So many thoughts in my mind right now, all the experiences, the learning, the new knowledge, the new friends and the consolidation of my culture, my civilization, my background, my history and the things that make me who I am!
To start, I want to say that this class was very important for me since the beginning of the course. I was exited to know more about the literature of the region in which I was born. I am proud about Mexico, but I am also proud about Latin America. Those countries are very similar to my country, we share believes and, in some times, we share history. To know more bout Argentina or Venezuela, help me to understand better the situation of the society that I belong.
At the beginning I was a little bit afraid because this is my first time out of home, without my family, my friends, in a new culture with a new language. It was very difficult to express myself at the beginning, or to understand everything, or to participate in the right way! So many things to do in a little period of time and with a lot of things in my mind! Now I am very glad because it was a big challenge for me and I think that I did it! (even if I am not expressing myself in the right way!)
Lets talk about the novels! Definitely, The General in his labyrinth and The Feast of the Goat are my favorite novels in this course! But I think that all the novels were good and show me interesting things that I had not realized before coming here!
Facundo: This dichotomy between civilization and barbarism is not over in our times! What about los Zapatistas in Chiapas! or North America vs. Latin America. But at the same time, I realized that you don’t have to find North American or European solutions for a Latin American country! You have to adapt your knowledge to your culture and to your background.
The president: Amazing novel, the rudeness of the dictator is the real image of some parts of our history, but, at the end of the book, there will be always a little bit of hope!
I the supreme: The most difficult book of the course, a big challenge for my language! I will read it again and I will understand better the next time! I think that his novel can be adapted to any dictatorship in the world. This image of the dictator can be adapted to Augusto Pinochet, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, or maybe (I will try to find how) also to Hitler or Mussolini!
The general in his labyrinth: Simon Bolivar the man and not the myth! The hero of Latin America converted in a common human like us! He had not superpowers or something extra natural, just a big dream, with big determination and with the courage to keep moving forward even if you can not do more! The illness can kill a man, but nothing will kill the ideas, the dreams and the thoughts of a legend. That is a real leader and a real hero!
The Feast of the Goat: The present in the past and the past in the present! Maybe the best description of the actual society as a function of our history! Not just the life under a dictatorship, also the life after the dictatorship! The consequences, the fears, the broken dreams and the believes that our history led to us.
Wikipedia; Come on Bessie and Lynn! We can do it! A big experience that you can hate or you can enjoy, it depends in your perspective and your point of view.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
Feast of the Goat 2
Mario Vargas Llosa is one of the most important authors in Latin America, I like this book because it was written in 2000, then, the reality that it describes, is somehow related to the reality that the Latin American countries are facing nowadays. Even if the book is talking about the past, there are elements that guide us to the present.
First of all I am going to try to talk about the style; there is a Mexican movie “Amores Perros” (I do not know the translation, but it was nominated to the Oscar as the best foreign movie) this movie has three different stories that are interrelated with each other. When I was reading the nine stories that the book has, I was remembering when I saw that movie for the first time. The interaction between the different stories, creates the perception or the feeling, that, even if there are many different backgrounds in the characters, the final goal is the same.
The Urania’s roll in the story, is the most interesting for me. I can not say that she is the main character, but I think that she represents the present and the past of the Dominican Republic. The present when she is cold, uninterested about the situation; the pain that she has about the past, maybe represents the pain that the society feels in this moment.
In the final part of the book, for me is very interesting how Trujillo has a lot of influence even when he is death. The power that she had in his life overcome his own death.
First of all I am going to try to talk about the style; there is a Mexican movie “Amores Perros” (I do not know the translation, but it was nominated to the Oscar as the best foreign movie) this movie has three different stories that are interrelated with each other. When I was reading the nine stories that the book has, I was remembering when I saw that movie for the first time. The interaction between the different stories, creates the perception or the feeling, that, even if there are many different backgrounds in the characters, the final goal is the same.
