Marriages Gone Awry - Lopez & Longoria-Parker

Two seemingly happy, stable marriages end within a few weeks of each other - Eva Longoria-Parker and Ann Serrano Lopez file for divorce this November.  Eva Longoria-Parker ends her 3-year marriage with San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker after a 7 year relationship.  Ann Serrano Lopez and George Lopez file for divorce after 17 years of marriage. While both circumstances seem different, both are hugely disappointing due to the very public relationships they have lived. 

Eva and Tony spent the last 3 years in the public eye; happy pictures of the couple sharing their cultures, love of basketball, and supportive relationship flooded tabloids, tv shows, and the media for the past three years.  Though not terribly shocking that Tony cheated on Eva (this M.O. is popular for professional basketball players), it is pretty disturbing that such a positive, beautiful, caring woman like Eva was the victim. Parker was allegedly sending text messages to a former teammate's wife and had cheated on Eva before. It was also sad to see Eva talk about her love for Tony on Ellen just a week before the announcement. You can't fault the girl for trying - she was really in love.

For George and Ann, no details about the divorce have been announced, other than "irreconcilable differences." After 17 years of marriage, one wonders what exactly could not be reconciled. She gave him a kidney for crying out loud! But as with most marriages/relationships, no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors. They say they will remain partners in the various charities they manage.

As with all celebrity marriages, it is EXPECTED that they end sooner as opposed to later. It just makes me sad that our wonderful Latino/a couples are no different in this realm. I guess it's up to J.Lo and Marc Anthony and Penelope and Javier to prove us wrong...and for some of us those hopes still rest with our grandparents and/or parents. Our perhaps for those of us who have yet to tie the knot - it may lay within us (just stay realistic)!

That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.

-JOHN UPDIKE, Too Far To Go

The Strain and The Fall - AMAZING!

Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan kill it! Literally! I just finished reading "The Fall" the latest installment of The Strain Trilogy. These books do not follow the typical vampire mythology. I figured that I should read something scary around the Halloween holiday - and I chose correctly. The virus breaks out in NYC (of course) but the characters are like none others in any other vampire stories out there. The authors really take advantage of the diversity of NYC in the backgrounds of the characters. There is a former Mexican wrestler who plays a large role in the second book - complete with Spanish slang and wrestling culture. I cannot wait until the final installment set to come out in 2011 - The Night Eternal. I also think that with Del Toro's amazing directorial eye, once these books are turned into movies, people will look at Vampires in a whole different light.