“We are there to help people, but not to do what they should do for themselves. We want to avoid paternalism….”

Ángel Sáenz-Badillos has been the Director of the Real Colegio Complutense –an institution facilitating the arrival of Spanish investigators at Harvard– for over 7 years. When he talks about helping people, this renowned specialist in Medieval Jewish literature is not referring to the post doctoral students and scholars that visit –semester after semester– the offices of the Colegio in Harvard Square. He is speaking about the hundreds of families in Managua who have benefitted from the work that this sexagenarian and his wife promote through the local NGO Casas de la Esperanza. read more...

The Choir of Old Cambridge Baptist Church, under the direction of Thomas Jones, has released the album "Total Praise". Recorded last September in this house of worship located in Harvard Square, it is the first cd made by a group composed of more than twenty people.

"Total Praise" offers a mixture of old and contemporary religious music, much of it sung a capella.

The beautiful voices of the Choir of Old Cambridge Baptist Church can be heard on Sunday services and special holidays like this upcoming Christmas Eve.

More info on the video clip.

Links: www.oldcambridgebaptist.org

Víctor Erice is one of the most praised contemporary Spanish filmakers by the critics.
His films stand out for their lyrical tone and their formal complexity.
This Friday December 4th, as part of the Spanish Film Festival that runs from September to May, “El Sur” (1983) will be showing at the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard.
Highly recommended.

(Spanish with English subtitles)

Where: 26 Trowbridge Street, Cambridge MA 02138.
When: 19:30, Friday December 4th.

Some links worth checking out.
http://movies.nytimes.com/person/89074/Victor-Erice
http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/erice.html
http://www.realcolegiocomplutense.harvard.edu

In its beginnings Philosophy was a "public affair": Socrates and his disciples chose the main square -the most crowded place in the polis- as the ideal stage to discuss the nature of truth and justice.

For those first philosophers the challenge of "thinking" was also something that should be enjoyed in the company of friends (without renouncing arguments and disagreements).

Both elements are in the origin of l'Université Populaire of Caen - an initiative begun in France by the philosopher Michel Onfray which sought to establish a non-academic forum, an informal one, for debating and spreading new ideas.

Its success was replicated in other "universities" in different French cities like Lyon o Avignon. In 2007, the idea also caught on in Boston, where a group of French expat residents of Cambridge began the local chapter of this center of "intellectual resistance". read more...

From time to time, some language exchange partners and friends interested in improving their Spanish ask me about novels easy to understand for people with an intermediate or advanced level. Good books to practice their reading and comprehension while enjoying a well written story.

I often lend them El túnel, by the Argentinian Sábato, and La tregua, by the Uruguayan Mario Benedetti, which are two easy titles and are well written enough to be included in a Hispanoamerican literary canon.

One week ago I had the idea of making a list of recommended readings for Spanish learners by asking a group of Spanish and Latinoamerican natives that live in the Cambridge area and who keep in contact through a mailing list called Iberia.

(The e-list is, by the way, a useful resource for people interested in news about the activities that Spanish speaking community in Great Boston do together, and events in which Spanish is a "basic ingredient"; http://web.mit.edu/iberia/). read more...

People from Cambridge talk about their expectations of Obama presidency.

Obama´s supporters looking at the results.