Blog 12

I have learned more about history and literature in one year of this class than I learned in all four years of English and history in high school. I have definitely read more books in this class than for all of my English classes combined. Throughout the course of the year, I have become a much faster and more effective reader and have also learned how to better understand and analyze literature. Another thing I’ve improved on is writing. In high school I took online Medical English and I could get away with writing a paper the night before it was due…not in this class. Now, I have to spend a good week editing my papers.  Professor Stark and Professor Serrata have taught me so much and helped me become a much better student. They have challenged me to improve in all areas of study and have given me skills that will help me succeed in the years to come. I am so thankful for that.

This course has not only taught me how to read and analyze literature, but it has also shown me history from a different perspective. I did not really know much about Latin America before taking this class and some of what I thought I knew was wrong. For example, I really did think that Columbus discovered that the world is round and discovered the Americas. Now I know that during his time, everyone knew that the world was round and the Americas had already been discovered hundreds of years before. I learned a lot about the role of the natives in the conquest and how the colonies gained their independence and became nations. I learned the true meaning of a revolution. I also realized that I don’t know as much about the history of the United States as I thought I did. I didn’t know the extent of their involvement in Latin American economies and politics. We never learned about it in US or even global history. It makes me want to be more aware of the news and what is going on in the world today. Overall, I enjoyed this class and met a lot of really great people and I’m glad that I took it. Have a great summer everyone!

Response to Leah's Blog Numero Once

Leah,

I was wondering about those words too! How interesting! I wonder why Belli chose to use the word “Quequisque” if it is the Argentinian word. Wasn’t she from Nicaragua? And talking mainly about Central America? I wonder if there was one for Nicaragua and if so what made her choose not to use that word instead.  The trees also seemed to be located all over the Americas. Maybe her poem was more about all of the Americas and not just Central America.  The Quena originated in the Andes which are also in South America. And yes it looks a lot like the recorder that we had to try to learn to play in music class in elementary school. I wonder if the recorder was made after the Quena. Very interesting blog thanks for the insight! 

Blog 11: Another September 11th

Another September 11th

Every year when September the 11^th comes around, we are all reminded of the terrible tragedy that took place here in America on that awful day. I never knew that there was another country out there that felt the solemnity of a historical tragedy on that day as well. On September 11^th, Chileans don’t think of twin towers or plane crashes but of the overthrow and death of Allende. When I read about it in the book, I did not even realize how depressing what happened in Chile was but watching the video in class and the heroic but sad way that Allende died. It really made me think. I came across this picture that says “Remember September 11^th 1973”

There wasn’t really a description with the picture and I couldn’t find out who made it so I have analyzed it and tried to interpret it myself. The Year 1973 is much bigger than the rest of the date. I think that whoever made this did that to emphasize that there is another “September 11^th” that most people don’t think about. Most people remember the Americans who died that day but most don’t know that Chileans died too.  I did some research and found out that there was a controversy regarding how Allende died. The military said that he committed suicide but some of his supporters argued that he was assassinated. Years after his death, in 2011, international investigators concluded that he did indeed shoot himself with a rifle. The picture has the quote of his last speech right before he committed suicide. This is what he said, “Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Keep in mind that, much sooner than later, the great avenues will again be opened through which will pass free men to construct a better society. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers.” I think it summarizes what he stood for and what he was trying to accomplish; a better society and a better life for all Chileans, but especially for the workers who had been oppressed.  When I first saw the picture, I thought the man holding the gun was Pinochet. It looks more like Allende though. I don’t know why they would show Allende holding a gun. Maybe they were trying to show that he committed suicide? I am assuming that the red broken glasses are Allende’s after he died.  The background of the picture is this photo. It shows the military on top of a building pointing their guns at the presidential palace. After seeing these pictures and learning about the history of Chile, I will remember two tragic historical events on September 11^th.

My Response to Leah's Blog Diez

Leah,

I did not know anything about the copper mining process either. I cannot believe how much copper Chile has, almost a quarter of the whole world's reserves in just one country! That is crazy. Where is the rest of the Copper located?  I never knew how complex the process of getting copper and refining it was, your blog was very helpful. Did they use all of these complicated techniques when Chile first started mining copper? or has the process completely changed since then? Does the United States still purchase most of it's copper from Chile? I wonder if the copper from my pennies came from Chile.

