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.

Transfer Motivational Conference

The motivational conference in Sacramento was really a fun experience. I had a blast meeting new people from other Puente classes also people who attended Sacramento state. The workshop I attended was the AB540 workshop. The workshop in my opinion was well put together, I learned thing I didn’t know, it also opened my eyes to how determine students who are AB540 student are to succeed and even though they life might be hard for them they manage to be optimistic and strive for their education. I say this because in our workshop, there was some AB540 students who shared with the group how AB540 has helped them out to further proceed in school. Many of their stories were similar they all are fist generation student, undocumented, and most of them do not have the financial support to attend school. This Puentista from Chabot shared that when he graduated high school his mother told him “now what” what’s next, he shared with the group that his mother had always wanted him to go on and study and make a lot of money so he wouldn’t live like she did when she was younger, but this family was set back because of financial problem. He said that , that didn’t stop him he found out about the Ab540 program and now is studying to become a music mayor and do something with his talents in the music industry. It was really heart warming to hear all these stories of my people and other multicultural people and to know that they are receiving the same rights as every one else. I would say the highlight of the conference was the bonds I made with people in my Puente class. I talked to more people that I have never talked to in class, also the most memorable moment of are trip was when we were about to leave, and some of my classmates and I were outside the bus just listing to Andrew and Villy freestyle and seeing Jorge dance was the most funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. It was truly a fun experience.

summary

In the text Mother Land written by Amy Tan, she writes about the different languages one grows up with, and the hardships and obstacles people go through when only “limited” English is known. Tan is amazed by language and how language shapes how she works as a writes. Also how it shapes her every day life in how she uses her many “englishes”. These many “englishes” tan speaks about in her text refer to the realization of it when she was invited to a conference and how she changed the way she spoke to the crowd and the way she would speak with her mother or husband. Tan used the language she learned academically in books and school, not the language her mother sitting in the crowd taught her. She observes also how she would use a different dialect a more “intimate” ish English with her family members, different then the one she would use with other people. Tan talks about a story her mother told her once about a shanghai gangster, she recall that people didn’t really understand her mother because of the “broken “ English she was using, even though Tan’s friends could not understand her tan is able to understand her mother because to her , her mother is a smart women who has clear thoughts and who understand complex books, ideas and economics . The author rejects the fact that people label her mothers as speaking “broken” or “limited” English. People judged Tans mother because of the way she would convey what she had to say. Many would think she had nothing important to say because her message was not clearly stated. Her mother realizes that people do judge and label her as some one that does not speak clear or perfect English, her mother recognizes her limitations and uses Tan to translate to get her message heard and clearly stated. Tan also argues that not being taken seriously by people who do speak ”perfect” English can have some serious consequences. She recalls the time when her mother had to have a CAT scan done and how the doctor didn’t want to give it to her the results, because she would not be able to understand them. Not in till Tan called and complained to the doctor that his lack of telling her mother or her family the results could of but her others life in danger. After this confrontation with the doctor and the CAT scan, she realizes the limitations people brought upon her, because of judgments and assumptions. She question why Asian student are steered to subject like math and science being slowly pushed away from English departments. Being the rebel that Tan is she went against what her teacher and society tolled her what to do. She followed her own path and studied English. As a content writer she continues to write books with one type of audience in her mind, Tan uses the many “engishes” she grew up to let mold her books she has written today.

