Week 14 Revisiting

I think that when I first did this assignment, I just tried to get through it as quickly as possible. I didn’t pick the most moving or political piece of artwork, instead I picked the coolest to look at. Originally I picked ‘Spiritual & Religious Practices,’ and I do still believe that it is the funniest piece to look at, but I needed to do some more reading on the piece to get the full affect of it.
‘Spiritual & Religious Practices’ is an artist’s look at God. I is meant to be a fun and enjoyable piece. With a frog face and a fish on its head, how can it not be?
But this piece goes deeper than even entertainment. This picture depicts many different religious practices from all over Latin America. It is actually a very moving piece.

Alyssa- Their bodies burn the ranch down only leaving the remnant of their love, a recipe book in which Tita recorded her feelings.
Beatriz- This is a movie that is based off of a book written in 1989 and takes place during the revolution.
Brandon- her mother's proclamation of the family generation that the youngest daughter can never marry and must take care of the mother until she dies.
Jamison- Through twelve chapters, each marked as a "monthly installment" and thus labeled with the months of the year, we learn of Tita's struggle to pursue true love and claim her independence.
Kathy- The story is told by Tita's great-niece
Kelsey- According to Elena, the Mexican tradition is to have the youngest daughter be the one who does not marry. The daughter's job is to take care of the mother until she passes away. Tita happened to be the youngest daughter and when she found her love, Pedro Muzquiz, she felt sad. He even went to her mother to ask for her hand, but the only response he got was to direct his attention to marrying the eldest daughter, Rosaura
Kim- Gertrudis (another sister) is taking a shower after eating the sensual meal and the building catches on fire.
Logan- This film became one of the most watched foreign language films in American film history
Maria- Freire's idea of oppression is shown in this story when the Mother tells Tita and when Rosaura says that her daughter is to stay at home and devote her life to their mother
Melissa- The Story begins with a young woman cutting onions and remembering her family. She then narrarates the story of her great-aunt Tita.

Love Making That Will Kill You

Week 13 Like Water for Chocolate

In high school I was made to read this book. I loved it. But re reading it for this class, with Latin American cultures and values in mind was like reading a whole new book.
Tita is the youngest of three girls in a small Mexican family. She shares a love with Pedro, but is not allowed to marry him because it is custom in her family for the youngest daughter to take care of the mother until she dies. So, while Tita is taking care of her very cruel and abusive mother, Perdo agrees to marry Rosaura, the older sister. He said that it was so he could be close to Tita. Meanwhile Tita’s cooking skills are growing. Each chapter of the book begins with a recipe of hers, and then the atmosphere of that chapter revolves around what it was that she made. There is a lot of magical realism within the story.
The rest of the story goes by pretty quickly, considering how much goes on. Pedro and Rosaura have and loose a baby boy, they move away for health reasons and Tita blames her mother for the death of her nephew, her mother beats her so she runs away to this type of bird house and refuses to leave the spot. A doctor comes to talk her down, and finally he succeeds, but her mother won’t let “crazy people” into her house. So Tita goes to live with the doctor. They become close and are to be married, but Tita cannot forget her feelings for Pedro, who recently just had a second child with Tita’s sister.
Eventually Mama Elena dies and Tita is free to be with Perdo. Their love making is so hot, that Perdo dies. And later while thinking about that night, Tita insights a fire and burns down the house, herself in it.
This is another story about oppression. Tita was oppressed by her mother and the traditions of her family. Like the others Tita fought the oppression, this time cooking was her tool, and in the ed she got what she wanted.
She definitely got the short end of the stick and the story didn’t end happily, but it is still a loveable tale and the recipes sound great! Plus the magical realism makes it rather funny and entertaining too.

1. Alyssa- The book takes place in the 1840s, in Buenos Aires, Argentine.
2. Beatriz- Her grandmother had been gotten in trouble with the government for being a spy and instead of imprisonment.
3. Brandon- Her father is a strong supporter of the dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, but Camila is not.
4. Candace- They each try desperately to avoid this possible love affair as he is a priest and can not take a wife for it will interfere with his devotion to god, and she is the daughter of a socialite who is expect to marry a man of a certain class standard.
5. Kathy- the true story of forbidden love and personal struggle.
6. Kelsey- Camila is a woman who expresses her thoughts and is very rebellious.
7. Kim- Ladislao is the nephew of the governor.
8. Logan- both Camila and Father Gutierrez were oppressed by the laws of a dictator.
9. Maria- They ran away to a town together and became educators.
10. Melissa- Adolfo dislikes his mother and Camila talking to each other, he kicks Camila out and says not to visit her.

Week 12

This is a love story that you don’t hear every day. Camila a young girl from Argentine, meets and falls in love with the newest addition to her local church, father Gutierrez. Camila confesses her feelings to him and he warns her of the danger in saying what she is saying, meaniwhile father Gutierrez is fights the urge , he can’t help but to fall in love. He can’t seem to practice what he is preaching.


