Last comments

When i decided to take this class i did not know i would enjoy it so much, the readings were all enjoyable (except for marti) but all the reading were unique, the one i enjoyed the most was sandra cisnieros. Being a immigrant from a Latin American country i was able to relate and understand a lot of the stories and also compare how different it is for different people the experience of immigrating to a new country. this class has made me think more of my own experience and and how i have reacted. I really liked this class :)

comment on others

I WAS NOT ABL ETO POST COMMENT ON And a body to remember with…and cooking! So i post it here!
I also liked how she used cooking to show change how her daughter didn't like home cooked food any more, instead they like burgers, i think that food liek language issometing that we differ in and is part of our culture,if we lose this, it means we are losing who we are.

a little late !!

Hello I know this is late, but here are my comments on Carmen RODRIGUEZ. I can say that the book is not a hard book to read, but I do believe that it is directed to a very specific audience. I believe we that live in Vancouver could relate a lot to the book because it has specific details that only people that live here can really understand for example when she tell about bus routs and stops she takes. In the same way i think that there are details about Chile that you need to know Chile to really understand. SO the book is more for someone who was from Chile that came to Vancouver. I did not like the fact that she critizied Canada and Vancouver calling it a black whole also she mentions “The Vancouver beaches had no waves. The chilenian coast is more beautiful. That the Mountain in Vancouver were quite big and lovely. That the Andes were bigger and more lovely.”(pg22) I like the stories individually and the fact that she is experimenting with new styles but as a whole i believe the book lacked a little bit of structure. But I really commend the fact that she wrote in English.

Reading the second part of the book I believe that Alvarez makes the reader connect more with the characters. I think the view of the parents especially the father changes a lot. The story that most accomplishes this is “floor Show”. Here I think there is a big change for the girls, especially for Sandi, they have just come to a new country and the girls have been under a lot of pressure to adapt to the new culture and under a lot of pressure from school and feeling like outsiders. But coming to a Spanish restaurant I think they are reminded of how their own culture is beautiful they were reminded of what they have Sandi mentions “Best of all were the rich, familiar smells of garlic and onion and the lilting cadence of Spanish spoken by the dark-eyed waiters, who reminded Sandi of her uncles”(181) she is even more inspired by the dancers when they dance she in some way is proud that a beautiful performance is in some way related to her. Then we have the contrast a representation of USA which is Dr. Fanning’s wife. She in some way ruins the beauty with her presence she says “Mrs. Fanning had broken the spell of the wild and beautiful dancers. Sandi could not bear to watch her” (182) A way to rebel to this is Sandi’s rebellious attitude by asking for the doll, this is visible especially in the end when she says thank you in Spanish “as if the Barbie doll had to be true to her Spanish costume”(187) so here we see especially Sandi learning that she needs to maintain her roots. I really like this story because in a way the main character Sandi is trying to find herself in the mist of American Culture and Spanish Culture which is how she finds herself.

How the Garcia Girls Lost their accents

How the Garcia Girls Lost their accents

I really liked this book I haven’t finished it but so far I’ve been enjoying it a lot. I think compared to the other book it cover issues that affect more people that move to USA. Especially those who are young enough, to assimilate the new culture. I believe that those that move a little older don’t lose much identity they know who they are, either Mexicans, Salvadorians, Nicaraguans, Cubans… and so on they have an identity. In this book it focuses more on those that come younger to the USA and are no longer one nationality but a mixture of two, and how they battle between roots and influence of the new culture. We see this a lot in the story about Yolanda who refuses to sleep with Rudy, in this story we see a battle with the new culture which does not condemn this type of behaviour versus her roots which influenced by catholic beliefs condemns sleeping around. She says “ I would never find someone who would understand my peculiar mix of Catholicism and agnosticism, Hispanic and American styles.” She feels like she does not fit in and I think one of the major themes of the book is finding one’s own identity. And the fact that they keep on traveling back and form the USA to the Island shows that they have not found where they belong, because they keep on doing it even, when they are not forced to.
In the style of writing I found very interesting that Alvarez besides writing both in English and in Spanish he also incorporates a lot of Spanish sayings like “with patience and calm even a burro can climb a palm”(135) In general I really like this book.

