Favorite Text of the Semester (or one of them)

The variety of the texts, art, music, and films we studied in this class enriched greatly not only my understanding of Latin American authors and the culture but of fundamental principles in life that are essential in human relationships.

I have always enjoyed reading literature that would help me learn historical content. Ines of my Soul written by Isabel Allende was very well written as the plot line was clearly structured, I was able to understand the historical significance of the different areas they were traveling around and I could understand the relationships and see the character development as it progressed and changed throughout the novel.

I have always believed that in order to understand our future and present, personally and as a nation, it is fundamental that we understand our past. Latin American history is a complicated issue, and my eyes were opened so much more as to what the Spaniards did as they conquered Latin America. The three g’s, gold, glory, and God, really were the momentum for the men in this novel, and during this time period, while for the women, they were almost powerless and victim to males desires.

But through the example of Ines we can see that the way a society is does not determine how it has to be. She chose not to let the norms of society dictate how she had to act or keep her from getting what she wanted. I was fascinated that this theme really is as prevalent today as it was 500 years ago.

It was hard to pick a favorite text because once analyzed they are became more applicable but this one was easily applicable to principles and themes I understood personally.

Prosper in the Land

Enrique: You mother loves you, Carlitos, a lot.
Carlitos: Then why did she go so far away? 
Enrique: What do you mean, "why"? So you could have a better life.
... Tell me how you've liked these past few days? 
You liked picking tomatoes? Hiding from the I.N.S.? Eh? 
Or washing dishes just for a meal and a place to sleep?
No one chooses to live this way, Carlitos, unless they've got a good reason.
I'm sure that for her, you're that reason!

(Under the Same Moon 82 minutes)

  

I am sure that I would have had much different thoughts and feelings if I had seen this movie before I served a mission in Houston, Texas. However while I was there I heard stories from people, every day without fail, of someone they knew, a family member or a friend, who fled here to seek security because their lives or their families were threatened in some way in Mexico. This film portrays Rosario and Carlitos as just an example of this. 

I  have always thought a lot about this because when you think of the human individual, you cannot help but to feel compassion for those who primarily just want to protect their family and provide for them. 

In The Book of Mormon they refer to this land, the American continent, as being the "promised land." I wonder a lot about this prophecy especially when I read in 2 Nephi 1:5-9 which says that if Lehi's descendents keep God's commandments they will prosper in the land of promise. 

When looking at both nations, the United States or Mexico it would be quite hard to judge who is keeping the commandments better (but that is a whole other topic).

Since those experiences I had, I always think of Lehi’s promise to those who live in the Promised Land. Families seem to be falling apart here more than ever. Carlitos mom is sacrificing her life and everything for her small family.

Of course justice and laws are important but ultimately God’s laws and promises reign.  This understanding helps us be a little slower to judge people or our neighbors who are a little bit different than us but then who are truly the same when it comes to ideals and the most important things in life.

Since the beginning of time God’s promises, however all-embracing and far reaching they are, they always come to pass. This leads us to wonder, when are the lamanites going to prosper in the land? Or is this only spiritual prosperity which is already happening.

The Sum Total of Our Experiences.

"Ay, every generation, every man is part of his past. He cannot escape it, but he may reform the old materials, make something new--"

Rudolfo Anaya (Bless Me, Ultima 247)

Nearing the end of this novel the main character Antonio and his father have a sweet conversation unique to any others in the novel that took place. Antonio was able to reach below the surface level small-talk and hear the emotions and thoughts of his father. 

A frequently quoted phrase says that we are a "sum total of our past experiences," where often we don't realize the potential of what we can make of ourselves. 

In the spring of 1954 an act said to be impossible by physiologists and athletic trainers, Roger Banister broke the four minute mile, something no one had been able to do. Though what happened just shortly after was just as fascinating. In just a years’ time almost 150 others had broken that record. How was this possible?

The old materials, or the thought that many people didn't think it was possible, that the human body couldn't run that fast was almost believed as a fact, but as soon as someone took that old material, or that old way of thinking, and decided to make something new out of it, or decided to think differently about that given situation, reform happened. Changes happened.

We are all part of our past because we lived it, endured it, and made it, but we don’t just make something for nothing. Everything we make is for the future. We run to break records. Antonio, an observer and listener, soaked in life and experiences from his father in this situation and also many other people in other situations throughout the novel, to help him undertake and carry out the final events of this book.

Little did Antonio know, he was preparing himself for the time when he would be without his father and other loved ones. Little do we tap into the capacity we have from stored experiences, old materials; to make them new—to make us new. We possess everything necessary to make any change possible, to reform ourselves, the question is how are we going to make us new?

Introverts and Extroverts: A Forgotten Virtue of the Need for Both

"It is the blood of the Lunas to be quite, for only a quiet man can learn the secrets of the earth that are necessary to planting."

Rudolfo Anaya (Bless Me, Ultima 41)

Specifically speaking of the Luna's, mother's side of the family, the farmers, the students, the content, can also be referred to as the growers or learners. This can also be argued from the quote that the "quiet man learns the secrets of the earth [which] are necessary to [growth]."

We then reason that only a quiet person can learn the secrets to life that are necessary for growth and learning. Though this is only half of the quote focusing on the Luna's side of the family, this reasoning can be absolutely true for them. 

