Of poor yet drunk parents, the boy demonstrated a terrible fear of work from a very early age; for all times that Pitacio’s father sent him out to scare away the birds so they would not eat the crops, he had yet to get Pitacio to obey. (23)…
After running away at the age of 14, Pedro Menedez de Aviles joined the Spanish Navy. In 1549, he was presented with his first big mission. His quest was to defend the Spanish coast and vanquish the pirates that were trying to pillage the coastline. Because of his incredible triumph along the coast, in 1556 Aviles was tasked with the responsibility of beginning a settlement in Florida in order to violently remove the French. On September 8th, 1565, Aviles established the first enduring colony, naming it St. Augustine. Quickly after finishing St. Augustine, Aviles assaulted and annihilated the French and conquered Fort Caroline and renamed it San Mateo.…
The chapter 5 and chapter 6 and throughout chapter 8 of the book called, The House On Mango Street; represent an ethnic picture from both the past and the present of Mango Street and the surrounding neighborhood. Cathy, Esperanza’s friend indicated what the neighborhood may have been like in the past, while the two families that moved into her house once Cathy’s left were more representative of the whole neighborhood as Esperanza came to experience it. Along the Mango Street lived the black man who was unwelcome from the rest of the neighborhood, different from the people Esperanza sees from day to day. This guy race makes him so unfamiliar that Esperanza is afraid to talk to him. Cathy has shown Esperanza the neighborhood’s two cultures, Latin American and American, and two languages, Spanish and English, which revealing the new cultural makeup of Mango Street. Cathy also provided a window into how outsiders view Esperanza’s neighborhood, even though Cathy is blind to her own family’s similarities to the families around them. Cathy’s family was moving because the neighborhood is “getting bad,” a racist reason that Esperanza immediately understands. Esperanza’s immigrant family, as well as other families like hers, was, in Cathy’s family’s view, causing the neighborhood to deteriorate, and the only thing to do was to move. However, Cathy’s family did not seem to be struggling any less than the other families in Esperanza’s neighborhood. Their house, which Cathy’s father…
Angels Town is an ethnography of a Latino community just outside Chicago where Cintron’s family lived while he was in graduate school. Cintron's sees everyday practices as rhetorical performances through which people struggle over identity and power. From this perspective, written and oral language are one more everyday social practice like the Thumper and Too Flow cars, gang hand signals, a young boy’s bedroom wall decorations and the layout of the city Cintron discusses. His interest in structured contentiousness leads him to organize his story around the question “How does one create respect under conditions of little or no respect?” Each chapters tells a story under conditions of individuals people struggling to construct identities and…
Though the story is subjective, it also questions the mind of the reader in terms of critical thought. Diaz highlights how an person is reduced to just social class and race and by doing so asking a question relating to the authority or accuracy of the decrease of social beings. Though the story is subjective, it also questions the mind of the reader in terms of critical thought. The story fails on the moral side as it gives inferences on physical emotions and sexual relations. An curious reader should consider the ways a person manipulates their appearances within all the contexts that the writer discusses. A reader should also review own beliefs on expectations, stereotypes, biases and social and racial divisions in the determination of…
‘Independence or death!’ was proclaimed by Prince Pedro on September 7, 1822 when Brazil's independence was declared. Dom Pedro was an important figure in latin american history because Dom Pedro was the first emperor of Brazil. He was also known as Dom Pedro IV to the portuguese because he was the king of Portugal. When he had fought for Brazil's independence, he proclaimed the quote written above when liberating Brazil from portuguese rule. Actually, this is what he had been known most for; for declaring Brazil independent from Portugal in 1822. He had set up his empire in Brazil before he was ever emperor of Portugal. It wasn't until after his father died (Joao IV) that he had returned to Portugal to claim the crown. When he had left Brazil…
In the short story Ashes for the Wind, the protagonist Juan martinez is faced with conflict both external and internal. The story takes place in a village in Colombia that is going through political injustice and change. Juan and his family are told that they are being evicted from their house, and need to leave immediately. The first conflict was presented when Simon Arevalo's son explained to Juan that he needs to clear out of his house. Although Arevalo and his parents had been friends with Juan and his family, he had to deliver the news because he was an informer for the authorities. Juan and his wife discussed their problem and said "They'll have to kill us.'' This introduces Juan's internal conflict. Juan is now faced with the decision of leaving and being homeless with a wife and child and letting the authorities win, or staying and putting him and his families life in danger. Juan states that the government should have no concern with his neighbourhood since its in a poor area. Juan comes to the conclusion that his choice in the election might have to do with his current situation. He laughs at the words of Arevalo and says, ''He was trying to scare me.'' Juan remembers all his encounters in town where he was mistreated, first at Don Romulo Linares' store where he was told they are out of oil, then at a local drug store run by a man named Benavides. At Benavides' shop, Arevalo and an officer come in and stir up trouble with Juan. The officer asks whats going on and doesn't let Benavides answer before turning to Juan, the officer says "So you, too, are one of those who are resisting?'' Arevalo answers for Juan, he speaks up and says, '' Yes, he's one of the Reds; he lives near Tres Espigas way.'' Juan is speechless, he now realizes that an old friend of his family is now an enemy. Juan is puzzled by Arevalo, he's not in uniform and he had grown up in the village just as Juan did. It made sense why he would be helping the authorities, since he has the…
