A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Apollo 11 mission insignia. I was six years old when American astronauts landed on the Moon half a century ago.  Earlier this week, I watched director Todd Douglas Miller's 2019 documentary Apollo 11, a 93-minute "direct cinema" account of the first Apollo Project manned mission to land on the Moon. I thought it was a good way to begin commemorating the 50th Anniversary of one of the most significant human achievements in history, even though in some ways it left me feeling more than a little sad. Fifty years ago today, Apollo 11 was still four days away from its liftoff. American astronauts had orbited the Moon twice already by then; Apollo 8 was the first manned flight to orbit the Moon in December of 1968, while Apollo 10 (May 18-26, 1969) was a dress rehearsal in which the Command Service Module and the Lunar Module flew with three astronauts in the F mission that tested the equipment and maneuvers necessary for a successful lunar landing. But the G mission (the...

As a U.S.-born American citizen of Colombian descent, I have been very fortunate to have grown up in a bi-cultural environment which has allowed me to experience the rich culinary heritages of both the United States and Colombia.  To many people in the U.S. who have never traveled abroad or who may live in towns where there are no Colombian restaurants or Latin American markets, there exists a misconception that all Latin food must be like Mexico’s, which is compounded further by the fact that most of what we consider to be “Mexican” food is really a collection of Americanized dishes invented in border states such as Texas, New Mexico and California.  Because most of what is now Latin America was colonized by Spain, there  are  certain elements of Latin cuisine which are common to many South American and Caribbean countries.  For instance, corn-based tamales can be found in many Latin countries’ treasure troves of recipes, albeit in vastly differe...