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What's in an Accent?

February 28, 2001 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

A blank paper freaks a writer’s hands and eyes. This month the blankness of my screen has caused me to rethink time after time the content of my article. This time I want to chat with you about something that’s itching me. You may think, “María, and what’s that?” Okay, let me talk to you about it. Actually, let me share a secret with you, but just between us. I’m Latin. Thus my native language is Spanish. It shouldn’t strike you since most Latin Americans speak Spanish. Of course, if you study my family tree, you may find out that I’m part Latin and part Spaniard. I’m the product of a Venezuelan mother and a Spaniard father. By the way, allow me to use the word “proud.” You got it. I’m mighty proud to be a Latin Spaniard, an American Spaniard. Now, let’s start the business of this article, and that’s grammar vs. message. Let’s go to the next paragraph to have these sentences a little more evenly divided. Shall we? Follow me.

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The Hugo Chávez Frías Revolution

January 30, 2001 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

It’s so difficult to write about the country where I was born while I’m currently living in the U.S.A. This is always hard because it feels as if I’m losing my rights as a Venezuelan citizen. Throughout my life, I have traveled quite a lot, and I have kept my Latin Spaniard spirit within me in spite of many things like the unforgiving results of time and distance. My second trip in the year 2000 to Venezuela was as hectic as it has been every year during the month of December, due to the holidays’ festivities. Yet this time it was different. My cousins and my siblings (including me) debated quite a bit about Mr. Hugo Chávez Frías—the Venezuelan President. There were two teams: one opposing Mr. H. Chávez Frías’ decisions and the other moderately supporting some of his ideas and approaches in the public sector. As you may guess, the debate got rather heated. I, of course, enjoyed it. It reminded me about my childhood when my parents, aunts, and uncles got into huge arguments about politics. You may be thinking that in the U.S.A. people don’t talk about politics because such a subject may be pointless. Well, that’s not the case in Latin America, and a lot less in Venezuela. People love to talk about politics. Venezuelans do get into heated conversations with great fluidity.

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Holiday Blues

December 30, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

It seems as if I’m “predestined” to live in an airplane (always traveling during the holidays). Last December I spent Christmas by myself in one of Florida’s airports. Of course, the idea was to travel to spend Christmas with my parents and siblings. Isn’t that ironic? That’s to say I got there after Christmas. Take note: Christmas in Venezuela is celebrated the 24th of December, instead of the 25th. Back to the point, my flights’ arrangements were very disturbed due to Venezuela’s flood in Vargas State (besides others states).

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2000 Election: Organized Chaos

November 30, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

The country has been upside down for awhile, but in crisis since November 07. Political analysts predicted Al Gore’s triumph in the Electoral College, but the contrary happened, at least according to the present mess—the Counting, Recounting, and the Contest. People ask themselves if their votes really count because, after all, the president is elected by The Electoral College. Forget the Popular Vote. Do you remember the movie, “Sleepless in Seattle?” Well, a rerun should be named “Sleepless in the USA.” People, including myself, have been glued to their televisions and PCs more than ever before. Everybody wants to find out the two most prominent candidate’s positions in the state of Florida’s infinite recount, besides some dubious situations around the country—concerning this year’s elections.

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The Never Ending Story of the Invisible Empire

October 31, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Do you remember the movie “The Chamber,” with Michael Douglas? If I’m not mistaken, this movie was made during the 80’s. “The Chamber” is a hopeful movie where a group of judges meet to vindicate what the Justice System couldn’t accomplish. They take the law into their own hands, and start to clean up their city, most likely New York City, according to the movie.

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Wording the Visible & Invisible

September 30, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

You are reading this article because you are hungry. You are hungry for words. Reading this isn’t mandatory. That’s what separates good readers from “bad” readers, more likely bad attitudes toward the activity. Thus with the right disposition one enjoys to read, but without it one dreads it. Let’s begin with a basic question: What are words? Technically speaking one could say that words are isolated characters which put together with some other characters give us a specific symbol. This compound symbol has a meaning, at times universal and some other times personal.

