I am rediscovering Alfajores

An alfajor is two cookies, with a layer of dulce de leche (caramel) in the center, and then bother in chocolate, dark or white.  I have finally broken down and started buying some alfajores from the Chaparal Super Market.  They are very pricey.  When I visited with my friend from Argentina she gave me several Alfajores Havana.  Havana are the best, and most expensive alfajor.  I wanted to scream no, but inside I wasn't going to say no.  The Havana are like eating a bit of heaven.  The Chaparal sometimes has Havana and they are very expensive.  So last time I was at Learning Partnership (Downtown Mental Health) I went to the store with the intention of getting some alfajores.  I couldn't bring myself to buy the Havana, very expensive, so got the cheap ones, Bon O' Bon.  They had a crunchy cookie, more like a cracker.  Tony discovered them, and ate them all up.
So last week I went back to the store to get some more Bon O' Bon for him and some Havana fir me.  They had neither.  However they had a cheap brand, looked like store brand, and I purchased a couple.  Not bad, but seemed to have a Mexican cookie with dulce de leche, and not quite the real thing. 

I also bought a name brand from Argentina, La Recoleta.  They turned out very nice, and have a great deal of dulce de leche between the cookies.  Not quite as heavenly as the Havana, but I can taste Argentina when I eat them. 

The LDS Church in Argentina

https://www.lds.org/church/news/like-grandfather-elder-ballard-offers-blessing-on-argentina?lang=eng
Today there are over 400,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Argentina.  This has risen from small beginnings.  In South America there are over 4.5 million members of the church.  Recently Elder Ballard visited Argentina, where a plaque commemorating the dedication of South America to missionary work 90 years ago.  When I served my mission in Argentina the Church had been there just over 50 years, and there were just over 40,000 members in Argentina.  There were four missions, with the fifth being created during my mission.  I served in the Buenos Aires North Mission. 
For much of my mission I served in Don Torcuato and dreamed of there being a branch there.  No there is not only a ward, but their own meeting house.  Things change in a marvelous fashion. 
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics/country/argentina

Movie Review: ***Imagining Argentina

I do not usually venture into R rated fare, unless it is for a historical presentation that I feel it is important to see--"Killing Fields," "Schindler's List" etc.  This movie is rated R and I recommend it for me, but not necessarily for others.  I watched it because it deals with a bad time in the history of Argentina--The Dirty War.  It was a bad time, because it pitted the government against the people.
This movie shows some pretty bad stuff, but I think it was worse in real life.  It shows the use of rape, electricity, water and blunt force as means of torture.  It shows throwing someone from a helicopter over the River to drown as a means of death.  It also shows machine gunning people in a group.  I know these things happened.  The government claimed they were fighting terrorists.  In the movie it showed the net extending beyond terrorists.  Emma Thompson and Antonio Banderas play husband and wife, Cecilia and Carlos Rueda.  Cecilia is a journalist, and writes an article about some youth who disappeared.  She herself becomes part of the disappeared as a result.  Carlos looks for her.  He discovers an ability to psychically see what was happened to some of the disappeared.  His business, the theater becomes a target.  People are taken from a church, who are trying to bring to light the disappearances. 
In real life I was told about the people teaching the illiterate being a target as a group.  I met a doctor who had been taken, because he treated someone who had been shot.  Often those taken were young people.  I saw a government out of control, stopping people at random with no cause.  Spying on their own citizens.
I tried to see if people were actually taken from a church, but could not verify this.  However I have heard, through a documentary movie of people being tortured with rape, and thrown from airplanes.  The movie also shows people being tortured during soccer games.  I was there during the World Cup, and heard people were tortured while the torturers listened or watched the matches.
This movie comes to a resolution.  I would not say a happy ending, but a type of resolution.  Those were bad times in Argentina.  They have come out the other side.  Some of the military officers were trialed and sent to life in prison.  However as of 1989 Presidente Menem pardoned those on both sides saying it was time to move on.  As far as the movie goes, Bandera does a good job, Thompson does not have much to act about, she is kidnapped early, and always seen in a beaten down trodden state.  There are others from the theater, one of whom is killed, and their daughter.

Spanish Professor, Jaime Cantarovici

I have been looking at the books of poetry from my Latin American Literature professor.  The books are called "Desde Lejos" and "Flores Artificiales" "From Afar" and "Artificial 

Flowers".  Both published in Spain, 1975 and 1982.  In the first book Dr. Cantarovici explored aging, and lamented that he could not carry as much as when he was younger.  He explores the routine in our lives in the poem "Inevitable".  I identify with this poem, as I feel sort of like I'm stuck in a rut.  Home to work, work to home, home to work, work to home, and to be honest, work isn't very challenging lately.  I've been doing the same thing for many years, but don't dare make changes because of the income; it's hard to rock the boat.

 Inevitable

Knowing that we are all in a line

same as those before,

same as those behind

Always in a line towards…

How sad it is to wait!

How sad it is to not love!

A thought, a word, a sigh,

they are gone forever

forever forgetting.

It is I who cries the morning

because I know what will come

it is I who knows the pain

of those that are in line.

The same as before, today and later,

never looking back

the Man hopes that a voice tells him

—Come forward— for you it is done.


This poem shows Jaime's lighter side


Child of Four Years

You will go to hell.
The will put on you black wings
full of worms
and spiders.
The devils

will dance a dark dance
and the fire will be
eternal.

Or..............

You will go to heaven.
They will put on you great white wings
full of flowers
and perfumes.
The angels
will dance a celestial dance
and the music will be
eternal,

If you behave well
and take your soup
you will go to heaven
to play with the clouds.
If you behave poorly...

I WANT SOUP!


 A short passage about love

LOVE

Life is short and passing
but love is eternal
The spring is light
But summer an infernal.

Autumn is cold
as is the summer
life is short and passing
but love is eternal.

FIRST LOVE

My son was born
with the moon conquered.
The sleep of the centuries
doesn't cause surprise
before your eyes.

It's a thing of yesterday
--the tell me--
it's routine monotony of yesterday.

Papa...
I'm in love
with a girl...
                 cybernetic...

A poem dedicated to his wife

SAY IT WITH YOUR EYES
                                        to Graciela

 Don't pronounce your name
Your life quiet it in secret
I want to discover the enigma
that hides in your chest.

Do you love me? Adore me?

Don't Say it!
                        NO!

It will just be words
that the wind erases.
Tomorrow we will want to remember
the mind in rebellion,
mute and silent
you will cry before the forgetfulness.

Do you love me?  Adore me?

Don't say it!
                         No!

In your profound ees
sealed in mistery,
is the precious jewelry box
where you guard the secret.

With emotion and tenderness
our glance unites
I will tell you in silence
                               I love you!

And int the rush of your face
I will know that you love me too.

Do you love me?  Adore me?

Tell me with your eyes
as they're sincere.

I thought I would share a little bit of Jaime with you.  I really think in poetry, you lay your heart bear, as his is bared in this small sample.  Jaime was a friend.  He signed the copy of have of "Desde Lejos".   I took three or four classes from him, the writings of Pablo Neruda, and a couple about Latin American Literature.  I will share some of the poetry from those classes in later blogs.

Jaime and I had a dual relationship.  In addition to being my professor, he was also a competitive coach in soccer.  I coached the team form Hyrum, and he coached his son's team in the early days of soccer play in Cache Valley.  I remember one year both our teams made it to the finals in Brigham City.  We had some good times.

Jaime was taken from us too young.  He was born in Bolivia, but his family moved to Argentina when he was in high school.  While visiting his family in Argentina in 1986 he had a massive heart attack and passed away.  He was only 43 years old at the time.