Semester #2 Blog #15

1. What major people, places, concepts, events or things would have influenced the lives of the people in your story? How or why?

"At the beginning of the 1980s, Mexico’s economy was teetering, shaken by the nation's worst recession since the 1930s. In 1982, the peso was devalued repeatedly during the country’s economic crisis. High unemployment pushed more migrants to find work in the United States."

(http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/mexico704/history/timeline.html). The big economic crisis in Mexico influenced my dad's life because of that he immigrated to the US. The reason he immigrated to the US was because of the corruption going on in Mexico, caused by the economic crisis. He also immigrated to the US for a better life, because with all the poverty and things going on in Mexico, he didn't see a great future if he stayed there.

"When Miguel De La Madrid Hurtado assumed the presidency in 1982, Mexico's economy was on the verge of collapse. The government imposed vast austerity measures and in 1985 signed with foreign creditors the first stage of a 14 year debt restructuring plan. In September 1985, the Mexican economy suffered an additional setback when earthquakes severely damaged the capital, killing and injuring thousands." (http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2-mexican-history-a-brief-summary) During the time my dad immigrated to the US the president of Mexico was Miguel De La Madrid Hurtado and when he became the president in 1982, the economy in Mexico was pretty bad, like I said before. There were also erathquakes going on in 1985 that killed many. All this things forced people, like my dad, to immigrate to the US.

"In 1986, Congress passed more legislation with the Immigration Reform and Control Act, aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigration by cracking down on U.S. employers who hire illegal immigrants. The act also granted an amnesty to illegal workers already in the United States, giving more than 2.7 million people legal status." This is how my dad was able to become legal in the US. He was very lucky to have immigrated to the US in the early 1980's and not after because then he wouldn't have been able to become legal. This influenced his life because he was able to freely create a life in the US without having a fear of being deported for being illegal. 

Ronald Reagan was the US president from 1981-1989, so basically the 1980's. "...Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He embarked upon a course of cutting taxes and Government expenditures, refusing to deviate from it when the strengthening of defense forces led to a large deficit...Overall, the Reagan years saw a restoration of prosperity, and the goal of peace through strength seemed to be within grasp." (http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ronaldreagan)

2. How might the people in your story have acted differently if they had more information about their setting? What information would have changed their personal history?

Well, if there hadn't been an economic crisis during the 1980's then my dad would have probably not immigrated to the US. He would have tried to make a good life in Mexico instead of having to go through the effort of being able to cross the border. If there hadn't been an economic crisis in Mexico, and he hadn't immigrated to the US in the 1980's then his whole personal history after that would have changed. First of all, he wouldn't have moved to San Francisco, which would mean he wouldn't have met my mom, and I wouldn't be here right now. Second of all, he wouldn't have become legal to the US and therefore probably wouldn't have stayed in the US for a long time. It was necessary for him to immigrate to the US in the early 1980's because of he had done it after than he would have probably not become legal and wouldn't have met my mom.

 Using different sources that you found...
4. Post at least two pieces of media (or multimedia) that the people in your story would have seen, heard, or otherwise been aware of. How would they have interpetted the material?

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/05/us/facts-on-amnesty-plan-for-illegal-aliens-in-us.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm - This is a New York Times newspaper article published in May 5th, 1987 telling the immigrants that on "Tuesday"  they could apply for legal status. It is most likely that my parents read this newspaper because it gave them facts on the amnesty plan for immigrants in the US. It tells them if they qualify or not and what you need to apply. So it was probably very helpful for them and maybe that is how they found out about the amnesty plan.

http://www.stoykovich.com/amnesty2.jpg- These were probably some of the posters my parents would see in the streets, when immigrants were asking for an amnesty.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZBJ_2kH40um3YVQXrqkKYzpuUeiagGV6uXNROzC5tMcelMvhuDhuSENhUNY1I4pxhzoukWifDPliDhzCwYp_yEafhw1wWYPCHtOAOU8ziqgDWAclTDllkuq7xCFh3_ZeL6xiwd4gG8x23/s1600/Ronald-Reagan1.jpeg - My parents probably saw this image everywhere, which is Ronald Reagan signing the Immigration Reform. This really helped my parents because that is why they were able to become legal.

