Blog #8

Sorry Guys, I need to post about this right now while I'm still heated....

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park by Diego Rivera is a beautiful mural that was done for Hotel del Prada in Mexico City. This was painted in 1947-1948 and this hotel was catering towards "gringos" which are white people. This was also soon after world war II. Many thoughts were flying in my head at this point, so i went to go talk to Professor Serrata about this and the overall message I got was the Diego Rivera really didn't care what others thought, so the idea that whites began the painting because he didn't want to offend whites was out of the question. This still was not a satisfactory answer for me, and I really could not think of any reason why Rivera would paint it like this. It is still bothering me, but I came up with a possible answer in my head. 
I dont think this mural has to do with Mexican History or so much as it's whole Identity, I do still believe it is a time line though. I think what Rivera wanted to do was to glorify and romanticize the ideals of the revolution. To further show this point he had to start from the darkest point in Mexican's history as a starting point to contrast and where in history they have progress to the where they are now and how they made it out of the dark time. If Rivera had started from the indigenous people, the effect of the painting would be a mash up of light to dark to light to who knows what. What I think was important was to show the beauty and AMAZINGNESS of the revolution and that is what is the important factor of this mural which I believe is a timeline to compare and contrast the bad from the good and why the Mexican revolution was successful, not so much identity or overall history of Mexico.


Not sure if I'm 100% confident with that answer, but it helps me sleep at night, LOL! :D everyone be safe and have fun during spring break... can't wait!

Blog 7

La Cucaracha

I decided to look up this song because my mom would sing this song all the time. Also when we would visit my family in Cuernavaca and have music playing and dancing, this was a very common song played, (mostly badly sang by the family lol) and after hearing the meaning of it in class, I wondered why my mother would say it so easily around children saying that this cockroach ha no weed to smoke (very strike when it comes to these kinda things). I decided to do some research about the evolution of the song. I could not really find to much except on wikipedia (so not so reliable), but it should different versions of the song, which I found interesting. So I called mom, and asked what were the lyrics of La cucharacha, and after listening to my mother singing and have my eardrums nearly explode, (just kidding! I love my mom!!!) I noticed that the last part where it talks about him not having any marijuana to smoke, she replaced it with no feet to walk on. I thought this was interesting an definitely an example of how there is an evolution of song lyrics/revisions.

Reply Ian's blog 7

awesome post Ian, I love looking at murals, I feel so small next to them lol! I actually did not notice it was both adam and eve on both sides, just at different times. I wonder why he made the snake into a human like being, could he be saying that humans have evil in us and we are the root of evil?i'm not sure because that does not go along the lines of the bible's preaching, i think. 
My favorite mural that I've seen(probably cause it's at my favorite place back home and spent all my summers there) is the mural at Oak street beach. It was made fairly recently, I was actually watching them paint it and saw it come together which was really neat. It has the face of Martin Luther King Jr. when you come from underneath the tunnel. then there are other random pictures of things, such as a mr vitner's chips and a mouth and a hand levitating popcorn, and other stuff. Really cool, hope you see a mural in real life soon, they're really awesome.

Blog #6

I thought I would do my blog this week on Emiliano Zapata because mom also is from Morelos, Mexico and I thought it would be interesting to find out more about him.

I thought it was interesting that although he was a peasant, compared to the rest of the people in Morelos, he was viewed as well of because of his family did not owe any debt peons for the land that they owned.I also found an interesting fact that he was a bullfighter (maybe that's why he was so good at leading a rebellion with his nonchalant feeling with danger). He was also elected a mayor of Anenecuilico, which I thought was interesting because before he was a leader in the Revolution he was already taking leadership roles. I thought this was all important information leading up to his lead in the revolution. To have humble beginnings and then lead is an important trait to a revolution leader because I believe this will help relate better to the cause and drive him further and be more passionate about the fight he leads. Also, being a mayor beforehand, shows that he knows how to lead people and be responsible.

Response to Leah #6

I love how included every definition of a revolution, very interesting. I thought it was interesting how you brought up the fact that revolutions do not end. I never thought of this and I suppose the societies we are living in are always evolving and people are always fighting for new reforms to amend their countries. Even today in America, I feel as if we are still fighting for freedom for all, which we were fighting for in the American Revolution. I really loved the concept of this entry, good job leah :)

blog #5

We talked about the Spanish American war in class. I found it interesting that nobody knew anything about it, including myself. My favorite part about looking at wars of the past is to see the different propaganda that circulates.

I thought this was an interesting one, because we did talk about how America tried to put the blame on Spain for blowing up the Maine, even though now we know it was technical difficulties. I tried to look up some proganda that was happening in Spain, and I could only find this creepy picture of Uncle Sam.

It says at the bottom to keep the island so it won't get lost. I thought this was interesting because you can see the people drowning in the ocean, but that's not what Uncle Sam/ America care about. America only cares about gaining more territory and it also helps Spain side because Uncle Sam looks really ugly and scary in the picture.

I sadly could not find any propaganda flowing through Cuba at the time, but obviously without a doubt there was. I just find the whole concept of propaganda campaigns to be fascinating because they are usually pretty clever and funny and interesting way to look at the history of our values as a nation at the time.

Response to Elena #5

I actually took AP Psychology in high school and we discussed this topic. The education system is very flawed when it comes to standardized tests, it is more of a profit gain than trying to gauge a student's intelligence. Most students in other countries do not start taking any sort of standardized test until high school. not only that, but they get much less homework, this is to keep stress levels down. In our education, we are expected to go to school 5/7 days out of the week, 7 hours a day. This does not included transportation. We are also expected to get homework done every night, join extracurricular activities, and get 8 hours of sleep? That is the most ridiculous formula for success if you ask me. There is not time left for relaxing, enjoying other hobbies, being with friends, or spending recreational time with your family. Also, because of this stress on time, many students stay up late and do not get the necessary hours of sleep and therefore not actually learning as much as they could from the day because sleeping helps with memorization of the days events. So yes, overall I agree we need to do something about the way America runs the education system.

Response blog 4

I also had this initial connection!! I did not make as many connections as you did though. I loved the movie with the party scenes, so awesome! The connection with Cecilia and Daisy was an interesting connection, with tom for daisy and Pimienta for Cecilia both yearning for someone they could never have because they are not high enough status in society, but are with men that are seen by society as more acceptable like tom/Leonardo. I also thought the movie was better than the book!

Blog #4

Throughout the chapters you can see Cecilia changing. As a younger child she is more care free not paying attention to social structures. She wanders the street like a peasant and pays no attention to what people say or think of her. As she grows older you can see she carries herself in another way. At the ball, you can tell she carries herself in a more "proper" way. She is a mulatto, but she has light skin like a white woman. This made her think, while growing up, that she was above darker skinned people. at the party you can see she does not give a second glance to the mulatto who drove her and her friend, who she also sees that she is above because she is more beautiful and lighter skinned. She also is not interested in José Dolores Pimienta because he is black and she was taught by society that she needs to look for a white man. This also shows that appearance also plays a huge part in society and beauty can get you recognized and noted. She is the center of the party because she is so beautiful and recognized by all the men, which she can easily take advantage of.