The showbiz life can be cruel, even when you’re young, talented and beautiful. Though she came from nearby Uruguay, Natalia’s Argentine peers in their native Buenos Aires weren’t afraid to let her know she was a stranger infringing on their turf.

Pablo Echarri, Argentine heartthrob and television star, describes his earliest years in Buenos Aires. Also we hear from Pablo’s father about his experiences as a new parent for the very first time.

Echarri and his sister grew up without excess wealth, and even a hint of poverty, but they were happy. Circumstances only served to pull the family together and make them stronger.

Pablo’s sister, Roxa, came on the scene when he was seven. Like millions of little children before him, faced with the arrival of a rival, he was none too pleased. Today they are inseparable.

Carolina talks about different accents and styles of speaking Spanish, particularly those found within Spain itself. Carolina is from Andalusia, in the South, and she contrasts her accent and common expressions with those of people from Barcelona and other regions.

For nearly 50 years the Pérez Terradillo family has served vinos and pinchos, wines and snacks. Jose takes us on a tour to see the kitchen and the folks and gear behind the scenes of this celebrated restaurant in Burgos, Casa Pancho.

The verb pinchar means “to prick” or “to poke” and pincho is a spike or a skewer, so it’s not surprising that in the world of tapas (small portions that can be shared) pinchos (also spelled pintxos) either have toothpicks through them or can be eaten off the plate with one.

Daily exposure to wood smoke can really wreak havoc on the body. It affects the eyes, the skin, and, of course, the lungs. With small material investment, kitchen smoke is minimized through a cleverly designed, well-ventilated, stove.

Joan Planas’ documentary, Con ánimo de lucro (With Intent to Profit), launches with a list of the UN’s objectives for development in the new millennium. While the UN plan calls for cutting poverty in half by 2015, it’s off to a terrible start. So we’re off to explore what’s gone wrong in Nicaragua, one of the countries with the most NGOs and the highest levels of poverty in Latin America. 

Continuing their trip through Nicaragua, Planas’ film crew stops in San Nicolás and discusses the lack of potable water. A group of Spaniards have offered to remedy the situation. Why does the problem still exist? Could the elected officials actually be standing in the way of progress?

Trying to figure out why he wouldn’t approve the water project, the filmmakers try to track down the mayor, but they can’t find him at home. They do find children with containers making the trek to the water source from home and back.

The film crew met with a team from Ayuda en Acción, and it appears that its organizational heart is in the right place. Yet, despite the presence of over five hundred NGOs working to improve the lot of Nicaragua’s poor, their plight worsens every year. Many local activists and intellectuals do not trust the non-profits, and accuse them of having their own enrichment as concern numero uno.

De consumidor a persona means “From consumer to person,” and that’s a transformation of psyche the world may need to undertake if it’s going to survive peak ecological crises. Un Solo Mundo Produciones is a production company in Granada, Spain that produces engaging films revolving around social and environmental themes important to the planet as a whole.

Is organic farming still ecological when excessive resources are spent to ship goods halfway around the world? Why are ecologically-oriented producers more subject to government oversight than those using environmental contaminants?

Reducir, reutilizar, y reciclar: most of us have heard it in English, and here we hear it in Spanish. These women explain to us the “three R's” to combat the excessive amount of waste that we generate.