, analyzed and classified by scholars within and outside of Brazil. Curran's thorough study links today's urban popular poet with a former epoch when the poetas de cordel were itinerant singers wandering the backlands of the Brazilian Nordeste.

Without him, literatura de cordel would be much less known and esteemed. But he was disliked because of his blatant commercialism and self-promotion and he was controversial in his politics, which were conservative, Catholic, very patriotic and vehemently anti-Communist. Ambitious, proud, stubborn, and didactic, even if he had never written a single pamphlet, his fife would still have been colorful and interesting.

Curran recommends Eno T. Wanke's biography of Cavalcante as complementary to the current study. Part II is an anthology of Cavalcante's own literatura de cordel , organized and analyzed by major themes, and includes more citations from the folhetos and good critical commentary. There are five sections:. He found the Sixties intolerable, with their rock music and Beatles imitators; many folhetos excoriate the cabeludos and the sexual revolution.

Protestantism rendered by Cavalcante in the medieval form of the debate , and Spiritism. This section includes occasional pieces and folhetos on economic and social questions, tragedies and public disasters. Noteworthy are the pamphlet on John F. John, and analyzed in depth by Curran. At the end of the volume is a fine bibliography that will be very useful to interested Brazilianists. Curran's extensive notes are also placed at the back, a format which this reviewer found cumbersome.

It is exhaustive and -except for the initiated- probably exhausting. This study is not an introduction to literatura de cordel nor is it readily accessible to many potentially interested folklorists and social historians because it is published in Portuguese. Even in Brazil, this study would have, unfortunately, a relatively narrow appeal, since it requires the reader to know more than a little about the subject. Curran's work, although it contains biographical content, is ultimately a fine, rigorous study of literatura de cordel , its history for the past forty years, its texts and the poetic process.

Of particular excellence is the discussion of the place of literatura de cordel , a hybrid of folk and popular poetry, in Brazilian literature. One hopes this study will help to allay a widely-held prejudice that literatura de cordel does not merit serious academic attention. Sin embargo, al presentar las distintas variantes en el texto, incluso con el manuscrito, se le permite al lector hacer su cotejo y llegar a un juicio propio. Paraguayan writers are but slightly represented in the traditional canon of Hispanic American literature. The exception of course is the towering figure of Augusto Roa Bastos, who almost by himself has given the literature of his country deserved recognition and undeniable value.

The present volume, edited with unusual skin and good sense by Fernando Burgos, is a tribute both to the greatness of Roa Bastos as a writer and to Paraguayan letters as a very significant vehicle for the dissemination of its national heritage and culture. The eighteen essays that comprise this volume were selected from the papers read at the First International Coloquium of Latin American Literature sponsored by the journal Discurso Literario and held at Oklahoma State University in April of The essays cover the entire range of Roa Bastos's writings and are examined from a wide variety of critical perspectives.

This diversity of approach is particularly necessary because of the complexity of his works and the profundity of their underlying meaning in the context of Paraguayan civilization. Fernando Burgos contributes an excellent introductory essay in which he discusses Roa Bastos's position in Paraguayan letters and highlights the content of each essay in the volume.

Foster, as the conference guest of honor, writes an outstanding article on Roa Bastos's essays, a genre that seems to have passed by most critics but that serves as an important point of departure for understanding the writer's narrative fiction. Ten essays deal with the novel Yo el Supremo and all make fine contributions to the study of this work. Among the other contributors to this section on Yo el Supremo are Francisco E. The third section of the volume covers the short story, poetry, and Hijo de hombre. Carlos Pacheco, in a most valuable essay, understands Roa Bastos's use of binary structures as a fundamental aesthetic principle in his stories.

Mercedes Gracia Calvo deals with point of view and perspective in Roa Bastos's stories. This is the best collection of critical essays on Roa Bastos to have appeared in Spanish or English, and Burgos is to be congratulated for bringing them together under one roof. The contributions are uniformly of high quality. Although no general theme was announced to orient the contributors in some direction, a common thread running through most pieces is that the writings of Roa Bastos have wide and deep implications for a more realistic understanding of Paraguayan culture and a more sensitive acceptance of its mores and traditions as an integral part of that culture.

