.
.
This is my introduction page.
Everything you need to know is summarized right here.
About:
Simple, it’s a page about this blog. Read it. It will give you a little insight on what this blog and this class is about.
Personal Travel Narrative:
This is my personal story. I went to Mexico.
Why is this relative? Because I say so.
Our lives, my life, is what makes up my experiences, it is what shapes your experiences and it gives insight on the world through my eyes. This story is more than just a few lines telling you what I did there. It’s a story about me in a new environment. I learned things that I would have never of known had I knot traveled alone. Maybe you can learn from it, too.
Traveling Home Narrative:
This here is a twist from my personal travel narrative. In this story I don’t travel to some far away land, I don’t get to see strange sights that are unknown, I simply go home. I write about my community because, it too was foreign at one time to me. I did not grow up here. I was once an outsider even in my own home too. What can you learn from here? That our communities change us, they change what we believe and what we have planned for the future.
The Vinland Sagas:
The Vinland Sagas was a great read. I recommend the book if you want to get a little insight of America before the colonists arrived. Another great reason to read it is because in this day ad age, there simply isn’t something quite as non-diversified as the Vikings. In The Vinland Sagas you witness a pretty monotone community. Why is it important to read about something so one-faced? Because there are dividing lines everywhere, even in a society that is praised for it’s “oneness” .
The Travels of Ibn Battuta:
Just like my traveling home narrative was a twist to my foreign travels, this here is a twist to the Vinland Sagas. He lives and travels in an always-changing community. This brings about similar questions to the Vinland Sagas, specifically how does group membership affect identity and is diversity something that is good or bad.
Individual from Takaki: Joaquin Murrieta:
Takaki’s book, A Different Mirror, showed us the minority’s struggle within America. This is a story of a minority. This is a story of one man’s struggle portrayed through the conversation of two of his followers. It deals slightly with culture, inequality between groups, and the aftermath of such hatred. It is a legend of a man considered a bandit by history but a great folk hero by Chicanos.
Because the story that I have written takes the form of dialogue between two men, I want to give you a synopsis of Joaquin Murrieta’s life, as to make things clear for all of you.
The story goes that Murrieta, who hailed from Sonora, Mexico, was a peaceful California gold miner until Anglos took away his goldmine and murdered his children and wife in 1850. In a desperate attempt to avenge the injustices done to him, other Mexicans, and Mexican Americans, Murrieta robbed, ransacked, and killed anybody who got in his way. He was compared to Robin Hood, but his random acts of lawlessness only served to deepen the animosity Anglos felt towards Mexicans. Some California Rangers reported his death but his body was stolen before his identity was verified.
The main reason I chose to retell the story of a historical figure is because of his significance not just for the Chicano people but also the Native Americans. John Rollins Ridge, a Cherokee also known as yellow bird, wrote his story one year after the reported death of Joaquin Murrieta. Yellow Bird wrote the article originally in the California Police Gazette and later went on to publish his own book about Murrieta. As a Native American, Yellow Bird identified with the discriminatory treatment of California Mexicans, and he stated that he wanted to do justice to the Mexicans.
Silk Road: The Widow:
It is a simple retelling of a story in Life along The Silk Road. Although short it amplifies the weakness and fissures of a society ruled by men, where women are the minority.
The Blog:
My usual rants and assignments
An LAS 284 Seminar Blog 