prompted by tiassa (again)

i have a fave. the la weekly (http://www.laweekly.com/). tiassa's sensibilities and that of this paper seem a perfect match and i was thinking how cool it would be if he contributed.

well, ok, whatever
i need clarification tho. what makes a paper "alternative"? is it a valid concept? how about another term i see bandied about? "independent?" is it applicable in this case? the paper in question has a parent company and local distros in major cities

a taste....

Ask a Mexican

I work as a physical therapist, and I’ve encountered Latinos from different parts of the world in my work. Whenever I hurt myself as a child, my mother would always tell me, “ Sana, sana, Colita de rana. Si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana. ” I always thought that the saying was regional to my homeland of northern New Mexico. However, I’ve met people from Cuba, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Mexico that are familiar with “ Sana, sana. ” What’s up with this? It sounds like an incantation from a bruja or curandera . Can you or your readers shed some light on this?

—Lupita la Brujita

Dear Lupita the Wabby Little Witch: While my gentle readers are a sharp bunch of wabs, gabachos, chinitos and negritos , I use them only for cheap labor and contraband smuggling. Besides, I doubt many of them are familiar with the origins of the refrán (saying) you cited, which translates as, “Heal, heal, tail of frog. If you don’t heal today, you’ll heal tomorrow” (alternate versions substitute culito — anus — for colita ). You’re right in noting its popularity throughout Latin America — folklorists have documented mothers reassuring the boo-boos of their niños with “ Sana, sana” from the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to Chile to the Dominican Republic and even Spain, but haven’t yet determined its age or deciphered its meaning. What’s obvious is the refrán ’s theme of curanderismo , the use of centuries-old folk remedies to remedy for pesos what modern-day medicine charges in HMOs. But don’t worry, gabachos : Though this column dealt with death and the occult, Mexicans aren’t always that morbid, and the “ Sana, sana” chant is as harmless as an English nursery rhyme — and we all know how innocent those stanzas are.

hmm
a variety of sensibilities