Maredería aka Kiitoskone

Collage hecho por mí con fotos de Mathias Rosenlund.

☞Sobre vivir en Xalapa a la distancia

Vivo 87.5% del tiempo a 9840 km de México. Sigo queriendo balancear más ese porcentaje , pero mientras tanto se hace lo que se puede para dividir mi amor por dos países muy distintos y muy lejos uno del otro.

Gracias a las amigas y amigos mexicanos/latinoamericanos que he hecho por acá, llegué a este pequeño grupo con el cual hemos construido un mini micro México, específicamente un mini Xalapa en el centro de Helsinki. He descubierto lo importante que es para mí mantener a mi país/comida/gente/música presente por acá.

Los sones jarochos y los huastecos siempre me han parecido la música más bonita que México tiene y siempre me había quedado con las ganas de aprender a tocar la jarana. Increíble que tuve que mudarme a Helsinki para lograr ese deseo.

Agradezco a Jaranas del Norte por ser la base de este movimiento y a Daniel y Amado (K'u'um Collective) por invitarme a formar parte de su colectivo. No sólo me ha permitido hacer un logo para un restaurante de comida mexicana y mi primer rótulo, sino que también he podido hacer menús ilustrados para Tekstin Taco, otro sueño que siempre había querido cumplir.

Gracias al fandango por ser tan divertido y tan amiguero y a Tekstin Talo y Bar Typo por darnos un gran espacio.

PS: soy 100% del DF y la única vez que he ido a la verdadera Xalapa tenía 10 años, pero me gustaría imaginar que acá tenemos una micro mini versión gracias al Fandango.

☞ Sobre colonizadores genocidas

Cuando una piensa sobre el estado colonizador que tiene ocupada Palestina, una piensa que se trata del gobierno nada más, que no puede ser que la gente común apoye estos crímenes.

Este video (de hace 8 años) deja claro que el pensamiento genocida vive fresco entre sus pobladores. Me sobrepasa la situación y la manera de pensar; sin embargo, es claro que la lavada de cerebro empieza desde muy temprano.

☞ De risa loca

De mis videos favoritos en todo youtube. También el de Rasputin está bueno.

☞About misplaced priorities

This poem by Gil Scott Heron came to my mind while thinking about the superfluous need of the Mexican government and elites on being co-host of the world cup. Of course, this poem comes from a very different era and context, yet it talks to the same frustration, carelessness, and frankly criminal beahviour that governments can have toward their own people. Gil was singing towards white men on the moon, being more important than decent living conditions for African Americans.

Mexico is sunk in a wave of violence:

enforced disappearances

enforced drugcartel recruitments (where many of the enforced disappearances end)

huge ungraved/clandestine mass graves found everywhere, one 15 km away from the Jalisco stadium (where many of the enforced disappearances and enforced drug cartel recruitments end)

a femicides crisis

people losing their homes due to Airbnb and corruption coming from "the real estate cartel

Government officials colluded with every type of organized crime

etc...

The future seems bleak, and it is worse when we have a government that loves to gaslight everyone into thinking that everyone is out to get them, and everything that the country is suffering is due to the bad governments of the past. True, Mexico has had terrible governments in the past, and they are absolutely guilty of letting the drug cartels grow to the point of owning the country. Unfortunately for our current government, they are included in that shitty list as well as the last one. They have not been the change they promised.

...but hey, at least we can pretend to be a world-class host to the heavily corrupt FIFA.

by Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner

Part of Scavengers Reign, which I have in my watchlist.

Reyna Tropical introduced me to this amazing piece and it is the coolest.

☞About Andy Shauf

I had heard his music, but without knowing who it was, and never thought more of it. Yesterday in the studio, Mimi had one of his albums on and I fell in love with his music.

His music reminds me of something else, but I cannot quite put my finger on it.

☞About a man that never existed.

Although there are many great documentaries out there, this very short one stands out as one of the softest I have seen. Soft in the sense of heartbreaking and mystery ridden while at the same time full of heart, love, and respect organically and subtly.

I think many of us are hopeful that this man got his peace, if that is what he deserved.

Director: Ciaran Cassidy

☞About me as Kiitoskone

My name for all creative purposes might be from now on Kiitoskone.

☞ About sometimes loving reddit's comment section.

☞ About Beck's coolness

Ignoring his past with Scientology, Beck is one of those artists who is consistently great.

About 20 years ago, I visited Paris with 2 of my closest friends, and I went into a music shop where I bought Beck's Güero album for the sole reason that it was named like that. I had heard Loser by Beck and liked it a lot, so I thought it was a good bet.