Semester #2 Blog #14

1. Post at least two primary documents from your research into your family history.
2. Post a list of relevant historical or cultural facts about the setting of your family story (government, world events, popular culture, religious events, etc.)

What stands out to you about the historical or cultural context of your family story?

Before starting this project and doing the historical and cultural context assignment, I didn't know my family had so many different stories that had to do with things like health, and war, and immigration. I didn't know my grandpa was a general in the Salvadoran army. I didn't know that my grandma died because she got a stroke after getting her leg amputated, and so many other things. This project has helped me learn a lot more stories about my family. The story of my family I decided to write about was the immigration of parents to the US in the 1980's. What stood out to me about the historical or cultural context of my family's immigration in the 1980's was that in the 1980's in the US the president and others were trying to do an amnesty to give illegal people papers so they would become legal. Because my parents immigrated around that time they were able to become legal.   

New York Times article from the 1980's talking about the amnesty and trying to give illegal people papers:
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/05/us/facts-on-amnesty-plan-for-illegal-aliens-in-us.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
What stands out to you about the setting of the story?

I still don't really have a setting to my story. I am thinking of combining my mom and dad's immigration stories. My dad immigrated here from Mexico and my mom immigrated hre from El Salvador, but in order to immigrate to the US she had to move to Mexico first. So the setting of my story will mostly be in Mexico (Baja California) and California (San Francisco and Cochella). What stands out to me about the setting of my story was that during the early 1980's there was an economic crisis in Mexico causing many Hispanics to immigrate to the US for a better life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Mexico#1982_crisis_and_recovery

What about the historical or cultural setting seems most relevant to your story?

Well as I was saying, there was an economic crisis in Mexico in the early 1980's, causing a lot of Hipanics to immigrate to the US. One of the reasons my dad immigrated to the US around that time because of the corruption in Mexico at that time, which was caused by the economic crisis. The situation in the US at that time, was pretty good and that made people come to the US.

Immigration
-My dad immigrated from Mexico to the USA a couple of times
-Back in the 1970's and 1980's it was easier so he would go in to the US, then go back to Ensenada then cross again until he became a legal resident later on in the late 1980's
-The first time he came to the US was when he was about 17, in 1971, and then he went back to Ensenada, then returned to the US to stay here in 1981
-My mom immigrated from El Salvador with her brothers to the USA (San Francisco) in 1984, right after her mom died
-She first came to Mexico, Tijuana and then she crossed to the US
-Economic situation of Mexico in the 1980's (http://www.econ.umn.edu/~tkehoe/papers/ChileMexico.pdf )
-"At the beginning of the 1980s, Mexico’s economy was teetering, shaken by the nation's worst recession since the 1930s. In 1982, the peso was devalued repeatedly during the country’s economic crisis. High unemployment pushed more migrants to find work in the United States." (http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/mexico704/history/timeline.html )
-Newspaper article talking about "illegal aliens" and how they were trying to give them papers at that time, which was how my parents became legal in this country (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/05/us/facts-on-amnesty-plan-for-illegal-aliens-in-us.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)
-Newspaper article about the increase of Hispanics immigrating to the US during the 1980's (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/11/us/hispanic-population-growing-5-times-as-fast-as-rest-of-us.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm )
-They met in San Francisco; they met because they had both immigrated to the same place around the same time (1980's)
-Immigration to the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States )
-Talks about immigration and the immigration rates from 1700-1998 (http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/cohn.immigration.us )
-Contains links to many articles about immigration (http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/301/Immigration-Laws-Policies-Since-1980s.html )
-Once they had both lived in San Francisco for a few years they moved back to Mexico for about 12 years and then they came back to San Francisco and then we moved to San Diego
-Immigration at that time was very common; it was also a lot easier than it is to get to the US now
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_(1980%E2%80%931991)    
(http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/05/us/facts-on-amnesty-plan-for-illegal-aliens-in-us.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)

Semester #2 Blog #13

Quote: "Another thing they taught was that nobody was ridiculous or bad or disgusting."