I really enjoyed the ending of Cisnieros book, first there is the story of the eyes of Zapata the style of writing is very interesting is most in first person is like a self monologue. The story its self i did not like it portrays the woman as submissive and really with no say, and the view of men is the same as in most of her stories the Macho man, in the story the woman has to accept the fact that he has other wives and children other families and she just accepts this and not only that she even feels privilege because he keeps coming back to her whenever he wants, she leaves her family and everything just to be his lover not even his wife because he tells her he'll "never" marry her yet she is very gratefully for a pair of earrings. This attitude to me does not seem typical of Spanish or Latin or even Mexican woman. That is why i like a quote in the story "bien pretty" After Lupe sees a lot of telenovela she mentions she "want[s] them to be woman who make things happen, not woman who things happen to" and then she makes a big distinction between the woman in the telenovelas and the woman in real life she says they are the ones who say "if you don't like it largate, honey. Those woman. The ones I've known everywhere except on TV, in books and magazines. Las grildfriends. Las commadres. Our mamas and tias. passionate and powerful, tender and volatile, brave, And, above all, fierce." I believe this is a better description of woman then what we have been seing in the other stories. In general all of cinieros writings really allow you to be submerged in the stories, she transmits realy well what these woman feel and what situations they are in. I didn't like how she stereotyped a lot but i liked her writing enough that i want to read her other book "house of mango"

Woman of the hollering creek

I realy enjoyed this novel, i htink the author does a great job of putting all the stories together and setting common themes like struggle of woman and protraying different types of woman. like in other books we have read in this oen realigion is also a important theme, like it is on the life of eevry day people. One thing I noticed and also erad from other critics is the fact that she steretypes men alot especialy the image of the Latin men, she portays them all as players and abusers of woman, i belive she should have included more diverse men and not just one type. An intrestign not e that i want to add is that Woman holleirng creek exsist and its a creek filled with legends of spirits o fwoman that hunt the creek specialy of one woman that is said to have killed her baby because her husban left her.

Comments of other of "Yno se lo trago la tierra"

El libro "y no se lo trago la tierra" me gusto mucho, en clase hablamos que el personaje al final no era realmente un viejo sino un niño y que solo era una expresión y eso cambio mucho como percibí el final del libro, pero en general me gusto mucho uno de mis compañeros recalco como hacen sentir a los mexicanos y como los americanos lo tratan mal, después menciono si en Canadá había un grupo similar que se sintiera igual. Creo que aunque Canadá tiene muchos defectos y también hay racismo creo que un grupo en especifico no exigiste puesto que Canadá en si es un país compuesto de diferencia raciales y es algo que como país nos diferencia de otros. Creo que aquí la diferencias están mas aceptadas. Creo que Estados Unidos podían aprender mucho de la manera de ser de Canadá.

mas cimmentarios de "y se lo trago la tierra"

En clase estuvimos hablando mas de las histories de y se lo trago la tierra y como mucho de mis compañeros también pienso que es un libro muy poético y profundo aunque no lo paresia. El libro habla mucho de las creencias de las personas y también se sentar mucho en el cambio y la madurez no solo de niño a adulto pero también en experiencias que lo cambian a uno y lo asen crecerse como en la "comunión" creo que habla mucho de como las experiencias lo evolucionan a uno como persona. Ah mi me encanto esta libro creo que con un lenguaje simple considera pensamientos bien profundos.