I recommend this book most enthusiastically. Both the quantity and the quality of the Valenzuela's production point to the need for a monographic critical study, one that explains for the bilingual English-Spanish reader Valenzuela's difficult intertextual games and intellectually challenging Postmodernist themes. It is important for there to be a book that treats all of Valenzuela's works, translated and untranslated alike, since a few of them have tended to monopolize critical interest, whereas others including the ones available in English have received only reviews and casual mention.

Additionally, Valenzuela's concerns are often organized by book as Sharon Magnarelli shows , so that familiarity with certain volumes and not others can lead to misleading conclusions about Valenzuela's oeuvre in general. Through published articles and unpublished conference papers, Sharon Magnarelli has shown an enduring interest in and knowledge about Valenzuela over the years. By tracing the writer's growth in literary maturity and her consistency in themes and intellectual interests, Magnarelli's new book enhances greatly our understanding of Valenzuela.

A peripheral result of Magnarelli's study is the evidence it brings to bear for the need to retranslate several of Valenzuela's collections, which often were not translated completely, with sufficient care to the organization of material by volume, or with appropriate attention to literalness and metaphoricity. Occasionally there are repetitions of ideas, although not of exact wordings, because some chapters appeared previously as articles and were only slightly revised for inclusion.

There are quite a few typographical errors also. I hope I have made clear that, in this new book, the pluses are greater than the minuses, for every one interested in Valenzuela's narrative. Both of these Chicano first novels are set in their authors' native state of Texas. The two novels also have the depth and texture of three generations in their narrative development.

Both volumes are in English, essentially, although they mean to convey a Spanish-language reality. The two works also have a strong specific Chicano content in character and setting, with an importance attached to the grandfather as a figure of nobility and dignity. The novel is ambitiously literary without being artificially avant-garde. The novel, with some early temporal dislocations, covers three generations of a South Texas Chicano family and its interactions with Mexican-American.

The narrative focuses on a central figure, Heraclio Cavazos, and recounts the subsequent two generations. In the 30's Heraclio crosses a Rio Grande swollen by hurricane rain. Heraclio goes on to five in a boarding house with other migrants with names such as the Elephant, the Love Bandit, and El Bruto. After his marriage to Chacha Graciela produces two children, Heraclio is widowed and the generations continue, culminating with grandchildren including a living Vietnam War victim-veteran and the acceptance of mall culture and assimilation which signifies the rejection of the Mexican heritage.

Besides a central figure, Rainbow's End also depicts a whole collective protagonist of South Texas border people, undocumented migrants, fellow laborers, and family members that come to constitute a vibrant world of human and drug smuggling, prostitution, curanderismo , exploitation, triumphs, defeats, abortion, cross-cultural confusion, and alienation.

It is notable that Rainbow's End concludes with a chapter in which Don Heraclio's sister-in -law, Fela, a secondary character who appears intermittently throughout the novel, and who is a curandera , passes on her trade and knowledge to a young apprentice. Presumably, this Chicano tradition, as well as others, persists and thrives. The echoes of multiple perspectives offer an all-encompassing vision that transcends the mere decrepitude and degradation of Chicano culture.

Rainbow's End brims over with vitality, in a well-structured narrative. Some characters are too diffuse and sketchy, unfocused portraits. At times, the pace is uneven. A border novel with strong touches of magical realism, Rainbow's End is notable. Schoolland is another worthy Chicano novel. Told by a youngster coming of age in as his grandfather is approaching the end of his life, the basic nucleus of the novel effectively conveys the contrasts and ironies of Chicano life, or life in general. The unnamed narrator, the seventh of nine children, details the life of a large family, including the drought they survive, first love, the working of the land, a shotgun wedding, the presence of undocumented workers, and a sister's failed marriage.

