It's been an intresting journey...

This experience with writing on the blog was certainly a pleasing one. I have had multiple blogs in the past, branching from a travel blog titled ‘Road trip down Route 66’, to a senior year blog called ‘Just for Us’, of which I was an editor and chief and would do most of the writing one way or another. Therefore I certainly have a good base of knowledge of how to do and keep a blog. However, this blog I consider to be a very straight forward one so to speak, given the fact that it’s not all spruced up as some of my other blogs have been.
I have 14 post and most of them range from 250 words to 310 words.

I think that my writing technique remains on the same level as when I first started writing. Somehow I think I did this purposefully because of the fact that I think that my writing style is completely my own. However I do believe that my thought process has become a might faster so to speak. Inspirations comes much quicker and my ideas tend to be fairly solid. I have found that this blog was very different from the journal writing to the point that since it’s on the internet for all of you to see and comment on I had to be very careful that it had no grammatical errors and make sure that the information going into it was as accurate as it could possibly. I certainly didn’t want to put out something that didn’t even make sense. Therefore, this blog was given me a chance for us to be able to express myself toward the world about my experiences in our English class so it certainly has a very clear purpose on that front.

All of my group members commented on my blog using what is know as Peter Elbow reviews. A lot of these reviews were very helpful especially those that asked questions and gave their opinions on something or another. Because as much as I want to put out my opinion on a certain matter, I also loved hearing my group members opinions on the same thing.

 I think that with this writing experience I truly did learn about being a straight forward writer, getting right down to the facts and to some of my opinions. With all of my writing projects have had different and significant impacts on the way I now write to the extent of conciseness and flow of ideas.

I think that this experience has definitely renewed my love for blogs therefore I truly do hope that I manage to continue one through out my college experience...

 

Served in Silence; questions that have answers...

So these past few days our class has been watching a movie titled 'Serving in Silence'. A movie about the brave Margaret Cammermeyer and her journey in coming out to her family, friends, the military and the general public. We were asked to answer a series of questions based on the movie, so without any further ado lets begin;

1.      Describe the reactions to Margaret's sexual orientation:
A. MilitaryWhen Margarethe Cammermeyer told the military about her sexuality, their reaction was to immediately discharge her, but as an “Honorable Discharge”.

B. Father

When she told her father, he somehow understood, but feared for her position in the army. Also, he believed that she should not tell everyone about it because it was an inside-of-the-house matter.

C. Children (in order from oldest to youngest):

Matt: He said he already knew and he understood completely.

David: He was understanding and decided to go to live with his mom after he had problems with his dad.

Andy: He asked her if she decided to become a lesbian, but accepted her anyways.

Tom: At first, he was avoiding her. But as the movie goes on we see that he accepts her mom in the end.

 

2.                  Margarethe's decision to tell: 
A.  The military: Margarethe had never been asked before whether she was a homosexual or not, so she was never put in that position before. In the moment she was asked, she did not lie about her feelings and told the truth even though she was sure that would affect her in a bad way. The Army felt that it would have been better if she had kept that information to herself.
B. Her children: As Margarethe told the military and was facing the problem, she decided to fight back and sue the Army. Of course, this will to fight would bring a lot of public attention to her and that would affect, not only her, but also the members of her family, including her children, and that was why she decided to tell them the truth.
C. Her father: Margarethe was particularly afraid of telling her father, being the oldest and most conservative of her immediate family. When her father told her that he was coming to live with her, she decided to tell him before he found out by himself when he arrived.

3.                  What is your reaction to this true story? Do you believe that she should have kept her secret or told it to everyone? Explain your response why.

a.                  Angel Carrillo:

i.                        "I am a little indifferent about the story, still, I guess this was bound to happen anyway.  I know that she just said it because she was asked, but it all escalated because she did not know about the new rule about sexual orientation."

b.                  Crystal O’Neill:

 .                        "My reaction to this story is nothing out of this world. In my opinion this is a saturated topic in the society we live nowadays, although it is still sad that these things happen. Anyways, I do feel sympathy for Margarethe, since I know how hard it can be to be judged by everyone, even though you are not any less of a person than them and are not doing anything wrong. About the question of whether she should have told the truth about her sexuality or not, I believe she did the correct thing because she did what a loyal, true soldier would have done, and she followed her beliefs to the end, which is admirable. "

c.                  Jeanette Marquez:

 .                        "I think she did a good thing telling people and not lying, since she wasn't doing anything wrong.  I know that at this decade was a taboo, so she did make a statement by suing the military, because they had no reason to fire or discharge her. "

d.                 Paula Delgado:

