At eleven o'clock I am wishing my shoes did not have hobnails in them as I noisily tread down the tranquil street lined with four-o-clocks and horse stables. I try unsuccessfully to not let my footfalls disturb this peaceful night. Silently, I curse myself for deciding to wear this heavy Spanish dress loudly swishing at my ankles. Agitated, I tug at my hair and red shawl. At the comer a rainbow of people spreads out before me. The appetizing aromas of warm bread, seafood, and sherry surge over me and instill a craving. Vibrant colors reflect from the resplendent dresses my friends wear. We greet each other with two kisses and saunter under an arch of lights to the Spanish Fair, la Feria.
From the left, screams of delight ascend from the rides on the other side of the Feria. We continue strolling on the gritty dirt road lined with stucco buildings called casetas. From these buildings drift a stifled blend of music and laughter. Families assemble together while eating and telling stories. Children and teenagers are captivated, as their fathers and grandfathers relate (with exaggerated hand gestures) funny stories and old tales. Most men don riding attire: vests, riding boots, chaps, and black wide-brimmed hats. A few women are dressed traditionally as well, in long skirts, riding boots, and amazona jackets. Many more women wear Sevillana dresses like ours. Some even wear the exquisitely hand-embroidered silk shawls called mantones. These dresses have a Gypsy style, heavy with lace and fabric. We all have the same type of shoes although some are more broken in than others. My shoes are new and the stubborn leather constricts my feet. The hobnails, used as taps, make slight clicking sounds on the and dirt underfoot.
We enter a...
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...tly. My wrists rotate and I delicately twist my fingers in the moist air as my hand-made red and black dress swishes with each pass I make. The long fringes of my manton swing smoothly at my sides as I dance with the clapped rhythm. I dance without stopping as each ancient song blends into the next. As the hours pass by I know I could dance fortever and forget about tomorrow.
The air at seven a.m. is warmed with the rising sun. Perfumed four-o-clocks are sleeping peacefully, and the scent of the ocean pervades as the new morning begins. My dress sways pleasantly at my ankles. My disheveled hair plays around my face and my manton hangs crooked but comfortably on my shoulders. My legs and feet are exhausted but the nails tap flawlessly on the gritty earth. Their cadence refreshes the sensation I felt earlier while dancing, and I am proud to wear my Spanish dress.
Whether one would like to admit it or not, change is a difficult and not to mention uncomfortable experience which we all must endure at one point in our lives. A concept that everyone must understand is that change does not occur immediately, for it happens overtime. It is necessary for time to pass in order for a change to occur, be it days, weeks, months, or even years. The main character, who is also the narrator of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, realizing that “things felt less foreign in the dark” (Russell 225), knows that she will be subject to change very soon. The author makes it evident to readers that the narrator is in a brand new environment as the story begins. This strange short story about girls raised by wolves being trained by nuns to be more human in character is a symbol for immigration, as the girls are forced to make major changes in their lives in order to fit in with their new environment and adapt to a new culture.
...k wearing those old saddle shoes with her nice pink and white dress. Here poverty stroke Esperanza and hard on the back, she could not even enjoy the new dress she finally got. She did not have good shoes, there for she was not able to dance at the party because she felt like everyone would stare. She finally decided to dance with her uncle and forgot about the fact of not having nice shoes except for the once a year pair of shoes. As she continues to explain about her shoes she says, "… I am wearing only ordinary shoes, brown and white, the kind my mother buys each year for school." (Cisneros 47), here Esperanza proves that they do buy them new shoes every year, and every year they are saddle shoes because they last longer (the entire year until, until next September).
Junot Diaz’s “Otravida, Otravez” postulates a perspective of life where one’s present and future always reflects their past in some way. Diaz incorporates symbolic figures to convey how a person’s past can be carried into the future. Diaz’s use of symbolic figures includes the dirty sheets washed by Yasmin, the letters sent by Virta to Ramon, and the young girl who begins working with Yasmin at the hospital. These symbolic figures and situations remind the readers that the past will always play a major role in one’s present. Additionally, Diaz’s word choice, where Spanish words appear in many different parts of the reading, suggests that indirectly, one’s past habits are not easily broken.
“From Lieutenant Nun,” a memoir written by doña Catalina de Erauso, tells an intriguing story of a young Spanish female and her advantageous journey through Spain and the New World. Her family intends for her to become a nun but, that is not the life she seeks for herself. Therefore, she breaks away from the convent in hopes of finding somewhere to make her fortune by passing as a male. Catalina’s story is noteworthy because it gives readers another perspective of exploration focusing on self-discovery during the seventeenth century emphasizing how passing as a male is the only thing that secured her ability to explore. In the memoir, Catalina repeatedly reminisces about clothing and, whether she consciously or unconsciously does so, she allows the reader to see that this is an important aspect of her exploration. Throughout Catalina’s journey, clothing plays an increasingly important role not only in her travels but, also her personal life because it symbolized ones status, role, gender and privileges.
