Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photos: Francisco Collazo
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Actress America Ferrera

Before Mariel was born, Francisco and I watched a documentary or film every night; sometimes, we’d watch two or three.

Now, with a very active 10 month old, most of our movie watching is limited to film festivals. We make elaborate schedules of the movies we want to see and then trade off childcare for a week.

That’s what we’re doing this week, as HBO’s New York International Latino Film Festival kicked off yesterday in Manhattan with the showing of “The Dry Land,” a film about a soldier returning from the war in Iraq. Francisco was among the photographers at the pre-screening red carpet event, and has posted some of the shots here.

More than 100 documentaries, shorts, and features will be shown between now and August 1. We’re particularly excited to see:

“Boys of Summer”: A documentary about Curacao’s Little League Baseball team.

“Whitewash”: A documentary about black surfers.

“Mamachas del Ring”: A documentary about female wrestlers in Bolivia.

and a handful of films from/about Colombia, including “My Kidnapper,” “Sins of My Father,” and “The Two Escobars.”

If you’re in New York City and are interested in attending any of the screenings, you can check the full schedule here. You can also follow the event on Twitter.

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photos: Francisco Collazo

It’s true, we’ve posted nothing since April. Let’s skip the usual excuses and apologies, shall we, and just say that it’s been so long that we even forgot our own password.

It’s been a busy, fun time.

“Fun Slide,” Aibonito, Puerto Rico, June 2010

Though we never would have expected it when we high-tailed it out of Puerto Rico with all engines thrusting, the island we called home for more than 2.5 years has become one of our writing and photography niches. Fodor’s Puerto Rico, 6th Edition will be hitting bookstore shelves in August. Julie wrote several features for the book, including “History You Can See,” “State of the Arts in Puerto Rico,” “Salsa,” “A Guide to Puerto Rico’s Carved Saints,” and a 14 page itinerary for the Ruta Panoramica, the first time the Ruta’s been featured in the Fodor’s guide. Several of Francisco’s photos illustrate these and other features.

Yes, the guide book has mistakes. And yes, parts of it are already out of date. That’s why you’ll need to supplement it with the iPhone app we’re (slowly but surely) producing. More on that later.

Julie also has a feature article about Puerto Rico’s Ruta Panoramica (Panoramic Route) that will be published in the September issue of Latina Magazine, and several of Francisco’s photos will accompany this piece as well.

A mid-June trip to Puerto Rico and a return trip planned for September will see other writing and photography projects come to fruition. In the meantime, you can read about violence on the island and the problem with lionfish on PR’s Southern coast over at Matador, and take a look at photos from Yauco (one of PR’s coffee-producing towns), Aibonito (home of the annual flower festival), and other cities and towns we visited in June.

Between now and our next Puerto Rico visit, Julie will be headed to Cuba to visit Francisco’s family and to work on a few stories, including several pieces about Havana’s Chinese Cuban population, a subject that she’s been working on for the past couple years.

And other projects abound- a photo essay about scientific research at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base for Discover Magazine and the conversion of CollazoProjects from a blog into a full-blown website.

What are you up to these days? Fill us in by leaving a comment below!

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photo: Francisco Collazo
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The Matador team launched its online travel photography course last week and already students are enrolling and working on their first assignment, one component of which is to introduce themselves and talk about why they’re interested in photography.

One student mentioned that he’s interested in the stories that photos can tell, especially stories about the environment, about marginalized people, and overlooked corners of our world.

I agree that photos can convey urgency, feeling, and acuity that words may lack.

Sometimes, though, photos only start to hint at a story, and without any context at all, you’re only left with questions that rattle around in your brain, unanswered.

Francisco shot this photo in the subway station at Union Square yesterday. I didn’t ask him anything at all about it, but I had a hundred questions. Who is she? Where is she from? What does she think as she pulls on her black mariachi pants, the ones with the silver adornments sewn down the side? How did her group come together? How much money do they make? How does she feel when people stop to take in the whole scene? Or when they walk by, pretending not to notice or trying to block out the sound? What is she feeling at this exact moment?

You can see more photos of the mariachi–and of other interesting New Yorkers– in our New York People set on Flickr.

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photos: Francisco Collazo
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The Statue of Liberty is definitely NOT an overlooked place in New York, and it makes an appearance in my MatadorTrips article, “What NOT to Do in New York City.” You’ll have to click over to find out why (and what I recommend instead).

And if you take my advice to skip the Statue, you can get a much better view of Liberty here:

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photos: Francisco Collazo
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Dandies and duds, Gatsbys and gaudies… all out in equal measure during New York City’s annual Easter Day Parade: