Blog Reflection

(I’m afraid to acknowledge that I have, unfortunately, neglected my blog. I’m not really sure why— I mean, I remember I have blog posts and comments to do. I remember how in the beginning of the year I was so excited to start having a blog like this and I guess I just stopped being excited. The same thing happened with a number of activities and classes and I’m ashamed to acknowledge that.)

*What did you learn about yourself as a reader from creating and keeping up with your blog?

~ Well, when I actually did keep up with my blog, I learned that, as a reader, I like to look at things and situations and such at a different angle/perspective. What I need to learn now, however, is when and how to apply my different angle. As in, when is it appropriate to mention? 

*In what ways did you benefit from the experience? 

~ The fact that my blog is a place to write about my favorite and most recent readings, is really beneficial to me because I get to write! I know I’m not so good at it but it’s something I enjoy— even if it is an essay. My blog was the only place I could actually write something that had some kind of meaning to me and I made a big mistake by not taking that chance to write. I really regret it. 

*Is writing online different than in a notebook? In what ways?

~ I think writing online is way different than writing in a notebook. Personally, I think it’s more accessible and also much more fun and my hand doesn’t get tired from holding a pen too long. 

*Can you imagine yourself keeping up this blog or creating another one? What would it be about? 

~ As much as the idea pleases me, I cannot imagine myself keeping up this blog because I’m irresponsible and lazy. I can see myself creating another blog for fun though! It would probably be about world news, social issues, special events in history, languages, or video games. Or maybe it could just be a blog where I post some stories or other things I’ve written. Or how a bout a travel blog? Yes, that sounds like such a great idea— I could start off small! I could take some pictures and write about places I’ve been to. Yes, I can see it now: My adventures in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico! My adventures in San Salvador, El Salvador! Or maybe I could run a food blog. I mean, why not? I love food…if it isn’t obvious already. 

Overall, the whole concept of having a blog for ELA is great and I actually really enjoyed it! Thank you Ms. Rear for this cool opportunity and also thank you for being a great teacher.

Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism (Literary Essay)

            Women, especially women of color, have been discriminated against throughout the course of history. They have been, for generations, raised to be submissive and women have been considered as property of  the male breadwinner. Because of this, many women, preeminently women of color, have struggled with identity and finding themselves in an ever-shifting world. Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism (edited by Daisy Hernández and Bushra Rehman) is a collection of writings by young women of color and they write about their experiences that deal with identity and family history, racism, classism, sexism and many other concepts. This book clearly displays how identity is much more complicated when you live in a society, in which you are not a part of the dominant culture. (Just like how gender/sexual/romantic identity is much more complicated to fathom when you live in a heteronormative society.) The women in this book also write about the many different factors that have molded them to be the person they currently are; the factors are different with every woman and not one is exactly the same. 

            The mothers/families of these women are an important factor to their identity. In the book, there is actually a whole section, "Our Mothers, Refugees from a World on Fire," devoted to mothers and how they have helped their daughters to be who they are. One of the writers, Adriana López, writes about her liberated mother (who is in the United States) and her aunt (who was still in Colombia when her mother was in the U.S.). She states, "My family's history has undeniably affected the person I have become. I know that Esthercita's [her aunt] wild streak and my grandmother's brave trip from the South to the North severed the patriarchal cord that strangled the women in my families for centuries. Today, in wartorn Colombia, where prostitution runs rampant, the number of young women bearing arms is increasing, and more and more women are being forced to head families and businesses because their men are getting killed off." Then she goes on to talk about her Tía Esthercita running a brothel to support herself, and her mother dealing with her own mother's death and getting a job and taking care of her own daughter, which was very challenging when she was all by herself. But that's the whole point—these women are all strong and independent and they have inspired their daughters and molded them, in a way, to be who they are today. Adriana ends her essay with saying, "There is one photo I own of Tía and my still quite sexy mother, who is approaching fifty, that fuels me—I am lucky to have them both as my feminine guides. Through them I have learned to be a liberated woman by emulating both their North and South American ways.... I thank them for showing me a new kind of feminism, one that includes plenty of pleasure." Another writer, Cecilia Ballí writes about her mother and all her hardships and progress in life. Her mother was a very ambitious person and although she didn't really get to have the dream job she had always wanted, she raised her daughters to be just as ambitious as she was and she taught them to never depend on a man. She helped them with their own dreams and lives, and she inspired them. "What people who think my sisters and I are too independent don't understand is that almost everything in our family is a group project, that one person's accomplishment belongs to everyone else. Our mother didn't get to be a chemist after all—didn't even get to middle school—but she has three college degrees hanging on her wall with a few more graduate degrees coming. And they are all hers as much as they are ours.... It is not just that her experiences help us put our own challenges into perspective, it is that they reside deep inside of us. It is that a little ounce of her is with us always, making us the women we want to be."

            In conclusion, there are many, many factors that have molded women of color to be the person they are today.  One major factor that most of them share is their mothers and families. The affect their families have on them is not always positive, but it has taught them more things about society and the world around them. 
             

             

             

Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism

         Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism is a collection of writings by young women of color and they write about their experiences that deal with identity and family history, racism, sexism and many other things. As I was reading this, I thought about the authors and editors and what they wanted me to know. I think the authors/editors want me to be aware of the opinions and perspectives of women of color. They want me to see how they feel towards today's (white) feminism, how it affects them and their lives, feminist-wise. How do I know that this is what the authors/editors want me to know? Besides the fact that it's in the title, I know this is what the authors want me to know because of the format of the book itself. Like I said before, it is a collection of different stories from women of color. The stories talk about personal experiences, their childhood/life growing up, education and relationships, involving feminism. What does the author want me to think or feel? The authors want me to start thinking about feminism with a different point of view - the perspective of women of color. They want me to think white feminism and womanism (feminism focused on women of color) and see the differences and different experiences and struggles these women have faced and how it has affected them to be who they are today. I believe that the authors would like me to discover, on my own, how I feel towards this collection of writings. Here is a quote from the book that I'd like to add so you, reader, can get a feel about how this book works. "As young women of color, we have both a different and similar relationship to feminism as the women in our mother's generation. We've grown up with legalized abortion, the legacy of the Civil Rights movement and gay liberation, but we still deal with sexual harassment, racist remarks from feminists and the homophobia within our communities. The difference is that now we talk about these issues in women's studies classes, in classrooms that are multicultural but remains racially profiled."

"The Complete Adventures of Curious George"

         We were focusing on picture books/children's books, so I decided to do a synthesis page on a children's book: "The Complete Adventures of Curious George," by Margret and H.A. Rey. In class, we received a worksheet that we used to observe picture books and their illustrations. I basically used that worksheet as a template for my synthesis page.
       
         I noticed a couple of things about the illustrations. I saw that the illustrator (probably H.A. Rey) used a lot of the same colors--mainly blue, red, and yellow. But sometimes he used different shades of them so it looks a bit different. I also noticed that the illustrations took up a lot of the space (the amount of space varies, but typically the illustrations take up like a whole page or so). Details are kind of vague/broad, in a way, but the pictures really capture exactly what's going on in the story, so I think that's good. How do the illustrator's choices deepen or add to the meaning of the story? Well, in a way, the illustrations make the story a bit more clear and you can easily see how a character feels and their reactions to different situations (mostly due to George's "curious" discoveries or "experiments" or simple mistakes) which is a good thing to notice. It can show you what type of person that character is.