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Enigmatic Louisiana

August 31, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Louisiana’s mysticism caught my eyes as if stoned by an invisible, but powerful, drug that made its way through my senses and my veins. At first, like most romantic stories, I didn’t realize my love for Louisiana. I took for granted the amusement that it had provided me. Time kept spending itself with little monotony. All of its components excited me, especially its true green and its enigmatic bayous. The people seemed to me as if they were Portuguese speakers who tried to imitate the English American accent. Even more they appeared to me as if they were borrowed Portuguese Brazilians who came here trying to find a more amicable jungle, this type of amicability was like a spiritual-materialistic mixture. Those were the initial impressions during my first fifteen days trip to Louisiana.

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Throw it Away, it's Free!

July 28, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Mercy, mercy! How many brochures do you get in your e-mail box and traditional mail box? You know, the kind that you have to get out of your house in order to get and check your mail. Math doesn’t help in this situation since this is an infinite number! Take note: Infinite + infinite = Waste of time. Where are all of the people that we know like friends and family? All we get is a giant pile of UNDELIVERED e-mail and paper mail, and from that pile a friend or a nice invitation may pop.

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Chavez, the Church & the Elite

June 21, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

I love to say, “wow” whenever this short and meaningful word stretches itself as if it were an elastic bond in my vocal cords, from end to end. I did have my opportunity to scream a big, “WOW,” on May 14, 2000. The reason was almost amusing, so let me develop what took place in the main cathedral of the Catholic Church in Caracas, Venezuela.

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Wal-Mart Improves

May 30, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

After so MANY nasty e-mails and almost life threats, FINALLY I have decided to write a second article about Wal-Mart, but this time is to congratulate Wal-Mart rather than diminishing this chain of stores. Please, take note that I’m writing this article because I have considered this time to be appropriate. So this article isn’t an apology to Wal-Mart, and this isn’t an apologetic thought to the Wal-Mart’s employees.

On the contrary, I do believe that we have FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Of course, even freedom of speech has its consequences, and that’s right in a democratic system. In the end, the USA’s primary and strong beliefs has been its independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 1st Amendment of the USA’s Constitution.

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Latin Americans in the USA

April 30, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Since the USA became an independent nation from the British Empire, many Latin Americans have seen the USA like a living alternative (from those days to the present time). Those living alternatives cover the political, social, and financial arenas. Many of the Latin Americans, who live in the USA, have considered their native nations’ obsolete and repressive systems toward the human right of living in dignity.

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Why Bother with Religion?

March 25, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

[Author's Caution: Religion is one of the most touching subjects which an individual may want to approach. Open your eyes as well as your mind while reading this article because it may take more than your attention. It may take your courage as well.]

Surprise, there isn’t a surprise. Don’t we hate that? Yeap, we do. That’s why we get bored about the tedious religious world. Religion becomes boring if you know what you will get, heaven or hell. That’s putting it in its most simple possible result, or at least in a pretty objective manner of approaching the two relevant issues which seem to scare or satisfy the most. That’s pathetic, but a close-naked reality.

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Our Electronic Awakening

February 29, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , Leave a comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Facts Concerning Our 1990s and 2000s Awakening

A). For quite a while, we have had more tools to stay connected on a daily basis than ever before. Of course, one’s interrelations go beyond the past and the present technology. For example, let us think about the Mayas or the Incas, mighty advanced cultures. Wouldn’t you say so? Yet they did not have e-mail, but they communicated quite well. Of course, I can’t imagine the world without e-mail and all of our computerized commodities. E-mail has helped and indeed made easier our long distance communication with friends and relatives. E-mail has facilitated our work tasks. We may send an e-mail to a coworker, and get the same result that a tête â têtê may give us whenever necessary.

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Venezuela in Different Perspectives

January 31, 2000 By in Go Inside Tags: , , 1 Comment

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

In my last visit to Venezuela, I had a foreign sensation as if I hadn’t been there before. It seemed as if I were visiting a total unfamiliar country. People and things looked different. The Venezuelan style appeared to be fighting for a mere survival. Visible citizens tended to battle against an invisible chaos, one confusion after another. We could say that those confusions have been politically, economically and the latest, nature’s course. We call it a natural disaster. The last disaster came upon them like an invisible snap on the face. It rained a lot. Venezuela got in a week one year’s rain. That’s how Venezuela ended the 20th century, a little bit more bewildered than ever before.

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