CUMBIA VILLERA: Love it or leave it

by Verónica Fernández.

I live in Argentina, in an overcrowded working-class neighbourhood. Here, most people listen to “Cumbia Villera”. This fact has become a major controversial issue in Argentinean society. There is a strong rejection towards this kind of music, mainly by middle and upper class people; while for those of the lower class “Cumbia Villera” has been almost a religion since it appeared in 1999.

The truth is that, whether you like “Cumbia Villera” or not, you can’t deny it is definitely a manifestation of the voice of our social reality.

One of the “Cumbia Villera” main characteristics is the rudeness of its lyrics, the rebellious, sexist and brave vocabulary related to themes such as love, sexual experiences, police force, delinquency, drug abuse, etc. This has created a bitter disapproval by those who find the lyrics insulting for the members of a well educated society.  Another particular characteristic is the simplicity of the music itself. Many musicians and critics have been against “Cumbia Villera” as a firmly established style of music, considering it just as a bold attempt to belong to the artistic world.

On the other hand, “Cumbia Villera” has allowed many people to show their discontent towards the system. For these people, the main objective is to spit in the face of society their anger, their feelings as a left-aside social group. They feel music as a way of expressing their own interests and expectations while reacting against their lack of recognition.

Nowadays things are not simple to understand. Many people think that in spite of being a cultural phenomenon, which gave overlooked people a wider chance to be heard, “Cumbia Villera” has become a business as any other. Being regarded as the music of those who have no money to spend, the commercialization of “Cumbia Villera” represents more than the 30% of the Argentinean Music Market sales, and it is increasing surprisingly fast. Because of the loyalty of business to money, people find it difficult to keep on believing that this music still represents the interests of those who have been always dismissed by the system.

In opposition, a whole brand new focus is now being located on “Cumbia Villera”. It seems that there is an attempt to include “Cumbia Villera” in the repertory of great distinguished musicians. One example is the case of Andrés Calamaro, whose latest single – enthusiastically welcomed by most people- is actually a sort of “Cumbia Villera” song mingled with rock.

For the better or the worst, Cumbia Villera is now part of our culture, no matter what social class people belong to. This makes me think that perhaps Cumbia Villera is evolving as punk has done in the UK, or reggae in Jamaica, and also Hip Hop in the colour nation of the US. Anyway, one thing is certain, “Cumbia Villera” is here to stay.

Which is the best: Windows XP or Windows Seven?

Nowadays, when people buy a new computer they find out that the latest operating system provided by Microsoft: Windows 7, is already pre-installed in the pc. Here comes the problem: do they have to trust and start getting accustomed to it, or they have to go back to the familiar Windows XP? Is one of them better than the other? If you are a user of XP who thinks that your PC needs an update, the following points may also clarify your doubts when choosing the best option for your machine.

Windows XP was launched in October 2001 and it was a great improvement on the previous Windows 98. It introduced many changes, not only in the system itself, by solving lots of problems and making everything easier, but also in the interface, which was now more attractive and full of modern icons and bright colours. Its requirements were really basic compared with the powerful hardware available today. The processor had to be at least of 233 MHz, the RAM needed was only of 128 MB and the available space in disk had to be of almost 2 GB. By the moment of its first appearance in the technological market, these requirements were covered easily by investing some money (just to forget about having any problem for a long time).

After Windows XP, the Windows Vista was another attempt by Microsoft to show how technology was able to solve our problems and help us in our everyday life. It was only an attempt, and a failed one. Instead of solving problems, it caused more. The users started complaining since the very first time they turned on their computers. It is considered as the worst operating system in history! But let’s forget about this and pass on to better times.

Windows 7 has been available since October 2009, twelve months after Bill Gates left Microsoft. Its challenge was to make the users forget about the awful experience they had with Vista; and in spite of the initial and unjustified criticisms, it has survived and each day more people choose it. Its requirements are very different from the ones of XP, but we have to take into account that eight years have passed and the new hardware is much more powerful than in those times. The processor needs to be at least of 1 Ghz, the minimum for the RAM is of 1 GB, and the disk space of 16 GB. What is new about hardware requirements are the graphic cards. With XP, the graphics were managed with an inside-motherboard device, while nowadays, it’s recommended to buy a separate graphic card for a better performance. There are motherboards which have it included, but it ‘steals’ RAM to the system to work (and this is not the best option). As a conclusion, we still have to invest some money, and a bit more than in 2001, to have a PC that would be able to work with this new operating system. But, as I have corroborated, it’s better to invest now than to suffer tomorrow.

Let’s talk now about why changing our pre-installed Seven may be useless, and also, for those who are interested in updating their systems, why it may be nice and better to give it a try. First of all, remember that XP appeared in 2001, and it’s taken as an old system by the Microsoft Company, so they will stop selling it and the licenses will  expire in less time than you imagine. It will disappear very soon, while Seven has just been born! Take advantage of that, and also of the continuous changes and updates they keep working on, which will improve its performance and satisfy the users’ needs.

If you are a potential buyer of a new PC and you don’t know if it will work properly and fast with Seven, or if you have just bought one and you are afraid of it breaking down, don’t worry! The new machines are perfectly prepared to work with this system; and what is more, they will work better and faster with it. XP is a bit out of date compared with all the new components that keep on appearing every day; it has limits that Seven doesn’t, for example when talking about RAM: XP’s limit is 2 GB, while Seven’s is 16 GB (which is a lot more than what we need).