The Urania’s roll in the story, is the most interesting for me. I can not say that she is the main character, but I think that she represents the present and the past of the Dominican Republic. The present when she is cold, uninterested about the situation; the pain that she has about the past, maybe represents the pain that the society feels in this moment.
In the final part of the book, for me is very interesting how Trujillo has a lot of influence even when he is death. The power that she had in his life overcome his own death.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Feast of the Goat 1
I know! I know! I am a bad person, is Friday and I just going to post the first part of Feast of the Goat.
I am going to start with the comparisons with the rest of the books; with The General in his labyrinth, I will say that the genre is very important in both books. Even if The President has a lot of influence in the women roll, here its different because is only one woman it seems that she has more influence that anyone else in this book. With I this supreme I will say that both books are very different; in the style, the density of each book, in I the Supreme, the story is around two characters, but here there are three different stories with more characters. Instead of that, the figure of the dictator in both books is very similar. Why? There is like a paranoia in both dictators, rudeness and fear about against everything.
In the comparison with Facundo I wan to write a little bit more; My wikipedia project is about Facundo, so I am reading a lot of this book. In the chapter XIV, there is a phrase that can exemplify the behavior of both dictators: “If you are not with me, you are against me”. This is the synthesis of all the Trujillo’s reactions.
Monday, March 17, 2008
The General in his labyrinth 2
In my last post, I left two important ideas without a good explanation, that because I was not sure about my thesis and I preferred to finish the book before develop those statements. Fortunately, the professor and Ericka understood these ideas, and commented in my bloq, then, I feel that I must develop this post explaining my perception of those concerns that I mention in my last comment.
The last week, I mentioned that I was feeling that Gabriel Garcia Marquez converted Simon Bolivar into a real hero and at the beginning it could be polemic, but let me try to explain why: The connotation that most of the Latin American people have about Simon Bolivar is almost the same; he is a good guy that fight in all Latin America achieving the freedom of a lot of countries. The problem is that we have never learned a little bit about his personal life, his mistakes or his weakness. Therefore, Simon Bolivar was as a myth that survive among the years. Gabriel Garcia Marquez converted Simon Bolivar as hero, when he demonstrated that Bolivar was just a man, with feeling, with mistakes and with weakness. The author took care the history of the general and the thing that Bolivar did in his life, Garcia Marquez did not forget that Bolivar was a reference of the Latin American freedom, but at the same time, Garcia Marquez established that Bolivar was as normal as one of us, he had not superpowers or anything uncommon. Therefore, in my perception of hero and, what I think Garcia Marquez wanted to do, Simon Bolivar took a human image more real and therefore more near to us.
The second statement that I did the last week, was about the perception of the death in the book. Among the story, I perceived that the death of Simon Bolivar was more near page by page… his weakness, his ill, the form in which he was remembering all his life create an atmosphere of death. The interesting point here, is the perception of death that Simon Bolivar had. On one point, he had not fear to the death in all his battles, I think that he was prepared for the final even before his illness. But on the other hand, I perceived that Simon Bolivar was not content with the way in which he pass the last year of his life. The situation in Colombia or in “La gran Colombia” was not what he wished all his life…
The last week, I mentioned that I was feeling that Gabriel Garcia Marquez converted Simon Bolivar into a real hero and at the beginning it could be polemic, but let me try to explain why: The connotation that most of the Latin American people have about Simon Bolivar is almost the same; he is a good guy that fight in all Latin America achieving the freedom of a lot of countries. The problem is that we have never learned a little bit about his personal life, his mistakes or his weakness. Therefore, Simon Bolivar was as a myth that survive among the years. Gabriel Garcia Marquez converted Simon Bolivar as hero, when he demonstrated that Bolivar was just a man, with feeling, with mistakes and with weakness. The author took care the history of the general and the thing that Bolivar did in his life, Garcia Marquez did not forget that Bolivar was a reference of the Latin American freedom, but at the same time, Garcia Marquez established that Bolivar was as normal as one of us, he had not superpowers or anything uncommon. Therefore, in my perception of hero and, what I think Garcia Marquez wanted to do, Simon Bolivar took a human image more real and therefore more near to us.