It all flows not like melodramatic novelistic action, but with the depth and texture of life itself. Schoolland , a bildungsroman like so many other important Chicano novels, recounts a somewhat different story and reality, that of central Texas farmers in , viewed sensitively, with a telling eye for detail and the meaningful anecdote. The language has precision and clarity. For example, when the narrator refers to the undocumented migrant who works on the farm: We were Mexicans, too, of course.

Search results

But Marcos de la Fuente was from Mexico. Both novels, then, are artistically successful and effective in capturing and conveying the Chicano experience in this century in Texas. Al though both novels are culturally specific, they capture life in universal terms through literature. These two books, based on the personal memories of the authors, present different stages of the Chicano experience. This story is constructed with elements that are present throughout the whole collection. Their struggle highlights the antagonism of one group towards the other. Although on the surface Mexican culture seems to prevail, the deeper structure shows a longing for acceptability.

The teacher praises the children dubiously: The ideology that indoctrinates minority children to do physical work while non-minority children are expected to go on to college is already at work here. Though the stories are enjoyable, the usage of Spanish is annoying. Narrators frequently tell readers that characters are speaking Spanish, while they provide glimpses of the original utterances: Por favor , give me a job, you won't be sorry. Soy muy trabajador , I'm a good worker The narrators put the story on hold each time they provide a translation. Contemporary Latin American literature has frequently dealt with the problem of presenting two languages, but writers have opted to assume that the reader has at least a reading knowledge of the foreign language.

Lesser Evils is different from The Last Laugh. This collection of stories appears to be a sequel to Living up the Street -winner of the American Book Award- especially those stories narrated from the point of view of a child. Some of the same anecdotes, settings, and even characters reappear in this collection. In Lesser Evils 74 the narrator makes reference to the time when his mother chased his brother Rick with a heated fork, an episode from Living up the Street The short essays, sometimes no more than two pages long, deal mainly with family life, profession and friends.

The collection also includes two movie and one book review. These reviews intertwine the narrator's own impressions with the critiques themselves, thus the subjects under review are less important than the feelings of the narrator.

Menu de navegação

Some of the better stories of the collection take place in the narrator's mind as he watches people and imagines what they do, where they work, whom they see. This technique makes his stories enjoyable and erases the barrier between prose and fiction. Both texts abound in repetitions which, like musical themes, tie one story to another, although they make the collections appear to have been put together in haste.

For example, Soto's narrator talks about liking girls with an overbite in several stories. The reader's impression is that the stories should have been the first draft of a novel in which descriptions, characteristics, and anecdotes are related only once. The Cuban exile colony in the United States, now thirty years old, has accumulated a corpus of writing of sufficient size to warrant a need for reference books.

Four such works, published between and , profile exile literature. Le Riverend, like Montes Huidobro, concentrates on the single genre of poetry and provides biobibliographical information on poets, many previously unrecognized in other reference books until Entries, varying in length from 1, words for Heberto Padilla to about words for lesser-known poets, incorporate only descriptive data: The alphabetical arrangement by author suffices as the only access with no accompanying indexes that might facilitate use.

Although Le Riverend's book is surely welcome especially for the number of poets briefly biographized and the accumulated data that might otherwise be lost, several problems beset this effort. A passion this keenly felt could be an impediment in judging another's poetic work. Furthermore, Le Riverend offers no guidelines for inclusion since he does not grapple with the question of what constitutes a poet and the quantity or quality of publication that permits recognition.

Many poets of stature appear; others are newcomers. A cognate problem is his apparent ignorance of the three reference books already mentioned. Awareness of these might have enabled the compiler to treat only those poets excluded from previous works. In the absence of guidelines, one can only guess as to what network, formal or informal, the compiler availed himself in gathering the data.

