Nostalgic

The semester is now coming to the end, and I’m already nostalgic. Thinking about all the good things of our class.

What should I name first, I don’t know, I feel all things were good.

I’m going to miss everything about it, my professor and his nice way of making the class fun, my classmates, the text materials, the class discussions.

It was a lot of fun.

I wish that all of you accomplish your dreams, but if not, I wish you all happiness.

God – Philosophical Quote

The following quote is one of the many that McCarthy uses to explain a philosophy about humans, and about God, “That God Needs No Witness” (158). Within this quote there are two ideas. The first one is directed towards humans, and that is that Humans need a witness to be able to get an understanding of things. Someone who can they learn things from, things like lessons and history. This idea is backed by another quote that says that ”when the priest saw at last was that the lesson of a life can never be its own. Only the witness has power to take its measure. It is lived for the other only” (158). In other words this quote says that a person learns from the experience of another person. This idea is reflected in another passage where it’s said that Billy learned from the wolf and the wolf from him.

The other component within the quote is that God needs no witness because He does not need anyone to learn anything from, because He is God and He created everything.

These ideas are explained with the other quote that says that “The truth is rather that if there were no God then there could be no witness for there could be no identity to the world  but only each man’s opinion of it” (158). What McCarthy wants to say with this quote, is that the first witness is God, and that we all come from him.  

The Society of the Wolves

The wolves represent in the story some of the Americans that used to think that they were better than anyone else. We can see this idea in the text due to the fact that the text tells us that the wolves saw themselves as much superior then the cows and that that was why they were so savage in killing them; they didn’t like their ignorance and their belowing (25). 

It is known that groups who belong to different time periods, do think that the way that they lived in their past was better than the new one. In the text we can see that because it’s said that the society that the cows violate is the one of the old order (25).         

Since we know that this is story is about the settling of Americans, we can see that the Americans represent the wolves and that the cows represent the Indians and the Mexicans. We can see this because according to the text the wolves were more savage with the cattle than with other wild animals (25), and since we know that Mexicans were seen as ignorant and belowing, among many other negative labels then we can see why the cows represent the Mexicans. We  also know that Americans also perceived Indians as ignorants, and who just like the Mexicans, were forced to give up the land by the Americans. Thus, we can think that the text is telling us that among some of the reasons of the Americans to force out the Indians and Mexicans, was an act of racism, which was derived from the idea that they were not good enough to be among their society.

Philosophical Statements and Other Abstractions

“He said that men believe the blood of the slain to be of no consequence but that the wolf knows  better…. that there is no order in the world save that which death has put there” (45.)

“They see the acts of their own hands or they see that which they name and call out to one another but the world between is invisible to them” (46).

“The wolf is made the way the world is made. You cannot touch the world” (46).

“A world burning on the shore of an unknowable void” (73).

“When those eyes and the nation to which they stood witness  were gone at last with their dignity back into their origins there would perhaps be other fires and other witnesses and other worlds otherwise beheld” (74).

Education – Real Women Have Curves

Education is without a doubt the biggest factor in our lives, it can shape our lives and our future, and that is what separates us from the persons who did not get the same type of education. Which is true in the movie Real Women Have Curves, because it’s Ana’s education what separates her from her mom Carmen.

Carmen represents the previous generation, she was educated on how to be a wife (In México it used to meant doing chores, raising kids, etc.); she was taught that she needed to keep her virginity for the wedding night and not before; also, she was educated on how to walk, ladylike.

Ana on the other hand, went to high school and the education that she obtained taught her that a woman should be valued for her ideals; she was taught that virginity was not important; she was taught about labor, and she was taught that women needed to speak up against abuse. Which is why, she could see that her sister and her employees were being used as cheap labor, and also, that’s why she was not afraid of confronting her sister’s boss.

The contrast in education of Ana with her Mom is also represented through the fact that Carmen don’t want her daughter to go to college. And this is what separates Carmen from her daughter at the end of the movie. Carmen did not even give Ana her blessing.

Something You Should Know About The Movie Real Women Have Curves

Many of you know that I’m Mexican; as a Mexican I can explain to you a little bit about the meaning of some of the things shown in the movie Real Women Have Curves. You should know this to get a better understanding of Mexicans, and about the behavior of some of the characters in the movie; because even though they are characters, their behavior truly shows the reality of many Mexicans.

First of all, you have to know what idolatry means to Catholics and Mexicans.  Idolatry means to praise idols, most Mexicans and Catholics don’t believe that saints or The Virgen of Guadalupe are idols. They think that saints or the Virgen can help them to make their wishes come true. They think that since the saints were exceptional people, they have a way of talking to God and help them out. Most Mexicans don’t feel that they can talk to God like saints do, because they don’t feel that they are as exceptional as the saints. Mexicans feel the same way about the Virgen, they think that since she is the mother of God, she can help them out too.

Second of all, Ana’s mom, Carmen, represents the role of many Mexican women. For example, to raise kids, and to let the husband take the important decisions. Which is what Carmen wants for her daughters, that’s why she wants the saint, San Antonio, to help her to get a husband for their daughters, and that’s why she does not want Ana to get educated, because many women used to think that education was a waste of time, that the only education they needed was that of “how to be a wife”.

