Labyrinth Of Solitude

Acclaimed American author Richard Rodriquez’s autobiography “Days of Obligation” conveys that his feelings for both Mexico and the United States can be expressed through contrasts. Rodriquez uses pathos, tropes, and schemes to articulate his feelings. His purpose for writing about the contrasts between Mexico and California is to help readers understand the differences that affected his life. Rodriguez’s relationship with his literate audience is personal, since he is opening about his personal life and his views on it.

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.

The legacy and impact of the Spanish conquest is continually discussed and analyzed. The struggle in finding native identities while also acknowledging Spanish heritage is a continuing process in Latin America. Modern film and art, such as Salvador Carrasco’s La Otra Conquista and Diego Rivera’s mural the arrival of Cortés speak about the conquest and its effects on Mexico identity. The film challenges myths about the conquest by arguing against the greatness of Cortés, showing power in native agency, and Spanish dependency on interpreters. The mural upholds myths of the conquest like the black legend, minimizes

Tato Laviera, a great Puerto Rican poet, writes one of his most famous and prideful poems called "AmeRican" majorly composed of metaphors, where he dreams of a time when his people, the Puerto Ricans, can create, or how as he states in his poem "give birth" to a perfect race in which we live in peace and happiness; where all cultures are welcome because we ourselves are forged by various races and cultures, and we do not judge others by mere race. Hence, comes the name of “AmeRican”, because we can make the American society a better place. The main subjects that I will focus on are the meanings embedded in the poem discussing only the most important parts, the relationship of the American and Puerto Rican culture and the tension that lies between them. I will also focus on one of the main ideas of the author: a utopian society conveyed by Puerto Rican culture.

Enrique’s journey from Honduras to the U.S. unveils the innate loyalty of a loving child to their mother and presents the dangers that a migrant faces on the road with consistent angst; nevertheless, it supports the idea that compassion shown by some strangers can boost the retreating confidence within a person. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” he seeks the beacon of light that all migrants hope to encounter; “El Norte.” Like many children before him, it is the answer to the problems of a hard life. While being hunted down “like animals” leading to “seven futile attempts,” he is

With the fast-paced globalization together with the heightening political economic issues of the world, it has brought forth the illegal immigrants to cross the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona, or as the anthropologist, Jason De León describes it, The Land of the Open Graves. However, there is more to unauthorized immigration than what meets the eye. Scratching the surface of the case of undocumented migrants reveals that it rooted from the intensifying global inequality and crisis of the world. Accordingly, the author’s decision to vividly depict the brutality beyond words the undocumented migrants had suffered while crossing the borders allows the readers to see the bigger picture behind illegal immigration, preventing further unnecessary deaths of the innocents.

Mary Wroth alludes to mythology in her sonnet “In This Strange Labyrinth” to describe a woman’s confused struggle with love. The speaker of the poem is a woman stuck in a labyrinth, alluding to the original myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The suggestion that love is not perfect and in fact painful was a revolutionary thing for a woman to write about in the Renaissance. Wroth uses the poem’s title and its relation to the myth, symbolism and poem structure to communicate her message about the tortures of love.

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

This source analyzes the relationships between the Spanish and all sociopolitical levels of Aztec people which explain frontiers of inclusion, demonstrating the content’s value. Brinkerhoff’s includes the quote, “The real power of those who control is constrained by the power of the weak” as an italicized subheading, yet fails to identify the weak and their supposed power, an omission which limits the content’s potential

Life in the new world had many struggles but it had a rich, complex mixture of cultures and ideas. The narrators’ view in “La relacion” and “The Life of Olaudah Equiano” reveals a dynamic understanding of how they see the “others” identity. The Narratives explain how the narrator's’ perceptions and ideas of “others” change over time.

As Alatorre tried to get rid of the mess she had laying on her grey sofa, my eyes wandered around her bedroom. On her desk I noticed a Mexican flag, a sugar skull, and a black and white porcelain skull. Above her sofa, on the wall, was a colorful Mexican confetti banner. Right below that, a large white poster filled with pictures of Alatorres’ friends and family. Right in the center of the white poster was a black paper with the words “Amor Y Paz” (love and peace), and a clenched fist which symbolizes solidarity and expresses strength, resistance, and unity as a community. (See fig. 1.) This information Alatorre explained with a deep passion for her culture and her hard working Chicano community. Underneath the poster was a

When Octavio Paz first visited the largest Mexican population center outside of Mexico’s international borders, Los Angles, he said the city had a "vague atmosphere" of Mexicanism in that manifested itself through "delight in decorations, carelessness and pomp, negligence, passion and reserve." But he felt that his "ragged but beautiful" ghost of Mexican identity rarely interacted with "the North American world based on precision and efficiency." Instead, this Mexicanism floated above the city, "never quite existing, never quite vanishing.1By the time Paz visited the exterior Mexico, a generation of Mexican revolution immigrants had their children in the United States and they had matured. These people had heard the corridos of the Revolutionary

Far in the distance, the faint chewing sound of people taking their first bites into their carne asada tacos, the loud, sharp clinks of tequila glasses, and the hoarse bangs of a piñata being beaten all come hand in hand, representing a Mexican celebration in La-La Land or also known as the city of Los Angeles. The city has been nicknamed “La-La Land” due to its recognition of being a place full of fun and out of touch with reality. For the past several decades, the city of Los Angeles has increasingly become a Latino city as they hosted countless festivals to celebrate the Mexican cultural holidays such as Cinco de Mayo, El Dia de Los Muertos and etc. In the book, The Labyrinth of Solitude, Octavio Paz discusses the generalization of Mexicans and emphasizes the idea of them preferring to be placed in solitude due to their fear of intimacy. The book even discusses the roles of a Mexican fiesta and cultural aspects of the Latino culture. By having Mexican holidays celebrated in Los Angeles, the city has become more invested into the Latino culture with the adoption of its cultural belief of death and celebrations techniques, which include excessively drinking, usage of guitars, letting off fireworks and celebratory gunshots.

CRACK THUD ¨Throw him in the labyrinth.¨ said the dark voice, And then darkness fell over my memory obliterating it. Ouch geez, Where am I? Who am I? While I was sitting up I rubbed the back of my head to ease some pain from it and a painful flash of my memory returned briefly I remembered A storm, a cursed ruby, and a gang of thieves.

In The Motorcycle Diaries, Guevara’s discoveries of the devastating effects of US neo-colonialism in Latin America are only fully understood upon his rediscoveries of the equally harmful nature of not only tourism, but also his own vagabond traveling. Through their encounters with farm labourers, Guevara’s initial discovery of the Araucanian race’s “deep suspicion of the white man who… now continues to exploit them” is shown through the prominent motif of sharing mate, which highlights the early understanding between them. However, this understanding is expanded upon reaching Cuzco, where the symbolic juxtaposition of the three layers of the city emphasises his reassessment of how “a hesitant tourist [also] pass[es] over things superficially”. Even further, in Guevara’s encounter with the Chilean communist couple, graphic imagery accentuates his rediscovery of the “parasitic nature” of not