I immediately broke the cellophane bag it came in and started listening to it. I was hypnotized by "Girl" and "Guero". I could not stop listening, especially to Girl, so when I discovered the amazingness of its music video, I declared it my absolute no.1 song by Beck.

Sure, the song lyrics are kind of confusing and dark, but everything else is the best. The video was directed by Motion Theory, and it was based on MAD Fold-ins by Al Jaffee, which I have always thought were the coolest.

The last but not least reason why I love this song and video is that it was filmed in East LA, which has a very high concentration of Latin-Americans, specifically Mexican-Americans. I love the Chicano culture and seeing the mariachis, dances, taco stands, piñatas, big family reunions, quinceañeras, street music, etc, just reminds me of Mexico and my childhood.

10/10 on all fronts. Gracias, güero.

or like we like to say to people we like and that they seem to like us:

☞ About microminifeminisms

I will always defend the use of my second last name for my mom, and that her last name should have been my first one. This is nothing against my dad, but against this ridiculous system where the child that grows inside a mother and then given birth by her, and then fed by her milk and then taken care mainly by her (sure, things are changing but let's be real, it is still the general situation) should have the father's last name. Makes no sense, NONE. The same with how women take their husband's last name when marrying. I will never understand it. I am glad Mexico does not have that custom.

I have wanted to go back on my parents’ family trees and thankfully, my uncle Fernando had already done the hard work of tracing our family 5 generations back until mid 19th century on my mom’s side.

It turns out I should have been born as (at least up until the research shows)

Mariana Mendoza + (whichever is my dad's real last name, coming from the line of women in his family tree)

We have been robbed of our history, our women, and unfortunately, we will never be able to trace it back to its origin.

In Mexico, it is normal to have both your last names, but in Finland, it has been a bit of a struggle to keep both in official and unofficial situations. I am glad I have stuck by my stubbornness, and Finland recognizes me with both.

For any purpose, I will always be:

Mariana (dad's last name) (mom's last name)

I do not care to be a pain in the ass in this very specific case.

The thing left for me to find is my dad's real last names.

PS: If my dad was not the great dad he is, or if I had no contact with him, you better believe I would have already changed my last name to my mom's.

PS 2: Dolores, you are my Tatara-tatara-tatara-abuela (great-great-great-grandmother), but I don't know anything about you. When were you born? When did you die? I don't know who you were? Who were your mom, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers? I know nothing, but I wish you well.

I also wish our families had kept their family trees present and updated.

☞ About äänestäminen

It was my second time voting in municipal elections in Helsinki, and this time, I had some black light keeping me company.

Unfortunately, it seems the world is going to the right, and Finland is no exception. A few days ago, there was a voting "simulation" among the youth, and I found it generally sad. The party that is known for having racists (and other awful people) on board got what I think is a disgustingly high voting result. They even got more than Vasemmisto (the left), which is more than depressing.

The boomerification of Gen Z is something that should be studied.

☞About Librosabrosos vol. 13

Memory of Water ( Teemestarin kirja)

Emmi Itäranta

Full dishes:

◎◎◎◎◎      ◎◎◎◎           ★★★                ◎◎             ◎     

I wanted to read more Finnish writers, so when I started looking for options translated to English, I found this dystopian story. I really like reading and watching dystopian media and am not sure where this comes from. It could be out of fear of what our world could become, or maybe I like them because I assume that when the world really goes to hell, I might already be dead. Of course, this thought seems less and less realistic with how things are around the world. Dystopia could be closer than we think. (let's be honest, it is true already in many areas)

Memory of Water takes place in a distant future, in the Nordics, after an ecological disaster. Fresh water shortage is the main problem in this world where the resources are regulated by a dictatorial regime. Water crimes are the most common and are highly punished.

Noria is the tea master's daughter in a world where tea masters carry out very sacred and peaceful tea ceremonies and are known as the keepers of water. Noria's best friend is Sanja, an expert in "old" technology who tries to figure out how old machines used to work. They often go to this "plastic cemetery" to find new treasures.

It was very interesting to read how this new world is built and how they speak of the old world, aka ours, which was lost a long time ago due to human atrocities. This was a book I couldn't stop reading until the end, but I have to be honest: this was the only reason I gave it 3 full dishes out of 5. I was tempted to put 2, just because of the last chapter. I really disliked the ending and felt it was a small heartbreak, just like any book, series, or movie ending that you end up screaming at. Also, some plot holes frustrated me.

I found out there was a movie made of this book in 2022, which at least in IMDb has a low rating, and to be honest, after finishing the book, I was so mad. I really don't feel like seeing the movie. Maybe when the disappointment passes I will, if only at least because my Finnish crush acts in it.

Still, I recommend you read it. It could be that you like the ending or look at it as a more realistic one, which could very much be true.