Benito Cereno

Juárez was born in the village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca on March 21, 1807, located in the mountain range now known as the "Sierra Juárez". His parents, Marcelino Juárez and Brígida García, were peasants who both died when he was three years old. Shortly after, his grandparents died as well, in which his uncle then raised him.[2][3] He described his parents as "indios de la raza primitiva del país," that is, "Indians of the original race of the country."[3] He worked in the corn fields and as a shepherd until the age of 12, when he walked to the city of Oaxaca to attend school.[1] At the time, he was illiterate and could not speak Spanish, only Zapotec.

This could also be viewed as the repetition of a common occurrence in the book: the degradation of black people. Delano calls Babo a, “poor fellow”; this is somewhat demeaning, as it is an expression of pity. Pity, although it can derive from good intentions, ultimately derives from the belief that another is in an inferior state than the person that pities them. However, this shows that Delano feels sorry for Babo, indicating that he sees that slavery as a bad institution.

Ernesto Guevara has earned the praise of many who claim him as the champion of freedom against tyranny and the standard-bearer for the “just revolution”. But Che has also been condemned for his violent and cruel nature, which is prevalent the many executions that he carried out during his active years in revolutionary activity. Che personally executed his own soldiers if they were suspected of anti-revolutionary sentiment. According to Che’s personal diary, the first execution that he carried out was that of Eutímio Guerra. “Che inspected the entry and exit wounds, very much the doctor, writing down that he had slept fine with what he had done.” (The True Story 22:50) Che had no remorse for executing someone who he had been close to for the past two years. Given the circumstances, an execution of a suspected spy may not be cause for remorse, but the executions that follow the fall of the Batista regime were anything but just. The trials conjured up by Fidel and Che in order to appease the masses were for show, much like the Moscow trials of Stalin’s great purge. If deemed guilty by the judges, who did not deliberate at great lengths to decide one’s guilt or innocence, the accused would be pushed up against one of the firing squad walls and shot on the spot. There were no appeals and no arguments. When asked if there was proof to

Cesar Chavez and Dolores huerta, who were the founders of the united farm workers organization, were one of the most famous people who fought for the bracero program that existed from 1942 - 1964.

The perspective the narrator uses is quite tricky as we witness events through Delano’s naïve eyes - who I might add is not entirely reliable due to his racist and paranoiac suspicion of Spanish conspiracy. Yet, when faced with the position of seeing it through Melville’s eyes, we are still unable to obtain an objective narrator of who is entirely distinguished from Delano. The narrator often seeks to humorously make a joke of Delano when not depicting the story through his own eyes, because of this, the meaning tends to change dramatically in the second reading since the audience now knows Babo is in control. This shifts the readers mindset as we perceive Delano treated more ironically. When analyzing the story once more, one notices the efficacy of Babo’s performance as Cereno’s servant as Delano even comes to admire him on several occasions for his so called “loyalty”. Every time Delano reels and falls into Babo's embrace, we assume it the embrace of death as Babo continuously hovers over Cereno like Death himself, threatening to take his life should he make one wrong

After all is said and done, Babo’s body is mutilated and turned to ash, except for his head, which is put on a pike and put on display across the church where, ironically, Don Benito’s remains are laid to rest. Babo’s head altogether is significant because nobody

A few pages in, the book shares the cringeworthy detail that on the side of the San Dominick “rudely painted or chalked, as in sailor freak, along the forward side of a sort of pedestal below the canvas, was the sentence, SEGUID VUESTRO JEFE (“follow your leader”)” (40), a three-word sentence that speaks volumes. Melville shared the detail very early on in the text in order to foreshadow and to parallel what the sentence signifies; follow your leader at first glance seems nothing out of the ordinary given that it is a ship transporting slaves, however the sentence mimicking a slave’s life given that both represent doom. The sentence implies as both advice and a threat. Written by slaves, the sentence warns their former captors that if they do not do as they are told they will end up dead, similarly to their former Captain Aranda (follow your leader Babo vs. follow your leader Aranda). Because Babo had never been in a position of power and always had to do everything, he became very knowledgeable in many aspects in contrary to those in power who were too busy commanding others what must be done. All three accounts that make up the narrative depict Babo as some type of

Delano's first description of Babo compares him to a "shepherd's dog." (p. 41) Not only did Delano compare him to something that was not human, but the assertion that Babo was a "shepherd's dog" is important to understanding Delano's obsession with hierarchy and possession. Delano must understand everything in terms of its relationships and its place in his hierarchy. Delano describes the San Dominick as "a Spanish merchantman of the first class, carrying Negro slaves, amongst other valuable freight." His first reaction to the fact that there were blacks on the San Dominick was to classify the blacks as "valuable freight." He describes the black mothers as "Unsophisticated as leopardesses; loving as doves.." (p. 63) After Captain Delano discovers that the blacks have mutinied, they are no longer dogs but wolves: "Exhausted, the blacks now fought in despair.

