A Place Called Chiapas

His careful language exemplifies a quasi-diplomatic approach in controlling his followers. Brunk also emphasizes that “many other jefes […] resented what Zapatista headquarters had become: the centralizing product of Zapata’s interaction with urban intellectual parties” (350). This internal struggle stemming different actor’s perspective on what was happening to Zapatismo provides a more nuanced look at a pivotal group in the Mexican Revolution.

But the soldaderas’ stories, and more prominently, their images, have survived and become an iconic component of Mexican history. When I was researching this project, I found that it was much easier to find photographs of soldaderas than information about them or records of their lives. Several historians have pointed out that the prominence of soldaderas in photography has lead to the truth about how important women were in the revolution, and Horacio Legras has suggested that these photographs have allowed women to become the “rightful subject of history” that they had previously been left out of (6). Elena Poniatowska, in Las Soldaderas, states that, “if not for the photography of Agustin Casasola and Jorge Guerra, and countless rolls of celluloid by Salvador Toscano, we would know nothing about the soldaderas because history has not treated them kindly-in fact, it has denigrated them” (27). Denigrated through verbal written history, the soldadera has ironically become the focal point of Mexican Revolution

Firstly, it is important to understand how the documentary form is best suited to illustrate the film’s theme. In order to do this, one must have an overview of the documentary style of filmmaking. Documentaries concern themselves with the “exploration of

You can see how Maria’s El Salvador is empty of people, full only of romantic ideas. Jose Luis’s image of El Salvador, in contrast, totally invokes manufactured weapons; violence. Maria’s “self-projection elides Jose Luis’s difference” and illustrates “how easy it is for the North American characters, including the big-hearted María, to consume a sensationalized, romanticized, or demonized version of the Salvadoran or Chicana in their midst” (Lomas 2006, 361). Marta Caminero-Santangelo writes: “The main thrust of the narrative of Mother Tongue ... continually ... destabilize[s] the grounds for ... a fantasy of connectedness by emphasizing the ways in which [Maria’s] experience as a Mexican American and José Luis’s experiences as a Salvadoran have created fundamentally different subjects” (Caminero-Santangelo 2001, 198). Similarly, Dalia Kandiyoti points out how Maria’s interactions with José Luis present her false assumptions concerning the supposed “seamlessness of the Latino-Latin American connection” (Kandiyoti 2004, 422). So the continual misinterpretations of José Luis and who he really is and has been through on Maria’s part really show how very far away her experiences as a middle-class, U.S.-born Chicana are from those of her Salvadoran lover. This tension and resistance continues throughout their relationship.

In his essay Bajadas, Francisco Cantu explores the physical and emotional landscapes that shift during his time as a United States border control agent. He candidly writes about his experiences, using imagery to describe the physical landscape of New Mexico in a way that mirrors his own emotional landscape and answers the question that he grapples with most. Cantu writes, “There are days when I feel I am becoming good at what I do. And then I wonder, what does it mean to be good at this? I wonder sometimes how I might explain certain things…” (7). This important question is what drives Bajadas; it is what compels Cantu to write so vulnerably. Through a journal-like structure, Cantu details what his job requires of him and the way he treats

Norma Elia Cantu’s novel “Canícula: Imágenes de una Niñez Fronteriza” (“Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera”), which chronicles of the forthcoming of age of a chicana on the U.S.- Mexico border in the town of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo in the 1940s-60s. Norma Elia Cantú brings together narrative and the images from the family album to tell the story of her family. It blends authentic snapshots with recreated memoirs from 1880 to 1950 in the town between Monterrey, Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas. Narratives present ethnographic information concerning the nationally distributed mass media in the border region. Also they study controversial discourse that challenges the manner in which the border and its populations have been

Gloria Anzaldúa writes of a Utopic frame of mind, the borderlands created in and lived in by the new mestiza. She describes the preexisting natures of the Anglos, Mexicanos, and Chicanos as seen around the southwest U.S. / Mexican border, indicative of the nations at large. She also probes the borders of language, sexuality, psychology and spirituality. Anzaldúa presents this information in various identifiable ways including the autobiography, historical/informative essay, and poetry. What is unique to Anzaldúa is her ability to weave a ‘perfect’ kind of compromised state of mind that melds together the preexisting cultures while simultaneously formulating a fusion of genres that stretches previously

Gloria Anzaldua, an American writer, passionately displays her mixed feelings of the Spanish and American differences of culture and language through the pages of How to Tame a Wild Tongue. She consistently proves her identity through the use of Spanish language in the text, albeit the text is primarily in English. However, Anazaldua is not a Mexican citizen, she still feels so deeply connected to its’ culture. Even so she can speak English and has struggled with the barriers that arise, she continues to claim that her culture and language make up who she and the other Chicanos are and it is highly valued to them.

