Final Essay

Foundations
In my journey in finding my own identity I have stepped in many thorns and fallen into many holes . But even with these struggles in my life I have been able to be at this point of knowing little by little the person I’ am and are becoming. I’ am here feliz como una lombriz and with no regrets of the past and with an open mind for the future. College has been the newest explorations I have embark, slowly with this new slide of my story I have come to realize that, I’m changing. Changing in the sense that I’ am no longer who I use to be, back in the day when I was young not a kid anymore, even though I do miss those days it was time for me to move on, when I crossed that graduation stage and said “ Que onda” to my new life as a college student. At the beginning I was scared out of my mind for this new stage, I didn’t know what to expect. I was blinded by my own fear to attend college that I would often had thoughts of not even attending to this nightmare. Yes, I had my older sister’s as motivation to go, but there was something inside me that didn’t want to leave my bubble of comfort. It wasn’t until I read my sister Boris interview with my dad, she did two years ago for her final. That it made me realize that I needed an education to become someone that’s happy in life. It seems cliché, but I thought about it and over analyzed it until I couldn’t anymore, and I broke down and realized that even though my dad’s and I relationship isn’t the best, I felt so bad he couldn’t follow his dream in becoming a veterinarian. I thought to myself how ungrateful I was being, my father had to stop following his dreams because of his fathers death . And aqui estoy yo , born in califas with all the benefits of being American, and I don’t want to go to college because I’m not “ready” for the change. I took my realization as one of my motivation to go to college and see it with optimism instead of my pessimistic views. Its been a long journey a journey that is filled with a thousands of stories that make up my book of who I am, I’ll tell you some only if you promise to stay tune.

Have you ever worn a mask one-two one-two, M to the A to the S to the K. Put the mask upon the face just to make the next day.
-The Fugees

At home the only language that my family used to communicate was, is and will always be Spanish. I remember when I was a little girl I always was made fun of the way I would spoke English. I always questioned my self why they would make fun of me, we were taking the same classes, we were the same age, I didn’t look different, and I wasn’t a clown.
” I stand before you as an impure-American and Ambiguous American”
-Richard Rodriguez.
Every day I would question myself, I grew angry, angry with my self at my race, a todo. When I was growing up I would want to be a part of what the majority of people in my school or friends were doing. I remember I would speak Spanish mocho, as if Spanish was my second language. I wanted to be part of the “in crowd” and if I had to leave, or deny the real me I would do it , without thinking what I was giving up. This time of my life was the hardest; I was going through so many things, identity crisis, family issues, and self-doubt. I was confused; I didn’t know who I wanted to be, If I wanted to show society the “real” me hiding beneath the veil. The veil of shame, the veil that society shaped my views, on how I had to live my life in a country where everyone follows and very few lead.

“ English was for public display Spanish was for privacy -and
Privacy quickly turned intoshame”
- Richard Rodriguez

It wasn’t until I was older and I started to take history classes on my gente that I realized that I didn’t need to be a part of any clika. Living with that veil only blinded me from my raizes. At times I would reminisce about all the babosadas, stupidities I would do just to fit in, fit in a society that didn’t accept me for who I was or who I was trying to be. I was done with trying to be something I wasn’t ,I had to accept my multicultural self. I was tired of running away from my reality.
“ I feel like one cancels out the other and we are zero, nothing, no one . A veces no soy nadani nadien. Pero hasta cuando soy no lo soy”
- Gloria Anzaldua

Frankenstein, your culture is based on a clash of different cultures you have been exposed ,to you took a little bit of each and made it your own.

Mi Cultura has been a clash of two different worlds. It has also been one of the biggest stepping stones on the path that led me to who I’ am today. Even though as a child I denied the second half of my culture ,the Mexican side of me I came to accept both sides of my culture,” we are synergy of two cultures with various degrees of Mexican and Angloness”-Gloria Anzaldua. I am no longer ignorant to my roots, I can now see how it has been shaping me and helping little by little in finding who I want to be. Also it has helped me to strive in every hardship in life and not get knocked off my feet by any little obstacle. The back bone of Mi cultura is my family. All of them have motivated me in each unique way. My mother and father have been the greatest influence for me to take pride en mi cultura. Mi Madre y Padre have shown me how to become a better person, they have given me all their love and love, at least in my culture is one of the main reason we stay alive.

