By Rocío Arango Giraldo

COLOMBIA:This past March 16 at Simon Bolivar, the international bridge between the Colombian and Venezuelan borders, seven peace ambassadors and 60,000 people gathered together in a reaffirmation of brotherhood.

The occasion was a peace concert. Juanes, the Colombian singer, born in Antioquia, and who is an active leader for peace, social justice and non-antipersonal weapons, called the concert to promote peace among Venezuela-Colombia-Ecuador.

Peace without Borders concert draws 60,000 people to the international bridge between Venezuela and Colombia.
(Source: aljazeera.com)

The singer of the “Black T-shirt song” organized the concert and invited his fellow artists: Carlos Vives, Colombian-born from Vallenatos, Juan Fernando Velasco from Ecuador, Ricardo Montaner of Venezuela, Miguel Bosé and Alejandro Sanz from Spain, and as introduced by Carlos Vives, “the only war permitted” — Juan Luis Guerra, the Dominican singer.

(Editor’s note: guerra means war in Spanish.)

By Rocío Arango Giraldo

COLOMBIA: Poets, from here and others lands, have dedicated an infinity of verses to our landscapes. The happiness of our rhythms resound in the Caribbean music’s absolute happiness, but it is also expressed in the nostalgia of the tango.

Dois Candangos monument in Brasilia, Brazil
(Source: theodora.com)

Latin America has the color and the passion of Frida Kalho’s pictures, and the architectural novelty of Brasilia.

The people that are born of these lands are born encompassing the solitude of the past, the melancholy of the great civilizations of history and the indomitable spirit inherited from the Spaniards.

Anywhere we go, we feel at home. A home that guards us with the sea from Mexico that reaches to Patagonia, and in the south the imposing “dark mop,” as Mistral describes The Andes in one of his poems, that continue with the protection of its lands and people.

We Latin Americans who fight elbow-to-elbow. We the grandsons of those who rode the sheer summits in search of freedom, — What do we now call Latin America?

By Maria Luisa Grimaldi

CANADA:Since the word feminism entered our vocabulary, in my opinion, it has continued to create controversy between men and women.

(Source: wethewomen.org)

It has many supporters and critics. It is a word that stirs emotions and apparently illustrates that prejudices do not die.

Yet, what is its unpardonable sin and its most serious offense?

Well, it was and is — change.