There have been 20 million arrests since 1965 for the possession of marijuana, also known as cannabis. The amount of crime and arrests for possessions of the illicit drug has increased due to the prohibition. Cannabis was a major cash crop for the industrial production prior to its illegalization. It has been estimated that the United States spends approximately $7.7 billion each year to prohibit the use of marijuana alone. Currently the number of people incarcerated is six to ten times higher than European countries (NORML). Today the United States wastes billions of dollars to fight against the war on drugs, for the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of people, and etc. It’s also brought a raise of violence and crime relating to the dealing and production of the drug. Marijuana should be legalized because its ban has been futile in preventing illicit production, regulating it would allow new development in medical treatments, and would give a boost to the economy. The illegalization of the drug has a much more negative impact then it does well, in fact it’s pushed drug cartels to produce more of the drug because of the high demand and the millions of dollars they’ll make from profits.
Most people think that smoking marijuana will not hurt you, but they are wrong. In the article “This is your brain on drugs” by Abigail Sullivan Moore, she tells us what marijuana actually does to your body. One of the ways marijuana affects the body is by messing with your brain. It cause you to lose I.Q. points and lose memory. Those who start smoking around the age of 18-25, by time they reach the age of 35 will lose on average 8 I.Q. points and have a hard time remembering things. Marijuana also affects the heart. It slows down the person’s heart rate, which could cause them to die from a heart attack. As you keep reading the article it tells us that the amount of people going to the hospital for drug related symptoms. For example, I was watching the news and a month or two after marijuana was legalized, 59 people had died from either overdose or a heart attack. Even though it can help heal a lot of people, if using it too much it can kill
Some research also shows that Marijuana can be addictive for some individuals. While the numbers for the individuals that actually do become addicted...
Flores, Angel. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction." Magical Realsim. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 109-116.
Author’s Techniques: Rudolfo Anaya uses many Spanish terms in this book. The reason for this is to show the culture of the characters in the novel. Also he uses imagery to explain the beauty of the llano the Spanish America. By using both these techniques in his writing, Anaya bring s the true culture of
In 1949, Dana Gioia reflected on the significance of Gabriel García Márquez’s narrative style when he accurately quoted, “[it] describes the matter-of-fact combination of the fantastic and everyday in Latin American literature” (Gioia). Today, García Márquez’s work is synonymous with magical realism. In “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes,” the tale begins with be dramatically bleak fairytale introduction:
The narrator portrays her degrading identity through her cultural detachment from Europe and Africa. The novel does not only tell the story through the exile she has suffered. At times, the narrator’s nocturnal writing offers the reader her inner thoughts, but it also displays her initiative to confide within her exile through nostalgia and lyricism. An analysis of multiple passages - regarding writing and geogra...
“The Little Heidelberg” is the story of a small dance hall. The customers of The Little Heidelberg are typically older men and women, many of whom are foreigners who cannot speak English. One of these is El Capitán, a retired Finnish sea captain, who has been dancing with niña Eloísa, a lovely Russian woman, weekly for forty years. They have never spoken to each other because of language barriers. One day some Scandinavian tourists come to the Heidelberg. El Capitán hears them speaking his language and asks them to translate to Eloísa for him. In this scene it is the first time that anyone has ever heard him speak. Eloísa learns that El Capitán wants to marry her, and she says yes. The couple begin a celebratory dance, and as they start twirling Eloísa begins to turn “to lace, to froth, to mist” until she is first a shadow and then completely disappears (Allende, 179). In the magic of the scene, she twirls out of existence. Her disappearance seems to reflect the dreamscape nature of the scene.
Women in The Count of Monte Cristo possess unique personalities, but intensely similar restrictions. Currently, women in the United States, as well as other countries, are able to have jobs, travel, and participate in many other activities that the ladies Dumas portrays are not allowed to. Feminist analysis of this book reveals the ways of the time and the delicate balance of society’s typical structure. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas realistically conveys that when women violate their traditional roles, the balance of life is disrupted. This is evident through descriptions of instances in which females are in the home as well as when they are not.
“Dance, the art of precise, expressive, and graceful human movement, traditionally, but not necessarily, performed in accord with musical accompaniment. Dancing developed as a natural expression of united feeling and action.”
First of all, marijuana is not dangerous. The short and long term effects of marijuana aren’t harmful, especially compared to the effects of legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco. Short term effects of marijuana include the feeling of being high. When a person is high, they have memory problems, sensory distortion, panic, anxiety, poor coordination of movement, lowered reaction time, and sleepiness. Most of these effects are not felt each time a smoker smokes, and many people enjoy these feelings (Short- & Long-Term Effects of Marijuana). There are quite a few long term effects of marijuana. One long term effect of marijuana is cancer because marijuana contains some of the same cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Though marijuana contains some harmful chemicals that cause cancer, it isn’t nearly as dangerous as tobacco smoke. Another long term effect of smoking marijuana is respiratory problems. Cannabis can cause a person to cough and wheeze. The possibility of cancer and respiratory proble...