The life of Álvaro Castro from Guatemala. Author Víctor Chukén.

My name is Álvaro Castro, I live in Guatemala, and I’m from Guatemala. I live with my wife and my son in Guatemala City. I am an artist, I usually go to expositions around the city galleries, and often I’m invited to international events, which take place in Mexico, and the other Central American countries. My work is very wide, so I have to investigate around, and seek for a problematic I want to talk about, and then I have to search for the visual elements that can contribute to materialize my idea.

It’s a difficult area to work, because in our society many people thinks art is meaningless, that doesn’t have any importance. Part of my work is show that art can be very useful, because it can contribute to open the people minds, and create citizen that can be more perceptive about their world, that can criticize what’s good and wrong, have their own criteria. I have also to think in my family, and in their needs, so parallel to my work, I usually have to make paints, and draws for people that pay me for it.

I’m actually working with the contraposition of two elements, the formal and informal construction, so I use elements of both to elaborate my speech. I try to be subtle when I choose the material I’m going to work with, so the final piece won’t be too obvious. I work to with the perceptions of the people, this perceptions sometimes can be far away from the reality, but that’s the idea, play with the people perspectives and make them think, and analyze if what they think, and the way they are acting is the best. I love that side of my work, contribute to make them see from another side.

• Where does Álvaro lives?
• Álvaro also do some work for other people, what does he do?
• Why he says that arts is a difficult area to work?
• What does he love about his work?

Interview with Alberto Morales, boyfriend of Bianca Rosales. Interviewer Víctor Chukén.

Interviewer: Hello, my name is Víctor Chukén, I’m going to ask you some questions, I expected that this questions doesn’t upset you, if you don’t want to answer me, I’ll understand you.

Alberto: Ok, I’m fine with the interview. So tell me, what do you want to know?

Interviewer: This is a little bit awkward, because I’m not here to talk about your life but your girlfriend’s.

Alberto (he laughs): that’s fine, I’m used to it, because she is very famous.

Interviewer: But what I want to know, is how you manage to live with someone that has that much to do, how you to take time to go out, and have time for yourselves?

Alberto: It’s complicated sometimes, but we have our priorities clear in mind, both of us know that the work is really important, and we like it a lot, but the life isn’t only work. We think that family, friends, are one of the most beautiful parts of this life, so we keep that in mind when we are suffering, and act to change in order to avoid losing that.

Interviewer: Oh, that is very touching! I have the same opinion about that, but sometimes we forget that kind of things. So returning to my questions, how much do you know about your girlfriend’s job, and projects?

Alberto: Actually I’m very interested in what she does, I spy on her job (he laughs), so I’m always able to see the designs, and the first sketches.

Interviewer: So tell me, how is the project she is working nowadays?

Alberto: Shei is using sustainable materials, such as plastic bottles, recycled materials, and also renewables sources of energy. This house she’s designing will be completely maintained with photovoltaic panels, and wind energy.

Interviewer: Thank you very much for your time Alberto, you were very useful.

Alberto: No problem, the pleasure was mine.

1

•      What do you think an architect do?
•           Do you think she likes his job? Why does he like it?
•      Would you like to live in a house built with sustainable materials?

Recently I travel to Mexico City, I stay like two weeks and one or two days more, I stay at my cousins house in the neighborhood “Narvarte”, that is like two miles from “Zocalo”, live so near from that means that I only had to use the public transport, I could use the “Metrobus”, the subway, I have to walk like three hundred meters to the station. The first day I walk around the neighborhood. Like 75 meters from the apartment entrance to the right, It could find one little supermarket and If you walked to the right two squares and right after take the main street to your right, you could eat a delicious “pozole.”

Always when you are traveling to Mexico City, all the people complains about how contaminated is the city, fortunately for me, the days I stay in the city the sky was blue, and only you could see the smog from far away. At the main center of the city, you could admire the colonial buildings, the “Palacio de las Bellas Artes” building, next to the Central Bank of Mexico, and in front of the “Torre Latinoamericana”, that was many years ago, the tallest in Latin America.

If you go through the Madero’s street, you saw all the shops, both national and international brands. There were many restaurants in that street, and if you walked in the others street parallel to Madero’s, you could find many markets of handcrafts, and traditional items. I also walked across the modern part of the city, the famous “Reforma” avenue, and if you walk like ten squares over that street, you reached the Chapultepec Park, “Chapultepec” means the grasshopper hill.

Author: Víctor Chukén.

Today I was in the city, and I somehow get lost, so I went to the first person I encounter and ask an address. That sounds fine, but when you are in San José, that’s not so easy. When I reached the person, I asked how I can go to the Turrialba’s station, but he doesn’t even know in what direction that was. I think how that possible, but is then I realize that San José is a go-through city, most of the people don’t live near the city, almost everyone works there, so they only know their daily travel, not the rest of it.

So I decide to seek for someone that seems more familiar with the directions, and due to my earliest experience, I go past all the people that had the aspect of only traveling through the city. I stopped, and saw around, and I walked to a woman that was selling lottery. I said hi to her and then I asked for my direction. So, finally she really knew where that was, and she told me that the only thing I have to do, was to walk five squares east, when I encounter the railway, turn to the left, and walk 150 meters more.

Author: Víctor Chukén.

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Horizontal

1. The neighborhood that was mentioned in the first article.
2.  The street that includes the modern part of Mexico City.
3. This is a word that combines smoke and fog, and it is related to a contamination problem.
4. The station that the author was looking for in the second article.
5. He was looking for the__________to get there.

Vertical:

1.       The city mentioned in the second article.

2.       The street that had many stores, in the first article.

3.       According to the article: “…people don’t live­­­­_____the city.

4.       The name of the Park in Mexico City.

5.       In the streets around the center of Mexico City, you could find handcrafts markets and__________items.

6.       When the woman give the author the address, she tell him to walk to the east until he reaches what?