Blog Entry - Week 6 - Feb 16 (Field Trip Edition)

Our class went on a field trip as we walked to Relampago Musical and Burrito Mercado.  The music store had a flea market appearance to me that reminded me as if I was in California.  I walked around the store and browsed through the music selections.   I did recognize some of the Mexican artists – Jennifer Lopez and John Secada as their influence have spilled over to American music.  Another thing I found interesting was a picture of Virgin of Guadalupe on the wall.  I would not expect to see a religious symbol in an American music store.

The main event of the field trip was a trip to the Burrito Mercado.  Outside of the store there was a Mexican version of Charlie Brown.  I found this interesting as Charles M Schultz is from St Paul.  I may have to go back during the day to get my picture with Charlie. The store smelled of spice and oil to me.  I assume the oil was from the restautaurnt with the cooking and the deep fryer.  I walked around the store and I noticed the earth tone walls decorated with Mexican artwork and earth tone floors.   I was going to buy some chorizo at the meat counter for the weekend, but I realized I already had some in the freezer.  As I was walking away the butcher came up to me and spoke to me in Spanish.  My thick black hair and my skin tone was probably an indication to him that I could know Spanish. I did not know what he said and replied “No Gracias”.  I assume with his role at the store he was asking if he could help me.   

I continued to walk around the store as I picked up a concha from the bakery; frijoles con chorizo and tamales from the deli, avocados from the produce, and tortilla chips from the register.  A concha is Mexican shell shaped sweet bread with a sugar pattern on top.  The reason why I got this item was because when I visited my grandma in San Jose California I would walk to the Mexican market and pick me up a fresh concha at the bakery.  It was my favorite item to get and when my grandma went to the grocery store I was always sure to go with.  The taste of the concha unfortunately did not live up to the expectations I had in my memory.  The bread was kind of dry and that may have been because the concha was purchased in the late evening.  Irregardless I was happy I got as it rekindled some of the memories I had with my grandma.  Another memory I had of my grandma was she would always make tamales when we visited during Christmas.  I remember the house being hot with boiling of the pork and masa.  It was a family event where she invited her daughters and their spouses.  The adults did the cooking while the kids would play outside.  It was a big get together and there was more than enough tamales made for everyone to take home.  The tamales I got at Burrito Mercado were red pork and green chicken.  They were really good and I may have to say they would rank close to the best I ever had, at least since I have had those of my grandmas.  The other items were pretty much staples item as chips and dip.  I like frijoles but sometimes I wonder if frijoles like me.  The chips were made by the store and they tasted authentic and fresh.  The avocadoes were just like the ones you would find at Cub Foods and the sticker said they were imported from Mexico.

 One thing I noticed about the other students in the class is a lot of them picked up chips and salsa.  These are items that mainstream America is used to purchasing.  I believe salsa outsells a staple item like ketchup.  What would a Super Bowl party be without chips and salsa?  Seeing this reminded me of the reading of Hector Tobar with the Latinization of America.

Blog Entry - Week 5 - Feb 9

We started off class with an exercise where looked at ourselves in a mirror with our eyes closed and thought of who we were.  We wrote down five questions.

1.       Where do I come from?

2.       Where are my parents from?

3.       Where did I come from before coming to class?

4.        What is Important to me?

5.       Where do I want to go? Tomorrow? In life?

We then moved to the left of where we were seated.  We wrote our answers to their questions with their pen and paper.  At the same time we were asked to think about the person that sat there before us.  It made me think of how we are different.  We have a diverse class in age, gender and race.  It was a good exercise especially if it was someone who would be considered different then you.  It was a good segway to the lesson for the day where we discussed Identity, Cultures, National Identity and Stereotypes.

Identity is who we think we are and this feeling is internal and subjective.  Culture is a way of life for a group of people.  Their traditions, values, beliefs, rituals, holidays, food, clothing, art, music behaviours and language are al part of their cultures.  National Identity is a composite of cultural practices.  It is a symbolic face of how others see us and insiders portray.   Stereotypes are a way of organizing information.  They may be accurate in depicting a part of a society.  Problems occur when applied generally or used for simplistic generalizations.

We discussed the first chapter of Translation Nation by Hector Tobar.  In the reading he describes the Latinization of the United States.  We also learn of an individual by the name of Ben Reed.  Reed was a Mormon who had a Latin soul.  He became a Spanish speaking radio host and even Reed himself said he was born an Anglo but identifies himself as a Latin culturally.   The class comes full circle with the beginning exercise, the PowerPoint and Ben Reed on identity and how we or others see ourselves.

Blog Entry - Week 4 - Feb 2

Our fourth class we had a special guest, Sandy from Praxis International.  She works towards eliminating violence in the lives of women and children.  She noted that violence is a problem all across the world and referenced Mayan women in Mexico who were battered.  One thing that she pointed out is that women are no longer considered sacred and children are no longer considered as gifts in cultures and civilizations.  Makes you wonder what happened to the saying “Women and Children First”?  For some reason, I thought of the coward from the Italian cruise liner where the captain fled the ship with many women and children on the boat and he was more concerned for his safety.  It is amazing to me that the values of women are sacred and children are gifts are no longer important.

Then the moment we were all waiting for…. the QUIZ.  Curtis surprised us with a closed book, open mouth quiz.  We were allowed to discuss the answers of the quiz and collectively submit our answers as a group.  I felt I was well prepared for the quiz.  Thankfully the class bailed me out on some answers that I knew I would have gotten wrong.  Now if I retain the knowledge it would be WIN-WIN.    I think if the groups would have been smaller and we would have had more time we could have had more discussion to defend our thoughts and retain our new knowledge.

The next part of the class we discussed Manifest Destiny which was a 19^th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent.   They expanded to Central America in hope of building a canal. The original choice was Nicaragua as it had the natural waterways and rivers.    William Walker proclaimed himself the president of Nicaragua in hopes of building a canal through Nicaragua.  The canal was in the best interests of investors and the United Fruit Company and was eventually built in Panama.  The canal allowed companies to decrease transportation costs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and vice versa.  Who knew bananas could be this important to United States and Central American History?  Perhaps the beginning of American Imperialism.