“Love is our greatest nourishments” - Victor Villasenor

My culture has defined me in many ways. My culture is where I live, how I speak, how I show my emotions, how I interact. I’ am my culture’s clash and I take pride that I’ am who I ‘am.

“Pero mija el Hombre de la casa es tu padre” But hunny the man of the house is your father.

I never understood why my mother would always repeat those words to me. Why couldn’t she say she was the women of the house. It was than that I realized I was different then my cousins and friends. I had different views and I would always speak out to what I thought was equally right for me. Especially when my tio’s or tia’s would try to “put me in my place” because I wasn’t acting lady like, what ever that is.

“I think a lot of confusion toward feminism is also based in the fact there are many different types of feminism”

- Christina Libby

This to me was all so confusing, I didn’t understand why my aunts never stood up for them self’s, There was a time that I hated being a women, because I thought that we were so weak, so vulnerable, brainwashed . I remember this time, that my uncle was verbally abusing my aunt, I couldn’t take him talking to her like that. I stood up for my tia my thoughts running threw my head were “I’m going to feel great after I do this, and man oh man I’m getting it when I get home“. Even though installed fear was in me, I just did it, without thinking about the consequences. Gracias a dios , my parents didn’t discipline that night, Instead “ el hombre de la casa” , my father had a talk with me. My father told me that it was ok for me stand up for my Feminine rights, “Mija es mejor tener una voz que estar con la boca llena de palabras”, its better to have a voice then to have a mouth filled of unspoken words.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

-MLK

Once upon a time I silenced the things that mattered to me. But as I’ve gone through the journey of finding my identity, I realize that the struggles in my life had to happen in order for me to find who I truly am. The assimilations, taking pride in my cultura, and standing up for my rights as a women , had to happen in the path of thorns and holes I fell into. Instead of seeing all those things that I went threw as struggles or obstacle, I see them as foundations. The foundations that shaped me to become the person I’ am today. Una mujer con mucho gusto de ser quien es, una mujer hecha y derecha.

ROG Final Blog

Summary: In the last couple of chapters in the book starting from part five “Time of Miracles”. New challenges happened I both Lupe’s and Juan’s life. In chapter nineteen, Lupe family is ready to receive their paycheck, when Sophia Lupe’s sister notices that her paycheck is smaller than the men’s paycheck. Outraged Sophia organizes a strike so the foremen can pay both men and women equally after three day’s Sophia is triumphant and the foremen starts paying them equally. Also in this chapter Mark, the man that proposed to Lupe comes back to visit her o see if she has an answer to his question in marrying him. Lupe responds to him by telling him that she doesn’t have time to be getting married, because her sisters and brothers are dedicating all their time to take care of the parents. Juan and Lupe meet for the first time alone they both talk about their dreams and they notice that both of them have similar dreams, about the future. Lupe realizes that she is in love with Juan but doesn’t know he she loves more, Juan the one who is always making her angry but always has a good time with or Mark the one she can have intellectual conversations with. Her mother tells her that the one you hate the most is the one you love the most. Juan is really winning the families trust and Lupe’s family is really starting to like him, Victorano tells Juan that their family needs work and ask Juan if he can help them out with a job at the manure place he works at Juan is caught in his own lie but quickly thinks about his friend who actually does work in moving manure and tells him to provide Lupe’s family with a job so he does. Chapter twenty, Domingo returns home right when Don Margarita was going to leave to Chicago to look for him. He’s not alone he accompanied with his girlfriend Nellie, who’s married to someone else and left her three children behind to be with Domingo. Dona Margarita doesn’t like the fact that she left her children, what kind of mother does such a thing. Domingo returns telling the family that he distilled Canadian whiskey in Chicago, and later on is drinking Juan’s whiskey in the front porch making it visible to everyone. At first Domingo was going top ask for Lupe’s hand but since Juan doesn’t seem to trust his brother a lot he decides to tell Father Ryan to ask for her hand. This leads to what happens next in , Juan and Father Ryan go to Lupe’s house so drunk that Juan accidentally call Carlota, Maria. He falls to the ground and that when Don Victorano tells him that he will give him an answer in three days, Don Victorano goes out and investigates things on Juan. He finds out that Juan is a bootlegger and is ok with that , and tell him that he has the consent by Dona Guadalupe to marry his daughter. But with one condition Juan has to carry and take care of the pot of white lilies she carried all the way form La Luvia de oro. In chapter twenty-three Juan comes home when men pop out of the bushes and take him inside where Domingo is tied down in a chair with his face covered in blood, and right next to him stands the man he met at the hotel job he was going to take. Domingo caused this mess he was tired of being in the house so he went out to a play pool, he met a man and befriended him not knowing this man was an undercover cop. The men beat Juan and when he wakes up he finds him self in jail with Domingo so weak he could barely stand. He calls Fred Noon, his lawyer friend that bails him out, but Domingo stay with the sentence of three years. When Juan returns home Nellie already gave birth to Domingo’s baby and decides to go back to Chicago to see if her husband will take her back but leaves the baby and Lusia promises to tae care of it as if it was hers. Juan need’s to buy Lupe’s ring. He calls up Archie his friend to see if he can let him borrow some money to buy Lupe her ring, Archie refuses to lend him the money so he decides to sell his truck and goes to his friend Kenney to see if he can help him out, being the good friend Kenny is he lets Juan borrow four hundred dollars. Lupe and Carlota meet Juan’s family Carlota and Lusia do not get along, but Dona Margarita notices that Lupe is the same women she wanted Juan to meet and is happy they met. The last Chapter is the best chapter, Lupe and Juan get married. They their reception in the back yard of Lupe’s house, where both families are at enjoying the music and the whiskey Archie sneaked in, When Juan pulls Lupe to the side he kisses with fiery emotions of love both of them looking at each others eyes with such passion Juan tells Lupe about their future they will have together.

Questions:

What are possible solutions for Juan’s hate towards his own people?

What are some commonly held beliefs or perspectives on religion and how it defined in families and or societies?

What are the consequences of not following family tradition?

Critical Thinking

In 300 words or more, write a posting onto your blog on a news item that is interesting to you and examine it from at least two opposing viewpoints. Please describe your opinion on the subject. Post the blog by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, November 24.

Recently I found out t hat the Disney corporation exploits children and use them as mini labor girls and boy’s. As a child Disney Land was my favorite place in the world. I saw only joy and fun times in the amusement park. And even when I was older for example this year back in June I went to Disney Land for my graduation trip with my senior class, and had so much fun once again blinded by the false happiness they want you to see. I was having a conversation with my older sister, and Disney Land came out as a topic, she started talking all this things about my favorite place in the world, I began to debate and told her my point of views. In till she hit me with the bomb , that Disney uses child labor all over the world. At first I didn’t believe her in till she made me Google , so I did and she was right. At that moment I thought to my self how can a place that bring children so much happiness cause other children in third world countries pain. See if I was to but on my critical thinking hat back then , I would of seen all the signs and investigated to the Disney corporation more in depth. The sad reality is that Disney is such a powerful corporation just like Wal-Mart that it would take a lot of people with the idea to end child labor to shut them down, but unfortionaly Disney Land is the “happiest place on earth”.

Thinking about the Text "The Men We Carry in Our Minds"

1.Sander remembers seeing the working men, beat tried of the harsh labor brought upon them. “They got up before light, worked all day long whatever the weather, and when they came home at night they looked as though somebody had been whipping them”(p56).He recalls the how the men’s hand” were black and split, the hands tattooed with scars. Some had lost fingers”(p56).

2.The other men Sander knew as growing up were the men who did not break a sweat or break down like mules. None of the soldiers he knew worked they were always ready for war, ready to kill.

