'The Motorcycle Diaries, And Ernesto Guevara'sMilk'

It is not just the language of the Dominican culture that we find characters struggling to hold onto in Díaz’s Drown. We also find that the characters walk a fine line of defining themselves as newly Dominican American, and it seems they feel pressured to leave behind their old ways and traditions to join their new society. In the short story “Fiesta, 1980,” we find many examples of the family being torn between their Dominican customs and assimilating to their new American life. This story begins with the explanation of Papi’s most prized possession: a brand-new, lime-green, Volkswagen van. Much to Yunior’s chagrin (due to the fact that he gets sick every time he rides in the vehicle), this van means a lot to Papi, because to him, it represents an American family. According to John Riofrio (2008), “it[the van] is the embracing of the American way which has reenabled Papi’s masculinity,” (p. 33). After arriving at their Tia and Tio’s home for the party, Yunior sneers at his relatives’ apartment stating, “the place had been furnished in Contemporary Dominican Tacky” (p. 32). It seems as though Yunior, after only a short period in America, is already feeling embarrassed by his culture’s traditions. This chapter of the book also discusses the betrayal of Yunior’s father to his family, by having an affair with a Puerto Rican woman, whom

During this essay written by Walker Percy, it is clear that his overall opinion of experiencing new things is in the eye of the beholder and/or the hands of those around them and their social status. Percy uses many examples in his writing including that of an explorer, tourist, and local all seeing things for the first time either literally or in a new different light. In this essay, I will play on both sides of regaining experiences, seeing things on a different level then before or the first time. Regaining experiences is a valid argument brought up by Percy as it is achievable. While criticizing each side of the argument, I will also answer questions as to the validity of Percy's argument,

In my analysis of this novel, The Adventure of Don Chipote or, When Parrots Breast-Feed by Daniel Venegas, I kept in mind that Nicolás Kanellos put great effort into getting this novel circulated in Spanish and in English. Kanellos argues that Spanish-language immigrant novels more accurately present the “evils” of American society such as oppression of the immigrant workers and deconstructs the myth of the American Dream, which permeates in English-language ethnic autobiographies. I believe Kanellos felt so passionately about circulating this particular novel was due to the fact that in Venegas’ novel we see clear representations of the three U.S. Hispanic cultures that Kanellos presents which are the native, the immigrant, and the exile cultures.

It is inevitable that certain moments in your life will affect how you think and act forever. These epiphanies can occur anywhere and anytime throughout life, whether it be when you're an immature child or a fully developed adult. The sudden realization can be shocking and life changing or so miniscule that you don’t realize the change within yourself. In Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio at the young age of seven, encountered many situations that caused his perceptions of reality to alter. Many factors such as death and the introduction to secular ideologies caused these epiphanies to arise.

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

The Spanish Roulette is a fictional account of events in the life of a young Puerto Rican named Sixto who swears to avenge for his sister’s assault. According to the story, Sixto’s sister had been raped by a local gang member who Sixto assures must suffer the same pain as his sister before he can finally kill him. Evidenced by the story, Sixto fights the thought of killing his sister’s tormentor while loading his revolver, but finally, snaps and decides to go ahead with his plan thereby leaving any logic and moral reasoning not to kill the gang member. The author, Ed Vega’s epic account of the life of Sixto closely resembles his first-person account of the life in Puerto Rico where the street is controlled by gang members who could rob from innocent families, handle drugs and unauthorized weapons including guns, and go about their business without being interfered by people in the community or the police (Lee). This essay asserts that based on the author’s argument and character representation, revenge is the only hope for the weak in the face of trouble when even the society cannot intervene and this argues that Ed Vega proved as creative and a competent writer by using the various features of poetic writing to create the intended image, environment, characters, and build on the theme of revenge.

Exploring the multilayered notion of rediscoveries is as complex as discovery through personal identity, values and cultures having unforeseen outcomes

As a new and mysterious world awaits to be discovered, daring conquistadors leave their home country of Spain in a journey of exploration. Two men by the name of Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca set sail to thwart the untrustworthy Cortez who, behind the backs of Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca, sailed to the New World with half of Narvaez’s crew in search of treasures. However, the journey would prove to be treacherous as the conquistadors would have to encounter hostile Native Americans and strange terrain they have never seen before. Throughout the expedition, future encounters between the Native Americans and conquistadors were heavily influenced by the personalities of the individuals and past experiences the Native Americans faced.

As Henderson weaves the imagery of a very defenseless nation and the precognition of defeat and lose for Mexico, the political spectrum is placed into sight as he examines the encounter with Hidalgo and states the indigenous people were “indulg[ing] themselves in an orgy of looting, pillaging, murder and mutilation,’ forcing he stance towards independent Creoles like Hidalgo to “gaze into the maw of barbarism” (20). The images placed forth are very descriptive to create a savage stance, one based on no type of foundation to rely on and lack of morals to guide in the past events.

For this essay we will be analyzing and reviewing the article, “How Cabeza De Vaca Lived with, Worked among, and finally left the Indians of Texas.” By Nancy P. Hickerson. This article illuminates the fact that without the help of the so called Native “savages,” Cabeza wouldn't have been able to continue on his journey of this new world and would have probably faced death without the kindness of the Indigenous peoples. “In this article I temporarily bypass the issue of the route and turn my attention to the sociocultural setting of the Relacion and Cabeza De Vaca’s activities in that setting, I shift emphasis to to the resources- social, economic, and cultural available to Cabeza De Vaca as he charted the course that eventually led him, along with three other companions, from coastal Texas towards New Spain. It was after all, while living among and interacting with the Native populations of Texas that he was able to develop and execute the successful strategy for his journey.” She

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.’

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

Many of Mario Vargas Llosa’s younger literary publications were laced with Marxist critiques of a transitioning Latin American society in the 20th century, and though on the surface, “Los Cachorros” may seem little more than a fictional coming of age narrative, the allegorical short story is no exception. Told through an encyclopaedic tour of Lima’s urban spaces, a pack of boys’ transition into young men and their interactions with the city reflect both the rigidity and fragmentation of the Peruvian community as a whole. With particular reference to chapter five, this essay will explore the cities implicit influence on the characters’ fulfilment of heteronomous social identities, and Vargas Llosa’a use of specific literary devices to

The present day United States not only possesses the world’s leading economy and omnipotent military, but has a cultural imprint that influences much of the world. The United State’s vernacular consists of luxury items and acquiring an extravagant lifestyle that is closely associated with the American Dream. America’s mighty cultural influences have left some nations to abandon their beautiful and majestic cultures. In the poem “Coca-Cola and Coco Frío” written by Martín Espada, incorporates his personal experience of a time that he traveled to Puerto Rico. During Espada’s tarriance, he notices the Americanization that Puerto Rico emcopasses, that left him unsatisfied and with disheartenment. Espada’s poem, “Coca-Cola and Coco Frío” reveals

The nature of discovery entails a journey that is transformative and concerns one’s relationship with one’s self or one’s world. Discovery can be a sudden realisation that afterward transforms one’s being and changes their life experiences. Discovery can be uncovered in a variety of ways. It can be completely by accident, by careful and thought out planning or sheer curiosity and wonder. Shakespeare and JK Rowling explore the Power of Love and the Discovery of New Worlds in their respective texts ‘The Tempest’ (1610/11) and ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ (2001).