Blog 3

For this week, we were assigned the novel Drown by Junot Diaz. I absolutely loved reading this novel. I have taken Spanish courses since my freshman year in high school and through my junior year here at USD (received my minor in Spanish education). So, when I started reading the novel and figured out the the author intertwined a varitey of Spanish vocabulary and slang words, I was excited! I love reading novels that can provide a perspective from someone in a different culture/SES status/ethnicity/etc. because it provides a genuine outlook from that person/culture's viewpoint. The book starts out by introducting the 2 main characters that we, as readers, follow through the entire novel. Yunior and Rafa are brothers living with their Mama and Papi. After a while, we find out that originally, their father had left for the States and for the longest time, kept a lie going that he was going to return home soon to them and their Mama. We find out that when he is around, he is rather violent and always has something to complain about. He also is cheating on his wife with the "Puerto Rican woman". What blew me away by this aspect of the story was that he actually took his kids with him when he visited his mistress- like it was no big deal at all. We also meet a character names Ysreal in the first section of the novel. Meeting this character made me really sad. Finding out what had happened to him when he was only a child and then all of the ridicule and fun-making he has to go through with the local kids is absolutely unnerving. Rafa and Yunior end up picking on him and eventually tearing the maks that he wears off of his face- they got what they wanted (to see his disfigurement), but they'll have to live with what they did for the rest of their lives.
After this, we move through the novel and travel with the family to their Tio and Tia's house. This was also an interesting section, with the very different atmosphere in that home as well as the scene where Yunior gets carsick and how his father responds. Apparently, the smell of the new upholstery in his dad's Volkswagon makes Yunior sick and at least 3 times now, he has thrown up all over the car and his father has been the one to clean it up. So I can just imagine how scared Yunior must have been to take a ride with his family to visit his aunt and uncle. I also thought it humorous that Yunior's mother offered the equivalent of Tums to a saint before the road trip :) What a pleasant offering. Once we arrive at the aunt and uncles house, we see again how violent and awkward Yunior and Rafa's father can make things. Everyone is getting food, dancing, laughing and having a good time. Then when Yunior tries to get more food, his father yells at him, telling him that he is not allowed to eat anymore. His mother tries to intervene, but his father won't have it.
In the next section we get to meet Yunior's "girlfriend" Aurora. Not many of Yunior's friends are a fan of her, but that can be expected when you end up finding out that she's a crackhead. This section of the novel was very interesting to read- seeing how in different cultures and different environments can provoke different intimate relationship interactions. Yunior seemed to treat his girlfriend like crap, yet at the same time, he wanted nothing more than to be with her. She seems to just take the verbal abuse, but at the same time, doesn't seem to see Yunior on an exclusive level- she does what she wants, when she wants, but comes back to him when she wants sex or a pack of smokes. I also enjoyed that the author took an entire chapter to discuss and explore different relationships with different girls: "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie". Just to see how there are different labels for girls and relationships seems odd, maybe a little different to me- and the fact that apparently, these girls have no qualms with the labels or how relationships run- different culture, different world.

Blog 2

This past week, I've been reading the novel Slave Moth. As far as I can recall, I haven't ever read a novel written in narrative verse like that, but it was a very interesting and intricate tale. The main character, Varl, possess so much voice, identity, and education, yet stays enslaved and fights a quiet battle for freedom. Throughout each chapter, Moss introduces new characters and new situations that make us as readers think about slavery maybe in a different light. Being an English major, I've been required to read several books/articles about slavery and slave issues to encompass the "multicultural" aspect of the course requirements or what have you. But, out of all of the books or articles that I've had to read, Slave Moth has been the best by far. Just with the way that it's written, it seems so personalized and genuine. I especially enjoyed the scene where Miss Lusa (the young white girl) asks Varl to cover her with mud so she can know what it's like to be black. Varl seemed persistant in telling Lusa that even though she would be covered with a mud skin, it would not at all help her to know what it is like to be black. Miss Lusa seemed so naive and ignorant to the facts of life- not that she should know a wealth of information being as young as she is, but it really made me think about something. People back then had absolutely no idea what it was like to be a slave. Not that we (white people) know anymore now than then, but sometimes just thinking about it makes me ashamed of our country allowing something that awful to happen. Obviously the views of black people that Miss Lusa had most likely derived from her parents- educated in a way that should have provided better ideals and views of humans as a whole, but apparently didn't. Although slavery has long since been prohibited and abolished through the Constitution, the effects made on the African American race are unending and still apparent. With this most recent election of President Obama, some of my shame felt for our country has faded. I believe that this is a milestone for out country and that having him as our leader hopefully will change people's views on ethnicity, race, and discrimination.

