In San Pablito, Puebla, they still make paper the old-fashioned way – from bark (video)


In San Pablito, a small village in Puebla, in southeast Mexico, the centuries-old tradition of amate paper — paper made from bark — is an important part of the local economy. It also used to part of the resistance to Spanish colonial rule.

Culture Trip explains:

Mas…In San Pablito, Puebla, they still make paper the old-fashioned way – from bark (video)

Close Up Magic: The ‘Mexican’ Paper Tear (video)


The Leipzig Torn And Restored Paper Effect is a classic routine for sleight-of-hand parlor magicians. In this new video, Scott Alexander presents the prestidigitation trick “Mexican” estyle, which involves a bad bigote, a sombrero, and is that a zerape? K tricky, no? These magic papeles are for sale — only with a magician’s recommendation, of course — but if you buy them, ask the company to make the stereotypes disappear, OK?

Mexican Ouija board attack sends three to hospital (video)

Britain’s Daily Mail has the breathless bulletpoints:

Three American friends hospitalised after becoming ‘possessed’ following Ouija board game in Mexican village

When ‘The Hobbit’ took back Aztlán: A Latino nerd reads Tolkien


Today the names Smaug and Thorin Oakenshield will enter American pop culture. Dwarves rambling on a reconquista while Gollum plays riddles will reach a new audience because Peter Jackson filmed the nerd classic, The Hobbit — prequel to Lord of the Rings.

Film has more impact than the written word in today’s society and this version will reach a greater number of people than J.R.R. Tolkien’s book ever will. I am overjoyed that this classic will reach a greater number of gente, but I am filled with sadness that a child’s first encounter with The Hobbit will be in a loud theater instead of a quiet library.

Regardless, I look forward seeing my mental images from the book acted out in the big screen. And remembering the hours reading the book, which played a monumental role in my becoming Eres Nerd.

Mas…When ‘The Hobbit’ took back Aztlán: A Latino nerd reads Tolkien