Best Asado Ever!?

Thanks are due to many people to made the annual Minnesota-Uruguay Partners asado in Montevideo, Minnesota, such a success.

Augustin Becerra, our skilled asador from Saint Paul, grilled meats provided by Richard Handeen and Audrey Arner and lamb provided by Bob Padula.

Patrick Moore presented the Movistar commercial (multiple times!) for the group to enjoy, and led the singing and music throughout the afternoon.

Sue von Bank was presented with a service award for her longtime and unmatched volunteerism with the group.

People traveled from several states away to be with us.

We were delighted with the turnout, the weather, and not least the fabulous grass-fed beef and fresh lamb and other dishes people prepared for the event.

Photos of the June 18, 2016 asado are below. Was it the best asado ever? Some members thought so!

You're invited!

Please join Minnesota-Uruguay Partners of the Americas for our annual

Fiesta Days Asado

Lagoon Park, Montevideo MN

Saturday, June 18, 2016

12:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Come and Enjoy:

• Uruguayan-style grilled meat (free-will offering for the locally-grown, grass-raised lamb and beef)
• Candombe music (bring your instruments!)
• Showing of the Movistar commercial filmed in Montevideo MN in May 2016
• Good times along the Chippewa River

Things to bring:

• Your own plates, utensils, & beverages
• A dish to share -- rice, salads; bread welcome!
• A chair to sit in the park to enjoy the music

(p.s. camping is available in Lagoon Park for those wanting to stay overnight.)

For more information and to volunteer to help, contact Patrick Moore at 320-841-1487.

**Support us with your Amazon purchases! Go to smile.amazon.com.**

Lost in Montevideo, Minnesota

This is the first installment of a series of Movistar commercials to be broadcast in Uruguay over the next several months featuring a story about a young Uruguayan man who becomes "Lost in Montevideo, Minnesota". Movistar is one of the largest phone companies in the world, and the commercial is filled with great street shots of both Montevideos. Numerous people active with Partners are in the video, not least Patrick Moore playing the restaurant owner. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/LN9JavEQvQg

"Hello Montevideo" Documentary Explores Partnership Between Sister Cities

Here is a link to a sharp and photo-filled posting from Partners of the Americas in Washington about Pioneer Public Television's wonderful documentary about the partnership between Minnesota and Uruguay. Check it out!

The Premier of Hello Montevideo

What a great event!

It was standing-room-only at the premier screening last evening in Saint Paul of Hello Montevideo, Pioneer Public Television's documentary exploring the relationship between Montevideo MN (pop 5000) and Montevideo, Uruguay (pop 1 million) through the eyes of videographers, photographers and contemporary youth.

Produced by Pioneer Public TV’s award winning producer Dana Johnson, videography by Joah Colby and Ben Dempcy, edited by Kevin Russell, with Lowell Hellervik, Executive Producer.

The documentary was made possible in part through a travel grant from Partners of the Americas and the involvement of Minnesotans and Uruguayans, who featured prominently both on camera and off in making such a high quality and fun production. Congratulations all. Check it out!

http://video.pioneer.org/video/2365741838/

New Minnesota / Uruguay Documentary Screening, Monday, May 9, St. Paul, Minnesota

A special screening even of Hello Montevideo, a new international documentary, will be held on Monday, May 9th  from 6 to 8 p.m. at the George Latimer Central Public Library in downtown St. Paul. 

The event is sponsored by Minnesota-Uruguay Partners of the Americas and Pioneer Public Television and is free and open to the public.  

Last October, Pioneer Public TV sent a three-person production team to Uruguay for 10 days to explore what young people in Uruguay knew or thought about the ongoing 110 year old exchange between Montevideo, Minnesota (pop. 5,000) and Montevideo, Uruguay (pop. 1 million).  The project was funded in part by a contribution from Lowell Hellervik, a Montevideo, Minnesota native, and through a travel grant from Partners of the Americas.

The title of Johnson’s documentary was borrowed from a book of photographs by Uruguayan photographer Federico Estol of the same name.  In 2010, Estol spent a month in Montevideo, Minnesota documenting the culture of the small Midwestern town to create a book that has sold well in Uruguay.  Several of Estol’s photographs are featured in the documentary and they are compared and contrasted with the artful videography of Joah Colby and Ben Dempcy, who accompanied Johnson on the October 2015 visit to Uruguay.  Editor Kevin Russell, who worked with Johnson in the Upper Midwest Emmy Award winning documentaries My Way Back Home: Caroline Smith and Haiti Love had the daunting task of distilling more than 50 hours of raw video footage down into the 28 minute story.

