Weekly recommendations, with love

A TV series from Argentina, a docu-series about a Mexican artist, and a double-threat from the Dominican Republic

Dear Xenophiles,

Happy Valentine’s Day. I have a headache so I’ll just stick to my recommendations this week.

Hug yourself and yours.

This Week’s Recommendations

Envious - This Argentine TV show begins and returns to the psychoanalyst’s office. The main character, Vicky, is a recently single 40-something-year-old looks around and just sees happy couples. She’s loud, colourful, insistent, and a little annoying, and she begins to ask herself, will I always be alone? This show shows that love doesn’t have to be perfect to be meaningful. It can just be, and once it is, you’ll figure it out along the way.

Juan Gabriel: I Must, I Can, I Will - I’m getting away with a lot with this recommendation. This short Netflix series is a poignant profile of one of Mexico’s most important artists, so, in a way, I’m also suggesting that you revisit JuanGa’s discography. The documentary, though, beautifully captures the creation of Juan Gabriel—the artistic persona of Alberto Aguilar Valadez—and the highs and low of his extraordinary career.

Rita Indiana - And finally, staying on the American continent (see Bad Bunny’s declaration last weekend), and also staying on the theme of double-threat recommendations, here’s Rita Indiana. Rita Indiana is both a writer and singer-songwriter from Republica Dominicana. I saw her in conversation with the Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Cristina Rivera Garza, this week at the Center for Fiction and was amazed to learn she’s very tall and she asks extraordinary questions. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by either discovery since her books and music reach far beyond the constraints of any one genre and tradition, and help you see Caribbean history anew.

Dog of the Week

No explanation necessary.