3.The other men Sander saw while growing up was the men on television, the astronauts, the generals, the philosophers. To him these jobs were to unreal for him to reach he stopped imaging he could become them.

4.Sanders father worked hard to get his white collar job. He had to start from the bottom and work him self all the way to the top. To overcome the oppression of the beating hard job he use to work.

5.Sanders implies that upper class college women have it a lot easier then men do in . While in college a lot of women would tell him that men took all the privileges that life offered because they were simply men.

6.I think what brings both “lower-class” men and women together is the struggles and obstacles both of them go through. Men in a lower class society usually have a lot of pressure by the family and peers, since the society norm is that men bring the “bacon” to the table. For women it goes along side with how they provide for there children. Say if these women have children it’s a struggle for them to provide a meal and shelter for their children. In my opinion its hard for both there’s no discrimination, it’s a struggle both live through.

7.What the college women and Sanders have in common is, both of them want to be able to treasure the pleasures that life offers to them, without any bias also the privileges they earned from the struggles as men and women.

Summary Evaluation

The most challenging part of the summary in my opinion was finding Tan’s thesis. I would have about ten different ideas on what her thesis might be, and it was challenging to break them all up and see which one work and which one did not. The most easiest part of the summary was putting all the main ideas together and paraphrasing them. To me this was the least challenging even though I did have to analyze everything really well and see if it flowed correctly. But I have to honest transitions were a bit hard. I actually expected a grade lower than what I got, since I was not in class for the days are professor went over how to write and break down the reading and how to put everything together, I thought I was going to be behind or stuck on how to write it . Hence I thought my grade was going to reflect my misunderstanding of how to write the summary. I think my strengths are paraphrasing, it was what I spend more time in, its time consuming but I don’t really mind because after all the reader needs to know that you know what your talking about. For the next summary I’m going to spend more time my transitions and checking my spelling. When I find my self stuck or lost I’m going into my professors office and ask for her help in transitioning and making my summary or essay run smoothly. As for my spelling, not depending on spell check all the time.

Memorization

The most valuable memorization technique I learned and use is Marking everything up. I use this technique for everything. Especially in English when Susie assigns us readings from are course reader, I mark everything that I think is important and go over it when I’m done with the reading. I would say I use more than one technique, because I also use the Testing your self memorization skill and making Mnemonics up. When I use the testing skill I first finish marking everything then I usually tell somebody to test me, especially on the things I highlighted, just to make sure I now why I highlighted it like the book says “you must go beyond simply coloring“. Both of these techniques help me a lot, and it crazy how it helps me in outside of school. I work in retail and we constantly have to be remembering sales and promotions the store offers. So I usually write the promos down and quiz my self, I repeat everything about ten time in till I get it down, repetition is key when trying to remember important things, “PRACTTICE“. Making mnemonics to memorize the sales is also a big help. I find it easy to make something silly like SLAP to remember Sign it, Light it, Adjust it, Pass by it. It those simple things that end up helping you when your manger quiz’s you. I think memorizations skill can help you in everything. It all depends if you keep practicing the one that best fits you. You might be able to apply some of the techniques to different situations some might work and others may not, that’s why it take time and practice to find the one that is most beneficial for you.

Questions on Libby

1.Do the authors survey results indicate that feminist is, by the and large, a dirty word for her fellow students?
What in the essay makes you agree or disagree I disagree in the fact that then men who took the survey them self’s didn’t label it as a dirty word, they just simple didn’t want to assimilate to the term.

2.What reasons does Libby offer why there are not more self identified feminists?
Some reasons she offers why people do not call tem self’s feminist are, that for example men don’t say their feminist because they are not females, others say because sex exploitation and oppression do not exist in are society. Also because of the negative connotations the term has been given, by stereotypes and opinions.

3.Why does she think more people should identify themselves as feminist?
Libby address’s that more men and women should identify as feminist because both men and women should have the chance to live in a life free of sexism, sex exploitation, and oppression of every kind.