Furthermore, much of the information, formulaic in nature, might have been entered with abbreviations to allow space for analytical comments. The work in general lacks the guiding hand of an experi- As such, it adds to the growing number of books relating to Cuban exiles. The greatest virtue of this highly theoretical work is its presentation of some of the possibilities open to the critic who is committed to the study of Hispanic theater in the context of the specific cultural and historical forces that have shaped it. Villegas's study consists of an Introduction, nine chapters and the aforementioned postscript.

Several chapters have been published previously in the journal Gestos , and the Introduction was presented at a literary symposium. The tendency toward repetition throughout the work is probably due to that circumstance. Certain ideas emerge quite strongly, partly as a result of their recurrence and partly because of the author's persuasive analysis. Villegas also convincingly establishes that the majority of studies devoted to Hispanic theater adopt an European perspective and overlook the Hispanic dimension that is integral to a complete understanding of the work.

Villegas's tendency toward repetition and abstraction does prove to be a liability at times. His study assumes a thorough familiarity with a diverse range of critical approaches and eschews the application of theory to specific plays, preferring to create general models and apply them to categories of works. By limiting his analysis of specific dramas to such an extent, Villegas does little to demonstrate the efficacy of his approach.

And his repeated laments about the unjustly low status held by all of Hispanic literature in North American universities seems pointless in. In conclusion, Villegas has produced a rather, abstract and somewhat repetitious volume which raises a number of important issues concerning the relationship between ideology and theater. The book is largely free of errors, with the exception of footnotes 16 to 24 which were omitted at the end of the first chapter.

Portuguese Speaking Test is a semi-direct testing instrument for a language for which there are few trained proficiency interviewers. The package includes a thirty-page Official Test Manual the only item bearing the names of all the authors , an eleven-page Examinee Handbook to be read prior to taking the test, and three alternate versions of a seven-page examinee booklet, entitled Form A, Form B, and Form C , each of which is accompanied by two alternate cassette tapes, one subtitled Brazilian , the other Lusitanian.

The Forms follow the same format and include 1 an audio-oral test, 2 oral tasks cued by pictures, 3 talking about specific topics, and 4 speaking in response to cues describing real-life situations. I will comment on each of these sections briefly. The audio-oral test, of which alternate versions in Brazilian and Continental Portuguese are provided, is the only section in which the examinee hears Portuguese on the tape. It consists of a make-believe conversation with a native speaker of either variety of the language, designed as a series of personal questions, with timed pauses for recording the answers.

The idea of providing the two alternate versions is particularly sound, as the differences between the two standard dialects of Portuguese may easily compromise the evaluation if a learner trained in one is asked to respond to questions uttered in the unfamiliar accent of the other. If one of the undeniable advantages of semidirect tests is that they make evaluation possible in the absence of local examiners, the flip side of the coin is that recorded questions not only cannot re-create the spontaneity of an actual conversation, but also lack in paralinguistic elements, such as gestures and eye contact, that are an integral part of real oral communication.

Such question-and answer testing instruments can easily resemble a telephone interrogation by a taciturn and unhelpful questioner, and Portuguese Speaking Tests deserves credit for incorporating items that can over come that inherent awkwardness. The questions are worded in natural-sounding language, in a register closer to consultative than casual in Martin Joos's well-known classification in The Five Clocks , New York: In listening to the questions on all tapes, I ran across only one or two small details that struck me as a bit less than fully natural, and even those might be influenced by my idiolectal preferences.

Although an occasional item appears to require cultural information that is independent from language knowledge, on the whole the questions seem appropriate to elicit answers likely to yield reliable material for evaluating proficiency in both aural comprehension and ability to respond to questions. The second section calls for speaking freely on a sequence of five topics, with recorded instructions given in English and reinforced by drawings as visual clues. The items involve giving directions, describing a picture, and narrating events in which context provides opportunities for using past, present, and future tenses.

The drawings describe in detail an assortment of environments and situations about which most learners of Portuguese at U. Although I detected no culturally based details that might interfere with an examinee's performance, I suspect higher quality draftsmanship would likely enhance the visual appeal of the test. The third section asks the examinee to talk about a series of five topics given in English, both orally and in writing. Some items call for a descriptive answer, while others require examinees to justify their opinion, and still others refer to hypothetical situations that provide an opportunity for.