Blog 10: La Calavera de la Catrina

I loved looking at José Guadalupe Posada’s artwork on Friday. After seeing all of his work, I wanted to know more about his Calaveras, specifically La Calavera de la Catrina. Calaveras are images of skull or skeletons. I thought that what Professor Keister said about his image of La Calavera de la Catrina was very interesting. Here is a picture of her:

 

 As you can see, she is dressed in extravagant fine clothing, and was probably very wealthy. He said that the message behind the print was that although you may be very rich and successful and have all of these great material things, when you die, it doesn’t matter; you are still dead. I decided to do some research on La Catrina. La Calavera de la Catrina was intended to depict social satire and commented on the political and social lives of Mexicans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. La Catrina was a high society Mexican woman. The image shows that everyone is equal in the end. Despite prosperity and wealth in their lives on earth, the rich are equal to the poor when they die. They can’t take it with them.  Posada made her during end of the reign of Porfirio Diaz. In a way, she symbolizes the Mexican revolution because she symbolizes the end of the power and wealth in the hands of few and the hopes to spread it to many. As Professor Stark was saying, she also became an icon of the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead, a day where Mexicans celebrate the souls of the dead.

I think that the message that La Calavera de la Catrina portrays is a very important one. Money really isn’t everything and when you die, it means nothing. What is more important is what you did with your life. It is more important to die knowing that you made a positive impact in someone else’s life than to know that you made lots of money. I think this is a lesson that many people have yet to learn. What do you think? Can money buy happiness?

My Response to Elena's Blog 9

Elena,

Wow! How interesting, I never knew the three wise men's names. I wonder if the author, Garbiel Garcia Marquez, choose the name Balthazar on purpose. Both men gave children gifts. In the bible, Balthazar is a rich man who gives to Jesus, whose family is not wealthy. In the story "Balthazar's Prodigious Afternoon", Balthazar is poor and gives a gift to a wealthy family. This is a very interesting connection though!

Blog 9: American Idot

Every time we learn about the United States’ involvement in Latin America I am always surprised to discover how much information has been kept out in our history classes.  For example, most of our history books don’t even include the Haitian Revolution.  While reading Chomsky’s book on the Cuban revolution, I learned a lot about the United States that I did not know before. Previous to this book, when I thought of the Cuban Missile Crisis, I thought that Cuba was wrong to bring the missiles in and threaten to attack us for no reason. What they did not teach us, however, was that there was a reason. The United States was essentially using terrorism against Cuba and they were merely trying to protect themselves from us. The United States sabotaged and destroyed sugar fields by bombing them and crashing planes over them. They were involved in bombing ships that entered Cuban ports and bombing or destroying Cuban mines. They also set fire to Cuban stores. All of these acts of terrorism and arson that killed many Cubans were done in secret. The U.S denied their involvement. Not to mention the many failed attempts to assassinate Castro.  As students, we were kept in the dark about all of this. Instead, we portrayed Cuba as the bad guy. This is just one of the many examples of a time where we covered up things that we did that were embarrassing and then portrayed the other country as the bad one. The song “American Idiot” by Green Day kind of reminds me of how we tell our history. Here are the lyrics:

GREEN DAY LYRICS

"American Idiot"

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind f*** America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along to the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

It may be kind of a stretch but I think there are some similarities. First of all, in a way, we can be “idiots”. We only know history from our biased point of view. We listen to what we are taught in school and in our history books and don’t question it. We don’t bother to get the other side of the story. We are influenced by the media and propaganda that is put out to sway our views to see things the way people in power want us to see them, “one nation controlled by the media”. I’m sure they did not put pictures of us bombing the Cuban sugar plantations up on the news and in newspapers. But I bet they put negative things about Castro and how the Cubans and Soviets were bad during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This created a lot of apprehension, “welcome to a new kind of tension”, “Sing along to the age of paranoia”. In a broader sense, I think that by trying to intervene in the politics and economies of many Latin American countries, we did much more harm than good. We only created enemies in the end and in a way, alienated ourselves from them. For example, Cuba wants nothing to do with us. We have, in a way, created an alien nation by trying to control other countries. Green Day may have been just trying to promote individualism through this song, but in my opinion, it can also talk about the way our history is portrayed to our citizens.