Hey, Spanish geeks...

[Orthosdoxa]

C'mon, I know there's a FEW of you out there!!

Anyone ever seen a network called "azteca america"? I just spent the weekend at my brother's in Boise and it's a regular network channel there.

I watched HOURS of a show called "Puro Loco" and it has got to be the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I never cared too much for Univision or Telemundo (not that I can afford cable these days anyway), but this channel is great!! Just wondering how widespread it is in other markets...

...and whether I should move to another city purely for the TV. :D


LK

[Philip]

We don't have Azteca America here, which is a bit of a surprise. I try to catch the Univision news nightly.


...and whether I should move to another city purely for the TV. :D


When I was a wee tike, I wanted to move to Cincinnati because of WKRP.

[Orthosdoxa]

hehehe.. Philip! I didn't know you were a Spanish geek, too! Sweet!

My hubby, who always tries to take an interest in anything I do, has learned quite a bit of Spanish, and having him enjoy the program with me only made it better. (My bro and SIL just rolled their eyes :))

Oh, and the Spanish version of American Idol is da bomb! :)


http://aztecaamerica.tv/

[Philip]

hehehe.. Philip! I didn't know you were a Spanish geek, too! Sweet!

Mostly out of necessity.

I used to get a kick out of Sabado Gigante, but I haven't seen it in years. Of course, Spanish is the only way to watch futbol.

[Orthosdoxa]

Of course, Spanish is the only way to watch futbol.

GOLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



:)

[Wiffey]

I only get Univision...my husband wishes it came with English subtitles. A friend of mine once met Don Francisco (of Sabado Gigante) at the beach when she was in Chile. Of course, my favorite to watch is the astrology report by Walter Mercado...his outfits ROCK!


http://u.univision.com/contentroot/uol/art/images/tv/star/2004/11/041117_PI_walter_3.jpg

[Mary of Bethany]

That's a he???????

:eek:

[Philip]

Of course, my favorite to watch is the astrology report by Walter Mercado...his outfits ROCK!


Nothing beats the Latin Liberace

[Julio]

http://u.univision.com/contentroot/uol/art/images/tv/star/2004/11/041117_PI_walter_3.jpg

" Y rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreciban de mí paz, pero sobre todo, mucho, mucho, mucho... ¡¡¡AMORRRRRRR!!!"

He totally cracks me up. :D

And Katherine -- is that Spanish version of "American Idol" called "Objetivo Fama"?

[Xpycoctomos]

I only get Univision...my husband wishes it came with English subtitles. A friend of mine once met Don Francisco (of Sabado Gigante) at the beach when she was in Chile. Of course, my favorite to watch is the astrology report by Walter Mercado...his outfits ROCK!


http://u.univision.com/contentroot/uol/art/images/tv/star/2004/11/041117_PI_walter_3.jpg

If I didn't know his name I would have SWORN Walter was a girl. I would always watch in creepy amazement.

Aztec America? Me suena interesante... mientras no sea parecido a Univision... que es una miercoles si me entiendes. I remember being glad that I knew English because of how cheesy Univision was. I remember dos mujeres un camino with Eric Estrada, mi pequenia traviesa (I watched that more though because I was a teenager and had a thing for the actress ;)) and el Chavo del ocho... perhaps the lowest budget for any tv show in ALL history lol.

Juan

[Xpycoctomos]

I will have to say though that with Walter, it always bothered me that the Latino community would be interested in these cooky ideas. Don't get me wrong, i can see watching it to get a good laugh, but I hate to see when superstition (godless superstition) becomes a part of a culture. What do you think Julio and Wiffey? It just seems like a lot of the pagan superstitions live on in the hearts of Latino Catholics. I'm sorry if i'm coming across judgemental. I really don't mean it that way, I'm just interested in your points of view.

Juan

[Wiffey]

edit: the Cuban perspective...it isn't Orthodox enough to be PC.

[Orthosdoxa]

Quiero mirar "Puro Loco"!! :cry:

[cleopa_of_emmaus]

I live for TELEMUNDO.

~Cleopa

[Julio]

I remember [....] mi pequenia traviesa (I watched that more though because I was a teenager and had a thing for the actress ;))

Buzz off, buster. Michelle Vieth's MINE. ;)

As for Walter Mercado, he's also like 563 years old, so you gotta give him credit for looking that good! *grin* He's Puerto Rican, you know.