Third of all, the role of man was to work to support the family, and to take the important decisions (that is why Ana’s dad lets her go to college, even though her mom Carmen never agreed to it). 

Fourth of all, Carmen calls her daughter fatty many times in the movie. For most Mexicans being called fatty by their relatives is not bad. Many Mexicans use it in a way like saying it with love, and other times they say it to encourage the person to lose weight (which is not very nice, but that is their way of doing it).

Finally, Estella’s boss represents a character that is present in real life in both Mexico and the US. This is one of these persons that come from the same race, but instead of helping their race, takes advantage of them. Estella’s boss pays Estella very little money for her work, and as a result she and workers make little money for their hard work. Which is the same situation of many Mexicans who are here, working hard for little money, some of them exploited from their own race. 

Women Hollering Creek – A Challenging and Magnificent Educational Work

The thing that I like the most about education is the fact that you really become a different person through learning. I have had many classes that I have enjoyed because of all the things that I have learned. This class is one of them. Most of the works that we have read have been interesting and challenging, because of the depth and the symbolism that we have encountered.

The greatest thing about One Holy Night is the way that Sandra Cisneros deals with imagery and symbolism to educate women. Her writing technique is challenging for the reader, she presents us all these strange multicultural symbols that force you to look deeply into them to be able to understand her work.

Without a doubt the most important thing about this book is her noble intention, to try to shape an excellent moral character for women is a very nice action. Also, because she wants to help women by educating and warning them about the way that they can be hurt by bad or deceiving men, who should not be called men (we should have a different type of category for these type of men, may be a trash category?).

One Holy Night

Before I read this story it was not clear to me what was the message of the stories.
One Holy Night explains very well why is the author emasculating men image’s. This story presents a supposedly Maya masculine figure, which later we found out that it was just a common man (if you can call him man, I don’t think he deserves to have this label) that deceives a young girl with lies and then leaves her pregnant. Which sends the message that men are deceiving and that women can not allow themselves to be mislead by them.
It’s now that I can see why the author keeps going after masculine icons. She wants to make sure that women understand that some men are going to tell you that they are brave as Zapata, strong as a cowboy, or wild as an indian; to be able to get what they want.
By emasculating men the author is also saying that some men have no balls, which can be connected with the idea of men commiting cowardly acts, such as deceiving young girls, leaving women pregnant, abusing women, etc.
This story is related to the Eyes of Zapata and Never Marry a Mexican because these stories present us the idea that men are boys and men at the same time. Which can be associated with the idea that men have the body of a man, but they have the mind of a boy because they take immature decisions.
The epigraph in One Holy Night is very relevant to the story because the truth about baby boy is that he was a deceiver, a lier, just an apperance of something that he was not. The young girl tells us that truth follows you and makes you listen to it, which it happened to her because she had to tell the truth when she found out that she was pregnant, by revealing the truth she was revealing her mistakes and faults. Which is connected with the idea that if you allow other people to find out about your secrets, it can make you weak because they could use it as a tool to control you or to destroy you.
The title is a contrast to the story, because one holy night is doing a reference to the night that was supposed to be good and special for her, but it was the contrary. Since it left her pregnant by a man that only lied to her.

Marlboro Man and Stereotypes

Before I read the story of The Marlboro Man, I was already expecting to see the theme of Emasculation again, since we saw it in the other stories we read (Eyes of Zapata and Never Marry a Mexican). My guess was right, the theme is there again as we all can see. 

 In this story, the Marlboro Man is presented as eccentric, unconventional, and may be gay, according to the author. Also, he is said to be too old for Romelia, which can also be interpreted as too old to keep up with her. However, there is a contradiction again, just as in the other stories we read. He is said to be old, but at the end of the story it’s said that he always gave Romelia hell because he was always chasing any young thang that wore a skirt; which contradicts the idea that he was gay.

Perhaps, one of the most interesting things about emasculating the Marlboro Man is the fact that this masculine icon is one of two very important ones in
North America, and an important one for the Anglos. The other one is Zapata who is an important one for the Mexicans and Mexican Americans.  All this can lead us to reflect about why the author would want to emasculate important icons of our culture in her stories. Is the author trying to say that men are weaker than they appear in both cultures, to convey the idea that all men are the same?

Anyhow, the issue is that even if the Marlboro Man was weak (old) or gay that does not mean that all men are the same. Men should not be stereotyped, because there are many great men that know how to treat their other half (women). There are many men who would do anything to be loved by a woman and that would never hurt one.

What a Contrast

Among the several contrasting images that we saw in the movie “Que Viva México”, there was an image that caused a big impact on me, this image is the one of the clean, young, and humble peon which was contrasted with a close-up image of a nasty looking drunk man, who was working for the cacique.  This contrast of these two men tells us a lot of México because it shows what México is like. Just like Eisenstein pointed out: “So striped and violently contrasting are the cultures in Mexico…”, this idea of contrasting cultures was unknown to many countries, who used to think that all Mexicans were bad people.

There are two symbols embedded in theses images, which are very interesting. The peon looks clean and the man who works for the cacique looks very nasty; which are associated with being pure and being wicked. The other symbol is the one of age, the peon looks young and the man who works for the cacique looks much older; which show us that the clean man (the pure one) is a new Mexican culture in process, and that the older one is the old Mexican culture, which will be followed and replaced by the new one in the future.