A Mexican goes in search of his father. On her deathbed, his mother has told him to return to her native village in the south to search him out: ‘Just as you pass the gate of los Colimotes, there’s a beautiful view of a green plain tinged with the yellow of ripe corn. From there you can see Comala.’ But when the man gets to Comala, he finds an arid plain and an empty village, with nothing except the voices of the dead to speak to him. It soon seems that he too is bound to die.
From these slender elements, the Mexican novelist Juan Rulfo weaves a story that relentlessly draws the reader in, and says more about life as well as death in rural Mexico than many longer and more elaborate works. Rulfo is a story-teller who is well aware that poetry comes from knowing what to leave out as much as what to leave in.
The narrative of Pedro Paramo – the name of the protagonist’s father – consists of some 60 fragments. These fragments are the voices of the ghosts still present in the village of Comala, who between them gradually build up the jigsaw of his father’s life and death. Pedro Paramo, we discover, was the local landowner, who accumulated his lands and power by treachery or by brutally arranged marriages, until at last he fell for a woman he found it impossible to win, as she retreated first into madness and then – inevitably in this novel – death.
The 100 or so pages of the novel are held together not only by the gradually unfolding story, but by repeated images and expressions that broaden out the impact of the local events and endow them with a more general resonance. The voices of the former inhabitants of Comala give a stark impression of life as something suffered rather than created.
Pedro Paramo was originally published in Mexico in 1955. Despite the fact that Rulfo only wrote this novel and the short stories of The Burning Plain, he has been universally acknowledged as one of the masters of recent Mexican writing, both because of the sobriety and resonant understatement that he consistently achieves, and because of the way he uses these gifts to capture the emptiness and despair of rural Mexico. This is a Mexico which has been abandoned to suffering for centuries, but which still retains its capacity to burst into shocking life.
Pedro Paramo is a classic in the truest sense. It is a book that has profoundly influenced the making of literature, and continues to resonate in other books.
President Hugo Chávez openly defies the ruling class in the United States, daring to push forward new productive relationships, to advance social reform that provides access to health care and education, to remove Venezuela from the economic orbit dominated by the United States, to diversify its production to meet human needs and promote human development, and to forge an economic coalition between Latin American countries.
Coalition for the Ethical Control of Urban Animals (CEFU) executive director Alejandra Cassino estimates more than 700,000 companion animals may be affected by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Chile’s central region on the 27 February 2010. CEFU has called upon other Chilean animal organizations to unite for these victims. Under the banner ‘Animal Relief Chile,’ the coalition provides a national support network to cover veterinary care, resource management, communications, volunteers, etc. 
Cool in voice, cool in demeanour, Sao Paulo siren Céu belongs in a great tradition of unflappable Brazilian female singers that goes back beyond Astrid Gilberto and the iconic Girl from Ipanema. And if the fact that Céu updates this tradition with elements of drum’n’bass, r&b and left-field rock will appal some, that essential, timeless bossa nova composure remains the centre of her music. Indeed, this 29-year-old tropical ice maiden is probably incapable of singing a crude note or making an inelegant gesture.
The tourism industry in Chile has been hit hard as travellers cancel trips to the disaster-struck country. 
A series of strong aftershocks has rattled Chile, not far from where the deadly 8.8 magnitude quake caused widespread destruction and triggered a tsunami nearly a week ago.
There are few foodstuffs with such a rich and intriguing history as chocolate. Many people have a love affair with chocolate yet few of us know the unique origins of this popular treat. We tend to think of chocolate as a sweet candy created during modern times. But actually, chocolate dates back to the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica who drank chocolate as a bitter beverage.
The Homeless World Cup is a world-class international football tournament, which unites teams of people who are homeless to take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent their country.
The Chilean earthquake may have shortened the length of days on Earth by shifting the planet’s axis by 8cm, a Nasa scientist has calculated.
Several organizations have mobilized to send disaster relief teams and supplies to Chile after Saturday’s 8.8-magnitude earthquake. If you want to donate, here are some organizations to consider: OXFAM; AmeriCares; World Vision; British Red Cross; Habitat for Humanity; Save The Children.