Blog #12

This is sadly our last post, but happily our last assignment of the year. It was awesome getting to know all of you this year. Overall, I felt like I learned a lot about not just the countries south of us, but also about our own country from another perspective. There were many of the class which I felt could have been improved. Lecture were extremely long, although I know we had to cover a lot of material, it was just very one-sided and hard to pay attention for a full 50 minutes with minimal engagement. I also felt as though we had too much readings and instead of trying to read many things. We should have focused and digested more of one material rather than trying to rush from piece to piece; quality over quantity.
This being said, I still could appreciate the class as a whole and enjoyed this year with you all. Have a great summer and stay safe.

response to elena #11

This is an interesting comparison! I love how you compared the small documentary we had to watch to something very relatable and hilarious. I didn't even think about the contradictory role that Corning stone had, but it makes a lot of sense. I think it is very important to see women in these leadership roles because it brings a fresh perspective to the always heard male voice.

Blog 11

Since we are doing latin dancing in class, I thought I would do some background research on it. I choose salsa because it was the first dance that came to mind when thinking about Latin american dancing. This is actually pretty funny because Salsa originated in New York, not anywhere in Latin America. The dancing was strongly influenced by Puerto Ricans. There was a large Puerto Rican population at the time in New York that happened to cause this. They named the dance "salsa" because they thought the dance was a hot and spicy. In Cuba, there is a new form of Salsa emerging, it is called Timba. It is much more fast paced and has a strong influence from the Afro-Cubans. Cubans call their Salsa dancing "casino". Columbia has its own spin on Salsa too. Theirs is called " Hard Salsa". I found a funny list that describes the Colombian salsa:
1. Coz the dance floors are so crowded, there's no space for large spins.
2. The music's so fast that the footwork's gotta be fast and small.
3. Coz that's how Colombian's like their salsa
I personally am  a little nervous to do this dancing class, but I'm sure everyone will enjoy it!

response to leah's #10

Every time I think of Mexican art, I think of her lol! That's really interesting that she stood for wealth, I actually thought it was just supposed to be a skeleton for Dia de los muertos. political satire is probably one of my favorite things, because I love jokes and irony. It's actually really funny and sad to think that some people are so focused on money and the fact that the skeleton is so dressed up, even though she is dead and it means literally nothing now.

blog 10

Minimum wage is such a controversial subject on whether it should be raised or not. Discussing the conditions of the lower class in Latin american countries and if the bottom line for large companies is worth more than paying employees a little more. Poverty is an issue no matter where you go and it has real effects, not just some numbers in a chart or something. I do understand that it can effect small businesses, so I'm not saying I am an expert in any means, but what I do know is that minimum wage is not enough. Someone brought up in class about how the minimum wage shouldn't be increased because it's just teenagers earning extra spending money, but the reality is much more frightening than that.
 I have seen this effect so many people back at home. Many of my friends back at home could not afford to go to college, and I am not talking about just taking out a loan, I am talking about they could not leave home because they need to take care of younger siblings and also count as a second income for the family. I also worked at Burger King back at home, and many of my coworkers were in their late 20's to early 40's. I also would take the bus home with one of my coworkers who was a single mother, and she and I would get out of work fairly late, around 11:30pm and that really depressed me. Not only is she hardly making rent and getting food on the table, but she also hardly got to see her child. This is an awful image painted in my head because she just came from a stressful day of being yelled at by customers, literally cleaning shit off the walls and floor, customers harassing you, and dealing with very ignorant people.  Now, someone brought up the point that it would "inspire" you to do something more with your life and go to school. If we lived in a perfect world, that would be awesome! but sadly we dont, and life happens. My coworker could not take the chance of going to school to better herself, she had a baby and she needed to make money at that very moment so she could support herself and her child, but I wouldn't necessarily call it supporting. I really don't want to keep rambling on and on, but anyone who is not for highering the minimum wage, I really would like to know why? I don't know each one of your guys' back story, but I'm gonna assume that most of us live a fairly privileged life considering we are in school at this university. So, it may be hard to comprehend that not everyone gets that chance, or can afford to get a higher education. I really suggest you guys play this game  "Poverty game". I know it does not account for every factor, but it really does show how hard it is for a person to live off of minimum wage, and it does not even account for the stress of working all the time and wondering if you could pay your bills. So before you ask why a person should be paid more for "just flipping burgers", talk to people, learn what you're not experiencing.
Government Stats 2012

Blog 9

Yes ANOTHER political cartoon and more propaganda!  ha, but seriously you guys know that the best part of newspapers are the comics, so obviously cartoons are the best part of history. 

This is a pretty obvious comic, showing Cuba having a mouth full of missiles, but after the USSR was taking out the missiles that it had planted out. "This hurts me more than it hurts you!" is printed on the top. It is said in an ironic way, because obvious "Cuba" is getting their teeth ripped out and the "USSR" is just pulling out. I was trying to find out the real reason as to why it would hurt Cuba to have the missiles taken out. And then I gave it a thought for about .00002 of a second and of course the relationship with the United States was even more deeply effected. 

The cartoonist was Edmund S. Valtman lived in Estonia, which was occupied by the USSR which is why he and his wife left and went to the United States. I feel as though this can further drive the feelings of Anti-Communism, and also why Cuba is viewed as a victim in the cartoon and USSR as the menacing dentist. But his one comic that one a Pulitzer shows Fidel in a not so innocent way, although Cuba it self is.

Response to Caitlin's blog 9

This is an interesting point, never thought of it like that. I think that when reading the stories, it is more clearly defined to the general public because they are living through that situation in that time period. It can also show us a more relatable aspect to certain ideologies or theories. There are also so many literary and factual writing on what is happening through out the world for an author to just simply says what he means would be the same thing. It's simply like saying why do we use metaphors? It helps us understand something better or more deeply.
I do think it is interesting that you brought up the point of low literacy rate. that's an interesting point that I would like to know more about.