Essay about Amigo Brothers Mother's Point of View

     On the road of life, many trials arise that one must overcome to make his or her life feel complete. In Langston Hughes’s poem, “Mother to Son,” these trials are a subject of concern for one mother. Hughes’ “ability to project himself” is seen in his use of dialect, metaphors, and tone (Barksdale 3).

If someone were to ever tell my younger self that I would one day be one of five siblings, I would have never believed them. Unquestionably, my siblings are an enormous part of who I am; aspiring me to become an intelligent and an affectionate human being. Life doesn't always hurl obstacles in your way, but when it does, it can turn out to be completely disparate and even fascinating from the original thought. At the ripe old age of eleven years old, I was expected to step up to the plate and take care of my new adopted siblings, David and Alysa. Countless responsibilities, circumstances, and a world of authority and gratitude have shaped me along the way due to that one event. Indeed, I am grateful that my parents went through with the adoption because even though I had an impact on my adopted siblings, they have propelled me to become an exceptional brother, son, friend, and student.

I’m an American grown up with Mexican roots; with all their traditions, religious beliefs, holidays, and foods. I come from a small town of south Texas, called The Rio Grande Valley, where I live with my average size family. I’ve grown up with my family facing hardships, and flaws yet united always. As time has gone by I’ve come to learn that everything around me has shaped me to be the young lady I am today, and I’m grateful for that.

     When we finally got to the fight, they weighed me in and my coach told me to start putting on my boxing gear.  I wore black trunks with a red flame going down the right leg and an black tank top.  After I put on my gear I started to wait till it was my turn to fight. I started to eat some cashews, but I was too nervous to eat. After a while, it was finally my turn to fight my coach wrapped my hands up and warmed me up.  My coach and I started heading towards the ring so I could fight.  When the bell rung, I rushed towards my opponent and started throwing all the combinations I knew.  By the time that I knew, the fight was over in the first 55 second in the first round. I shook my opponent’s hand and his coach’s hand. I was so happy I won and got a trophy my dad was so proud of me.

The Amistad was a Spanish ship built in Baltimore for the purpose of transporting slaves. For three years, it sailed the high seas delivering its cargo to various locations. But in August of 1838, a scandalous injustice was uncovered after the ship was seized by an American vessel, the USS Washington, a coast guard ship under the command of Lt. Thomas R. Gedney. Lt. Gedney and his crew towed the Amistad into a New England harbor in Connecticut where soon many controversies amounted and drama would unfold.

Don’t Eat the Bear: A Spanish adventurer named Gaspar De Portola in 1769 passed through a region what is now Santa Barbara. In the near by sand dunes he found a lake where he crossed passed with an “oso flaco”, a skinny bear. They were dying of hunger and ate the skinny bear not knowing it was poisoned.

A gang is an organized group with a recognized leader whose activities are either criminal or, at the very least, threatening to the community. (Walker, 2011) Throughout history there have been some infamous gangs that have gotten media attention and others that have gone under the radar. One of the more underground gang structures are prison gangs. The Nuestra Familia may not be in the news as much anymore compared to other gangs, but they are nothing to be taken lightly. Prison gangs have been around since the late 20th century and only seem to be getting stronger if nothing is going to be done to prevent them. Gangs in prison have members in and out of prison. One of the more popular gangs that has been gaining steam recently is

Every mother would like to see her child succeed in life. The following passage from the poem, "Mother to Son", by Langston Hughes demonstrates the love and concern a mother has for her son. She teaches him using her own life as an example; her life as a climb up a staircase. The imagery from the advice given in the stanza is explicit and poignant:

mother feels like she is expressing her love to her son, then she uses sex as a

The speaker of the poem “Mother to Son,” by Langston Hughes is a mother who is giving advice to her son. Her life has been difficult and hard at times. As readers, we know this because the speaker talks about how life is a staircase and her staircase has had “tacks and splinters in it” (line 3-4). This means that her life has not been perfect and she had many challenges to deal with. Perhaps she was born into poverty, because the images in her poem reveal a ragged, old staircase, like you might find in a decrepit, old building. Further, the speaker’s accent reveals that the speaker was not well-educated when she was younger, such as when she says “I'se been a-climbin' on” (line 9) which is not proper English. Since

The Elder Sister is a painting by a well-known French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. This work of art was completed by William in 1869. As a result of research made on this painting, it was found that the painting was anonymously given to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston as a gift in 1992. According to the museum, this was a gift of an anonymous lady in memory of her father. Since then this amazing work of art has been a part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine arts, Houston; becoming one of the most notable highlights in the museums painting collection. Its dimensions are 51¼ × 38¼ in (130.2 × 97.2 cm) and the frame is 67½ × 55 × 5½ in (171.5 × 139.7 × 14 cm).

“The Amigo Brothers,” written by Piri Thomas, is a story about a special friendship between two boys. Antonio and Felix, two seventeen year old boys, have grown up together and are very close to one another. They do almost everything together. They both dream of a future in which they will be the lightweight champions of the world, and together they help each other train regularly. Then a time comes when their friendship is threatened because for the first time ever, they have to compete against one another in a match. In the end, however, their relationship survives because both boys value their friendship above their ambitions. Through the words, thoughts, and actions of Antonio and Felix, the author expresses the

Life is full of many hard decisions that people have to take, often on the spur of the moment. Some we get right others turn horribly wrong. Joe Keller, the tragic hero of Arthur Miller's play All My Sons, was no different. His whole life was dedicated to his family and their well being but all his plans were undone by one fatally flawed decision.

Everything was about to change, we wouldn’t order take-out on Sundays, it was a big deal, I was losing my best friend, the only father figure I have ever had so far. I watched him taking all of his stuff out of the apartment, I was getting more and more mad. Wasn’t our beautiful relationship enough to make him stay? I even blame myself I thought I had done something wrong, maybe wearing his clothes and leaving them all messy, I apologize and swear not to do it again, but it didn’t matter the decision was already made.

Michael Halloran (2004) proposes that culture as a diverse and complex system of shared and interrelated knowledge, practices and signifiers of a society, provides structure and significance to groups within that society which subsequently impact the individual’s experience of their personal, social, physical and metaphysical worlds (p.5). Halloran (2004) theorizes that cultural maintenance is key to increasing the health and well-being of Aboriginal Australians whereby he suggests that culture provides collectively validated ways to think of and value oneself, further arguing that culture helps to suppress fundamental human existential anxieties about social isolation produced by our mortality awareness. Emile Durkheim (Marks, 1974) identifies anomie as being without law or norms, similarly, D.J Spencer (2000)