The VivAmérica Festival, organized by the cultural center Casa América based in Madrid, is entering into its fifth edition this October.

The event’s them is “Ideas that Look Forward” and brings together professionals from all walks of life from Spain and Latin America: artists, writers, politicians and thinkers. This is the first year that the VivAmerica will come to Cádiz, as well as 16 cities throughout the American continent including Bogota, Buenos Aires and Quito. Currently the event is taking place in Madrid, from October 4-9, at Casa de América as well as various venues in Cádiz.

What can you expect from this diverse festival? Here are some of the things they are featuring this year:

• Photographic Exhibition: “Otras Miradas. Fotógrafas en México (1872 – 1960)”. This exhibit features pictures taken by prominent women including Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti.

• Films: Las razones del corazón (The reasons of the heart), which recently premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival, is just one of the films that visitors may screen at VivAmérica.

• Lectures and discussions: A variety of topics will be covered from immigration to science.

• Live Music: A variety of artists from salsa to Latin Jazz. In Madrid, more than 20 groups from over 12 countries will play free concerts in the streets of Madrid.

Take a look at this video to see some important Latin figures who will be participating this year:

If you are in Madrid this month, dont miss it! Stop by Casaméric a Plaza de la Cibeles, 2 in Madrid for all the fun! For information about events in South America, visit the Casamérica event program.

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Mexico will become the first country to host three Pan American Games on October 14th when the XVI Pan American Games get underway in Guadalajara. The 3 week long event is the second largest multi-sport event in the world, behind the Summer Olympic Games, and this year approximately 6,000 athletes from 42 nations will be competing.

The first Pan American Games to be held were in 1951 in the Argentinean capital, Buenos Aires. The Latin American contingent of the International Olympic Committee had been inspired by the success of the Central American Games and proposed a competition that would include all the Americas, aiming to strengthen the sporting activities across the two continents. Since then, the Pan American Games have been held every 4 years, in the year before the Summer Olympic Games, and the participation has increased considerably- from 14 nations competing in 1951, with a total of 2,513 athletes, to the most recent games in 2007, where 5,663 participants representing 42 countries took part.

To date, the most successful nations to compete in the Pan American Games are as follows:

While this is the third time that Mexico has hosted the Pan American Games, it is the first time that the state of Jalisco, and specifically Guadalajara itself, will host the Games, as both previous Mexican games were held in Mexico City 1955 and 1975 respectively.

Of the 36 sports to be contested in the XVI Pan American Games, there are some new editions and returns of old favorites. Rugby sevens is being introduced into the program for the first time, and Racquetball and Basque Pelota will return having being dropped at the previous games in Rio de Janeiro. In total there will be 40 disciplines from 36 sports, totaling 361 medal events. Several events will be held in nearby cities, such as rowing and canoeing in Ciudad Guzmán, and sailing and open water swimming in Puerto Vallarta, to name a few. Guadalajara, is aiming to use the hosting of the games as a cost-effective way to develop and improve existing sporting infrastructure, with almost 20 new state-of-the-art stadiums and sporting venues being constructed.

The official language of the games is split between Spanish and English, but as the hosting nation is Hispanic, the emphasis will be on Spanish language. The games will come to an end on October 30th, with a spectacular closing ceremony at the amazing Omnilife Stadium, where the torch will be handed over to the next host city, Toronto.

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This Sunday will see the last ever bullfight in Catalonia before the ban takes effect in the north-eastern Spanish region. Barcelona's La Monumental is expected to be full to the brim, as over 20,000 spectators bid farewell to the emblematic feature of Spanish culture.

Sunday's bullfight will be a huge spectacle. Not only has the artist Miquel Barceló, one of Spain's most prolific living artists, designed the posters for the final event, but the hugely popular matador José Tomás is set to return to fight in Barcelona for one last time after a serious injury in Mexico, as well as other celebrated bullfighters including Juan Mora and Serafín Marín.

The Catalan regional government voted in July 2010 on whether to ban bullfighting, and whilst many different views were expressed, eventually the ban was passed with 68 votes to 55. Catalonia is the first region in mainland Spain to introduce the ban, with the Canary Islands being the only other, after outlawing bullfighting in 1991.

Some have suggested that the ban had underlying political motives, from a region that is keen to separate itself from the central authority. However, the main grounds for the ban were linked more with animal rights, something that has shrouded the tradition in controversy for some years. The vote was held after campaign group Prou! collected 180,000 signatures in favor of a ban, labeling bullfighting cruel and outdated.

Bullfighting has long been considered part of Spain's national identity. Its roots lie in the Roman era, when bulls were considered sacred. Religious festivals and royal weddings were celebrated by fights, with sacrifices being made for royal favor. The tradition grew stronger and stronger in Spain, and developed over centuries and evolved constantly. The Spanish introduced the practice of fighting on foot in the 1700s, which saw riding noblemen being replaced by commoners on foot.