Source: Chapter 1, Pg.8, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Original context: At this point in the book, we notice how the author is mostly reflecting back on everything and what happened in the process of trying to figure out what to write for this book. He talks about what he did after the war, and write before he says this quote, he is telling the reader that he went to the University of Chicago and was a student in the Department of Anthropology. He was talking about the things they had taught him, which were that there is no difference between anybody, and that there is nobody that "was ridiculous or bad or disgusting." (The quote above.) He then says that before his father died he told him that he never wrote a story with a villain in it and the author tells him that that is what he learned in college after war. Letting us know that he believed what it says in the quote above and that is why he doesn't have any villains in his story, because he believes nobody is "bad."

I chose this quote because it stood out to me a lot while I was reading this book. In the first few pages we know it is going to be a book about war, specifically WWII and Dresden, and in wars there always has to be a "bad" side or person but in this quote he is saying that nobody is bad. Usually when you hear the word "World War 2" you automatically think about Hitler and the many, many Jews that were killed but what about the other bad people, what about the other thousands of soldiers that were killing each other and killing civilians. I think what he is trying to make people get out of this quote is that there is not one person that is "bad", we are all bad because we are all not perfect and no matter what, we have all done something wrong at some point in our lives. That is why before this quote he says that something else that he learned was that there was no difference between nobody.

Artistic Vision/ Ideas/ Plans: I was thinking of probably either doing a stencil or some sort of small poster. I was thinking of having probably a cartoonish picture of Hitler in the middle and about 2 or 3 soldiers on the sides of him and at the bottom and sort of on the top of it have the quote. Everything will be in black and white and probably some gray. The reason I will have Hitler and some soldiers will be to show how everyone thinks about Hitler when you talk about WWII and the "bad" people. But this quote is saying that there is nobody that is "bad" so it will connect with the overall quote.

Semester #2 Blog #12

As you write your article, what is your engine?

I feel like there are multiple engines in my article. The main engines are: how I began to think of becoming a veterinarian. How internship helped me further think about the possibility of being a veterinarian. What other careers paths I've thought about.

What are the key questions that you are answering for your readers?

-What is the good side of becoming a veterinarian?

-What is the not so great side of being a veterinarian?

-What was internship like? What did it teach me? What did I take from it?

-How did I begin to think about being a vet?

-What are other careers I've considered?

What are the key questions that you are answering for yourself as you write?

-Do I want to be a veterinarian?

-What are the good things about being a veterinarian? The bad things?

-How much do I love animals?

-Do I know what to be when I grow up? Do I have a clue?

If this were a more "standardized" writing assignment, what would the prompt be?

The prompt would most likely be: Think back to internship and write a one to two page article where you express the ideas you have brought back from internship. Write about any great experiences, learning experiences, life-long lessons, or anything else that you got out of internship.

Honors Writing #8

In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie goes through many unfortunate events that transform her to the woman she know is. She is a black woman that experienced racism as well as being mistreated by the men surrounding her. The major theme I was able to see throughout the book was that life is not easy, you have to keep fighting for your own happiness and stand up for yourself for what you want. This theme was shown throughout the book with many different literary devices like characterization, flashback, and conflict.

