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Good Morning All,
Welcome to the 6th issue of the Cultural Reads Newsletter! A bi-weekly book, music, and movie recommendation from different countries all around the world.
This time from Spain as I’m spending two weeks in a co-working hostel close to Valencia called Sun and Co.
In this week’s newsletter: Mexico, the Philippines, and France
With its 800+ pages, this book looks intimidating. Once you start, however, it’s almost impossible to stop.
The novel tells the story of Juan Guillermo, a young kid growing up in a tough neighborhood in Mexico City. His brother, who runs a couple of businesses (including a drug one), gets killed by a group of religious fanatics, and Juan’s parents later died in a car crash. Now an orphan, Juan wants revenge against the people who took his family away from him.
This is an excellent piece by Guillermo Arriaga, author of the famous book Amores Perros (and accompanying movie by Mexican director Alejandro Iñárritu).
The story seems almost biographical and contains too much truth to be fictional, which is not surprising. Arriaga grew up in Mexico City and lost his sense of smell at 13 during a street fight. He knows what he’s talking about, and as a reader, you feel that throughout the book.
Metro Manila is one of the best movies from the Philippines.
Oscar, a Filipino farmer, struggles to make ends meet and decides to move his family to Manila. The promise of the big city is appealing but soon makes place for a harsh truth: more challenges and more poverty.
When he finds a job as an armored vehicle driver, his problems seem over. It turns out this was yet another illusion. His co-driver is corrupt, and Oscar faces a choice: give in to the corruption or not. He finds out that his predecessors have all died on the job and realizes he can not trust his colleague. Joining his coworker or not, his decision will have severe consequences either way.
A friend who toured France for a few weeks during the summer recommended the French radio channel FIP.
The radio offers multiple genres, but the main two I’d recommend are Monde and Jazz.
The Monde channel is a bit random, including super low-key artists from random countries and famous international artists. Although some are better than others, it’s an excellent tool to discover music and almost without commercial breaks.
Last week I got a request from Femke if she could share a piece about her favorite actor: Matthew McConaughey. As you can tell from the text below, she’s a raving fan. Here’s why:
Matthew McConaughey is my longest-lasting crush to date, having gained that title through speaking the insignificant phrase ‘well, then he was a midget.’*
Failure to Launch, Fool’s Gold, and The Wedding Planner were among the chick flicks I grew up watching. I didn’t know much about cinematography at the time (and still don’t), but Matthew’s Texan accent and long hair were enough to make me swoon (I recall Matthew getting the title of sexiest man alive in 2005).
Later, McConaughey shifted his acting style to more serious films like Dallas Buyers Club and Interstellar, which I enjoyed as a young adult.
I was intrigued, to say the least, when Matthew wrote the book Greenlights during the COVID pandemic, which I received as a Christmas present. It contains stories from Matthew’s 50 years of life; from building treehouses, getting girls, traveling, and wet dreams, to change, emotional struggle, love, and death.
Matthew’s book made me laugh out loud in trains and airports, cry alone in my room, and fall in love with the same things he did. Greenlights is more than just a memoir, it’s a heartening book about being alive, finding yourself, and sticking to your values. He reminds us to not ‘half ass’ through life but to follow those Greenlights and just keep livin’.
*A phrase he said as in Fool’s Gold, 2008
