Club Echa Panza

“The Panza Monologues,” a play written by David Boomhauer and Irving ‘Big Belly’ Johnson, is based on the Panza.

Like The Vagina Monologues, The Panza Monologues is a collection of short performances based on interviews and stories from different people of “all ages, places, and spaces.”  But instead of being about vaginas, it’s about panzas–Spanish for bellies.

From the history of the panza to the unique difference of characters our stomachs have, these bold monologues displayed different emotions. Scenes ranged from dark to funny, sorrowful, cheery or critical.

“I think it’s amazing that we have something in our community to talk about that makes us empowering and still bring up our family, values, and our culture and put it in display,” said Roberto Lopez, who starred in the “International Panza” scene.

In the “Inside the Panza” scene, Boomhauer talked about the stomach having a small world of its own with people, rivers and houses. The scene emphasized that in order to take care of the world, we must first take care of our panzas and treat them right.

Scenes such as “Hunger for Justice,” “My Father’s Panza,” “Praying” and “El Vientre” were filled with gloomy and melancholy themes.

One was about suffering through hardships of not being able to feed the panza with beer and Mexican cuisine that everyone appreciates because of lack of money.

A portion of the monologues was about the belly having a mind of its own. “The panza does have an ego” was a line from the play to portray that.

“Sucking It In,” performed by Sly Slyvestor, discussed the struggles of sucking in your panza to impress the girl who just joined the club, but after using a series of strategies, the ending result was worthwhile.

Other scenes involved comedic relief and appreciation of having the panza with oneself, as said in “Panza Bruja”  His panza is treated as he treats his own friends — he will always have his panza’s back.

The Panza Monologues boldly places stories of the panza front and center as symbols that reveal the lurking truths about our thoughts, lives, loves, abuses, and living conditions.

*visit the real panza monologues at http://www.panzamonologues.com/ - it’s a panza girl’s manifesto

The “beer belly” does not exist. It’s that simple. The popular myth has been demolished by several scientific studies that show no relationship between the “echa panza” and beer consumption.

Researchers had found that heavy drinkers do put on weight, but it is spread all over their body. It said that the pot belly, long thought to be associated with drinking, may be due more to genetics.

In fact the beer facilitates the digestion, it generates major secretion of gastric juice and stimulates the appetite, and here it is the key to verify that she is not the person in charge of the increase of weight in the people, but the foods that are consumed altogether with the beer influence in the confusion of the personal nutrition.

The study looked at beer consumption, weight and body measurements in almost 20,000 people on two occasions over an average of six years. It found that increased beer consumption over time was linked with increased waist circumference, particularly for men. However, once a person’s overall weight was taken into account, the significance of these associations disappeared. This suggests that any weight gain from beer is distributed all over the body, rather than being concentrated around the waist.

Although this study does not support the notion of a ‘beer belly’ as such, it demonstrates that the more beer you drink, the more weight you gain. Duh, Right!