In the story, we can see characterization as we get to know Janie. Janie was raised by her grandmother, who was born into slavery. She grew up without a mom or dad. Janie faced racism for being a black girl and later on was forced by her grandmother to marry a man much older than her, Logan. But she was miserable because she did not love him. "She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman." She didn’t want to keep this miserable life with Logan, so she ran away with Joe Starks looking for happiness. He promised her that he would treat her like a lady and she would have a wonderful life. But that marriage didn't work either, once again she was not happy. Before Joe died she told him, "Listen, Jody, you ain't de Jody ah run off down de road wid. You'se whut's left after he died. Ah run off tuh keep uh house wid you in uh wonderful way. But you wasn't satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in mine." She had spent almost half of her life with him but she had been miserable. Even though this happened to her she didn't give up, she kept her head high, confident. She kept fighting to find her happiness and true love and that is when Tea Cake came along. Tea Cake taught her how to love and he taught her so many other things that would later help her. He taught her how to shoot, how to play certain games that she wasn’t allowed to before just because she was a woman. He taught her how to stand up for herself because he thought that being a woman and being black shouldn’t stop Janie from doing certain things. Being with Tea Cake showed her what real happiness was like so she fought to keep that happiness, and she fought until the last minute to keep Tea Cake alive, after the mad dog bite him during the hurricane. She tried to keep him alive but it was too late and she had to shoot him in order to save her life but even after he died, she still felt him. “Tea Cake, with the sun for a shawl. Of course he wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace.” Janie shows us through her life experince that you never have to stop fighting for your own happiness, you have to look for it and once you find it fight and stand up for it and for yourself.

In this book we can also see flashback, being that the whole story is basically a flashback. The story starts off when Janie is coming back to Eatonville, the town where she lived with Joe, after Tea Cake died and then Pheoby goes over to her house so she tells her not just want happened to Tea Cake but her entire life story since she was a little girl. Through out the most part of the book, we get to know what Janie has been through throughout her life, because she is telling Pheoby her life experience. Then the book ends when Janie wraps up her recounting to Pheoby. Pheoby is very impressed about everything Janie has been through. That night, Janie back in her room feels at one with Tea Cake and at peace with herself. I think the reason for the book to be written as a flashback is so that we could be better interested to know what happened in Janie's life and why she came back. It was easy for the women and the people at the beginning to judge her and gossip about her because they thought she had a wonderful life since she had a lot of money and sort of envy her but they didn't know all the things she had been through. In the second page it says, “Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times...They made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs. It was mass cruelty. A mood come alive.” They didn't know what happened to Tea Cake or what kind of relationship he had with Janie. Janie had to stand up for herself and not let them get into her. She just walked past and ignored them because she knew they were lying and as long as she knew what had happened and felt good about herself then everything was okay.

We can see a lot of conflict between Janie and the people around her. Since the beginning of the book we see how there is conflict between Janie and the women at Eatonville. They don't like her because she ran away with someone she loved, Tea Cake. They didn't like her because they didn't like the idea that she was probably happy, and that she had more money than they did. That is why Janie said, "To start off wid, people like dem wastes up too much time puttin' they mouf on things they don't know nothin' about. Now they got to look into me loving Tea Cake and see whether it was done right or not!" Later on in the book, as we start learning more about Janie and get to know everything she has been through, we start to see the many obstacles she faced in her life. In pg.108 the author says, "She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her. But she had been whipped like a cur dog, and run off down a back road after things." Then after telling her entire life story she tells Pheoby that she has been to the horizon and back and now she is happy to be back because Tea Cake is still with her. In pg.230 Janie tells Pheoby, "Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves." This shows how Janie was very independent and she thinks we should each find out how to live for ourselves and live our own lifes. In pg.174 the author says, "Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom." All the suffering and trouble that Janie had to go through her life only made her stronger. It made her more aware of the world she lived in.

From this book we get the theme that life is not easy and you have to fight for your own happiness and for what you really want and always stand up for yourself. No matter all the obstacles Janie faced, she still kept fighting for her own happiness, and she always stood up for herself and for what she wanted. She was a great woman and teaches all the women who read this book that being a woman shouldn't stop us from doing anything. We are strong, independent and we are able to stand up for ouselves and we should never stop looking for our own happiness.

Semester #2 Blog #11

Quote: "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made...."