[Xpycoctomos]

Buzz off, buster. Michelle Vieth's MINE. ;)

As for Walter Mercado, he's also like 563 years old, so you gotta give him credit for looking that good! *grin* He's Puerto Rican, you know.

jajaja

[Vasya Davidovich]

Santeria and Espiritismo DO have some impact on Cuban culture. There IS quite a bit of syncretism with Catholicism, particularly WRT Santeria. That being said, the average Cuban is not a full-on Santero, but is very aware of Santeria (you'd have to be in a coma to not be aware of it if you live where there are a lot of Cubans). They go to church, and any cultural/historic tie to Santeria may be expressed in their personal devotion to a/some particular saint/s that had a special place in their family. In practice they are predominantly Catholic, but in times of BIG duress they may go to THE relative (everybody has one) who will DO SOMETHING ;) to take care of the problem...nuff said.

I won't complain about it, as I know that the first thing my mother did when I had a lump in my breast and when I had my back surgeries was to CALL MIAMI. While I didn't do it, I'm not sorry she did...I'm doing OK. :)

Prayer helps. But if a couple of chickens need to meet Jesus in order to cover the bases...what I don't know doesn't bother me. Cubans are ALL about hedging out bets...my grandfather attended synagogue services, studied Buddhist meditation, read the Koran and went to Mass......just in case!

I am a Christian, but if one of my loved ones (God forbid!) was at risk....I'd probably call Miami and set off a poultry Armageddon.

[And there you have the average Cuban response.]
Dear Wiffey, my sister in Christ:

I find myself troubled by this post. I question whether or not it is appropriate for an Orthodox to sacrifice to demons, or to fail to protest when others do on their behalf. I also question whether or not the demons can "meet" Jesus at any level. I wonder whether it is right for an Orthodox or a Catholic to hedge their bets... I was under the impression that Christ was the author and finisher of our Faith, and that nothing more - except our involvement - was needful.

Yours, with deep concern,
Vasya.

[Wiffey]

edit

[Rilian]

Wiffey, forgive me, but I found your response to Vasya unfair on several levels. He expressed an honest and I think valid concern.

[Julio]

I am sorry, but I do not ascribe to the paradigm that anything that is not 100% Orthodox is automatically demonic.

I believe the source of Vasya's concern are your comments making light of santería. We Christians believe in a revealed religion: "The Lord is God, and has revealed himself to us" (Psalm 117:27, LXX). If, as you say, Christianity (and Orthodox Christianity!) is the fullness of Truth, it is precisely because it is the fullness of God's self-revelation to humankind, recapitulated in the God-Man Jesus Christ. Other religions may have glimpses, or perhaps even sizeable chunks of truth, but this is because they have found these through human effort by appropriating God's revelation in nature, and to a certain extent because of the exchange of ideas through the centuries, through some exposure to God's special revelation. But there are things out there that are truly, honest-to-goodness evil, and santería is most certainly among them. It is ritual paganism using the mask of forms of piety of the Roman-Latin confession, and as such, it supplications are not directed to the One True God, but rather, to a numer of "deities", favorable or unfavorable, who are likely to be demons. After all, supernatural things do happen! This is the concern.

My Dad is Jewish. While he does not believe the message of Orthodoxy, in ACTIONS he is the finest Christian I know.

No one may be called a Christian without actually believing in Christ. What you mean, of course, is that your Father is a good, even admirable man, whose deeds should be emulated by all. This is undoubtedly true, but this doesn't make him a "Christian in actions" or in any other sense of the word. It doesn't put him beyond the mercy of God, but it doesn't make him a Christian. Again, a Christian is one who believes in Christ, and according to the Scriptures and the Church, one who rightly believes in him.

I have tried to be a Fundamentalist at different points in my life...it is not sustainable for me and the fearfulness and hard-heartedness it engenders pulls me away from Christ. More than once it has just made going to church intolerable and I have stopped attending alltogether for years at a clip.

Indeed, fundamentalisms of all sorts are cold and heartless, but I believe that the Orthodox notion that we don't know what happens outside the boundaries of the Church is a source of great comfort. We certainly know where the Church is, where are its boundaries, and we who have embraced the whole Christ, head and Body (in St Augustine's expression) walk in this Way, and seek to bring all to this full knoweldge of saving faith and practice. But what goes on outside the boundaries of the Church is entirely the territory of the hidden grace and mercy of God, which we cannot know, but for which we can supplicate. Again, God is not constrained by the visible boundaries of the Church to show mercy!

I am not about to condemn and reject good people I grew up with because they do not express their spirituality in the same way.

And who would expect you to do such a thing? But if Christianity (Orthodox Christianity!) is the fullness of God's self-revelation, then, that m,ust mean something about Truth. No one can have it both ways!