A recent TED talk by Susan Cain reiterates this same reasoning and giving evidence to why the act of being quiet for some people means growth as much as for some people who thrive being in the spotlight grow just as equally.

She gave a talk called "The Power of Introverts," which was based off of her recent book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking which emphasized the fact that it is okay to be alone. Especially in society today where everything is always going, always in action, but this is not how all people thrive. Historically some of the greatest people who changed the world like Gandhi were not necessarily great because of what he did among people but because of necessary time alone he had to create these grand thoughts and acts. Introverts thrive in the quite of the world--that is where they feel most alive—that is where their growth happens.

She then echoes this in a quote saying: 

“There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.”

The main character Antonio thrives in the ways of his mother's family, but this does not make him inferior to his father’s more 'extrovert' way but that is how he grows. He grows in the quite.

Growth is different for all. Certain plants grow better in different areas, each is essential, but each requiring different means to become their complete full potential.

 

Four Score and Seven Years Ago...

"Better the colony should perish than a principle."

Alejo Carpentier (Kingdom of This World 66)

For some reason the word 'perish' in this sentence created a connection for me to a powerful speech written back in the nineteenth century. Visionaries and liberals from the novel quoted this line in response to the French colonists permitting the black slaves to some political rights. These men, who despite the eminent threat of a possible civil war still understood the right for human equality.

A similar visionary, Abraham Lincoln echoed these same words in his speech the Gettysburg Address, also campaigned for the continuation of the rights of man over the rights of the federal or state government.

Quoting a few lines:

“…dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The principle is that equality exists among all human beings, an inalienable right, which was a strong motive and cause, whether directly or indirectly, for this civil war in the United States. The death statistics are unfathomable for this war and other civil revolts around the world. Specifically in the United States it was in the name and principle of freedom, showing that the colony, country, community, was worth very little if no one was willing to fight to the basic principles to command a country by.

Where a hundred and fifty years later, can we still say that any sacrifice is worthy for divine, correct, and inherent principles to continue forward? Is it better to perish than let a principle endure?

Lincoln understood that sacrifices were necessary for true principles to endure and the founders of the United States before him, or other ‘liberalists’ or ‘visionaries’ for that matter. It is indispensable that every citizen understands, lives for, and protects the liberties of equality and government by the people, that so many before have paid the ultimate price.

 

Tip of An Iceberg

"As he watched the slow scattering of the herd grazing knee-deep in clover, he developed a keen interest in the existence of certain plants to which nobody else paid attention...he foraged with his only hand among the familiar grasses for those spurned growths to which he had given no thought before. To his surprise he discovered the secret life of..."

Alejo Carpentier (Kingdom of This World 17)

In Capentier's novel, The Kingdom of This World, he inserts a handful of deep and thought provoking lines such as the one quoted above. The character Macandal in this novel notices for the first time, perhaps after losing his arm, the tiny details that make live in life. He began with the plants, and then explored into the plants to see the life of smaller plants and insects that any passerby-er often fails to notice. 

This same principle is demonstrated in the life and make-up of an iceberg. Not too long ago I came across a video produced by BBC which displayed the birth and life of an iceberg.  Often with an iceberg we are only able to see about 1/8 of the complete structure which leaves the majority hidden to the naked eye which only see the tip above water; and where icebergs are made up of frozen freshwater floating in a salt water ocean they are like an oasis in a desert.

Similarly this situation is relative to Macandal’s experience lying on the grass, yes, on a grander level, but Macandal who had always seen life by the tip but never really having excavated its true riches until now.

We can learn the secret life of plants and bugs and underwater arctic waters, but the most significant lesson would be that on first glance what we see is mostly likely only a taste of reality or the potential each location and experience has to offer. The "diamond in the rough" as Aladdin states is truly all around us. 

The majority of time people skim over life and its’ experiences like a water skier, quickly, and without much depth but the uniqueness of people, our surroundings, and the moments of life in general must be carefully analyzed and detailed to realize the force and energy that is often available to us if we stop and let it soak in us so we can discover its' secrets.

 

Listening to History That Did Not Live In Vain.

[. . .truth, whose mother is history, who is the rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and lesson to the present, and warning to the future.] 

Jorge Luis Borges (Ficciones 53)

I was interesting to me that Borges was impressed to analyze these lines from Don Quixote among all the many lines he could have chosen. These lines exemplify which truth is. Not only what is now but what is was--the same as now because it never changes.

Upon reading these lines in this text I immediately thought of eighth grade history class and a quote by Edmund Burke which we had to memorize, it said:

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."

Through all of these years this line of truth has stood tall in my mind without being forgotten. Edmund Burke lived in the eighteenth century, and was a voice for political conservatism. 

Though what I find incredibly interesting is that he relates truth to the mother of history. How can the study of history shape our future? And how does listening and benefiting from our mothers, our caregivers, life providers, and our nurturers be just as life changing for each of us.

Much of it comes to a central agreement that we are not on our own. We have our mothers to help teach and provide for us and in another aspect of life we have history. The fact that people have not lived in vain, and sometimes it is in vain if we take no concern to see what they lived and died for—a similar attribute of our mothers.

The truth that history is the best teacher, and also a warning for our future, and teaches us here in the present emphasizes Burke’s words that the truths in history are here for our benefit but if we choose to ignore it the same events are going to happen to us—that this mother, history and life already lived doesn’t need to be a cycle of destruction but a lesson for the future of humanity.