In another poem, “Poderoso Caballero es Don Dinero”, Francisco de Quevedo describes the increasing materialistic nature of the Spanish people as it is becoming in the 17th century. As the world-market expanded and capitalism rose in the wake of colonialism, Spain was becoming increasingly attracted to the lure of monetary richness. Quevedo shows this growing sense of greed through his description of money as someone’s lover: “Madre, yo al oro me humillo; él es mi amante y mi amado, pues, de puro enamorado… (Quevedo)” In her, “When Money Talks: Material Culture and the Creation of Meaning in Quevedo Author(s)”, Patricia Marshall analyzes Quevedo’s poem as a criticism of this increasing emphasis on money, and the near fetishization of it within …show more content…
With many of Spain’s citizens living below the poverty line, the appeal of materialism only fully reached those privileged enough to experience the benefits that it could bring. The dehesa remained free of this materialistic greed because of the nature of the land and the products that it produced. Dan Barber notes, “Unlike American settlers, who were spoiled by our country’s natural abundance, Spaniards couldn’t simply drop their plow and move on to better land. Agribusiness never capitalized on the dehesa wealth because the land isn’t quite good enough (Barber, 176).” So, as capitalism spread out across Europe and into the Americas, the dehesa system remained outside of world of capital because there simply was not enough capital to be gained. The land was only meant to give what it could give, and could not be exploited for extra resources. The livestock acted as fertilizers, the trees fed the livestock, and natural processes were always valued over production. ““It’s very much a question of values, not just value,” Miguel explained to me. “That’s what explains how the traditional farmers and producers have behaved for generations, and why still today they put tradition, nature, or instinct before technology, choosing to produce better, not just more,” (Barber, 178).” So, while the rest of Europe’s energy went towards increasing productivity in all sectors in order to increase their …show more content…
Although the production rate of a dehesa is nothing in comparison to an industrial farmland, that low production rate is what makes the dehesa so special. With less emphasis on churning out large quantities of food and a larger emphasis on quality, the dehesa was able to produce a country-wide, and eventually, world-wide favorite: jamón. Barber writes, “Extremaduran food is unadorned and simple, reflecting its peasant origins and the poverty of the land. Start with ham (The Spanish always do.) As Miguel explained, jamón is, in essence, a poor product. The meat is sliced paper thin. It is served sparingly (Barber, 179).” Even though jamón has origins of poverty, scarce resources and infertile land, it has become a food that is loved by all. It is produced in a way that is dependent on the ecosystem: the grass and acorns that feed the pigs, the pigs which fertilize the trees and grass. The self-dependent cycle of the dehesa may not be economically viable, but it creates a product that is delicious and rich, and one that can feed many with so little. The humble origins of this delicious food are praised in modern Spanish poetry. In Baltasar del Alcázar’s “Tres cosas”, he describes the three things that he loves: Inés (a woman), jamón (ham), and berenjenas con queso (eggplant with cheese). In one stanza, he says that of the three, he cannot decide which
The Carrillo Adobe is in a dire situation. It has not only fallen into disrepair from the many years of weather and use by so many individuals, but by visitors and citizens have been less that kind and considerate of its age and the prominence that it deserves. After Carrillo’s death her house was given to three of her daughters, Marta, Juana, and Felicidad. Then her belongings were distributed between all of her children. In the first decade after her death her different children each occupied the house at different times. One of her daughters, Juana and her husband ran the home as a tavern. They then converted the adobe into the first post office in the town of Santa Rosa. After her daughters no longer had a need for the adobe it was turned into a trading post where numerous individuals...
Menudo is a Mexican soup made of cow guts, hominy, and red chili peppers. Menudo is typically reserved for large family gatherings and special occasions due to the fact that it takes several hours to prepare the beef stomach. Gonzalez refers to “tripas y posole” in line eleven. This translates to “cow guts (tripe) and hominy,” the main ingredients in menudo. Gonzales brings up the “tight flashes of color” because the white chunks of tripe and hominy would contrast with the redness of the red chili pepper base. He uses imagery to evoke a picture of “red caldo (soup) smears” in a notebook. This imagery relates the food back to his childhood, as elementary school is the most common setting for using notebooks. In line ten, Gonzalez calls menudo “visionary” which he elaborates on later in the stanza when he compares “our lives going down” to the digestion of menudo. “Going down” in this context does not mean becoming negative, but rather refers to life running its course, just as menudo must run its course. He also compares chili piquin to “poetic dreams,” which conveys the idea that just as chili piquin provides the spicy flavor in menudo, dreams or goals are the spice and flavor in our
The suggestive power of a bright scene or an exotic name painted on the façade was at times enhanced by a slogan like ‘Drink Pulque, Be Happy” (50-51). The little solace the masses gained from their wages was usually happily wasted one night after the paycheck had arrived. Aspiring to drown their social inferiority, pulque crippled the east side’s population. In essence, both rich and poor yearned to gain acceptance, at conscious or subconscious levels. Mexico City in the Age of Diaz is a literary illustration of one country’s struggle to define itself as a modern, cultured nation.
Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Green Chile” describes a personal experience growing up with a staple food of the Southwest tradition. In the 3 stanzas and 45 eloquent lines, Baca uses symbolism through red and green chile peppers. The red chile peppers symbolize strength and progression and are also the peppers the author prefers. On the other hand, the green chilies represent youth, which are Baca’s grandmother's favorite. Both the red and green chilies are differentiated by the flavor and taste to tell a story of Baca and his history of growing up with his grandmother.
