I really like the connections you have made to what we have been talking about in class. And can I just say, I just think it is so cool how close you and your family are and all the stories and facts they tell you about Cuba and the way things used to be.
Your grandma sounds like a really educated and driven woman, and I bet it was hard at first when she found out her degree wouldn't be recognized in the United States. I guess it would be all about weighing the pros and cons of moving here, and whether it made more sense to stay in Cuba where her masters degree would have been valid, or to make a new life in the United States, even if it meant starting over and finding a job that was not exactly related to what she had done previously.
I also think it is interesting that your grandfather's farm has been affected by the agrarian reforms. He must have owned a lot of land to be able to notice his farm was smaller than before. I'm curious to know if he owned livestock, and what the size of his farm was when it was at its largest.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Blog Nine
Apparently, being the big hippie that I am, I should have know who Che was last week. After both Professor Stark and Professor Serrata were blown away that I had no clue who he was, I figured I should probably do a bit of research on this guy.
So this was me before my research… pretty clueless. I thought I was a good hippie, but I guess not!
I researched Che on the internet, and the things I found out about him were really interesting and inspiring. I read that he traveled a lot, and saw people who were suffering from hunger, poverty, and disease, and it really bothered him. He was from Argentina, but he tried to help people all over Latin America, including those in Guatemala and Cuba. I just really like it when someone believes something is wrong, and they stop at noting to try and fix the problem. It really is not all that hard to notice a problem, but to actually try and come up with a solution and take action is the important thing.
Che wanted to improve literacy rates, get people jobs, find ways to feed people, and more. He fought in battles using guerrilla warfare tactics, and when he was fighting in war, I read that he was actually allergic to mosquitos, so when he was bit by a ton of them he said it was "the most painful days if the war". Che's ideas and actions were influenced by Marxism, which makes sense to me, considering the fact that he was involved in Cuba's affairs when Fidel was in charge.
Che did a lot during his lifetime, and theres no way I could accurately cover this all in my blog. I do see now why it was so surprising that I had no idea who Che was, because now I am like why did I just now find out about him? I really do think he had a lot of good in his heart, and even though he methods were not always as peaceful as they could have been, he was fighting for the right cause, and he wasn't afraid to fight for what he thought was right.
So this was me before my research… pretty clueless. I thought I was a good hippie, but I guess not!
I researched Che on the internet, and the things I found out about him were really interesting and inspiring. I read that he traveled a lot, and saw people who were suffering from hunger, poverty, and disease, and it really bothered him. He was from Argentina, but he tried to help people all over Latin America, including those in Guatemala and Cuba. I just really like it when someone believes something is wrong, and they stop at noting to try and fix the problem. It really is not all that hard to notice a problem, but to actually try and come up with a solution and take action is the important thing.
Che wanted to improve literacy rates, get people jobs, find ways to feed people, and more. He fought in battles using guerrilla warfare tactics, and when he was fighting in war, I read that he was actually allergic to mosquitos, so when he was bit by a ton of them he said it was "the most painful days if the war". Che's ideas and actions were influenced by Marxism, which makes sense to me, considering the fact that he was involved in Cuba's affairs when Fidel was in charge.
Che did a lot during his lifetime, and theres no way I could accurately cover this all in my blog. I do see now why it was so surprising that I had no idea who Che was, because now I am like why did I just now find out about him? I really do think he had a lot of good in his heart, and even though he methods were not always as peaceful as they could have been, he was fighting for the right cause, and he wasn't afraid to fight for what he thought was right.
Monday, March 10, 2014
My Response to Jacqueline's Eighth Blog
I was thinking about this too! I wrote about this for DQ 19, and in my opinion, I think the reader has to decide if it was real, or if it was all a dream. I basically broke it down like this: if you treat time life the cat does, then it was real, but if you treat time in the way every normal human being does, it was probably all a dream. If you think about it, a cat lives life in the moment. Every instance is new, and does not relate to any other past moment. If you read the story and do not relate it to any other event that has happened in the book, then it all seems real, and not like Dahlmann is crazy. But, if you look at every event in the story, and relate them all to each other, it really does seem like he is having a crazy vivid dream at the sanitarium.
Blog Eight
I wanted to take the opportunity to write about Jorge Louis Borges for this blog, because of how much we are going to talk about him in class. I found his life story really interesting, as well as "The South".
I found it interesting that although he was middle class, his family came from two different backgrounds, and that he identified a lot with his grandfather who was a soldier and war hero. I also found the fact that he started writing at such a young age to be incredible, because most kids are busy just playing with friends, and he was off reading and writing stories. He dedicated so much of his life to reading and writing, and I was surprised when he video we watched said that he eventually went blind because of his head injury. I couldn't imagine having to rely on someone else to read to me, if reading used to be my favorite thing to do for myself. I would be uncomfortable having to rely on other people so much.
One thing I liked about "The South" was the fact that a lot of the story came from Borges's own life. I think it was cool that he found a way to write about his own life experiences without writing an autobiography of some sort. I also like the fact that because the story was not entirely about him, the reader has to take the time to figure out what is fact and what is fiction, and also what is a mix. It kind of made his real life more mysterious.
image found on wikipedia
I found it interesting that although he was middle class, his family came from two different backgrounds, and that he identified a lot with his grandfather who was a soldier and war hero. I also found the fact that he started writing at such a young age to be incredible, because most kids are busy just playing with friends, and he was off reading and writing stories. He dedicated so much of his life to reading and writing, and I was surprised when he video we watched said that he eventually went blind because of his head injury. I couldn't imagine having to rely on someone else to read to me, if reading used to be my favorite thing to do for myself. I would be uncomfortable having to rely on other people so much.
One thing I liked about "The South" was the fact that a lot of the story came from Borges's own life. I think it was cool that he found a way to write about his own life experiences without writing an autobiography of some sort. I also like the fact that because the story was not entirely about him, the reader has to take the time to figure out what is fact and what is fiction, and also what is a mix. It kind of made his real life more mysterious.
image found on wikipedia
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