"The Pachuco is a symbol not of the guilt of an oppressed Mexican minority, but of a cancerous growth within the majority group which is gnawing at the vitals of democracy and American way of life. The Pachuco and his feminine counterpart, the 'Cholitas,' are spawns of a neglectful society - not the products of a humble minority people who are defenseless before their enforced humiliation" (Daniels 206).

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela is arguably the most important novel of the Mexican Revolution because of how it profoundly captures the atmosphere and intricacies of the occasion. Although the immediate subject of the novel is Demetrio Macias - a peasant supporter of the Mexican Revolution -, one of its extensive themes is the ambivalence surrounding the revolution in reality as seen from a broader perspective. Although often poetically revered as a ‘beautiful’ revolution, scenes throughout the novel paint the lack of overall benevolence even among the protagonist revolutionaries during the tumultuous days of the revolution. This paper will analyze certain brash characteristics of the venerated revolution as represented by Azuela’s

Anzaldua identifies as a part of an emerging new mestiza consciousness and community, which strives to move beyond simple dualistic thinking and endeavors to “act and not react” This important contradiction lies at the heart of Anzaldua’s analysis. “From this racial, ideological, cultural, and biological cross-pollicization, an ‘alien’ consciousness is presently in the making — a new mestiza consciousness, una conciencia de mujer. It is a consciousness of the Borderlands.” (Anzaldua, 1987, 420). Anzaldua’s proposition of the new consciousness mediates social relations, revolutionary social change, and its wider relevance to feminist theory through discussions of the Borderlands and its implications for ‘identity.’

Alexander Avina’s book, Specters of the Revolution: Peasant Guerillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside, provides insight into the contextual relationship of Mexico’s habitual revolutions with in their turbulent history, and the failure of leadership from Lucio Cabanas and Gerno Vezquez , as well as the overall divisive culture that plagues Mexican history. Though his arguments are often lengthy and complex, Avina’s work manages to chronologically document the extensive history of Mexico’s revolutionary upheaval. In addition, Avina addresses the flawed leadership of Lucio Cabanas and Gerno Vezquez as they scrupulously debated various ideologies in attempt to find the solution for the people. Meanwhile the Mexican people whom they were theorizing

The racist connotation that Miss Jimenez associates with who she thinks would “fit in” society’s box is a definite reflection of the hardships Valdez witnessed in his community. For example, the Zoot Suit Riots that occurred in 1944 was rooted by a reaction by young Mexican-American males against a culture that did not want them to be a part of it. Stuart Cosgrove examines this issue when he states, "In the most obvious ways they had been stripped of their customs, beliefs and language.” (*Vargas 317) These youths were going through an identity crisis because they did not know which culture they could identify with. Miss Jimenez is a character that embodies that repression Valdez explains in “Los Vendidos.”

An individual’s discovery is transformative on their perceptions of the world. This is the case for the book ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ by Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and Keats’s sonnet “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer”. In this book, we are taken on Che’s journey as he travels Latin America as a young man, before the fame. His diary entries lead the reader into his own eyes, as a typical young man on an adventure, not the revolutionary figure we all associate him with. Through his descriptive entries of the landscape he journeys across, we discover his deeper connection to the land of South America and the love he has for its people. As well as the beautiful things that South America has to

The documentary Eyes on the Prize offers beautiful and impactful artistic interpretations to instill emotion and passion onto the viewer. The director carefully and deliberately included different choices in the documentary to evoke emotions through the images and videos they show. Documentaries matter so much (and now more than ever) because they show the world the truth about the past and what is currently happening. As fortunate US citizens living in 2018, we tend to forget the tragedies currently happening in the world, and we often overlook the freedoms we currently have—forgetting that a brave soul fought continuously for our freedom today. Documentaries are especially important because they remind us of such things. educate us on the past, warn to not to repeat the past, and most importantly, to stand up when similar things do happen. Watching documentaries is a keen reminder of what it means to struggle for freedom and justice and will hopefully, in turn, make the viewer more compassionate.