Source: Chapter 9, Pg. 179, The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald

Original Context: In the lines before the quote above Nick says, "I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy..."

At this point in the book, Gatsby had already died and Nick had decided to move back to the Midwest, because he was sick of the East and its empty values. Then one day when he was in New York City he encounters Tom. He told Nick that he had been the one that told Wilson that Gatsby had been the one that ran over Myrtle and he was the one that owned the car and told him where he could find Gatsby. Tom didn't care that Gatsby had died, he felt like he deserved it and he didn't even feel guilty that is why after Tom left, Nick says the quote above. He says that Tom and Daisy are careless and uncaring, they destroy things and do whatever they want because they have a lot of money and it works as a shield that protects them against anything and anyone. They do what they please and let other people pay the consequences while they live their empty lives hiding behind masks of something they are not.

Artistic Vision/ Ideas/ Plans: I was thinking of having each couple of words in different fonts and sizes and colors and kind of stacking them over each other, but in a way that the viewer is able to see and understand what it says. I think the quote might be a little too long so I might just pick the most important words in the quote, and I would most likely do this in photoshop. Or maybe having a visual representation in the background like money or something like that, that represents the quote and the book and the setting in the 1920s.

Semester #2 Blog #10

Read the article and respond with the following:

1. Your personal response, which should include the thoughtful selection of direct evidence from the article itself.

I read an article about Foxconn planning on raising salaries for their workers at factories in China. I chose this article because of the iPhone article we read in class a while ago. It was shocking to see that Foxconn is actually planning to pay their workers more after paying them like $6 dollars for working more than 10 hours. They are most likely doing this because of all the people fighting for better working conditions. "Labor rights groups say that over the years, many Foxconn plants have violated Chinese labor laws by pushing workers to endure excessive amounts of overtime. Criticism has grown over working conditions at several Apple suppliers in China, including Foxconn, which employs more than one million workers to assemble some of the world’s most popular devices." People are starting to notice it and trying to stop this. The Fair Labor Associations have begun inspecting the factories to make sure they are following the rules, and the workers are in a safe environment.

"Apple and Foxconn, which is based in Taiwan, have strongly denied allegations that the workers are treated poorly. But Apple has acknowledged in its own audits that some of its suppliers in China violate Apple’s own code of conduct, with instances of child labor, forced overtime and unsafe working conditions and evidence that employees are sometimes exposed to hazardous and toxic chemicals." Apple, like always, defended itself by denying all this but later notices certain things going on in the factories. It is so not fair how these things are going on in 21st century. It was normal to see these things in the early 1900's like in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory because at that time there weren't really any laws for safe working conditions but now there and they shouldn't be violated. I mean even children are working at the Foxconn factories, which is not fair.

2. A link to an article that you recommend from a reputable, or academic, or professional, source that either supports the points made in the article you originally picked, or argues with it in some way. Include a brief piece of writing in which you explain your recommendation.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=1

Above is the link to the iPhone article we read about in class. The reason why I picked the article about Foxconn planning to pay their workers more money was because I remembered the iPhone article we read about in class. The iPhone article talks about how a lot of US jobs have been lost because some have been sent overseas. This makes the Apple company make more profit because they don't have to pay the workers as much as they do American workers. Why pay a lot of money when they could just pay a little to the Chinese people? That is what they asked themselves and picked the Chinese people to be the ones making their products, as well as other factories.

3. Questions for discussion, things to think about, ways to move forward, etc.

I think we should be aware of what is going on around us. That we are losing jobs in America, that Chinese people aren't given the right working conditions, and that there are even children working on some of the factories. We sometimes don't care about all this going on in China because we don't live there and it doesn't really happen in America, anymore, but we need to help these people being treated unfairly just because they are poor and they need the money. We need to be supportive and protest against these situations.

One question that I was thinking about while I was reading was, how will this increase in salaries affect Apple? Will they keep sending their jobs overseas? How will it affect other companies?