Today bullfighting is a deeply ingrained and integral part of Spanish culture. It is highly ritualized and the main objective is supposed to be the demonstration of style, technique and courage of the participants

While, of course there are controversies associated with bullfighting and it is certain to continue to divide opinions. The Spanish government has stated recently that the spectacle is "an artistic discipline and cultural product". Despite the ban in Catalonia, bullfighting is one of the best-known customs and a symbol of Spanish cultural heritage that remains to be celebrated throughout many regions.

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Spanish Ham is not "ham" as an American would normally understand the word. And it is definitely not like Italian prosciutto. So, the English language is kind of limited when it comes to pork products and the only word we have to describe this Spanish delicacy just doesn't really explain it or do it justice.

So before continuing, let’s take a look at the two types of products that Spaniards consider to be "jamón" (which again, is simply translated as "ham")

• Jamón Serrano: Is a dry-cured Spanish ham leg served raw in thin slices. Serrano hams are made from a white breed of pig and are not to be confused with the much more expensive and entirely different jamón iberico.

• Jamón Ibérico: Is a much more expensive version of Spanish ham, made from Iberian black pigs, fed special diets to produce a high quality high sought after Spanish cured ham leg.

Due to rigorous US laws, it has been quite a challenge for Spaniards to get their world famous product into the American market. In 2006, the first Spanish Ham exporter, Fermín, finally achieved this endeavor. Fermín is located in La Alberca in the province of Salamanca and prides itself on having penetrated the US market.

In fact, according to Cristina García, an employee of Fermín based in the USA and the only official Spanish ham cutter in the country, Americans have a lot to learn about this Spanish food.

THINGS AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IBERIAN HAM

1. Yes, Spanish ham should be cut by an official "ham cutter". Any Spaniard can tell you that. In fact, here in Spain they have special classes and licenses to get the job. No kidding, the way it is cut IS important.
2. Spanish ham is cut in thin slices and arranged on a plate from which various people share. No, you do not use a fork. You use your fingers. Yes, Spanish ham is a finger. No, you do not put any sauces on it. This is like blasphemy and there is no better way to upset a Spaniard. This is kind of like smothering a freshly roasted turkey on Thanksgiving with ketchup, or even worse, an expensive cut of T-bone steak. Just don't but sauce on it. Blasphemy, BLASPHEMY!
3. Yes, it is cured meaning it is pretty much raw. I mean, you know what "cured" means, right? Yes, it is cut directly off of what appears to be a pig leg. Yes, it is a pig leg. Yes, this is hard for Americans to get used to at first. And yes, if you come to Spain you will see these pig legs dangling from ceilings, kitchents, and on most bar counters.
4. Spanish ham is usually cut to include a small amount of fat in each slice. YES you should eat this. No, it won't make you fat. Yes, Spanish ham is actually quite healthy for you! According to Cristina García, most Americans request the fat to be removed. Again: BLASPHEMY! :)
5. No, it is not Spanish prosciutto, and no, Spanish ham has nothing to do with Italian ham. Let's try not to confuse things :)

For those of you who doubt the exquisiteness of this Spanish food, let me just tell you that Fermín Iberian ham was included in this year’s menu for the Oscars. To give you an idea of how exclusive it is in the US, every portion served at the Oscars cost $600!!!!!

So now you can find Spanish ham in the USA, albeit it is still hard to find and costly. You can always come to Spain to study Spanish to more easily access the Spanish delicacy. Remember the tips I gave you as you wouldn't want to offend people!

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Pedro Almodóvar's latest film The Skin That I Live In, or La piel que habito in Spanish, may have only been showing in Spanish cinemas for a mere week, but it is already a roaring success.

After its first weekend it had generated over 1.2 million euros and an audience of almost 200,000. Whilst his previous film, Broken Embraces, failed to ignite Spanish cinemas, The Skin That I Live In seems to have regained the confidence of the Spanish public and is already the second most watched Spanish film release of 2011, after Torrente 4.

The film is the eighteenth release of the filmmaker, who is arguably the most successful and internationally celebrated Spanish director. The unique and melodramatic nature of Almodóvar’s film has made him an emblematic figurehead not only of Spanish cinema, but Spanish culture as a whole. His legacy has propelled Spanish actors such as Pénelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, to superstardom, and his hard-pop artistic movement has broken boundaries in the history of Spanish cinema, covering polemic themes from machismo to LGBT issues.

Almodóvar has said, of his relation to Spanish culture- “I have no objection to my name being used to promote Spanish cinema; on the contrary. I shoot in Spanish, I produce other Spanish-speaking films, I live in Spain and this is my culture”.