The final section includes five imaginary situations to which examinees are expected to respond verbally. Although instructions are very clear, in one or two cases they reflect behavior which, while possibly appropriate in the United States, might be considered bumbling, tactless, or even provocative in a Portuguese-speaking country. Since tests are intended as indicators of how well learners would perform in the target culture, it is preferable that instructions be worded so as not to elicit verbal responses that might be considered undesirable behavior according to criteria of the target culture s.

Finally, the Official Test Manual includes an overview of the entire program; technical information on the test; detailed explanations on procedures for obtaining the test, administering it, and returning them to the Center for Applied Linguistics for evaluation; information on the interpretation of the results according to the ACTFL Generic Speaking Proficiency Guidelines; and references on proficiency testing and related matters. Such abundance of information makes this brochure a valuable and practical introduction to proficiency testing for teachers and administrators alike. A few minor imperfections notwithstanding, Portuguese Speaking Test evinces an impressive amount of careful, painstaking work, and it does the profession a timely service by providing a much needed testing instrument.

University of California, Berkeley. This book is a detailed introduction to American Spanish dialectology, in the broadest sense of the term. It covers segmental and suprasegmental phonology, morphosyntax, lexicon, sociolinguistics, and historical development of the range of New World Spanish dialects, region by region, reaching from the southwestern United States to Chile. The first two chapters discuss, for the beginner, the nature of dialects and field work generally and the general linguistic description of Spanish. Chapter 3 describes the four languages including Basque and eight of the dialects of the Iberian Peninsula -as well as Sephardic Spanish.

Chapters 4 and 5 review the history of Spanish in Spain, with special reference to the changes that were under way around the time of the discovery of the New World. Chapters 12 through 18 describe in detail the recognized dialect areas of the Hispanic New World: And finally, Chapter 19 considers the future of Spanish as a world language. The appendices show dialect questionnaires used in field work, a glossary of linguistic terms, a table of phonetic symbols, word lists demonstrating sounds as pronounced on the accompanying audiotape, additional tape transcriptions not included in the text, and organized lists of Mexican-American Chicano lexical items.

The volume ends with a reference list of some items and a subject index The text is supplemented by tables, figures, and maps. Although the book is ostensibly for beginners, the complexity of the situation of multiple dialects vying and leveling in the New World is treated both fully and clearly. Transplanted Spanish is compared with numerous examples from other colonial languages: English, French, Portuguese, and Dutch Afrikaans.

The various dialects and substratum languages are illustrated by sample prose texts, poetry, dialogue, and vocabulary lists. Topics such as the morphology of Basque and Mapuche are treated in greater detail than one might expect from the book's title. Neologisms from Argentina and those from the southwestern U. While the book is highly informative, clearly written, and richly documented, it is not free of inaccuracies.

The book occasionally seems old-fashioned, in both content and style. The figure for Spain's population of Basque-speakers is based on a source References to sources published in the s and 50s are frequent, while recent investigators such as M. Fontanella de Weinberg, J. Terrell are absent from the bibliography, and H. The few lapses and the antiquated flavor aside, the book offers a wealth of information, presented in a vivid, engaging style. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Although it is also a grammar with the usual drills and paradigms designed for a two-semester sequence of introductory Spanish, the uniqueness of the book consists in the thoroughness of its message to prospective service-oriented professionals that Hispanic clients behave differently from the Anglo norm because of deep-rooted cultural determinants.

Nonverbal communication with the hands is analyzed in an early lesson, as is the less rigid Hispanic manner of walking and holding the body. Proverbs are often used to introduce a particular facet of Hispanic reality, and Lotito is not reluctant to write frankly about qualities peculiar to the Anglo majority as well e. The individual operating from the nirvana state brings a synergistic quality to his communication and alienating differences disappear. The individual in the functional state, on the other hand, is prone to categorize and compare, while the neurotic state is characterized by a total blockage of energy and a rejection of anyone who is different.