According to Tan speaking many englishes can have positive and negative consequences. For example in the text Tan remembers how she used to be her mothers translator. How she felt the need to play the role of her mother and express her feelings , of anger towards the stockbroker, who wouldn’t giver her mother her check. I would feel the same anger as Tan, when people uses to try to fool my mother or father by manipulating them for the lack of English. When I was younger I always use to translate for my mother, at times I will feel so frustrated with her, not being able to comprehend why she was not like everybody else. I felt frustrated, and degraded, feeling incompetent when I didn’t comprehend how to translate, switch codes between theses two different worlds. “I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say”(pg36). Just like Tan I do believe that the many “Englishes” used growing up shapes one to the person they are today and just as it shaped Tan, it has shaped me when I think about my own experience I went through as a child and still at times as an adult. Tan further explains how English test were always a judgment call . For example, when I was younger I was placed in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, because my English according to my teachers was not efficient. I would question myself every day when I use to attend those classes thinking that I was different from everybody else. In some ways I felt stupid for speaking two languages not just one. But as I grew older I realized that those classes, peoples stares, and being able to communicate in two languages made me the person I am today. “I wanted to capture what language ability test can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts“ (pg38). In the same way Tan’s was able to see how to appreciate her and her mothers many “Englishes”, It in many similar ways has helped me. Appreciate who I am.

Anzaldua Blog Response #2

The difference about an academic essay and Anzaldua essay is that In an academic essay includes you to use quotes, paraphrasing, and to state the thesis and the main idea of the text. In her essay she provides her own opinions also she provides a lot of good information she has collected over the pass years of experience she has lived through. She has a lot of short stories abut her childhood and how language has changed in her time to what it is now. Anzaldua essay also make you question, about how language has been evolving with each new generation. In contrast to an academic essay you state what you learned about a reading, you do not go off in to your personal stories. Also in an academic essay you paraphrase everything you read Anzaldua does some what paraphrase some of the Mexican proverb she use sin her text. Anzaldua makes you question, in her essay she want you to think to go into her reading and really relate to it. Anzaldua writes in a way to prove to the reader that she is comfortable writing in the language she was brought with, which was Chicano Spanish. It makes it different from a Formal essay because it does lack some of the techniques you would usually follow when writing a traditional essay. I think what Anzaldua is trying to accomplish with this essay is to really get the reader to understand that she is proud of where she came from and how she has let her language shape her to who she is. “ identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self inside”(p46).

On Anzaldua

Q: write about a time when you felt that someone with authority tried to silence you or criticized the way you spoke.

A: Every year my family and I go to Mexico, to visit family and friends. And there is not one year that I’m not criticized or made fun of the way I speak Spanish. Its saddens me to know that your own people could be so racist towards you and the disillusion when your own family member make fun of your bilingual tongue. The most vivid memory I have about someone with authority tried to silence me was when I went to the optometrist . I arrived to his office with all respect to his practice, because it is a Mexican custom to respect your elderly and speak to them in a proper manner. The doctor was an old, five foot, blue eyed man that only came to my little pueblo every Saturday from Guadalajara. I think he noticed right away that I wasn’t born nor raised in Mexico, he looked at me with disgust like if I was less than he was. So after the very uncomfortable stare he gave me when he called my name, I went inside to his office so we could start with the my eye check. He told me to spell my name out for him because according to him it was spelled incorrectly, so I did I started spelling it out and when It comes to the e and the i in my name I always get them confused, because they sound so alike when you say them in Spanish. He just laughed at me and said that I was a bolillo a bread loaf. At the moment I was dumbfounded. I had no idea why he would call me a bread loaf. I asked him why he called me that and he responded in a arrogant voice “ Your brown from the outside and white from the inside”. I felt so hurt and degraded , I lost all respect for this old man. I told him what was his problem, he told me that I was his problem. That he hates people like me who call them self’s Mexican, and not being able to pronounce simple letters in the alphabet. I tried to defend my self but not being able say some words in Spanish I started to stutter. He laughed proving his point even further. I couldn’t take it so I called my Aunt in, who in the other hand speak fluent perfect Spanish. She told him to back off and that he has no right to tell me that I’m something I’m not. When the doctor saw how mad my Tia he just told us to leave. I was way ahead of him I couldn’t stand seeing someone like him, with so much hate and disgust to their own people. I never went back, but I took that experience ad a learning one. I decided to take Spanish in high school not just for the easy A ,but so that when I go back to Mexico my Spanish will be up to par and run fluently out of my mouth and finally have a summer in Mexico without criticisms