If you buy a new PC and you want to use your old printer, webcam, or scanner, you will be able to do so because their drivers are already installed in Windows Seven, so you just connect them and the computer will recognize them automatically. But if instead of this, you have your old XP and you buy a new printer, scanner, etc., you will have to install the driver manually or maybe you may find out that it’s not prepared to run in a system that is previous to Vista, for example. It’s a real headache when you realize that you will have to throw away your new purchase, or that you will have to change your operating system.

When talking about stability and security, Windows Seven is absolutely much better. Why? Simply because XP has been many years in the hands of hackers and people who spend their time ruining other people’s lives, so they have found many (and believe me when I say ‘many’) ways of creating viruses for this system. Its weaknesses are not a mystery anymore, and it has become really vulnerable. However, as Seven is quite new, they haven’t still found out how to reach its nucleus and so its weak points. We are a bit safer if we also have a good Antivirus, which is a basic need and the first program to be installed if you don’t want surprises later.

And the last good point I will focus on, and maybe the most interesting for me, is the option that allows users to go back to a previous state of the system if they have a problem. This is a great improvement, because in XP this almost didn’t exist. I say almost because you had the opportunity to create a ‘Recovery disk’ manually; but in the case of Seven, it’s automatic. Every time you install a program, the system creates a ‘point’ for future recoveries. This means that if you happen to have a problem or you come across a virus; then you can insert the Windows Seven installation DVD and choose ‘Restore System’. This option will allow you to go back to the point you have chosen, without losing anything except the later installations. This possibility has allowed many people (including me) to get back their data.

Summing up, Windows Seven, as any scientific or technological advance, brings with it new options, new characteristics, new ideas that tend to be (always) positive and useful for users. XP is not a bad system, I’m not criticizing it. I’m not telling that everybody should erase it from their PCs. I’m just trying to give some points to take into account when having to choose what is better for each computer. It all depends on the kind of PC that you have; that’s why the requirements are the first thing to look at when making a decision. Seven is better for some cases, and XP is better for some others. Technology is always improving and advancing, and it’s good to catch up with it so as to take advantage of all the possibilities it offers to the world.

What happens when we take a story from a book to the big screen?

We generally know the stories of ‘Harry Potter’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Frankenstein’ or many others through the blockbusters that Hollywood offers to the worldwide audience. However, these films have been based in previously written books. As a result of this, many great pieces of literature have been unfortunately impoverished and simplified by the Film Business in order to fit a commercial product.

‘The Twilight Saga’ is a story like the previous ones: it was first published as a book and then taken to the cinema. The saga was written by Stephenie Meyer in 2005, and is divided into four volumes. The first of the books was taken to the big screen by Summit Entertainment in 2008, and then the second and third followed. The last one has not been released yet. All of them had an enormous and incredible worldwide success.

The saga’s four volumes are ‘Twilight’, ‘New Moon’, ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Breaking Dawn’. The films have the same title than the books already mentioned; however, their content does not coincide.

In the motion picture, the story is quite similar to the one in the book and this happens all throughout the saga. We say only ‘similar’, as there is a slight difference when talking about details. We know that it is impossible to include in a film everything that a book says, because while the movie lasts two hours, reading a book may take us a week, a month or even a year. There are some incongruities when comparing Stephenie Meyer’s books and the films, in spite of sharing titles, their content is not identical when talking about the details previously mentioned.  We mean that in some of the films there is coincidence of events with their corresponding book, but not in all of them. For example, we may find in one of the films some situations that won’t appear till we reach the next corresponding volume of the books.

When these films were presented in the cinemas all around the world, we could see frantic and mad teenagers queuing for hours and waiting to see their idols. And then, we met them again while watching, or at least trying to watch, the film in the middle of their crazy screams. Beautiful women, blue-eyed vampires, super muscled werewolves and a love story make the Twilight saga an irresistible attraction for young people. But, what happens with the rest of the audience? Are people in general interested in this kind of films? Actually, they are not. It’s clear that adults or mature viewers are looking for something more than just two hours of romance or fights between creatures that don’t exist at all. However, when we refer to these same facts in the books, we may find at least some people interested in reading them. The quality of the writing is really good, with great details and profound moral matters expressed in a subtle way. This last point may be the one that can attract a non-teenager-public, because it gives the reader some food for thought.

One last point that we want to refer to is that of the position of the reader or viewer upon the ‘presented images’. The writer may describe a scene in the most detailed way, but there is always a gap, bigger or smaller, for imagination. This doesn’t happen when we watch a blockbuster: there is nothing else but what we see; our imagination has a limit. In this way, the audience is much more ‘passive’ when watching this kind of films than when reading a book. They just watch and wait for the sceneries to appear in front of them, while a reader might need to reconstruct the ‘presented image’ in his mind. Although he has more freedom, he also has to make a bigger effort.

Our intended focus is placed on the importance of getting to know the stories through their real source, their original form, content and meaning; and also to restore the position of books as mind activators, critical-thought-builders and the key to a new world of creativeness and unlimited possibilities for the imagination.