The Skin I Live In continues to employ the codes of melodrama, identity and complex narratives so prevalent in Almodóvar’s cinematic output. The film sees the reunion between Antonio Banderas and Almodóvar and depicts a tragic figure touched by evil. Banderas plays a plastic surgeon who, after his wife’s death, is obsessed with the development of a new form of indestructible skin. The film has a more somber tone than that of previous Almodóvar films, and delves into the issues of masks and identities, sex and flesh, bodies and power. Whilst based on the French novel Mygale, the plot is full of twists and surprising revelations.

With such a great start, The Skin I Live In is sure to continue its success worldwide. Each one of Almodóvar’s releases is a momentous event in the international film scene and a celebration of Spanish cinema. With the San Sebastian Film Festival just around the corner, Spain really is at the cinematic forefront!

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La Tomatina, the biggest food fight in the world, is held on the last Wednesday of August every year, in the small town of Buñol, near Valencia. This year the celebrations will begin on Tuesday 30th August and continue until the 1st September, and a crowd of anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 is expected to take part in the tomato flinging brawl.

The night before the fight sees a paella-cooking competition; however, things soon become a little less civilised! At around 10am on Wednesday morning, a ham is placed upon a greased-up wooden pole, and it is the task of one brave individual to retrieve it, so that the festivities may begin. Trucks loaded full of tomatoes surround the area, and once the firing of water cannons occur, the fight is on…

Over 150,000 tomatoes are hurled across the narrow streets of Buñol in the hour long battle. Chaos ensues in the sea of over-ripe tomatoes until a second cannon is sounded, marking the end of the free-for-all.

In the midst of all the mayhem, there are a few important rules that participants have to adhere to. There has yet to be a serious accident during the festival in Buñol, so the three main rules are important in upholding that record:

· No additional missiles such as bottles or hard objects can be used.

· Tomatoes should be squashed before thrown, so as to lessen the impact a little.

· People are strongly encouraged to wear protective goggles, as tomatoes juice can sting!

Once the fight ends the streets are washed with water from the Roman aqueduct and participants go down to the river to clean up a little!
No one is quite sure of the origins of this bizarre event, but one thing is for sure, whatever caused the beginning of this event was such a success that is has been repeated annually ever since. The tomato-fuelled madness is now as emblematic a part of Spanish culture as any other popular Spanish fiesta, but perhaps a little messier!

Where is Buñol?

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Money can achieve many things, for example, you can pay your favorite singer to cross the Atlantic Ocean to give you a private concert with your four favorite songs.

A billionaire Spaniard, whose identity is still unknown, is paying Cristina Aguilera 2.4 million to do just that.

The news broke this week by famous celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

According to sources, she will quickly and anonymously enter Spain, date and exact destination unknown, give the private concert and return home.

Each song will be costing the Aguilera fan a whopping half a million per song. Ouch. Hopefully he has a good idea about which songs he wants to hear!

This is not the first time she has been hired for a private performance. IN 2005 she gave Andrei Melnichenko a birthday show for a million dollars. Another rich Russian, Kerimov, also hired the blonde bombshell for a similar performance.

Other singers known to give private concerts are Shakira, to the young Vinita Agarwal, as well as the recently deceased Amy Winehouse

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Celebrations for World Youth Day will take place, from the 16th August 2011 until the 21st of the same month, in Madrid. A mass event organised by the Catholic Church along with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. There are expected to be 1.5 million people attending the multitude of organised events that include a High Mass, confessions, museum visits, concerts etc. The majority of the events will be conducted in Spanish language, however, during these days, almost all the languages of the World will be spoken in Madrid as World Youth Day is designed to bring young people from all over the world together.

The organisation behind World Youth Day has promised that this year will be the greenest in history, that is the most ecologically friendly, and in order to achieve this, the organisation has taken a series a measures to enable the reduction of CO2. There will be proposals to share cars, energy generating bikes and a network of 600 recycling points.

World Youth Day took place for the first time in Rome in 1986, promoted by Pope Jean Paul II. From this moment on, it has been celebrated in different cities every two or three years: Buenos Aires, Santiago de Compostela, Czestochowa, Denver, Manila, Paris, Rome, Toronto, Cologne, Sydney, and this year, Madrid. In many of the celebrations Spanish has been the language used to carry out activities and organize events.

In Madrid, once more, these events will be in Spanish, creating a great opportunity to learn Spanish since thousands of young people will have travelled all over Spain to assemble, finally, in the capital, after practising Spanish throughout Spain.

It’s another way of living Spanish.

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Happy birthday today to Javier Mascherano! The Argentine footballer, who is currently playing for FC Barcelona, is also an Olympic reigning champion! Not only that, but, he won his second Olympic gold medal with Argentina in the Beijing 2008 Games, and is the first male footballer to achieve this since 1928!

