From Argentina With Love

Cuentame un Cuentito--Bilingual Family Theater

 

Gabriella Cavellero, the force behind the Tango Seduction show I wrote about last year, has created another masterpiece!  This time, she's brought us a family-oriented bilingual theater production, combining tradtional Latin American stories and music told/sung in English and Spanish.

This is just the sort of thing that Denver needs more of!   Not only does it combine some of my favorite things--music and theater--butI can bring along the whole family.  Affordable tickets, and something we'll all enjoy--is there a better way to enjoy a Saturday afternoon?

Thank you and felicidades, Gabriella, and hope to see you all there!

Laura Catena's Vino Argentino

In 2009, when I met Peter Perez of Chronicle Books at the IACP conference he told me that Laura Catena was writing a guidebook to Argentinean wines and wine regions, to be published by Chronicle in 2010.  Guidebook is an understatement--Bible of Argentine Wine is a more accurate description--and the wait is finally over!

If you're not familiar with Laura Catena, you'll get a good idea with the video above.  It's a lovely introduction to not just Ms. Catena, but also to her book, Vino Argentino.  Catena herself inspires me and leaves me in awe.  Daughter of Nicolas Catena, owner of the Catena wine empire, Laura herself was educated at Harvard and Stanford and later became an ER doctor in San Francisco.  She's also the mother of three, and when she decided to direct her attentions to wine, she started Luca, her own winery, the fruit of her labor for her life's passion--wine. (A side note--Nicolas Catena is to Argentina what Robert Mondavi is to wine-making in the US--he's credited for pioneering high-quality, exportable, and regulated wines.)

Rosca de Reyes--Kings' Cake

 
 The tradition of El Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos (literally, the Day of the Three Magi Kings)--aka the Epiphany--is a holiday that originated in Spain and is now celebrated in Hispanic cultures around the world on January 6th.

The Magi are those three Wise Men--the kings who traveled to Bethlehem to visit the infant Jesus and bring him gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. The holiday is meant to celebrate the appearance to the world of the baby Christ.

As part of the tradition, which marks the end of the Christmas season in Spanish-speaking countries, children write letters to the Three Magi asking for gifts, much like American children write to Santa Claus.  And just as children leave carrots out for Santa's reindeer, Argentinean children leave out grass and water for the Kings' camels.

The children's little shoes are left out on the night of January 5th by the door of the house, and on the morning of January 6, they find a gift there.  (Below, a picture of our Esteban's shoes filled with chocolate coins.)