Article Summarizing David Stoll's Findings

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_13_116/ai_54588520

Idea for Final Project

For my final project, I have decided to read Rigoberta Menchú’s autobiography, I Rigoberta Menchú. Menchú is a young Guatemalan peasant woman (has won the Nobel Peace Prize), whom is seen as a national leader by many in her country. In this book, Menchú talks about the experiences her family, and many Indian communities in America faced when the Lucas Garcia regime took over in 1978. Her father, mother, and brother were all killed in incidents of savagery on part of the army.

Menchú’s story interested me so much, that I decided to conduct some research on the facts found within the pages of this autobiography. Many people have begun to discuss and wonder the degree of truth of what Menchú says. Dr. David Stoll, the Associate Professor of Anthropology at Middlebury College, has spent many years investigating this topic. In 1987 he began to do field research on political violence and the peace process in Guatemala, and has published 5 books including Rigoberta Menchú and The Story of All Poor Guatemalans about various controversies.

I was able to contact this author and he agreed to have a phone interview with me to talk about his book and to be able to further discuss what led him to conduct the investigation, his findings, and his end product. My plan is to tape the conversation and be able to produce a video with some images with the interview playing in the background. I am currently in the process of forming questions before I call him, and I will post these soon!

Carnivalesque

Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of carnivalesque is quite interesting and can be seen many times throughout Chapter 10 of "One hundred years of Solitude". One of the main ideas presented by Bakhtin was that carnival, although usually associated with a crowd, humor, and equalness through all social classes, Bakhitin says this celebration is more like a "Feast of Fools". However, in the novel what is being celebrated is the coronation of Remedios the Beauty, so there is in fact a difference in levels of importance. This is a moment in which like Bakhtin explains, the world has turned around and the occurring events are completely unexpected. On page 200, "Aureliano Segundo had satisfied at last his dream of dressing up like a tiger and was walking along the wild throng". In other words this carnival is just like a feast of fools in the aspect of what Aureliano Segundo had dressed up as. Chapter 10 is not the only place in this novel where the idea of carnivalesque is brought up.

First thoughts about 100 years of solitude

Throughout reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One hundred years of solitude”, I have noticed that this book is very interesting. One of the things I love about this book is the beginning. For me, the stories that begin with a phrase/statement that makes me ask many questions intrigue me. This book starts out by stating “many years later”, and that a long time ago the village was composed if “20 adobe houses”. I immediately began to wonder. What had caused such a change on the village of Macondo? What events had Colonel Aureliano Buendia perspired in order to end “facing the firing squad”? Garcia Marquez does fabulous job in capturing the readers’ attention in the beginning of this novel.

As the story continues, the readers are introduced to the gypsies, who they themselves introduce many “magical” items to the villagers. As we discussed in class the other day, it is fascinating to imagine that there actual places in the world that are so isolated from civilization (like Macondo) that are amazed by these “magical” items. This reminds me of a weekend trip I made while I was in Mexico this summer. My friends and I had decided to visit “El volcan Parikutin” ( a volcano that had erupted and covered a whole city. The only thing that was visible after the eruption was the top of a church). The local villagers did not speak Spanish, but rather an indigenous language, and when we would take out our IPODS, cell phones, cameras…etc, they would act amazed, as if we had brought some object that was only meant to exist in dreams. I really do like how Marquez plays with this idea of reality vs. a Utopian society. I cant wait to continue reading this book!

Thoughts on "Journey back to the source"

When I began to read Alejo Carpentier's "Journey back to the source", I was very intrigued by the fact that I could not really understand what in the world was going on. Then I was informed that Carpentier had written this story in reverse, which is something I had not had experience in reading and therefore could not identify it. Even though now I knew the answer, I could not understand exactly how the scenes were being sperated and organized. Continuing on what we were discussing in class today, I found really interesting that the comphrehension of this text has to do with our culture and how we write. I remember that one day somebody was holding a book written in a diffrent language, and I remember moving my finger from left to right attempting to read what was printed on the page. Immediatly, this person said to me that in this language you had to read vertically. To say the least, I gave up after like five seconds. I have been raised to always read and write from left to write, and in a way for me and teachers, time progresses the same way. For instance, in history class, the past is represented all the way to the right on a timeline, and as time progresses the events fall further and further to the left. This story to me is something extremelly clever. I love how in this short story, the language is progressing, however, the events are moving back in time. I believe it is incredible that Carpentier was able to create this piece of work. He really did experiement with language, and in a way, is trying to make people aware that there is another way of viewing certain things other than the way we normally view it as. Going back to Carpentier's biography, I read that he fled to Europe beacuse he was about to be imprisoned by singing a song that contained opinions he should not have given. In other words, this experiment with this piece of writting makes sense with the fact that Carpentier has not always been one that follows what is "normally" done, instead, he takes his chances and experiments.

Thoughts on Julia de Burgos's Poems

When I first started to read Julia de Burgo's poems, I was a bit confused about her gender, as were many others in the class. The first poem that I read from her collection was "To Julia de Burgos", and as I was reading it I believed she was a male, because of the way she was contrasting these two different beings. In every stanza, Burgos began by describing an action by a non independent person (a woman), and would then contrast it with by describing how an independent person would act. Because I was very confused by this, I decided to research a bit about Julia de Burgos, and I was able to find out that she was a civil rights activist for women. Knowing this, I reread the poem, and was immediately able to understand it a bit more. What I found very interesting was how she pretty much contradicted her own behaviors. In the third stanza, Burgos states that "you are the cold doll of social lives,/and me, the virile starburst of human life." In other words, in her letter to herself, she is kind of telling her outer self that she is not an activist and that she dos not do much when it comes to social life. However, she states that deep in her soul she is the "virile starburst of human life", or that she is actively involved in society, just like men. The reason that I love this poem, is that you would think that as a civil rights activist, Burgos would think she shows interest both externally as internally, but through reading this poem, one could tell her true opinions on her own self.

When I finished reading that poem, I moved on and began to read "Pentachrome". I have to say that I was more surprised reading this poem than the first one. I just could not understand why an activist for women would say they wanted "to be a man". To me, it seemed as if one would advocate for women, it was because they were against that all the men get the praise and honor. In this poem, Burgos states that she wants to be one of those people "converting into heroes of life". In my opinion, maybe she was just tired of fighting, and hated how it was just so easy for men. Maybe this is the reason she wishes she were a man, in order for things to be easier like it is for men.

"My Last Name"

As I was reading Guillen's poem, "My last name", I found myself smiling and nodding, as for everything I was reading sounded like reality and questions that seem normal to ask. In his poem, Guillen states that his last name is a "password...that is handed to me...and he carries it on his shoulders always through the streets". Just like he said, a name is something that it is used to identify a person, but in reality, does it really fulfill its purpose? A name cannot tell that person's life stories, and the battles and difficulties they had to go through. Also, as Guillen states in his poem, a name is something that can not truly identify a persons ethnic background, although some people try to do so. But why do we have to carry this name with us always? Why cant we just be individual people with all different last names?