Knowing that their love will not be allowed of excepted, they decide to run away together to a small village. They open up a school there and Camila becomes pregnant. But back home he father (who has disowned her, and the government are looking for them. Wanted flyers are hung and e veryone is on the look out. Unfortenatly, while at a party, the couple is recognized and arrested. Without the help of her father, Camila and her lover are destined for death.
The story of Camila doesn’t end as happily as Love in The Time of Cholera did. Although both were forbidden loves. Unlike Florentino and Fermina, Camila and Father Gutierrez are both killed in the end. However, I like to think that they are still happily together in a better place now, with their baby, safe and free from hiding, falling more in love with each other every minute.


Camila and the father knew that they could not live up to their full potential or even together in their home village. In order to grow and escape the tyranny of their government. Freire had strong ideas about how people can struggle under their governments rule. And how they can rise above their oppression and become better.

It remindes me of the song Rise, by the Flobots because of the rising up beyond society and government philosophy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QC6Ur-bC7U


This story pushes the boundaries because the couples in the story die at the end. It is odd for a story to end so cruelly, but this is a true story, so the pain is realistic. It is sad but true.

Beatriz: Florentino felt that he was unable to be with Fermina because of his status

Brandon: It is not just a Latin American or Columbian story but a story about love and class struggle.

Jamison: "The next day, neither of them could imagine going back home and Florentino proposes that they "keep going, going, going, back to La Dorada." Asked by the Captain how long he thinks they can keep up this coming and going, Florentino's answer is simply, "forever."

Kathy: This story is based on social status.

Kelsey: The movie, Love in the Time of Cholera, is set around the year 1900 where women marry for money and not love.

Kim: Fermina’s Aunt helps in the passing of letters back and forth between the two young lover

Maria: he comes down with Cholera but believes that the fever is just because he has fallen in love with her.

Melissa: Years pass and Florentio is convinced that if he climbs in social status he will get Fermina back once her husband dies, since he is willing to wait forever for Fermina.

Mike: The separation between physical age and the essence of your being is interesting to me in that while your physical being may get old and deteriorate your spirit can remain constant. It is only when you let your physical age control your spirit that you begin to wither away.

Nancy: There are several forms of oppression and prejudice present in this story: Fermina’s father rejects Florintino as a suitable suitor for Fermina because he is lower class.

Week 11

51 years, 9 months, 4 days
I chose to watch the film version of Love in the Time of Cholera, because of my love for Benjamin Bratt. Although, I do not favor is character in the movie, you can’t say that he isn’t a simply brilliant addition to the cast.
The plot is classic, boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy loses girl… it is the whole star crossed lovers situation that we are all familiar with. However, there are aspects of this story that give a fresh new look at the longevity of true love.
When Florentino Ariza meets and falls in love with Fermina Daza it seems that they will be together forever. However, as in many love other stories they don’t just ride off into the sunset. Fermina’s father refuses to allow their relationship to grow and sends her off to live with relatives. Florentino is left with nothing but persistence. Florentino waits for true love for 51 years, 9 months, 4 days. This persistence sure pays off for Florentino in Love In The Time Of Cholera. In the end, true love is at last his, together, forever.
Freire’s ideas are important to the story, because Florentino is able to realize that he is not as good as he can be. That as long as there are people like Dr. Juvenal Urbino that he could always be better. Florentino made the choice to become rich and successful like Dr. Juvenal Urbino in order to be worthy of his true love.
Also another important aspect that involves Freire is that the couple corresponded via written letters. Had the couple been illiterate and words had not been written to express true love then the love may not have blossomed.
Any time that a person from the “wrong side of the tracks” falls for an upperclass person, then all hell breaks loose. This story crosses borders, because it proves the point that true love waits and is everlasting and impossible to break, no matter how much change you carry in your pockets.




1. Susan: Rigoberta Menchu is an activist who campaigned against human right violations committed by the Guatemalan armed forces.
2. Alyssa: Ceaser Chavez was born on March 31st, 1927.
3. Brandon: He used to be a migrant farm worker and he was appalled with the conditions of the job.
4. Candace: there was a very strong female presence during the Boom.
5. Jamison: Growing up I will always remember running around under the great mural that is paint on the school that shows Cesar Chavez and and other great people to bless us with their work and life.6. Kathy: Dario wrote a poem titled A Roosevelt (To Roosevelt) in January of 1904 in Malaga, Spain in reaction to the US's involvement during the Separation of Panama from Colombia.
7. Kelsey: Some female writers are Chilean Isabel Allende, Argentine Luisa Valenzuela, Chilean Diamela Eltit, Mayra Montero, Daina Chaviano, Zoe Valdes, and Angeles Mastretta.
8. Kim: In many countries, the Deaf sign languages are barred in schools for the deaf and are used mainly outside the classroom and within the Deaf community.
9. Logan: Servants learned to speak with their hands and use of specific facial expressions. I found this interesting because most people believe singing is specifically about learning how to read hands when the reality is that there is a huge emphasis on reading a persons facial expressions and lips when they communicating through signing.
10. Maria: The most known authors at those time wrote about their Latin American countries giving their novels a historical theme