I also wanted to comment on the piece by Mark Mossman- The One-Legged Wonder and Other Names. When I was reading this piece, it reminded me of my childhood, especially in the opening paragraphs. I too was born with some physical differences (only three fingers on each hand and two toes on each foot) and I can identify with the author on the difficulties of growing up being different. The author's situation was a little more extreme and obviously a little more apparent, but being different is being different- there is no way to express the feelings of hurt, disappointment, and fear that are in your heart when you know that you are not, and will never be physically the same as everyone else you know. When I was younger, people would ask me questions like, "How do you write?" "Is it hard for you to do things like use scissors?" and the most infamous and ridiculous question I've ever heard, "Will you ever grow your other fingers back later?" (This question asked by an adult, not a child) I've become accustomed to answering these kinds of questions and dealing with the dulled pain of being different. Then, when my younger brother was born, he too had some physical differences- same feet as mine, however, he only has one finger on each hand. Bless his heart, he can do more than most his age- his "handicap" has not hindered him in any way, shape, or form and I am beyond proud of him. Throughout the article, Mossman mentions several times when he used his body and the "non-category" that he had been placed into as an identity and a definition of himself. Funny how we let other people around us put us into categories and groups just by how we look. Not that this is a new phenomena, but at the same time that the idea of slavery makes me ashamed of the choices made in our country at that time, I get a similar feeling of disappointment in people who continually try to place people in categories and limit them in their abilities because of physical differences. All of the labeling and joke making definitely wears on a person after awhile, and I can only be thankful to my parents for being excellent pillars of support and love to bring me to the place I am today and for building a strong internal character to persevere.

Blog 1

Since this blog encompasses two weeks of readings, there is a lot to discuss. Out of the first set of readings, I really enjoyed going through the Choi article, "Nobody Simply Vanishes: The Politics of Disappearance". The article begins with a discussion of essentialism which I found to be very interesting. It made me think about some of the topics that we have been discussing in my IDEA class this semester. We're studying the ecology of human development and we just finished up talking about the human genome, gene expression, and a number of other related issues. We read a few articles by Robert Sapolsky in which he explored the above issues and dictated them in a way that a non-biologist could understand. There was the nature/nuture argument which stemmed out into gene-environment interactions and how different expressions can create different people. The article by Choi reminded me a lot of some of the same issues. In the article, the author notes that, "on one hand, persons are linked to identities they do not choose or participate in developing; on the other hand, they are categorically separated by inherent propensities and other traits. In this sense, barriers are erected that affect negatively both personal initiative and interaction among individuals and groups," (Choi, 1). This, to me, related so much to the idea that genes are the sole output for phenotypical expression- that environment has nothing to do with any of the expression of traits and identities of people. The idea that people look, act, feel, etc. they way that they are/do because of specific genes ONLY, and that they can't do anything about the expression. To me, it just relates to how Choi explains essentialism- tying people to specific identities and categories through something that they can't do anything about.

From the second set of readings, I enjoyed Geeta Kothari's, "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?". The story was humorous, and at the same time brought to the surface several issues that are very real in today's world concerning race, ethnicity, etc. I was able to relate to this story because I used to have a close friend that was originally from India and her family partook in a lot of the traditional food customs in their home in United States. I would be invited for dinner sometimes and had the opportunity to eat some of their traditional foods. It was always quite the experience, but it was very interesting to see how her parents so genuinely idealized and connected to their culture and tradition. Although at times, my friend had some of the same feelings that the main character had in the story- she wanted to eat and drink normal food and beverage- when I say "normal" meaning American. My friend's parents, like those in the story, sometimes took offense when she asked why they had to eat the things they did and why they couldn't eat things that other families could. Overall, it was just very interesting how Kothari took a look at culture and ethnicity through a humorous story about tuna :)