Sometimes if you’re sitting at home, depressed, stewing in a pot of emotional turmoil and angst, really the best thing to do is just go out and shake it! (P.S. If your boss looks like she’s taken the bullet train to Splitsville, we strongly suggest you don’t mention it… especially if you are looking for her to sign off on your French classes!)

Arume studies filmmaking in her native Spain. She talks about what life is like for her now that she has graduated from high school and is out on her own.

It turns out that Tere wants to learn the piano, just like grandma. Or could it be she just wants an excuse to be with Juan? Mani stops by Amalia’s kiosk but forgets his Oreos on the way out.

Milagros is sidelined from the fútbol match and forced to peddle soda pop to pay for the team’s new shoes. Meanwhile, el patrón is getting the third degree from his mother, who lets on to us that he’s got a guacho child of his own on the loose—spawned with the butler’s sister?

Goods and services that show up on our urban doorsteps are the ultimate in convenience. Latin Americans love el delivery as much as anyone, maybe even moreso.

The meaning of fascista is self-evident, but Southern Cone countries also use facho. Balas, of course, are “bullets” but in some countries also have the alternately slang meaning of “homosexuals” or “gays.” Balas and Fachos are, evidently, also the names of tv shows in which Majo and Gloria’s young client stars.

What exactly does Soledad care about that fellow’s uncle? And is the former child star really concerned with the girls’ ability to earn a living? Stay tuned…

Gala says she is ill in the guardia of a hospital, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Meanwhile, Majo is intent on interrupting her husband’s enjoyment of a good book.

Cianuro is, as you may have guessed, the Spanish term for “cyanide,” a poison that has long been used to propel dramatic intrigue. In Gabriel García Márquez’ Love in the Time of Cholera, for example, the photographer kills himself with it. Watch closely for the lethal chemistry cameo.

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.

Transgenic, or genetically modified, crops are a marginal issue for most people in the United States. This is not the case in Europe, where the issue of transgénicos is very much in the forefront of the public's mind.

Comercio Justo, or “Fair Trade” products are often seen in “socially conscious” retailers like health and “whole” food shops. It presents a novel approach to doing business that takes into account social and environmental factors in its pricing to consumers and directly compensates commodity food producers, like coffee and cocoa farmers. Here proponents explain the philosophy from several different vantage points.

Can an educated public really create a kinder, gentler, consumer society? Do informed buyers make decisions more sensitive to their world? Can you have your cake and eat it too? Some activists think that voracioius consumers need not be subdued, but only that their desires be tweaked, redirected…

Do those who control the wealth in a society also dictate its desires? In this segment we’re able to listen in on the discourse of Spanish intellectuals critical of the modern consumer culture, which they see as something of a Svengali-like oppressor and manipulator of the masses.

Can a consumer-driven market be replaced by an informed system of mutual cooperation by a like-minded populace? Is the market always at odds with the well being of the planet? Is it true that otro mundo es possible? Let’s find out what some experts think…

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.

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.

Patricia talks about ways to stay active in Coro, Venezuela, patrimonio cultural de la humanidad. She enjoys the gym and classes in Tae Bo, an exercise phenomenon that seems to know no political boundaries. She also enjoys going out on Friday nights with friends to the local disco. As far as boys go, it seems a young man named Leopaldo is winning the race to her heart…

Medical student Patricia Martí tells us about the study she is conducting in the village of Adícora. The study is a look at the incidence of skin problems caused by sun exposure in this town where many people work outdoors, including quite a few fishermen.