The second statement that I did the last week, was about the perception of the death in the book. Among the story, I perceived that the death of Simon Bolivar was more near page by page… his weakness, his ill, the form in which he was remembering all his life create an atmosphere of death. The interesting point here, is the perception of death that Simon Bolivar had. On one point, he had not fear to the death in all his battles, I think that he was prepared for the final even before his illness. But on the other hand, I perceived that Simon Bolivar was not content with the way in which he pass the last year of his life. The situation in Colombia or in “La gran Colombia” was not what he wished all his life…
Monday, March 10, 2008
The heroes are Gods? Or the humans are heroes...
The book The General in His Labyrinth, describes, I think, the last days of the most important general in the Latin American history. The death as the final passage of an amazing live full of battles, dreams, adventures and all the characteristics that has a hero´s live. I am referring as a hero, not as the perfect general and politician that fight for the freedom of the South American countries, I am referring as a hero in terms of the human inside Simon Bolivar... the man who loved his continent and fought all his live for a dream.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his style, created an interesting, descriptive, illustrative and easy lecture book that represent the general as human, with his defects, his weakness and his strength. A general without all the luxuries that involved the Bolivar´s live in his most important years... now the general was facing his final battle, the last year of his live in which he remembered all the passages of his human life... nor the general’s nor the politician, Simon Bolivar as a human.
I don’t know a lot about the Canadian educational system, but in Mexico, we are used to learn the history as a good and the evil... the Spanish were very bad and Simon Bolivar was a hero without defects. That’s why this book is important for me; it converts Bolivar as a real hero and not only as mythic super hero... It shows us one part of the history that was hidden, but at the end, instead of think that Bolivar was not the hero that I as believing, the book support my idea that Bolivar not only was a good general or a good leader... he was a good man, with a lot of weakness but with a lot of strength, with a lot of defects but with a lot of qualities as me or as all the people in the world.
Other part of the book that is attracting me is the image of the death, but I think that I will clarify better this aspect when I finish the book, so I will prefer to write about that in the next post.
Monday, March 3, 2008
I the Supreme 2
Maybe the hardest book I have ever read in all my life, but also the most descriptive narration about how dictators are and how dictatorships work. The language that Roa Bastos used, can be very confused, but at the same time, only this book can describe the live of a supreme in his thoughts his feelings and his perspectives.
As I mentioned in my last post, I think that the supreme can be adapted to the dictatorships that we have in the actuality. The dictator that Roa Bastos describes, have all the characteristics that the authoritarians government have. The book can be a parody of the supreme figure among the history.
Two days ago, the Venezuelan government threatened to Colombia because the Colombian government made an attack to the FARC in Ecuador. In my point of view, the affected country is Ecuador, then why did Venezuela react in that way?
Maybe we can understand this case with I the Supreme. In the book, Roa Bastos argue that The Supreme has fear about everything; the president thinks that all is against him and all is threaten his power, then he destroys everyone who seems to disagree with him. Does Hugo Chavez have this paranoia?
It is very difficult to talk about the style of the novel; I can describe it as heavy and hard. But I can not distinguish any special characteristic. It seems that the book doesn’t have any story, but then, we can realize that the entire story is a description of the dictator´s life inside his thoughts and his perceptions. However, I find very interesting the reactions of the supreme; it seems that Roa Bastos give us the background of his feelings as a cause of his behaviors. Then, even if the book is very difficult to read, we can understand better all the dictator’s acts because we know what he is thinking.
As I mentioned in my last post, I think that the supreme can be adapted to the dictatorships that we have in the actuality. The dictator that Roa Bastos describes, have all the characteristics that the authoritarians government have. The book can be a parody of the supreme figure among the history.
Two days ago, the Venezuelan government threatened to Colombia because the Colombian government made an attack to the FARC in Ecuador. In my point of view, the affected country is Ecuador, then why did Venezuela react in that way?