Francisco was born to immigrant parents in 1985 in a rural part of Denton, Texas. They lived in a 2 bedroom, 1-bathroom house which held 8 people. Francisco’s parents always emphasized how important education was, even though none of them had gone to college. His parents had low-income jobs. Growing up in this type of environment taught him many things,…
The article of “The Falling Down” which written by Elana Bilberry deeply explores the phenomenology of the late capitalism and how it changes the relationship in the global and local scale. It described a man who calls D-Fens experiences a series of difficulties and troublesome on his way to home. And during the journey, he also met another man who continually defers his homecoming. Their stories and the moment of the bodies illustrate a crucial body-city connections. Both of their bodies are infected by the Losn Angeles partitioned spaces, which including the social and ethnic. When the protagonist, D-Fen faces the pressure of contemporary urban living and suffers in the painful traffic jam, he chose to abandon his car and leave the freeway…
Carlos Vasquez from El Salvador, went to a known fast food restaurant with his mother in Los Angeles, California to celebrate her birthday, but instead of being a pleasant and happy moment got transformed to the exact opposite. “Speak English or leave America” she yelled. This was informed via Facebook and became viral defending the mother and rejecting the discriminatory comment. At first Carlos’ mother hear the insults and responded in Spanish but little by little she got near the aggressor and speaking English, even though she didn’t know much. Norma, Carlos’ mother called “stupid” to her aggressor various times and told her: “I do speak English, not well, but I do” “I lean offices, I clean restrooms, I am not trash” she answered. When Norma…
Each one of the Super Amigos served with a different purpose, but all came together to achieve one sole duty—to fight and defend those who in their mind were “humble”, and all of the “amigos” considered themselves to be “social wrestlers”. One of them was Super Barrio; he encountered himself with a gentrification that had already displaced thousands of…
Vicente is the main character of the story, who doesn’t have any stability in his life. “He had been an ambitious boy. ” (Wuorio P431) He left his hometown and ended up a porter on a quay. An unstable life gives Vicente a reason to look forward to a more comfortable life, which becomes an impetus for him to participate in his new job. Thereby he always “waves his hand, points to himself and shouts” (Wuorio P431) to attract more passengers. To be a porter is a milestone in Vicente’s life, not only because it gave Vicente a dream, but also because it led Vicente into another life style.…
The daily scream therapy of my neighbour in the shower does not fail to act as an alarm clock every morning. This daily “alarm clock” was a good enough reason to not succumb into the pressure of calling the police. The rhythmic sound of everyone’s steps outside gave birth to the gravel, small as peas which moved beneath their feet and from it a faint dust rose, the perfume of the town. This perfume I had to get used to now, this perfume I will smell for the years to come. This foreign town was now my new home, away from all the sadness, unfulfilled relationships and the past, a town full of versatile people, some doctors, some painters, some chocolatiers and some farmers, all with big houses towering over them. A town still rich with bicycles and kids playing in the streets early in the morning, the streets filled with the aroma of bread this all felt very new to me, I was a city dweller, this made me feel great unease.…
City of Glass can be compared to Don Delillo’s White Noise in that both are considered postmodern fiction, and have some basic similarities (though not on the surface level.) While White Noise is more related to the interdependence of characters and institutions, and Auster’s story is related to the actual individual and his loss of importance, both portray an interpretation of society and culture, and both analyze the dilemma of the postmodern writer. White Noise consists of subversions of disaster stories, thrillers, and traditional American fiction. Auster’s story is a definitive archetype of the postmodern imagination, in that it evokes compulsions to reveal an order that may cause lack of resolve. The irony in both White Noise and City of Glass is the basic lack of omniscient perception. Both embellish the incompetence of innate orders of meaning through atypical postmodern recourse to a narrated unpredictability and existential possibility.…
Miguel Street has been variously classified as a group of short stories, as a series of sketches, and as a novel. The latter classification is supported by the fact that it is unified by a single narrator and by several patterns and themes. Furthermore, although each chapter is dominated by a single character, those major characters reappear as minor characters in other chapters. At the end of the book, all the characters who still live on Miguel Street gather to present to the narrator (who is departing for college) gifts representing their own attitudes.…