A few weeks ago, one of my best friends at work @lucidlemon lent me a book that she really enjoyed. She mentioned it was very cute but yet naughty at times and that it made reference to the Mexican culture quite often. She also told me that she read it with a Spanish dictionary by her side as she took some lessons in highschool but she still wanted to make sure that she fully understood what all the terms meant.  Needless to say I was intrigued at that point. It had been a while since I last picked up a novel and the title of this one immediately caught my attention. The book I am referring to is called Haters , and the author is Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez - @alisavaldes . This novel depicts the story of an adolescent girl who moves from the quaint town of Taos New Mexico to the glamorous and often plastic Orange County, in order for her dad to make a mark in the animation industry. As one could expect, once in the OC , the protagonist found some extremely beautiful and well put to

Celebrating the holidays with my family and loved ones has always been one of my favourite pastimes - the food, the laughter, the conversations - they all make an essential part of these wonderful gatherings. In these modern times however it so easy to forget about the true meaning behind some of these holidays, and thanksgiving is a perfect example of this. This year, my husband @guccisimo spent almost two weeks preparing to host our first ever thanksgiving dinner at our new home and seeing him go through all the preparations for this grand celebration made me reflect upon the meaning behind the words THANKS-GIVING.. It was exciting to be a part of his journey, as he meticulously selected recipes, ingredients and decorations to honour our guests. By the way, when I say honour I truly mean it, as when it comes down to hosting a dinner party Martha Stewart has nothing on him (although I must admit that he did follow her turkey recipe this year - but let's keep that our secret).

The other day I decided to go through my twitter's timeline to catch up on the recent posts from those I follow. It was then that I came across a specific tweet that disturbed me and deeply saddened me. It was posted by @cuaquilino - a twitter friend who happens to be Mexican like me. @cuaquilino 's tweet is a picture of the search suggestions that come up when one types "why are Mexicans..." on Google's search bar - The suggested statements are racist and demeaning and they promote hatred amongst different nations and races. Instead of focusing on the many good things both Mexico AND Mexicans have offered to the world they portray offensive and prejudicial notions of what we as Mexicans stand for. It is extremely distressing to realize that after so many centuries of suffering and mistreatment, the human race still chooses to segregate others based on the colour of their skin, the country they were born in, or the gender of their partner. Humans are naturally

Art is a language that helps to blur the differences between human beings from different countries, races and religions. As an esperanto, art breaks the boundaries that otherwise would hold our thoughts and emotions captive. I am an art fanatic and as such I enjoy dance, music, painting , photography, and many other artistic expressions. Very few forms of art however, have the complexity and mysticism that can be found in the paintings of Remedios Varo . I still remember the first time I came across one of Remedios' paintings. I was still a young child. The magic portrayed in her art amazed me. It was as if a story was being told without having to say a word. There were characters full of emotion, hidden objects, furniture that became alive, animals that could speak. The intricacy of her art is indescribable until captured by one's own eyes. Remedios was born in Spain in 1908. She always struggled to combine the mythic with the scientific, the sacred with the profane. H

A few months ago, one of my co-workers introduced me to a set of small creatures that live underneath his PC screen at work - he referred to them as "Dunnys". At first glance, Dunnys looked like new millennium toys that a child could pick up and play with. However, it wasn't long before I realized that there is much more to them than that. I always tend to be drawn to any form of art expression and as such these tiny characters quickly became my new craze. This " designer toys " are brought to life by artists all over the world, many of who have gained further popularity by deciding to participate in these projects. Dunnys are made by the internationally renowned toy and fashion apparel manufacturer Kidrobot . The best part of purchasing a Dunny is that you have no idea of what it will look like until you open the box it comes in. This makes for a novel experience and it promotes online forum participation of Dunny fans as trading parties and special events a

I don't know if it is because of my Latin-American background but somehow when I listen to good music my body just naturally starts to move to the beat. I enjoy all music genres as I appreciate music's diversity. However, when it comes to my absolute favourite music style I would need to go with electro. For those of you who may not be familiar with this genre of music, I would describe it as a mix of 80's synthesizers with a good selection of drums and dance beats. I find electro to be intense, yet sexy and seductive... and no, I'm not describing a person here :) My first face-to-face encounter with this type of music was back in 2002 when I went to see GusGus live at Sonar nightclub in Vancouver. I was literally in awe. When I purchased the tickets for their show I was not expecting to listen to electro for the first time, as GusGus' previous material was more dance-like. Needless to say, I fell in love. The crowd was going wild that night as we all rocked o

I recently decided to change the wallpaper on my computer at work to one of Paris' pictures. At the time, I could have never anticipated the kind of reaction I would get from my co-workers for having done so. Multiple people started asking me (sometimes several times a day) what I liked about Paris Hilton and why I would decide to put a picture of her on my screen at work. I clearly knew the answers to their questions, but their constant interrogation made me reflect on why I love people like Paris Hilton, Onch, and Stephen Hampton - hence this article. Let's start with Paris - several people would come up to my desk and make statements like - she doesn't work, she is just a socialite, she has no real talent - but having gotten to know Paris better than that through interviews, BFF episodes, and most importantly through her official twitter account, I strongly defended her position. Paris IS a talented woman - not everyone can build an entire marketing empir