Last Blog

This weeks blog will be dedicated to the semester as a whole, which I can't believe is already coming to an end. It is crazy to take a step back and think that in a week, my room will be empty and my freshman year of college will be over! It is also really crazy to think I will already be done with my freshman sequence already, it just seems like this year only just started. Look at that, just like high school, time is flying by. I liked our class, and I am glad that I chose this sequence for sure. I really learned something, and frankly, much more than I would have learned in say American Civilization where I would have already known a lot of what the class was focusing on. This class gave me a unique opportunity not only to skip over all of my general education classes, but also gave me the chance to learn something about our American neighbors to the South. I liked the overall layout of the class with prof's Stark and Serrata teaching independently, but i think the papers and discussion questions would have been easier and more effective had the two lectures stayed closer to one another. It seemed like a lot of the time we would be learning about one country, but then talking about a whole different country the next hour, and it lead me to sometimes mix up the countries in general. That said, talking about countries independently allows us to cover more over a shorter time. I also liked the attempts made to make the class interesting, like the trip to Chicago, as well as the dance lessons, I only wish we could have done more things like that, especially back in the first semester. Once again I will say that I loved not having tests in this class, and I did not have to worry about memorizing each country for the test and then forgetting it afterwards. Instead, the papers made me learn and think while writing them. I would however suggest having peer editing all 4 times, because the papers tend to come out better that way. The projects also gave a unique experience to learn, and was especially good for learning to work in groups with your members to make the best documentary possible, and I would suggest continuing this. Overall, this class was unique, and unlike anything I had ever had in a school atmosphere in terms of structure, events, lack of tests, and papers, and I think that overall, it was beneficial to me.

Blog number 11: A little more on Roberto Clemente

In class, Prof. Stark briefly talked about Roberto Clemente, and I thought that a little more could be said about the man, both on and off the field that related to Latin American pride and heritage. Then I found this video, which in 4 minutes said pretty much everything for me...




http://www.biography.com/people/roberto-clemente-9250805/videos/roberto-clemente-mini-biography-35740739713


That quote from the video "If you have a chance to help others a fail to do so, you're wasting your time on this Earth", and that alone, to me, explains why he was such a well-liked and honorable man. Later in the video it says something along the lines of him being to Latino players what Jackie Robinson was to African American ball-players, and he really opened the door of opportunity for Latino players like essentially 3/4 of the current Detroit Tigers team. To be that player, that link between past and future makes Clemente more of a hero than his baseball stats could ever explain. Wikipedia says that the only member of the Pirates organization to not attend his memorial service was the catcher and a great friend of his, who was busy diving in the waters off of Puerto Rico looking for his body. People drove miles to the beach expecting him to "just walk out of the water" and as the man says "it was just devastating, you didn't even have to be a Pirates fan or even a baseball fan". The fact that he died fulfilling his motto of helping others makes him that much more of a hero and an icon for ages to come. Professors Stark and Serrata both seemed to be in agreement that he was the greatest Latino ball player so far, and one does not get that image across Latin America without going beyond the greatness of a player, and into the greatness of a human being. Honestly, before class on Friday I never bothered to find information on Roberto Clemente and to find out all of this about him, really is astonishing to me that I had not heard it all before. Clemente was a Pittsburgh Pirates hero, and a baseball hero, but above all else, a hero of a human being, and he died displaying that personality perfectly.

My Response to Grace's blog number 10

I also wrote my blog about the book, but I stuck to only talking about the Yarur leadership. I felt the same way as you, with the book sounding to me much more like a novel than the other books this year. I felt a lot more connected to this book, and was more interested that I normally am. I felt like the book was like you said, said in a few points, but my main focus was on how the book was actually funny to me. I especially liked the way that the Allende speech at the factory was worded, and the way that he just joked around at first and then "his tone deepened" when he said he will take over the the factory if elected. To me, that was just not regular wording for a historical book, and like you said, was more novel-like than usual. I really liked this book compared to the others.

