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The Spanish civil war was one of the bloodiest armed conflicts of the twentieth century. It took place between 1936 and 1939. The war started in 1936, when a military revolt against the Spanish Republic started in Morocco and soon extended to several parts of metropolitan Spain. The rebels wanted to overthrow the Republic, which they considered to be a pro-communist regime that was a threat to Spanish traditional values, notably those of Catholicism and monarchy. The leader of the rebels –then called nationalists- was Francisco Franco, who after the war was to rule Spain as a dictator for 36 years (1939-1975). Socially and ideologically, each group was diverse, but the difference between them were clear. The nationalists included military sympathizers of fascism, defenders of the Spanish monarchy, and, in general, the conservative landed elites. Most Republicans were anticlerical, and of communist, socialist or anarchist ideological inspiration. But the Republican side also included Catalan and Basque nationalists, most of the latter being religious.

Both groups received considerable foreign support, in form of troops and weapons. The nationalists were backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The Republicans received help from the so-called International Brigades, formed by volunteers from different countries, and with unofficial but considerable support from the Soviet Union.

It was a especially ferocious war, characterized by mass killings, including of non-combatants, perpetrated by both sides. One of the most notorious of those killings was the bombardment of the defenseless civil population of Guernica, a Basque town, by the German Luftwaffe. This event was then masterly described by Picasso in a picture by that name. The number of casualties of the war is disputed, but to some it reached around 1 million people. After three years of war, in March 1939 the nationalists triumphed and entered Madrid. Franco then established a severely repressive dictatorship until his death in 1975

The mate is a traditional hot drink from the River Plate region (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil) prepared with the dried and grained leaves of a weed called yerba mate (scientific name Ilex Paraguayensis).
The Spanish word “mate” derives from the quichua (an indigenous language) word “mati”, which means pumpkin, and refers to the small pumpkin that after being dried and carved is used as a recipient to drink the mate infusion (the recipient also being called mate). When the Spanish arrived, the mate was known and drunk by the Guarani Indians -living in the area of today’s north-east Argentina, Paraguay and Southern Brazil- who picked it from the wild rainforests of the region. The Jesuit missionaries -who came to the region to preach the gospel to the Indians and to “civilize” them- organized the Guarani in reductions, adopted the mate, started to grow yerba mate, and commenced the commercial diffusion of it, spreading it across the entire River Plate region.
The mate can be served in various forms: the most traditional one is with hot (but never boiling) water in the mate recipient, the water being poured in small quantities before the person drinks it through a –usually metallic- straw or “bombilla”. Other popular way of drinking mate include the “mate cocido”, in which the yerba mate is in a bag -like a tea bag and is put into hot water; and the “tereré”, or cold mate, drunk as a refresher in areas of very hot weather like Paraguay. In any of this forms, it can also be combined with other elements, like lemon, orange peel, coffee, or wild weeds (“yuyos”).The mate has powerful stimulant effects, containing caffeine doses similar to those of coffee. Recent studies have also revealed that it is a powerful antioxidant.
Extremely popular in the region, the mate has also a profound cultural significance. Basically it is associated to sharing, trust, and friendship. In fact, the mate is rarely drunk alone, but usually in small groups, passing the recipient around –that is, everybody drinking from the same recipient, with one person –the “cebador”- pouring hot water after each person drinks. Not less important, drinking mate is a custom that cuts across all social classes and therefore its consumption is a symbol of egalitarianism in a region marked by considerable social gaps between rich and poor.


www.rau.edu.uy/uruguay/cultura/mate.htm

www.rain-tree.com/yerbamate.htm

Elvis died at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 16, 1977.

Yes. As far was I know, there are still two important guerrilla movements operating in Latin America. One is the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a left wing guerrilla movement that has been fighting for more than 40 years. Importantly, this movement controls directly or indirectly a good deal of Colombia’s production and trafficking of cocaine. The other active guerrilla is the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas, southern Mexico, which advocates for the rights of poor indigenous peasants in that region.

Evo Morales is the new president of Bolivia. Allegedly the first ever Bolivian president of pure Indian origin, Morales is an Aymara Indian. He started his political career in the Bolivian coca-growing region of Chapare, as a leader of the coca-growers’ union fighting against the anti-coca, US-sponsored policies of the Bolivian government. After becoming a national figure, he was one of the referents of the demonstrations that ended in the resignation of president Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada. The protesters wanted Sanchez de Losada to nationalize the enormous gas reserves controlled by multinational companies. In fact, the nationalization of gas reserves became the main banner of Morales in his campaign to presidency, which ended successfully in the elections of December 2005. Allegedly a foe of the United States, for opposing to its coca-eradication policies, and a friend of Cuba’s Castro and Venezuela’s Chavez, since his arrival to office, Morales has tried to behave moderately and even establish a dialogue with the Bush administration.

To know more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3203752.stm