Montevideo Senior High School students Thomas Hoover and Katie Hillerud are featured in the documentary along with several other ISD 129 students at basketball games and in the classrooms of Spanish teachers Erin Lippert and Pam Dahl.  Visiting Uruguayan teachers Gilda Battagliese and Victoria Dieste, who recently visited Montevideo, Minnesota through travel grants provided by Partners of the Americas, are also featured in the documentary. Uruguayan students Sharon Ettinger, Juan Regent and Juan Robles from Montevideo, Uruguay are also featured in the film along with Partners' Arts and Culture Committee president Marta Arjona.

Partners of the Americas connects people and organizations across borders to serve and change lives through lasting partnerships. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy and founded in 1964 under the Alliance for Progress, Partners of the Americas has designated Minnesota and Uruguay as collaborating chapters for nearly five decades.

More information about the current projects of the Minnesota-Uruguay Partners chapter is available through our blog at http://minnesotauruguaypartners.blogspot.com/. Information about Partners of the Americas in general is found at http://www.partners.net/.

About Pioneer Public Television

Established in 1966, Pioneer Public TV is an award-winning, viewer-supported television station dedicated to sharing local stories of the region with the world.  For more information visit:  www.pioneer.org.

Next Event Announced! Celebrated Author Tessa Bridal with Candombe by Lonjas de Minnesota

Join us for an evening of Uruguayan literature and music with author Tessa Bridal and Lonjas de Minnesota.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at 7:00 pm

Magers and Quinn Booksellers

3038 Hennepin Avenue

Minneapolis, MN

Sponsored by Minnesota-Uruguay Partners of the Americas, this special event will feature live Afro-Uruguayan candombe music played by the group Lonjas de Minnesota.

Next, Uruguayan author Tessa Bridal will read from her new novel, River of Painted Birds, and discuss the native, African, and European cultures represented in the book. The novel appeared simultaneously in English and Spanish versions in October of 2015.

Tessa Bridal was born and raised in Uruguay. Now living in Minnesota, she won the Milkweed Prize for Fiction and Friends of American Writers Fiction Prize for her first novel, The Tree of Red Stars.

Her new book takes us back to times and places rarely explored in fiction. Bridal has also published two nonfiction books on the use of theater in museums, based on her acclaimed work at the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Uruguayan teacher Victoria Dieste visits her sister city

Montevideo, Minnesota, welcomed Uruguayan teacher Victoria Dieste for a cultural exchange program where she visited each of the area's public schools. The Montevideo American-News profiled Victoria here.

Victoria also attended a Minnesota-Uruguay Partners board meeting hosted at the Wilder Foundation, as well as a chapter event featuring live-streamed Candombe music, among many other activities. 

Victoria shoveling snow on a glorious February day.

Member in the News: Lyndel King

Lyndel King, a longtime member of Minnesota-Uruguay Partners who recently traveled to Montevideo along with advertising executive Shelly Regan on a travel grant from Partners, was featured on WCCO television news yesterday. Check it out! Congratulations on your continued success, Lyndel. 

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/02/09/weisman-art-museum-ponders-the-magic-of-clouds/

Save the Date! Huracándombe Concert (in person in Miami or online anywhere on earth): January 28, 2016

On Thursday January 28 at 7 p.m. anyone with a computer and wifi will be able to watch and chat during a live stream performance of Andy Stermer’s new compositions performed by the The Frost Concert Jazz Band, the University of Miami’s premiere large jazz ensemble.

Stermer, a graduate student in Studio Jazz Writing at Frost, is originally from Montevideo, Minnesota. With the assistance of Partners of the Americas, he traveled to Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2014 where he met and collaborated with guitarist Juan Pablo Chapital, pianist Manuel Contrera and master drummer Álvaro Salas of Montevideo, Uruguay.

Thanks to a grant from The Presser Foundation. Stermer is now able to bring his musician collaborators to Miami to perform a concert billed as a "Hurricane of Candombe" (or Huracándombe in Spanish). A music and dance native to Uruguay, candombe is an expression of Uruguayan cultural heritage with African roots. Featuring original compositions as well as new arrangements of Uruguayan traditional and popular music, Huracándombe will combine the folkloric roots of candombe with the exciting spirit and sound of modern big band jazz.

Video Description

Huracandombe Live Stream Concert Jan 28, 7 p.m. CST

On Jan 28, go to ovee.itvs.org/screenings/27bv2 and Watch Huracandombe and Chat with Elbio Caballero, Andy Stermer's family and other famous Montevideans in the OVEE Online Screening Room for the livestream of this international concert featuring the original compositions of Andrew Stermer played by guitarist Juan Pablo Chapital, pianist Manuel Contrera and master drummer Álvaro Salas of Montevideo, Uruguay.