In Response to Matt's Blog 7

I totally did not see this connection and I absolutely love it. You are right that there are many parallels between Petra Herrera and Mulan. I think the coolest part about these stories is that the women were allowed to fight once they had revealed themselves to be women. I find it interesting though, that with these women (and as you said they were definitely not alone) proving themselves on the battlefield, why the gender bias still remained. For instance, In the song "I'll make a man out of you" from Mulan one of the lines sung by the male leader asks "did you send me daughters, when I asked for sons?" I think this is very profound because the armies did not even invite women to join the army. This manner of thinking was very common. I personally do not understand why the army generals would not at least invite women to try to join the army. It would increase their recruitment rates and the women would still have to prove herself. As seen by Petra and Mulan, women had the ability to make a very positive contribution to the cause. I commend the Mexican revolutionary leaders who did not follow the stereotypical recruiting pattern of the time and allowed women to take up arms.

Blog 7: The Underdog's final moments.

The ending of The Underdogs made me kind of angry. I did not really like being given the choice to decide how a story ends when I had not been given the choice to tell the rest of the story. We discussed the motives behind why the rebels were fighting in class, and whether or not Azuela believed the revolution to be inevitable. After thinking about it a lot, getting pretty frustrated with the mind-games that Azuela was playing, and giving up a few times, I have come to the conclusion that Azuela believed that the revolution was inevitable, but the rebels had the choice to decide why it would end. I don't understand why else he would give the readers the opportunity to choose what happens to Macías.

So as I see, there are only a few options for the General; he dies fighting, he hides and goes back home when the fighting moves on, or he is taken prisoner and executed. The choice that the reader makes is ultimately tied to how they believed the revolution would end. If the reader perceives Macías as dying in the battle, then to me, that implies that they believe that the only way to escape the fighting of the revolution is death. The reader may also choose to have Macías live and return home. What is interesting about this ending is whether or not he would return home in disgrace or if his people would honor him. As Grace pointed out in class, the people of his hometown no longer see him as a hero, which would imply that he would not be honored. Here, the reader gives him a way out, but ultimately believes the worst of society and that the revolution has achieved nothing with all of the deaths. Finally, Macías could be taken prisoner. This would imply that the Federal army is acting in a slightly humane manner and practicing some diplomacy by not killing him on the spot. This represents progress to me, because Macías would be respected as a human being.  I believe that Azuela gives the reader these limited choices at the end to show that no matter what, the revolution occurred, and even though the members of the rebel party  could decide what they were fighting for, they were still stuck in the revolution. These are the connections that helped me to make sense of the ending. I have no idea how close I am to being right, I highly doubt that there even is a correct answer, but I am very interested to know what you guys all thought!

In Response to Leah's Blog 6

I think your discussion on the definition of revolution and how what we have been learning in class complements it was very well presented. The last portion really caught me eye. I never have considered the "circular motion" definition of a revolution in comparison with history. But I think you made a great point that ideas often circulate around and around. I believe this lends itself to the common saying "history repeats itself." When completing the discussion questions for The Underdogs, the last one reminded me of this definition. In the case of revolutions, we often see patterns emerging. As we sort of touched on with Viva Zapata, laws will not change if the men who make them are not changed. In the case of the revolutions, often times only the head-honcho was changed. With no real changes being made, the revolution would begin again. This repetition of history I believe also fits into the third definition you gave.

Blog 6: The Next Palmares?

So I liked Viva Zapata. I know it was long and in black and white but even so, I liked it. And the movie reminded me a lot of Quilombo and the portrayal of Palmares in it. I believe that there are a lot of parallels between the two movies but the biggest one is the idea that the revolution will not die. In Quilombo a common theme is that Palmares will survive forever. This was difficult to comprehend after the slaughter of the rebels by the white plantation owners. Yet, the one survivor was able to keep Palmares alive. I believe this is because the idea of freedom, of Palmares, had spread throughout the population, and an idea is much harder to kill than a single man.

A very similar concept is seen during Viva Zapata. At the end of the movie Zapata seemed resigned to the idea that he may die. But he told his wife that the people no longer needed him. They had grown strong. They had tasted freedom. And now each one of them had the same never ending drive that he had shown previously. He was confident that the revolution would live on in each one of them. He was correct too. At the end of the film Gomez orders Zapata's white horse to be shot but it escapes. This is important because the horse represents the hope that Zapata is still alive and ready to reemerge if the people ever have a dire need for him. The people of the village remain unconvinced that Zapata is truly dead. He was so shot up that it could have been any body sitting on the plaza. These two elements combined to form an even stronger driving force behind the revolution. Therefore, just like Palmares did not die with the massacre of its people, the revolution did not end with the death of Zapata.

In Response to Elena's Blog 5

I really loved reading your post and the video of Sir Ken Robinson. I haven't seen that one but he is one of my favorite speakers and I almost always agree with what he says. Standardized testing is a bit of a sore subject of mine. In a Diversity of Education class I am taking this semester I had to write up my philosophy on education. I thought it would be beyond hard because, as a freshman who just declared at the end of last semester, how was I supposed to know how I wanted to teach my future students. To tell you the truth, it was easy. Almost too easy. And its because I realized how strongly I dislike No Child Left Behind and Standardized Testing. These standardized tests were developed out of World War I to see what soldiers had the potential to become military officers. It is absolutely ridiculous that they have moved into the school system. This video is one of my personal favorites talking about the subject of standardized testing.

I hate how my future is decided on an A or F. Why is my worth determined by that? As Elena stated, all of us obviously have gotten the marks. My question is how much did you have to give up to get them? and in the end, how much of the information you were tested on do you actually remember?

