Week 6

"Babel"

The film "Babel" stars Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt who play the characters Susan Jones and Richard Jones who have decided to travel to Morocco on vacation in order to fix some problems they've been having and as a way of moving on after the death of there third child.  While taking a bus tour Susan is shot by two boys playing with a rifle.  The bus driver takes them to the nearest village that has a doctor.  However, the doctors is only able to stabilize and she must be taken to a hospital, but not via the bus.  Richard asks that the other tour group members wait until an ambulance can arrive, but the other members grow impatient and leaves while Richard is talking on the phone with the US embassy.  After a while a helicopter finally arrives and get both of them out of there.   

Meanwhile, back in the states, Richard and Susan's two children are being looked after by the nanny Amelia.  With the kids parents in Morocco she is unable to find anyone to look after them. She wants to go to her sons wedding in Mexico very badly so she decides just to take them along.  Her nephew offers to drive they go into mexico with no problems they attend the wedding and leave later that day.  On the way back the Border guards notice the nephew has been drinking and after the border guards realize the children were taken out of the US without any consent the nephew goes crazy and runs off.  Amelia and the two children are left stranded in the desert she wanders off to find help a border guard takes her into custody the two children are found and she is deported.

Back to Morocco and the two boys who shot Susan.  Abdullah who is a herder buys a gun from a friend named Hassan Ibrahim to shoot jackals that go after his herd.  He gives the gun to his two sons to watch over the herd.  They decide to test out the gun on rocks and then on the passing tour bus where they shoot Susan.  The two boys flee the scene and the shooting is called a terrorist act and begins pressuring the Moroccan government to find whomever is responsible.   They find Hassan who tells them the rifle was a gift from a Japanese man and that he sold it to Abdullah.  Abdullah's sons confess to him they shot the american women and believing that she is dead they try to flee.  The police shoot one of the brothers after they were fired upon.  The family ends up surrendering.

Across the Pacific to Japan.  Yasujiro is a Japanese man who is a big time hunter he was the one who went to Morocco and gave the gun to Hassan as a gift.  Yasujiro's wife recently committed suicide which leaves his daughter kind of crazy and messed up.  She begins try to have sex with several different guys, but ends up striking out.

"Babel" to "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"

Given the poverty seen in Morocco and Mexico it is very easy to link these two together.  Both of Abdullah's sons while neither is more so worse off then the other children in Mexico or Morocco they are not by any means upper or middle class.  "For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human.  Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other."  I feel this quote helps to show that these children were in no way attempting to injury someone, but that there lack of education lead to them shooting at the bus without any thought of the people on board the bus.

Pre-Columbian

Beckyjean- "I chose this topic because it mentions the Mayan and Aztec’s writings which I find interesting."

Heidi-  "There is no one answer to what happened to the Olmec people. Some say the high volcanic activity turned their lush, swampy land uninhabitable and they had to move on leaving way for others to take over and grow."

Conquest

Mary- "The Aztec empire was taken so quickly and I wanted to know why. I found out that a lot of the reason was timing on Cortez's part."

Philip- "I also think it's interesting that Columbus was a man who became historically famous from his exploits, and did so just because he was the first guy crazy enough to do what he did, and lucky enough to get enough elements right to make it."

Colonial

Dale- "The Latin American Art Colonial Era began in 1492 and ended about 1820." 

Independence 

(Could only find one for the colonial era)

Andrea- "By the end of the 18th, village lands were abruptly subject to expropriation by Spaniards." 

Contemporary

Desiree- "This era was marked by a literary movement in which young Latin American writers were becoming popular for the subject matter in which they focused on-- politics and social advocacy."

Charles- "The "Boom" period of Latin American culture took place roughly between 1950 and 1970."

       

Week 5

Pre-Colombian - The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during the early modern period.

I choose the video about the Aztecs because I have always been fascinated by there culture.  They were the largest of native american empires and the cities they built were truly amazing.  The video is about Teotihuacán the city where god created man supposedly.  You can find pictures of the archeological site that looks remarkably untouched by modern society.

3 interesting facts.

1)  The city of Teotihuacán is one of great legend.  It is the city where the God's supposedly met to create the race of man.  The city is centered by a pyramid in honor of the God's.  Construction on this massive pyramid began in 300 BC and finished 150 BC.  The pyramid was later named the pyramid of the Sun.  I thought this was very interesting working 150 years to build a pyramid for the sun God..... That is dedication. 

2)  Another interesting fact was that the city housed over 200,000 people! For the time this city was functional that is a lot of people.  Not only that, but as well as having standard era homes the city also had apartment complexes.  That I found amusing because when I think of the Aztec empire I don't think about people in that day and age renting apartments.  I think it is a little strange, but very cool.  I guess not a lot has changed....well other than human sacrafices.

3)  Not a lot is known about the collapse of Teotihuacán it happened sometime in either the 7th or 8th century.  The city was sacked and burned by unknown invaders.  However, recent evidence suggest that it may have been the lower class citizens of the city that assaulted it.  This evidence is supported by the fact that only the social elite's buildings were torched and the standard dwelling were left intact.  This suggests an internal uprising.

Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan#Collapse

Sources:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7nbKa5__XM    

Magic Realism- is an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal" setting. It has been widely used in relation to literature, art, and film.

Dependence Theory- is a body of social science theories which are predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former.

week 4

1. What does MoLAA stand for? .25 percent

MoLAA stands for Museum of Latin American Art.

1. Explain what you see on the above video clips (be specific)? .25 percent
   

The clip showed many different works of art that have been created throughout latin america.  The video itself showed a variety of different art from paintings to sculptures.  It was a way of showing how latin america has contributed to the world of art.

1. What did you learn from the video clips (3 facts)?1.5 percent
   

1)  I learned that many artists use just about what ever they can find to create art. One work was made out of pieces of ceiling fans. crazy stuff.....in a cool way of course......I'm not putting it down.

2) I learned that every latin american country  seems to have contributed towards this art collection.

3) I learned the museum is located in Long Beach, California.

1. What is one specific work in this location that attracted you? Give us the name, and related background info which you must do more research on google.com. worth 3 percent

"Bandada" or Flock by Enrique Grau.  Bandada was one of 1300 pieces of art that was donated by Grau.  Sadly I could not find very much information on this work of art.  I choose this one because It stood out as darker and seemed to have more depth to it then a lot of the other art pieces.

Week 3

a. Using 2 distinct websites, find the definition of "Interdisciplinary Studies", worth .5

An academic program or process seeking to synthesize broad perspectives, knowledge, skills, interconnections, and epistemology in an educational setting.   Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdisciplinarity#Interdisciplinary_studies

drawing from or characterized by participation of two or more fields of study

Source:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/interdisciplinary

b. Using 2 distinct websites, find the defintion of "Latin America", worth .5

The countries of the Western Hemisphere south of the United States, especially those speaking Spanish, Portuguese, or French.  

Source:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Latin+America

The parts of North America and South America to the south of the United States where Romance languages are spoken

Source: wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn 

c. Find a list of countries that make up "Latin America", worth .5

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Ecuador

French Guiana

Guyana

Paraguay

Peru

Suriname

Uruguay

Venezuela

Belize

Costa Rica

El Salvador

Guatemala

Honduras

Nicaragua

Panama

d. Find a list of countries that make up the "Caribbean". worth .5

• A

  Antigua & Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Barbados Cayman Islands Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Guadeloupe Haiti Jamaica Martinique Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy St. Kitts & Nevis St. Lucia St. Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad & Tobago Turks & Caicos Islands Virgin Islands

e. Cool fact: use any website (eg any you found, or www.google.com videos, www.youtube.com using the keywords Latin America or Caribbean), tell us something you didn't know, worth 1 percent of total semester grade

I did not know that Puerto Rico almost became a US state.

Love in the time of cholera is a love story like most in its time. Two people fall in love, but in this case the woman marries someone else and even though her relationship is over she still can't help, but love Florentino.  Fermina marries Urbino because she wants to be married at 21.  Time goes on Fermina and Urbino drift apart.  Fermina believes that Florentino has become more mature and thinks that maybe it's not young naive love, but something real.  By the end of the book Florentino and Fermina are together again and supposedly in love.

Week 2

Paulo Freire was born september 19th 1921 in Recife, Brazil.  Freire's life was dedicated to education.  It was Paulo Freire who came up with the idea of critical pedagogy which allowed the student to question and challenge the domination that a teachers brings.  By doing so it allows the student to gain critical consciousness, thus not blindly following a teacher who may or may not be correct.  This helped change the one sided student teacher relationship.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire

In 1962, Paulo Freire was named head of an adult literacy program in the city of Recife, by the mayor himself.  45 days after the appointment he had managed to teach 300 adults to read and write!  The program became such a huge success that Paulo Freire was appointed as head of the national literacy program for Brazil.  Over 2 million people signed up for the program.  However, because illiterates could not vote, the higher class citizens feared an uprising.  This lead to a military takeover which landed Paulo Freire in prison for 70 days before being exiled to Bolivia and Chile.

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/paulo-freire

After landing a job in Chile Freire was able to write three books.  This gave him widespread recognition which landed him an invitation to be a visiting professor at Harvard University.  At Harvard he found his popularity was booming.  He was able to get a position at the office of education at the world council.  He worked there for the next few decades trying to increase literacy around the world in an effort to make the world a better place for everyone.

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/paulo-freire

1) Amber- I learned that Amber is hoping to gain a better understanding of other cultures and other individuals.

2) Ana-maria- I learned that Ana-maria has lived in Mexico.

3) Andrea- I learned that Andrea is hoping to learn more about the Caribbean culture.

4) Angelina- I learned that Angelina hopes to one day visit Costa Rica and Ecuador. 

5) Beckyjean- I learned Beckyjean is taking this online course while in France. 

6) Caitlan-  I learned Caitlan loves to travel.

7) Charles- I learned charles is taking this course to fulfill requirements for an A.S. degree.

8) Mary- I learned Mary is taking this course as an A.A. requirement.

9) Desiree- I learned Desiree is taking this to learn about other cultures.

10) Erin- I learned Erin is taking this to see how an online course is conducted.