Unfortunately the Argentine footballers didn’t qualify for the upcoming London games, but there is Spain, Mexico, Honduras and Uruguay for the hispanohablentes to support! Now, football is simply fútbol in Spanish, but how much other Olympic Games vocabulary do you know?!

The Juegos Olímpicos, or the J.J.O.O (Olympic Games) are organised by the Comité Olímpico Internacional, (International Olympic Committee) who are called the C.O.I for short. They supervise the overall running of los juegos, right from the choosing la cuidad sede (host city) to the la ceremonia de clausura (the closing ceremony). La antorcha olímpica (the Olympic torch) is already making its way around the Reino Unido (UK), and will be part of the lavish ceremonia de apertura (opening ceremony), which will take place in the recently finished estadio olímpico (Olympic stadium).

Out of all of las pruebas (the events), I’m most looking forward to la gymnasia (gymnastics). It’s my favourite deporte olímpico (Olympic sport), and there are so many different aparatos (apparatus) to within the same discipline; there’s el suelo (the floor), all the different types of barras (bars) to master, plus el potro con arcos (the pummel horse) for men. After the el campeonato mundial (world championships) earlier this year, Spanish Sara Moreno is the current campeona (champion).

I can’t wait to see if Usain Bolt will be on form again. After breaking el récord mundial (world record) in Beijing, he stunned everyone by admitting his entrenamiento (training) involved eating chicken nuggets! The deportista (athlete) will be looking to ganar (win) again this year, after winning 3 medallas de oro (gold medals) at the last Juegos Olímpicos.

Atletismo (athletics) is one of the most popular parts of the games, with el recinto (the arena) always full of spectators for the las carreras de velocidad (sprinting events), los lanzaminetos (throwing events), and los saltos (the jumping events). The carrera de relevos (relay) is one of the most anticipated competiciones (competitions), but I really enjoy watching las carreras de vallas (hurdling).

So best of luck to all the jugadores (players) in Juegos Olímpicos! Preparados, listos… Ya! (On your marks, get ready, go!)

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With powerful images of bullfighting, flamenco and sizzling paella on the beach, many people know of Spain. And more still know of Spain’s rich culture, from Picasso to Almodóvar, Gaudí to Barcelona FC. Added to all the news coverage about the difficult economic situation, there is a lot of information about Spain flooding the media at the moment. But! Did you know…

• Spain actually covers 2 different time zones! Thanks to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, you can be at 0 GMT or +1 GMT and still be technically in Spain! There are also Spanish territories of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, and the North African territories of Ceuta and Melilla that are out of the main Iberian Peninsular.
• Spain is a constitutional monarchy, BUT did you know that the present monarch, King Juan Carlos I, is the last monarch in Europe to hold absolute power, and arguably the only European monarch to voluntarily cede that power?! Before he died in 1975, General Francisco Franco named the young Juan Carlos as his heir, who upon succession declared Spain a democracy again!
• While internationally Mariano Rajoy is recognized as the Prime Minister of Spain, in his home country they call him ‘presidente’! This is short for ‘presidente del gobierno’ so while he is Prime Minister of the country, Rajoy is technically also the president of the Spanish government.
• Size-wise, Spain is the 3rd largest country in Europe (after France and the Ukraine), yet despite being 5 times the size of the UK, it only has two-thirds of the UK's population! Not only that, but Spain has one of the most diverse ecosystems in the continent; parts of the south-east resemble a desert, while the north-west ‘enjoys’ on average 20 days of rain a month, and a quarter of the country is a kilometre over sea level!
• Did you know that in theory, nudity is legal anywhere in Spain! Which means that any of Spain’s 8,000km of beaches could be a nudist beach, although in practice nudists tend to congregate in particular beaches, slightly out of the way!
• So after a long day of sunbathing (in today’s 32°C heat!) when you sit back with a nice glass of wine, think of this; 15.5% of the world's vineyards are in Spain, making it the number one ranked country in the world in terms of area covered by vineyards. Not only that, but even though most of Spain's wine are red, over 60% of Spain's vineyards are white, because Spain makes a lot of brandy and sherry. Despite all the home grown booze on offer, Spain is also one of the top five importers of Scotch whiskey in the world. Cheers!
• While the beret conjures up typically French images, of onions and striped t-shirts, the Basques in north-east Spain actually invented the beret!
• Spain was run by the moors for almost 800 years until the Christians ousted them.
• The symbol of Granada is the pomegranate (which can be found on the flag’s coat of arms if you look closely!).
• And finally, my favourite fun fact about Spain; instead of the tooth fairy you may have grown up with (which is not recognized in Spain) here, they have a tooth mouse named Ratoncito Perez!

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