Monday, September 29, 2008

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.

Monday, September 22, 2008

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.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

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.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

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.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

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.

Friday, September 5, 2008

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:)