Blog number 10: The Yarur Legacy

This week I want to talk specifically about the Peter Winn book we are reading for prof. Stark's discussion questions. I have been doing my questions lately, and I am liking this book significantly more than the others this year so far, so I would like to talk about why that is for this week's blog. I am going to talk specifically about the 3 Yarur leaders that the book describes; Jorge, Juan, and Amador and their leadership. I personally found their systems and the shifts between them to be comical. The father Juan was the man who set up the company, and he did so during pretty bad times, with a lot of outside support. He set up a very loose system where he was seen as a father figure, walking among his men, and being friendly with not only the employees, but their families as well. He took advantage of his incredible skill in business as well as his charismatic character. The people liked him, and were happy to work for the successful company during hard times. But then he died, and his most successful son took over the reigns for the company. This shift to me was the funny one, as he took everything his father had put together, and threw it out the window. The Taylor system was implied in the factory, half the workers laid off, while production doubled. Jorge focused completely on productivity and efficiency of the factory, and the factory benefited in exchanged for unhappy workers. He created a gap between the workers and leaders of the factory, where his father had worked hard to prevent that very thing. This is one of those scenarios where one could imagine the father rolling in his grave with what his son was doing. But at the same time, he was a businessman, so perhaps not so much, it is just difficult to tell whether this was a move that would have been supported or not. It is also difficult to choose whether the boost in production was worth the decrease in worker happiness. I for one think so, but then again, ultimately the workers take over, so who knows. But then Amador takes over from his brother, and he tried to essentially return to his father's ways while retaining the productivity. He tried to return to the paternal image, but he lacks the charisma of his father, and the workers hated him. He kept the productivity high through further worsening the working conditions, to the point where a 3 minute bathroom break got the worker yelled at. The people increased their dislike for management, and eventually take the factory.


In a single generation, the Yarur leaders lost all the support of the workers, and completely revamped the system of the workers. It is just funny and strange to me that brothers had such different ideas from one anther and their father as well.

Mt Response to Grace's Blog 9: Dreams, Reality, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I found Dahlmann's story to be very difficult to grasp because like you said it was very abstract and makes the reader read the story with a funny influence on thoughts. I agree completely with you in regards to Harry's state of being in The Deathly Hallows, which I read twice, and saw the movie twice and still struggle to understand what is really going on. Part of me wants to believe he is asleep, the other wants to say he is dead an saved only by the presence of Voldemort's horcrux inside him. So does that make his conversation real? Can somewhere he's never been, talking with someone who is dead possibly be real? The same question comes up for Dahlmann; can someone who is strapped to the operating table, dying really be visiting the south in his head and have it be real enough to believe? The question isn't really between real and fake, but whatever the reader perceives to be real and fake, and how much they are willing to believe and play along with. I dream at night, but that doesn't make unicorns and dragons real in the world we live in now does it?


I also found it very difficult to try and wrap my mind around all of the ideas being thrown out; like he really went, he dreamt he went, he did not go but it was his choice to go, he did go but it was not his choice, he did not go because fate did not allow it, and he went because fate did allow it. Writing that out and then reading it over it makes no sense to even me, so I don't expect it to make sense to anyone else, but my point is, there are so many interpretations of such an abstract situation and idea that it is nearly impossible to get a grasp on the group conversation.

Blog number 9: Cuba after Castro

This week I want to discuss Cuba, and more specifically what do you think Cuba will be like once the Castros are no longer in power. We discussed in class that Castro was not a bad guy at the beginning of his rule, and was supported by almost 95 percent of the population in taking over for Batista. That said, something clearly changed, and we saw it in his methods, and the way he essentially trapped everyone on the island. When Fidel gave up power to Raul many people may have thought things would change at that point, and to a certain extent, they have. People are allowed to have cell phones and computers now, a technology that has been around for as long as I personally can remember. I for one would have a tough time without a cell phone and a computer, so i can only imagine what it must be like down there. That said, things under Raul have only changed so much, and are probably not going to be too ground-breaking considering Fidel is still alive and I would assume is watching over him like a hawk.So then my question becomes what happens in 2018? What happens when Fidel and Raul die? Perhaps most importantly, what happens when the current generation of political leaders also step down or die? I realize that the man slated to take the presidency next is just a "yes-man" but I cannot help but think what if he changes things up, and maybe reestablishes relationships with the U.S., could it once again become legal to visit Cuba? Will we stop hating Cuba because their ideas conflict with the U.S.? It is impassible to tell because like prof. Stark said; Miguel Diaz-Canel is a fairly unknown politician and was a surprise to many as the man Raul would support in 2018. The wikipedia page on him does not even have much useful information! So what do you guys think? Will Cuba change much, or will Fidel's ghost continue to run the island country through the body of Diaz-Canel?

My Response to Alexis's Blog 8

I was also fascinated by Borges life, and most specifically the young age when he began. To be completely honest, I remember when I was in about first or second grade I asked my mom why we had a thermos in our cabinet that had Harry Potter on it and who that was. She answered "Oh that's a really big book, you'll see one day". If I couldn't read Harry Potter by that age, I find it truly incredible that this little boy was reading the classic stories he was, and writing as well, which I used to hate doing at that age. I recently watched Matilda while babysitting, and this makes me think of her, and how she was reading Moby Dick in first grade, and was incredibly smart for her age. I also found it interesting not only that the head injury from "The South" actually happened to him, and did indeed have very negative effects. To me, being blind is on of my worst fears, and so to imagine loving reading like Borges did really makes me think of how much he lost when he lost his vision. It really was a true love of his to continue writing and have others read to him, but it could not have been anything like what he used to have in reading. Like you, I found Borges to be an interesting individual, especially at a young age.