I don't want to just go on a rant, and I know I am dangerously approaching one. My main point is that a test cannot show your worth, so why are we letting them. My freshman and sophomore years of high school we are required to take both World History and US History. I passed both easily with an A. On the plan tests and MEAP I killed it on the social studies section. But when Professor Stark asks in class if I have heard about the Alamo, I got nothin'. Or how about the geography of European nations...Nope. And the one I know you are all in the same boat with me as, the US occupation of the Dominican Republic which we have absolutely never heard of. So honestly, how worth my time was staying up late, missing time with my family, missing community events, missing the real world, to memorize some facts that I am never going to remember just so I can get into college and do it again?
I propose a shift in the way schools are run. We need to focus more on letting students carve their own paths and learn what they want to learn. In college we get this opportunity a bit more than in high school. But we are still bombarded with gen-eds that may not have anything to do with our future plans. I took Latin American Civilizations and Literature because I wanted to. And Surprise! I can remember a lot more of what I have learned in this class than many of my other ones. Thank you Elena for posting what you did. I think it's an awesome subject to look into, read, and hear about.

Blog 5: Lessons from J.K Rowling

Every summer I take the time to reread the Harry Potter series. It is a bit of an obsession and those books are rather fantastic beach reading material. This week when we were debating over Sarmiento and José Martí I had a kind of epiphany on how many of the issues we have seen strike developing Latin America are also at the core of Wizard society.

One of the first ones that popped into my head is the similarity between Martí's call for a raceless nation and the controversy between pure-blood and wizards. In the series, Voldemort's main desire is ridding the world of muggles and those who are not pure of blood. He believes that pure-bloods are superior and therefore they are the only ones who deserve to use magic. He even goes on to say that those who cannot trace their lineage back to a line of pure blood wizards must have stolen the magic, especially those wizards whose parents are muggles. I find this to be similar to the frame of mind of the white elites in 19th century Latin America. They believed themselves superior to the indigenous due to their lineage and European backgrounds and therefore manipulated the lower classes. Martí and Dumbledore have very similar mindsets. They are both under the impression that the best society is one created without boundaries based upon race or wizard blood lines.

A second tie I found was the use of propaganda in the Harry Potter series. Newspaper readings are huge in the wizarding world. The main newspaper, "The Daily Prophet" is read widely by the population and is one of the only sources of information for most of them. In class Professor Stark brought up the point that in the past and even now, we know very little of what is going on in the world. We know the simple statistics that the news and papers give us and that is all. In the Spanish/American/Cuban war propaganda was a very large component. The same is seen in the battle between Voldemort and his death eaters and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. One example from the series that stands out to me is when Mrs. Weasley turned on Hermione because she believed that Hermione was dating and cheating on Harry. There was no truth at all to this statement and the newspaper was targeting Harry because he had somehow made it into the Triwizard Tournament. It shows how easily people can be manipulated. In the final books "The Daily Prophet" becomes controlled by the Wizard Ministry. I find this to be very similar to the government censoring seen in the United States when the president was accused of cowardice.

Those are the main two I found but if you guys think of any more let me know! I attached a mashup for the trailers of all eight movies in case anyone was lost on who was who or anything. Or if you just feel the need to take a break.  Good luck finishing up your papers!

In response to Gabbie's Blog 4

I love how you made the link between The Great Gatsby and Cecilia Valdés. I think the most prominent connection you made was between Cecilia and Daisy. As you mentioned, Daisy is always the center of attention, always accompanied by some high standing man, and her actions guide those of others which is very similar to Cecilia. Daisy is also very attracted to wealth. In the story she finds great pleasure from the imported silk t-shirts that Gatsby showers her with and at the conclusion of the story, she betrays Gatsby in favor of the high-class and secure life-style that her not-as-loving husband Tom can provide. I find this to be very similar to Cecilia’s tendency to be focused only on the white elites. She has made it clear that her ultimate goal is to marry amongst the elite class and that she will not settle for any mulattos, despite the fact that she is one herself. This overbearing obsession with the rich and wealthy is seen in both ladies. While Daisy cast off Gatsby, Cecilia overlooks Pimienta. Their lifestyles are destructive to those around them, and yet they both continue.

Blog 4: HalfBreeds

I’d like to focus on a specific line from the fifth chapter of Cecilia Valdes that truly stuck out to me. At the very bottom of page thirty-five, Cecilia address her friends by calling her “my dear little halfbreed.” When I hear the word halfbreed used in such a way, I immediately think of an animal or mystical creature like a centaur. It is obviously used in a condescending fashion coming from Cecilia’s mouth. What threw me for a loop was that Cecilia (who is a mulatto) used it to reference another mulatto. It is almost as if she finds herself to be above her mulatto heritage and because of this, I find the line to be one of the most important in the section that we read.

In class we discussed how Cecilia is portrayed in a very sexual manner even from a young age. As she gets older, the more sexual references continue but the author also makes an effort to portray her almost as a bimbo. Truly, the only reason she is as well known as she is, is due to her beauty. The image she portrays of a mulatto is very negative and the above comment that she makes toward her friend further destroys any semblance of decency. Her reference to a half breed, in my opinion, demonstrates the desire of mulattos to forget their background and rise to the status of the white elites. The desire is so strong, that they are willing to turn on one another in order to achieve that goal. This is also seen through the deliberate slighting of Pimienta by Cecilia in favor of Leonardo. Due to the unpleasant and self-centered nature of Cecilia, I believe that the author is disgusted by this practice. He would prefer that all remain in their social class; that whites stay with whites, and half breeds stay with half breeds.