Slavery was a horrific event for the millions of people who endured it. Oftentimes, the conditions slaves were forced to endure during their journey across the Atlantic Ocean were more disgusting than the conditions of their life on land. Based on the historical evidence available today, a reader can assume that the slaves were treated poorly by the crew of the San Dominick as well. Naturally, these horrific conditions would give rise to revolt, which is precisely what the slaves did. Babo’s intelligence gave rise to a plan that was successfully executed and much of the crew was killed off. For instance, “Babo ordered [four sailors] to be thrown alive into the sea.”

In the beginning of Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno", we were introduced with the character of Captain Amasa Delano. Delano was described as person with "singularly undistrustful good nature, not liable, except on extraordinary and repeated incentives, and hardly then, to indulge in personal alarms" (35). The description of Captain Delano implies that he is a good-natured person with an open hearted mind. Even though, Delano seems like a clever and experienced captain; during the events of the story he appears as a person who is naive to his surroundings. In my research I will try to answer questions regarding why Delano was unaware of the act that Babo and the rest of the slaves were playing.

When reading Benito Cereno, by Herman Melville for the first time, it is portrayed as a story of a Spanish slave ship lost at sea until being found by an American ship whose captain, Amasa Delano comes on board to assist, and his strange encounter with the ship’s captain Benito Cereno. The events and conversations that take place during his several hours onboard lead Captain Delano to see Cereno as a capricious man, at times very weak and others almost cruel and because the focalization of the story is only told in a third person narrative and Delano’s thoughts, the reader is likely to see what Delano sees without being able to understand Benito’s motives. When the end of the book reveals the true events of the story, that the slaves had revolted and took control of the ship, it dramatically

This can be partly attributed to the story being told in the perspective of Delano, but Melville writing it in the third person. This ultimately gives Melville more control in how he tells by the story by being able to share what Delano is thinking to himself. These internal thoughts can be found throughout the story, specifically when when Delano is looking at the suspicious behavior happening on the ship, “ There is something in the negro which, in a peculiar way, fits him for avocations about one's person. Most negroes are natural valets and hair-dressers; taking to the comb and brush congenially as to the castinets, and flourishing them apparently with almost equal satisfaction. There is, too, a smooth tact about [pg 200]them in this employment, with a marvelous, noiseless, gliding briskness, not ungraceful in its way, singularly pleasing to behold, and still more so to be the manipulated subject of. And above all is the great gift of good-humor. Not the mere grin or laugh is here meant. Those were unsuitable. But a certain easy cheerfulness, harmonious in every glance and gesture; as though God had set the whole negro to some pleasant tune”(page 200). In this part of the story Delano is astonished by how different Boba is acting compared to the typical African person that he is accustomed to seeing. Since Melville incorporates

Captain Delano is shown as a bit of dense character for his inability to see the truth of what happened on the San Dominick. When he meets Babo he is amused at how well he takes care of his master, Captain Cereno, he stays along side him linked by the arm. He even thinks to himself how great it is to have such slave that appears to be more of a friend or companion than a manservant ( Nixon 369). While aboard there are many things that Captain Delano sees which rise his suspicion, however he chooses to disregard or forget them as the story progresses. He sees a young slave boy hitting another young Spanish boy, to which he tells Captain Cereño hoping to get him to do something about the situation, but Captain Cereño dismisses the incident.(9, left column) In return Captain Delano also dismisses the incident and continues on with Captain Cereño. He gives all his trust to Captain Cereno, because to his belief and understanding

In her article entitled “Black Masks: Melville’s Benito Cereno”, Jean Fagan Yellin says that “when Benito Cereno, Herman Melville’s tale of slave revolt, appeared in 1855, it made use of Negro stereotypes already standard in American fiction” (Yellin 678). Captain Amasa Delano is characterized as the typical Yankee man. Yellin elaborates on this by analyzing his self-important, authoritarian persona, observing that he is “investigating the strange ship, self-righteously expounding the doctrine of work, officiously planning to manage affairs on the San Dominick, proudly resentful of any implied social slight, and in no way averse, after helping the distressed Spaniard, to totting up the price he expects to be paired for his trouble. He smugly believes himself the peculiarly favored child of Providence” (Yellin 682). When we view him in contrast with Cereno, an aristocratic European, Delano can now be assessed as representation of the idealistic “New World Man” or the typical American white man, meaning he is seen as “democratic, compassionate, generous, capable of decisive action, although blind to evil and unable to learn from his experience” (Yellin 682). This is best exemplified in his views of the black slaves on the San Dominick. His assumptive thinking is prevalent in the story because throughout his initial exploration of the San Dominick, he buys into the illusion that what is happening upon the ship is not deviating from reality. The presentation of black slaves as

Through this saga, we follow severals protagonists during different years whose purpose is to understand and to end the dictatorship organized by the wealthiest. The most important are Proloff, a man living at the