The History Of El Dorado

The Prince of Los Cocuyos certainly touches upon the topic of “Coming of Age”. Everyone experiences it at some point of his or her life. “Coming of Age” is the transition from one’s childhood to adulthood. While this transition is taking place, one gains more responsibility and privileges. It may affect a person both, physically and emotionally. Everyone experiences it differently. During this transition, you develop as a human being.

El Norte was released in 1983 and set in the middle of Guatemalan civil war. It was directed by Gregory Nava and produced by Anna Thomas. The major theme of this movie is the struggle of young siblings to find a better life in another country as immigrants. The movie is divided into three parts: when the two siblings, Enrique and Rosa flee from their homeland because of a raged war, their attempts to cross Mexico illegally, and arrived in the United States of America, where most people think it’s a “promised land”. The main point of this movie is not the end, but the journey itself. Immigration is one of the most heated and controversial issues until now. By watching this movie, we can see the different perspective from the immigrants.

In Candide, or Optimism, Voltaire envisions a paradise, El Dorado, where the inhabitants have all they ever need and the idea of physical wealth or excess does not

Columbus noticed that some of these Indians had little golden ornaments in their noses and ears, This made him take some of the Arawak Indians that they help prisoner onto the ship and insisted they guide him to where they were the source of the gold was, this had lead him to sail to what is now Cuba then to Hispaniola.# There bits of gold were visible in the rivers. Columbus and his crew built a fort and left thirty-nine crew members there to collect gold and store all they would find.

Before 1453, Europe was in a period of time often referred to as the Dark ages. Critics claim that they had little access to any kind of trade, wealth or ideas that traveled along the Silk Roads. Meaning that the Europeans economy was based largely off of agriculture and they lived very difficult lives in poverty. This was until daring and courageous men decided to pull Europe out of the Dark ages and into the Renaissance (A Golden Age). The many voyages of European explorers and conquistadors are what brought Europe into what would become known as The Age of Exploration. This connected Europe to trade and cultural ideas along the east. Although the Europeans and conquistadors did conquer the natives and spread the base of slavery, these men did bring new ideas, technology, science and culture that ultimately result in a huge impact on history.

Candide, along with his companion Cacambo, stumbles onto the secluded but physically speaking flawless land of Eldorado. Not even here is Candide able to find everything that he is looking for. Eldorado, which was originally the home land of the Incas, is completely sheltered from the rest of the world by the means of unsurpassable mountains. It is here that people are able to escape the evils of the world. Happiness in the real world is just a moment of happening which

In “El Norte”, Gregory Nava states that Guatemala was dark place to live there, and that the people were pick out food with their hands. There was a lot of people working and becoming slaves for picking out the food. Another thing about El Norte is that the brother named Enrique and the sister named Rosa. Enrique was worry about his father for leaving dinner he said to Enrique “The rich came to this village from other parts looking for good land, no one fights over band land”, meaning that people only come to a rich place because the environment good, eating healthier food and they have technology. Once Arturo left enquire to meet with his worker friends, the military people can to find them, Arturo was extremely closed to escape instead the military shot. Enquire hear the gunshot and saw his father head hanging up on the tree, when enquire saw his father hanging up on the tree he was angry sad and want to kill the military people which he did three time. When they were having the funeral for Arturo everybody in the village was praying for him and other men that got killed. Everybody was dressing the same clothes and the music was sounding beautiful when Rosa was singing. The military can back to find enquire for killing them, once they were searching the place military people took his family while they Rosa and enquire were hiding inside the canyon. When enquire and Rosa find each other they both want to get out of Guatemala and head to the “North.” They both were wearing white clothes maybe representing their culture, religious or maybe their she was tired wearing the same clothes and when they left Guatemala the music was back. Enrique and Rosa are on a quest to get out of the ethnic and political repressed Guatemala and attempt to escape to the North where they can live the “American dream.” Will Enrique and Rosa live the “American dream” once they escape to the North? Can an illegal immigrant achieve the “American dream?” To answer these questions the audience you figure out what depend on the viewers.

Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso 1880-1920 analyzes and discusses the Mexican immigrants to El Paso, Texas. The most western city of the vast state of Texas, a city in the edge of the Chihuahuan desert; a place too far away from many regions of the United States, but as Mario García explains a very important city during the development of the western United States. He begins explaining how El Paso’s proximity to different railroads coming from México and the United States converged there, which allowed El Paso to become an “instant city”, as mining, smelting, and ranching came to region. (García 2)

The Alamo itself was a Spanish Mission, which had a main purpose of converting natives in the area to Catholicism, the official Spanish religion. The time period in which it was establish along with several other missions was during the Spanish Mission Period, which lasted from the early to late 18th century. The Alamo’s original name was San Antonio de Valero in honor of Saint Anthony de Padua (Official Alamo Website). It changed locations several times before it finally was moved to its current location in 1724. It was the first of five Spanish missions in the current San Antonio area and was home to many Spanish missionaries and Indian converts. However, converting natives was not it’s only purpose. It also served to convert the natives to the Spanish way of life in order to create a self-sufficient population that could grow and sustain it-self as loyal Spanish subjects to keep other European powers out of this area. But this strategy did not last for long. Near the end of the 18th century, the Indian convert population had dwindled because of increased exposure to new diseases carried by Europeans.

This so called “black gold” brought about towns that would have never been made and it increased town spirit.

The Mexican Corridos of 1910-1930 not only depict the lives of certain foreigners living in Mexico and in the United States during this time, but also illustrate what their experiences were like in such locations. While several individuals criticized the life in Mexico, and others criticized the life in the United States, the one thing that remained constant in almost all corridos was the fact that the criticism of Mexico was mainly aimed at the overall poverty of the country, while criticism of life in the United States focused mostly on the well-being and class of Americans themselves and not so much on the country’s financial status.

The Kingdom Ghana in western Africa flourished. Ghana gained control of the salt-and-gold trade (Doc. 2). This was important because Gold was used as a currency,

Gold and salt mines surrounded Ghana and were kept a secret from the other countries who might want to get in on the great wealth of Ghana. Another reason Ghana had an opulent economy was because people loved books and would pay a great fortune to buy them. In Document 1 it talks about how the location of Ghana was important to the economy and in Document 4, people in Ghana lived on to do great tasks, because of the knowledge they got from all the books they bought. As seen in the map in document 1, it shows Ghana located directly in the middle of 12 gold and salt mines which they kept private so no one could steal their good fortune (Document 1). In the fourth document it reads,“Here are many doctors, judges, priests, and other learned men that are well maintained at the king's costs. Various manuscripts and written books are brought here . . . and sold for more money than other merchandise” (Document 4). This is helpful because they used the mines to trade with people who did not have the opportunity to collect gold and salt, but needed it. The salt is used to keep food fresh in warmer areas, and the gold is used for trading. They also highly appreciated books and would pay a substantial of money to get them. Books started to even become more highly priced than items like merchandise. The location of Ghana contributed greatly to the rich and wealthy atmosphere of Ghana as well as

The Texas revolt of Mexico was the largest land to be settled, with that and the gold-rush, the United States expanded quickly. Which had brought upon the Manifest Destiny, a phrase used to urge Texas annexation and to encourage American settlement in the Great Plains and the west as a justification. The Mexican war was the first United States conflict to be fought on foreign soil and take a foreign capital with 60,000 volunteers for the fight. Due to the United States still open to slavery Texas adopted the southern slavery way and the once free under Mexican laws now had no rights after the United States took over the territory. The California gold rush had the biggest diversity with people coming all over the world to mine, hoping they

Outside of El Dorado, people desire to gain wealth. Those people will sometimes do anything to become as wealthy as possible. “Candide sold two small diamonds, the least of which was worth more than what the skipper asked for his freight. He paid him in advance. The two sheep were put on board. Candide followed in a little boat to join the vessel in the roads. The skipper seized his opportunity, set sail, and put out to sea, the wind favouring him. Candide, dismayed and