Gina Valdes in her poem English con Salsa used many literary techniques. One of them was humor and throughout the poem it is used greatly. An example of it starts in the beginning where the po...
Spanish life, thought, and feeling at the end of chivalry. Don Quixote has been called
Throughout his novel, Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes effectively uses the transformation of reality to critique and reflect societal and literary norms. In three distinct scenes, Don Quixote or his partner, Sancho, transform reality. Often they are met with other’s discontent. It is through the innkeeper scene, the windmill scene, the Benedictine friar scene, and Quixote’s deathbed scene that Cervantes contemplates revolutionary philosophies and literary techniques. The theme of reality transformation does not even stop there. Sometimes the transformations of reality scenes act as mimetic devices. Ultimately, Miguel Cervantes’ use of transformative scenes acts as a creative backdrop for deeper observations and critiques on seventeenth-century Spanish society.
...s. These lands were “usually in less desirable locations and discouraged any successful transition to agriculture”.24
Goldberg describes the jocular tales as “perplexing if we choose to consider them as tales aimed at attacking women” (69). Emily Francomano in her introduction to Three Spanish Querelle Texts states “humor abounds in the texts of the Spanish querelle, leading many readers to consider medieval debate texts as part of a courtly game, entertainment without serious cultural importance or consequences” (6). She continues that while the texts may have been a ludic activity, there were certainly more serious issues at stake “each text is in reality grounded in particular ideologies, in the historical, political, and economic circumstances, as well as in the literary trends of its time and place” (6). While Maldezir is the work most critics agree initiated the debate, others followed such as Juan de Tapia’s Glosa- Juan II, Fray Iñigo López de Mendoҫa’s Dictado en vituperio de las malas mujeres y alabanza de las buenas, Hernán Mexía’s Verses, Fernando de Rojas’ La Celestina, and Luis de Lucena’s Repetición de amores
The popularity of Esquivel's 1989 novel--into its eighth printing by October of 1991--seems to have resuscitated heirs to the Dominican friar's wariness of women in the kitchen, such as a critic who, dismissing Como agua para chocolate and its peculiar use of recipes as entirely lacking in literary merit, declares that, "no tiene otra aspiracion que ser novedosa" "it has no aspiration but to be novel." However, the novelty of Esquivel's enterprise, bringing together two supposedly incompatible companions for women today, the kitchen and writing, does have its ancestry, as does a certain skeptical response it evokes. Admittedly, Esquivel's concoction, which unabashedly mimics the form of a serialized romance or folletin while doubling as a cookbook, may incur criticism for uniting two literary forms notoriously and pejoratively associated with Cortazarian lectores-hembra or "female-readers. " But I find enormously suggestive the popular appeal of this recent lighthearted blending of ingredients from the kitchen and the folletin, far transcending the "female-reader" audience of serial
In this brief poem by Martin Espada titled “Latin Night at the Pawnshop,” sacrifice is a harsh reality met by many people who come to America searching for the ultimate American dream. This unpleasant portrait of America represents the tension between societies that unify a mixture of cultures versus a society that requires people to renounce part of their cultural characteristics to assimilate into their new community. The complete set of instruments of a salsa band is for sale in a pawnshop window. Therefore, the discarded items describe the unfortunate failure of a salsa band. Why did the salsa band fail? Did the musicians simply lose interest with the hobby? Was it that the public didn’t accept and support salsa bands in the area? Was it merely the fact that the treasured cultural tradition of salsa music was gradually dwindling? The poem doesn't give a specific resolution, however, it leaves the reader with a gloomy feeling that indicates the death, sorrow, and loss of something extremely precious: objects in a pawnshop hanging motionless like tickets on a corpse.
Miguel de Cervantes' greatest literary work, Don Quixote, maintains an enduring, if somewhat stereotypical image in the popular culture: the tale of the obsessed knight and his clownish squire who embark on a faith-driven, adventure-seeking quest. However, although this simple premise has survived since the novel's inception, and spawned such universally known concepts or images as quixotic idealism and charging headlong at a group of "giants" which are actually windmills, Cervantes' motivation for writing Don Quixote remains an untold story. Looking at late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Spain from the viewpoint of a Renaissance man, Cervantes came to dislike many aspects of the age in which he lived, and decided to satirize what he saw as its failings; however, throughout the writing of what would become his most famous work, Cervantes was torn by a philosophical conflict which pervaded the Renaissance and its intellectuals--the clash of faith and reason.
Pablo Neruda is from Chile and gives a voice to Latin America in his poetry (Bleiker 1129). “The United Fruit Co.,” the poem by Pablo Neruda that will be analyzed in this essay, is enriched with symbolism, metaphors, and allusions. These allusions have great emphasis to the Christian religion, but some allusions are used to evoke negative emotions towards the United States (Fernandez 1; Hawkins 42). Personification and imagery along with onomatopoeia and metonymy are also found in “The United Fruit Co.” Neruda’s use of these literary devices makes his messages of imperialism, Marxism, and consumerism understandable (Fernandez 4). In this essay each of these literary devices with its proper meaning will be further analyzed in the hope of achieving a more complex understanding of Neruda’s message.
It is ridiculous to imagine that 80% of all of the world’s agricultural land is being used for animal production. These resources could be used to feel millions of hungry/malnourished families (Duden).
Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fibre productivity rose due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favoured maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labour demands to produce the majority of the food and fibre.