The cartoon dialogues are striking and original. Another involves the diagnosis of diabetes in an elderly, proverb-quoting woman who refuses to forego an occasional caramelo in the interest of her health. Still another demonstrates the confusion of a Hispanic client when an Anglo employee reprimands him for not being punctual. The text is followed by a Spanish-English glossary, a bibliography and an adequate, though not exhaustive, index. The glossary is also adequate, but lacks more difficult words from the newspaper and magazine advertisements reproduced in the text e.

The bibliography includes specialized headings for books on Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Cubans in the United States, as well as on Spanish linguistics, dialectology and bilingual education. The book has a frankness and personalized tone that inspire confidence. Consecuentemente, la urgencia de libros de texto sobre esa materia era exigua. De una reducida lista de. No cabe duda que sus autores conocen vastamente la lengua, el mundo de los negocios y las comunicaciones del mundo hispano parlante. En el segundo, sobre abreviaturas y siglas, faltan algunas muy usuales CSF, Dll. En el tercero se ignora a Cuba y su unidad monetaria.

Teachers of Latin American culture and civilization have long agreed on one thing: Such a text should be geared to the third year college student of Spanish, who is rapidly approaching fluency and plans to major or minor in the language, but who still needs guidance in the form of vocabulary aids, comprehension exercises, background material and bibliography. Anthologies of literary selections abound, as do topical collections of news paper articles or journal interviews; however if the first reveal an exclusivist bias, omitting all but the most canonical authors and countries, the second are marred by a worse flaw: There are excellent history texts, but they have a built-in limitation: The ideal text, then, would rectify all of these deficiencies: Even more importantly, such a text would be truly representative, reflecting in dynamic fashion the heterogeneity of contemporary Latin America and the authentic concerns of all of its citizens.

Beginning with the book's format, the first problem the authors confront and successfully resolve is that of chronology versus thematics, opting for a workable compromise. It also presents basic geographical and demographic information. Since its purpose is to contextualize the contemporary materials that make up the bulk of the work, it contains no reading selections. This allows the authors the flexibility to devote the subsequent seven chapters to the exploration of a series of provocative themes, which are fundamental to an appreciation of contemporary Latin American society: Furthermore, it is the only one divided into four interrelated themes: The list of authors and interview subjects is even more diversified: No country is neglected; geographical areas which have historically been ignored, such as Central America, the Caribbean and Brazil, are amply represented, and numerous voices which have traditionally been silenced or submerged are allowed free expressive rein.

Or the conversation with Elsa Tamez, a Costa Rican university professor of theology who is active in the popular church, not the Roman Catholic one, however, but the Protestant. True to its title, not all is innovation in this book, and that is one of its major strengths. The reader cannot help but be impressed by Heyck's evident desire to compile an accurate and fair text, correcting by its example the partial view of Latin American culture so prevalent in earlier readers.

The pedagogical features of the book are also well-conceived. This is not only an immensely readable book, but an easy one to teach.

www.newyorkethnicfood.com: Manuel Claudio: Books

Each chapter begins with an introduction which sets the thematic stage for the readings. Each reading is preceded by a brief biographical sketch and followed by diverse exercises designed either to check reading comprehension, stimulate discussion or invite the student to confront conflicting or complementary views from earlier selections. An excellent vocabulary, presented actively in the text proper rather than at the end of the book, allows for continuity in reading, and the extensive bibliographies which conclude the chapters provide materials for supplementary work.

I have no doubt that it will enjoy an enthusiastic reception from professors and students. Loyola University of Chicago. Each genre has certain difficulties inherent to it and certain master writers pose greater problems with their obscure or deep thoughts, images, words and philosophies. One of the most complex Spanish authors is Francisco de Quevedo, and any effort to translate his writings has proven a monumental, but rewarding task.