Victoria Miller’s blog

 Hi Angela! Your thought about how Bello was trying to convince himself that working as a farmer was the life he wanted was something I hadn't considered before and I thought it was an interesting interpretation.

 Ode to Tropical Agriculture has given me a new understanding of how to read poetry. After reading the poem I had an incorrect understanding of the meaning of the poem. After I learned what the poet was actually saying about the poem I realized that I put my own ideas into the meaning of the poem. While looking back on the poem the meaning seemed to be so obvious and I was thoroughly confused on how I missed it so badly the first time. After thinking about it I realized that the first time I read the poem I had put my own ideals about what the poem should mean instead of reading what was written. This might have been because I was already struggling to understand the words that were written or because I didn’t even consider the fact that the author of the poem wanted to create more agriculture by destroying nature. Either way I came to a wrong understanding of the meaning of the poem because of my own beliefs and now know that I need to read poems with a more open mind.

 We all have our heroes in our life whether it be your parents or a doctor. How I define a hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice something important to them for the benefit of someone else. This involves giving up time, energy, knowledge, and even one's life. With this definition we are surrounded by heroes that we often don’t think about. The word hero has taken on this form of someone greater than anyone else, someone who could never possibly make a mistake. Which I don’t think is far or a reasonable belief that we have. I believe this because even the heroes that we as a country recognize have many flaws. I think that the reason that the people of Mexico don’t have some great national hero is because they have many people that played major roles in the fight for their independence but because they are humans they have flaws and made mistakes. If these natural flaws are seen and acknowledged it is hard to see people as heroes.

  I had a lot of fun this week learning about Latin America and how to dance. It was interesting to take notice of the different regions' music. I don’t usually listen to Latin music so I never really knew about the different types. My most favorite style of music was the Haitian music. I enjoyed the traditional African music that is tied into their music. I also really enjoyed learning to dance and wish we could have spent more time doing it. It was fun to work with the different styles and I hope I get to pull out my new skills soon. I enjoyed dancing with everyone and was very proud of my progress by the end of the classes. I will enjoy teaching my younger brother and the rest of my family how to do these dances though they probably won’t be completely willing. I hope we get to do something like this again soon.

  Hello Lexie! I really enjoyed reading your post and learning more about Manuela Saenz. I too wish we got to talk more about her in class, and I am also glad that she is being recognized for the accomplishment. For her to become a colonel during this time period is truly amazing and to find out that she did more than sit on the side lines is very impressive.

  This week we read The kingdom of this world and though I struggled to fully understand everything that was happening in the book I did find it really interesting. The thing I found the most intriguing in the book was how closely it tied some of the events that had occurred to voodoo and magic. I also found it fascinating how naturally it combined with the story not like it was some crazy idea but rather that it was perfectly normal. While the King was at the church in chapter V of part three the king thinks, “In some remote house - he suspected - there was probably an image of him stuck full of pins hung head down with a knife plunged in the region of the heart.” These acts of voodoo are things that I have heard of and are ways to cause harm to others. I find it very interesting how the king thinks about this act of violence and threat to his life so naturally like it was the expected thing to do, which it most likely was, but as a person only knows the voodoo of fairy tales, rea...

     There are many things in today's society and culture that are creations made from bits and pieces of past culture and practices . No culture is exempt from this. Every language that exists today is made up of a mixture of words and formulas from another language. But it doesn’t just stop at language, even religion integrates other religious ideas. For example, many of the Christian holidays are set on Pagan holidays, such as Christmas. As time goes on and cultures meet other cultures, ideas and inventions are shared. This week we discussed how the African slaves kept their culture alive. They would dance, sing, dress, cook, and even communicate in ways that kept their culture alive. As time went on, the bits and pieces of their African culture, along with Spanish and indigenous culture, meshed together to create the Latin American culture of today. This small hold on our ancestors' culture and history, even if we are unaware of its presents, is an important part of...