This week, we've uploaded and subtitled the first installment of "Tierra Envenenada" ("Poisoned Land") -- a documentary describing the horrors of land mines in Central America.
 

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Check out this short exchange between an unseen interviewer and a pedestrian (known in the business as an MOS, for "man on the street"):

Cuénteme, ¿usted sabe lo que es una mina?

Tell me, do you know what a mine is?

No, no sé... ¿Quién es?

No, I don't know... who is it?

Captions 30-31, Tierra Envenenada - Desminando

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"¿Quién es?" ("Who is it?")...

That off-the-cuff reply is kind of funny if you note that in some Latin American countries una mina is slang for "a girl" or "a woman," often with negative connotations. Regular subscribers to this service may remember that we wrote about the slang meaning of minas in Argentina back in this newsletter.

According to la Real Academia Española, the definitive Spanish-language authority, mina has many definitions. For one thing, it is a mine, as in a site where minerals are excavated. In a more military sense, it's a mine, as in an encased explosive set to detonate when disturbed. (The latter is the subject of our documentary today.) And the dictionary also acknowledges that mina is an informal synonym for una mujer in Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay. Some explosively bad puns could be made with this minefield of a word. (Sorry.)
 

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But keep in mind that this video is introducing the very serious topic of minas antipersonales ("antipersonnel mines") and the process of desminando ("removing the mines") -- that la Organización de los Estados Americanos ("the Organization of American States") is undertaking. Listen and learn.