Rivera

Firstly, let me admit to initially having trouble understanding Tomás Rivera's '...Y No Se Lo Trago La Tierra'. While the vocabulary is much less advanced than the complicated vernacular of Martí, the structure is considerably less

intuitive. In order to enhance my experience of the text, I watched a film of a 1994 English-language stage production of the book. It is titled 'And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him', and was put on by America Playhouse Theatrical Films. I'm not sure if this is cheating or not, but I really do feel like it enhanced my understanding and enriched my experience of this text.

As I mentioned before, and many of my fellow blogging classmates have noticed, the structure of the book is very unorthodox. I cannot quite call it an anthology or collection of shorts, but is not a 'novel' per say either. I was at first, and still am somewhat, confused by this arrangement, but have been attempting to figure out the reason to write it as such. The best explanation that I can come up with is that the structure-twelve stories layered into thirteen shorter anecdotes-is reflective of Latin American understanding regarding time and space. In comparison to current and historically linear North American conceptions, many Latin American legends etc. are constructed with more fluid and less chronological time structures. For example, the Popol Vuh, commonly refered to as the Mayan 'Bible' or sacred religious text, in written in such as way as time appears more circular than in the Christian Bible, for example. Given this historical context, I can understand why, to Rivera, this book would be structured in a way consistent with the cultural milieu he lived in, and to us it may seem foreign or unintuitive.

Martí: "Es mejor morir a pie que vivir arrodillado"

Firstly, I will agree with the sentiment expressed by other students that this was a challenging reading assignment. His stories took me a great deal more time than they would have were they written in English, but I suppose that is what one can expect from SPAN 322. And admittedly, I believe his work was worth the effort required in reading it. 

I find it interesting that the majority of my fellow students seem to be riffing on the 'heavy-on-the-description' vein, because this was not the first thing I noticed about the 'Escenas Norteamericanas' that Martí wrote about. After constulting the Wikipedia article (it could use some work!), I learned about his past as an exiled revolutionary and Cuban national hero. There was a surprising discrepancy between his wonderment at facets of the North American lifestyle, and his work as a diplomat and revolutionary. Overall, one would not expect this level of scientifically-based dedication to a structure (El Puente De Brooklyn) from someone who is a vocal freedom fighter. He lobbied, and indeed died for, such causes as Cuba's independence from Spain and an end to racism. 

   Overall, my impression garnered from Martí's writings combined with his political and personal history is that he was a man of resolute ideals and a very strong mind. I think, as a political hero, Martí is a fine role model for anyone who desires mass change- he fought both physically and intellectually, using the international battlefield of North American diplomacy in addition to waging war (and losing his life) in Dos Ríos, Cuba. 

Ruiz de Burton Response

  I have, since my last post, managed to acquire Ruiz de Burton's 'Who Would Have Thought It?' from the bookstore. I power read, and finished it this weekend. Overall, I would say I was pleasantly surprised with the novel. I had a bit of a different experience as we had discussed the novel before I'd had a chance to read much of it. This did, however, give me a chance to read it more critically, and ask myself the questions that we had addressed in class. 

  Is this novel a feminist text? I have resolved to say no, taken in the present context, and yes, taken with its contemporaries. I compared it with Austen's 'Emma', which was written in 1815, 58 years earlier than Ruiz de Burton's text. I saw several similarities between these novels, as I would say both present smart, engaging heroines who achieve their success through marriage. As well, both Lola and Emma are taken care of by older, paternal figures throughout their lives, and exhibit little true independence. These factors taken in the present context would communicate a clearly non-feminist viewpoint, however one cannot pretend that the status of women is the same now as it was in the mid-late 19th century. Overall, I believe that the very existence of the novel, published anonymously or not, constitutes an advancement for women of the time, and especially women of minorities. 

1st Book Response, or Why The Bookstore Sucks

Hola clase,

  So I have been procrastinating on buying by books because 

a) they cost lots of money, and

b) the line for the bookstore has been looking more like a Communist Russia breadline than a queue for a cash register

Early morning I finally decided to suck it up and wait in the line, then spend the day reading to be prepared for our class discussion. Unfortunately, like with bread in the USSR, the bookstore had run out copies. Thus, I will have very little to discuss in class today, or indeed on this blog post.

Hola attempt #2

Hi everybody, 

  My name (obviously) is Leanna Orr, and I'm a 2nd year English major from Calgary. I live off campus, in an apartment in Kits and ride my bicycle to school every day, as long as it isn't raining. Over the summer, I spent some time in Costa Rica (where the locals loved my accent) and in Spain (where the locals laughed at it). Both were wonderful. After travels, I lived at home in Calgary and worked as a bartender, which was wonderful and suited my night-owl lifestyle perfectly.

Se veo mañana,

Leanna

Hola!