y no se lo trago la tierra

Cuando primero mire esta libro, pensé que era un libro de niños por que su apariencia, pero al leerlo vi que no. Lo que mas me llamo la atención de este libro es como la mayoría de las histories tiene alguna conmociones o mención a las creencias religiosas una historia hasta se llama "el rezo." o "la primera comunión" Creo que Hace un gran conmociones entre la gente pobre que sufre y como lo único que tienen es fe. Creo que en cualquier situación o historia es algo constante en la gente latina puesto que la religión y fe es bien importante, especialmente en tiempos difíciles como las de estas historias, un pasaje que me impresiono mucho fue lo que dice una madre "Mi corazón tiene su misma sangre. regresamelo vivo y les doy mi corazón" creo que aquí se ve la desesperación y ultima esperanza es la fe que la gente tiene. El libro en si me encanto mucho creo que Rivera hace un excelente trabajo de trasnmitir la angustia y los sentimientos de la gente cuando cuenta la historia.

Jose marti

I know you are probably tired of hearing this but i also found this reading hard especially because poetry is not one of my favorite types of writing. When reading Marti i felt that he had a lot of the basic, and expected parts of peotryhe had a lot of metaphors, and he uses a lot of descriptions he takes something as unattractive as a bridge and describes it in such detail that he makes it poetry. ( note i looked at a picture of the bridge and its not that great) i believe that being able to do this shows real talent, his other writings also are very poetical the one i like the most was "fiestas de la estatua de la libertad" He writes a lot about the USA but i had a hard time trying to see his connection to Latin America, maybe my poetic skills are not great but i did not find much connection to his roots and how being from Cuba and not from America affect the ways he sees all these places.

The end

Now that i have finished reading the story i agree a lot with what was said in class, that the book has a, not so great ending because it leaves the reader dissatisfied with the outcome. In the end it is a happy ending because Lola finally get her prince and they live happily ever after with her father in Mexico. but its to perfect in my opinion to make it a good ending its not really believable. Also i believe the ending was to fast and it lacks detail. But in general the book even though it was a drama it brought up a lot of issues of that time like racial differences, religious and political differences and gender difference. Issues that are still present in our time and the fact that you can relate to the character in some way or another made it a good story.

my resposes to others

reading others response to the book i found it very interesting how many like (Emily) applied this book to modern times. she mentioned that this racism is still very apparent in the states especially in California towards Spanish people. and that made me think that there is a big difference between Canada and the states in this regard because Canada encourages diversity and even though racism is present is not as Strong as in the states towards Hispanic people.

Nicole also mentioned something very interesting which is the presence of the author in the book in some occasions she talks to the reader. which is interesting because if you read the introduction of the book it mentions that the author did not want to have her name published in the book because she was scared it would affect the way the book was seen, yet she included her self in the story, t in more mysterious way, with out an identity almost as a neutral party yet when we learn more about the author we see that she favors Lola.

I find that the story of "who would have thought?" is not really a a great story but it allows through a story line to show difference between certain groups by using contrast. for example It uses contrast between races, how different people of one race it treated compared to that of another especially when it comes to the case of Lola when arriving at the home she is even compared to an animal just because she is of dark colour (which later turns to be a dye). This contrast is also seen a lot when you compare her to Emma which Mrs. Norval approves for her son. You can also see two opposite sides when it comes to religion Mrs.Norval being a Presbyterians and Lola being Roman catholic you can see in page 66 how she perceive the catholic Mrs. Norval says "but my religion is a rational one , not an obsurd beliefin images and saints , and relics and holy water." You see a very big difference in general between Dr.Norval and misses Norval they oppose in religion, in politics and in their view of others. I believe this difference is due to the fact that he has travelled and been more in contact with other cultures. In the story we also see how men and woman of that time were contrasted especially when Lavvy tries to help her brother who is in jail, for example Mr.Brown tells her "I see you don;t grasp the idea. Of course, ladies can't well grasp great ideas"(114) So by using contast the writer allows us to see the ideas of that time.

Hola!

My name is Esmeralda, I was born in El Salvador but raised here in Canada, I'm in my third year here at UBC and I'm doing a major in psychology and a minor in Spanish.
c u all in class:)