Ahhhh...I'll shut up. But I am getting REAL burned out on the cultural chauvinism I see in Orthodoxy. I'm hoping I get a second wind during Holy Week...

I don't believe what I have said before is culturally chauvinistic (indeed, I have no need to be anything but Puerto Rican, and maybe just a little bit Dutch :D ), but rather, it is a direct result of believe in the Absolute Truth of God's self-revelation in Christ our Lord. God has revealed the way in which men and women everywhere may come to him and live in such a way that they may become divine by grace. This alone is the way of salvation, whether articulated in Greek, Spanish, or Slobbovian, and everything outside it is left to the great, deep, unsearchable mercy of God.

[Orthosdoxa]

Folks, these are valid concerns. Wiffey, I love you, and I love your tender and compassionate heart. I absolutely believe your non-Christian relatives are not beyond the reach of God's mercy - the Church says so! And I believe playing with pagan religion is such a dangerous thing to do, when you are a Christian. This is not cultural chauvisnism. This is fear for you, our beloved sister. Some of the most godly monks have been deceived by the demons while "playing with fire" like this. How could laypeople like you and I NOT be, if we do the same? Please, if nothing else, find a priest to talk to about this.

That being said, this was supposed to be a FUN thread about fun Spanish television. Could we please move this discussion to a different thread so I can whine some more about not being able to watch Puro Loco here? :)

LK

[Grand_Duchess-Elizaveta]

I believe the source of Vasya's concern are your comments making light of santería. We Christians believe in a revealed religion: "The Lord is God, and has revealed himself to us" (Psalm 117:27, LXX). If, as you say, Christianity (and Orthodox Christianity!) is the fullness of Truth, it is precisely because it is the fullness of God's self-revelation to humankind, recapitulated in the God-Man Jesus Christ. Other religions may have glimpses, or perhaps even sizeable chunks of truth, but this is because they have found these through human effort by appropriating God's revelation in nature, and to a certain extent because of the exchange of ideas through the centuries, through some exposure to God's special revelation. But there are things out there that are truly, honest-to-goodness evil, and santería is most certainly among them. It is ritual paganism using the mask of forms of piety of the Roman-Latin confession, and as such, it supplications are not directed to the One True God, but rather, to a numer of "deities", favorable or unfavorable, who are likely to be demons. After all, supernatural things do happen! This is the concern.

No one may be called a Christian without actually believing in Christ. What you mean, of course, is that your Father is a good, even admirable man, whose deeds should be emulated by all. This is undoubtedly true, but this doesn't make him a "Christian in actions" or in any other sense of the word. It doesn't put him beyond the mercy of God, but it doesn't make him a Christian. Again, a Christian is one who believes in Christ, and according to the Scriptures and the Church, one who rightly believes in him.

Indeed, fundamentalisms of all sorts are cold and heartless, but I believe that the Orthodox notion that we don't know what happens outside the boundaries of the Church is a source of great comfort. We certainly know where the Church is, where are its boundaries, and we who have embraced the whole Christ, head and Body (in St Augustine's expression) walk in this Way, and seek to bring all to this full knoweldge of saving faith and practice. But what goes on outside the boundaries of the Church is entirely the territory of the hidden grace and mercy of God, which we cannot know, but for which we can supplicate. Again, God is not constrained by the visible boundaries of the Church to show mercy!

And who would expect you to do such a thing? But if Christianity (Orthodox Christianity!) is the fullness of God's self-revelation, then, that m,ust mean something about Truth. No one can have it both ways!

I don't believe what I have said before is culturally chauvinistic (indeed, I have no need to be anything but Puerto Rican, and maybe just a little bit Dutch :D ), but rather, it is a direct result of believe in the Absolute Truth of God's self-revelation in Christ our Lord. God has revealed the way in which men and women everywhere may come to him and live in such a way that they may become divine by grace. This alone is the way of salvation, whether articulated in Greek, Spanish, or Slobbovian, and everything outside it is left to the great, deep, unsearchable mercy of God.
AMEN! :clap: Thank you so much for that, Julio. You said that so much better than I could've. I, too, feel that Vasya's concern is quite valid. I'm glad he had the courage to address it. I wanted to, but had no idea where to begin or how to approach it.

[Wiffey]

:sigh: Ack.

[Orthosdoxa]

:sigh:

[Orthosdoxa]

BACK ON TRACK:

http://www.2online.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x64509&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154&NewsSection=


VIVA LA ACADEMIA!!!