Maybe we can understand this case with I the Supreme. In the book, Roa Bastos argue that The Supreme has fear about everything; the president thinks that all is against him and all is threaten his power, then he destroys everyone who seems to disagree with him. Does Hugo Chavez have this paranoia?
It is very difficult to talk about the style of the novel; I can describe it as heavy and hard. But I can not distinguish any special characteristic. It seems that the book doesn’t have any story, but then, we can realize that the entire story is a description of the dictator´s life inside his thoughts and his perceptions. However, I find very interesting the reactions of the supreme; it seems that Roa Bastos give us the background of his feelings as a cause of his behaviors. Then, even if the book is very difficult to read, we can understand better all the dictator’s acts because we know what he is thinking.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Hugo Chavez the Supreme? Or maybe Castro!
First of all, I need to make a suggestion, If someone feel sympathy for the dictators that I mentioned before, please don’t take this article as a personal attack an consider it as a simply opinion.
In order to understand my comment I think that we have to remember some parts of the first chapter of the book: the dictator’s dichotomy between himself and the external world, the authoritarian and compulsive of his personality, the paranoid of his thoughts and the rudeness of his norms.
I the Supreme, I think, is the best description of the dictators that Latin America have nowadays. The different faces of the supreme, can describe the Chavez personality and the maquiavelism of the presidents behavior and the Castro´s dictatorship period.
Hugo Chavez
In 2007 Chavez ordered to close RCTV, the last private TV station that Venezuela had. Among that TV Station, the Chavez detractors were criticizing the government.
In I the supreme, the president has fear of everybody, even the prisoners in the jail or Patiño or all the people in the country. This fear is demonstrated by Chavez; when he started to think that RCTV represented a barrier to his goals, he had fear about the power of the TV and then he decided to close it.
The personality of the president in I the supreme is rude and compulsive. The supreme is always insulting to everybody. Then again, Hugo Chavez is always insulting everybody, the last year he said that Vicente Fox was “el cachorro del imperio” (the United States pet).
The supreme doesn’t have trust in anybody, then again almost all the Chavez employees has been fired, and some of them now are enemies of the president.
Fidel Castro
Maybe Fidel Castro is not as rude or compulsive as Hugo Chavez, but if I think in Cuba, I think in a country that has been in a long dictatorship. The supreme is 84 years old! The Castro´s age!
Then again, all the dictatorships in Latin America have similar characteristics and, therefore, the dictatorship novels can be interrelated. For more information, check the next post!
In order to understand my comment I think that we have to remember some parts of the first chapter of the book: the dictator’s dichotomy between himself and the external world, the authoritarian and compulsive of his personality, the paranoid of his thoughts and the rudeness of his norms.
I the Supreme, I think, is the best description of the dictators that Latin America have nowadays. The different faces of the supreme, can describe the Chavez personality and the maquiavelism of the presidents behavior and the Castro´s dictatorship period.
Hugo Chavez
In 2007 Chavez ordered to close RCTV, the last private TV station that Venezuela had. Among that TV Station, the Chavez detractors were criticizing the government.
In I the supreme, the president has fear of everybody, even the prisoners in the jail or Patiño or all the people in the country. This fear is demonstrated by Chavez; when he started to think that RCTV represented a barrier to his goals, he had fear about the power of the TV and then he decided to close it.
The personality of the president in I the supreme is rude and compulsive. The supreme is always insulting to everybody. Then again, Hugo Chavez is always insulting everybody, the last year he said that Vicente Fox was “el cachorro del imperio” (the United States pet).
The supreme doesn’t have trust in anybody, then again almost all the Chavez employees has been fired, and some of them now are enemies of the president.
Fidel Castro
Maybe Fidel Castro is not as rude or compulsive as Hugo Chavez, but if I think in Cuba, I think in a country that has been in a long dictatorship. The supreme is 84 years old! The Castro´s age!
Then again, all the dictatorships in Latin America have similar characteristics and, therefore, the dictatorship novels can be interrelated. For more information, check the next post!
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