UN CHIN: Hot Contemporary Latin Culture

It's been a busy several days of publication debuts at the newsstand, and today it's the turn of Un Chín, a lush bimonthly with a distinctly Latin temperament. I can offer no definitive translation of the title, but some quick Internet research unearthed a page of slang from the Dominican Republic, including "When you only need a little amount of something, it is un chin and even smaller is un chin-chin." Whatever it means, New York-based Un Chín is filled with good-looking people, beautiful images and a caring, literate entry into what's best in contemporary Latin art and culture, with more than a touch of bling to make it all festive. The magazine's Web site reports "Un Chín's mission is to offer an alternative approach to documenting art, fashion, music, entertainment and current events" as well as "a unique perspective on the new mainstream―one that merges a Latin aesthetic and ingenuity with depth and style." We've received the new "Quixote issue" of Un Chín in the newsstand, named in honor of Miguel de Cervantes, whose novel Don Quixote was published 400 years ago. Windmills and other references to the immortal Spanish author and his fictional creation abound throughout the issue, beginning with editor-in-chief Ramon Veras-Breton's editorial, startlingly political in tone, who writes that current American foreign policy "evokes Cervantes' opening line as he refers to the town of La Mancha whose name he had no desire to recall. How dark a stain is our political agenda putting on our history?" But politics is pretty much forgotten as we journey through the 160-page issue, which introduces us to some of the hottest clubs in Manhattan, the pleasures of skiing in Chile, a bevy of the newest musical stars in Spain, Black Entertainment Television host Julissa Bermúdez and Los Angeles Lakers forward (and fledgling record-label executive) Lamar Odom. There's a feature on Teairra Mari, a new hip-hop artist, fantastically photographed by Pieter Henket, whose work you'll find throughout the issue, and another about "king of reggaeton" Tego Calderón. And pages and pages of beautiful people modeling beautiful clothes. It's a hot issue of a hot magazine. An annual subscription (six issues) to Un Chín is $20.00 from the publisher (and, believe it or not, with a sub they throw in a two-night hotel stay in Las Vegas, Miami, Dallas, Atlantic City or Puerto Vallarta, "no time share presentation or marketing gimmicks involved"). We can't compete with any of that, but for $2.59 we'll send you a sample copy.