 .                        "Being the daughter of a veteran attendant I know first hand what affects the discrimination against the LGBTT community in the military can cause.  I think that Margarethe was very bracy for being one of the first people to stand up for her rights as a homosexual in the military.  I liked that she told the truth about her sexual orientation to the world.  Not many people had the courage to do that and with that bravery, she opened the door to many other military personnel."

e.                  Hector Rodriguez:

 .                        "It’s a sad story about inequality.  I believe that since it not a “life-death” situation, she should have kept it secret for the sake of her job."

f.                   Nicolas Torres:

 .                        "I believe Margarethe did the right thing. By saying the truth, she created a wave of events that concluded in changing the code of the army concerning homosexuality.  I think that Margarethe’s pride led her to make the decision; because she honors the military code so well, she spoke the truth and wasn’t afraid of the consequences do to the fact that nothing had changed in her life when she said she was a homosexual."

4.                  How would Dr. Kinsey explain the Margarethe Cammermeyer’s sexuality?  She is a mother of 4 boys so how can she be lesbian? Is it her choice?

 .                    Dr. Kinsey might have said that Margarethe’s sexuality changed over time.  First she was married to a man and had four children.  According to Kinsey, it would be normal to love a man, and over time, love a woman.  Margarethe made her choice to marry and have children.  One might argue that she had been distracted from her homosexual identity for a time. Then she meets Diane.  For whatever reason, Margarethe had been able to discover, or re-discover, her identity as a woman who is attracted to other women.  In turn, it was her decision to act and live with Diane.

a.                  Once, she was married to a man and had four children.  For many years, she was married to a man she loved.  Then she divorces the man soon to assert her interest in women.  She then meets Diane whom she had fallen in love with. Margarethe made her choice, two choices. To admit to herself and to the military that she was a homosexual and to continue to fight for her human rights.

5.                  What does Margareth believe about her sexaulity as it relates to her identity?

Margarethe tells her sons when she reveals her sexual orientation to them, that she has somehow always known that she was a homosexual. It is not something that she chose to be but something that defines her as a human being. She explained to her family, her superiors and the man that interviewed her for her security clearance, how her sexuality is characterized by her identifying and forming emotional bonds with women and that in turn is part of what makes her who she is.

 

Literary Contest; An Awards Ceremony

Hello my dear readers, my journey has been extended!

A couple of weeks ago my classmates and I entered the literary competition held by The University of Puerto Rico. We were able to submit into three categories which were poetry, shorty stories and essays. Most of my classmates including myself, entered our works in the poem category. We had been working on our poems for a while already in our actual class and our professor had been helping us make corrections, therefore, I think we felt much more comfortable entering something that we had worked on for a while. Three of our classmates were part of the ceremony. Two of them were place winners while the third received an honorable mention. These three classmates are Luis, Nathan and Angel.

The award ceremony was in honor of a fallen professor which if I am not mistaken passed away from cancer a year ago. I thought that the way they read his poems was definitely a great way to honor him. Also his colleges honored him by giving us his biographical information and one of the professors even explained his poems. We were a bit pressed for time however, I think that most of us in the audience really appreciated having that brief interpretation of the poems before hearing them.

The awards ceremony was over pretty quickly however we did get a chance to hear the first place winners works. My favorite reading was the first place winner for the essay category. With the title ‘Do witches get financial aid’, I thought it was a brilliant analogy for many of the social and financial troubles we college students face. I would’ve loved to have been able to ask questions but we were pressed for time… If I’m not mistaken both classmates that were award recipients entered in the poem category. Our classmate Angel accepted his third place award with his lab coat on which I found pretty funny at the time. Second place went to Nathan however I don’t recall if he was present. He most likely was. Last but not last but not least was Luis that won a mention. Although I think he was in the story category. The remainder of the class was cheering them one from the final rows of the amphitheater.  The first place poem winner was a girl from a different class and I must admit her poem was amazing.

I think this experience taught us about the importance of cheering on for our comrades when they receive well deserved recognitions. I hope that we have the opportunity to do so in the future.

Triffling things.

Adding to my list of short stories I've read this semester is 'Trifles' by Susan Glaspel.

A short story or a one-act play that in a nutshell is centerd on gender discrimination against women as it is about how a woman, Mrs. Wright who murders her abusive husband John Wright and then distant friends Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters that both blame themselves for distancing from her and allowing her to get to the point of murdering her hsban and not only do they solve the case but they end up keeping the knowledge to themselves in a way of self-preservation and to help their friend. Both of their husbands show blatant disregard for their wives saying that they should worry about silly or trifling things. Prompting them to obviously keep vital information about the murder from their husbands.

The murder in itself was a metaphor. You see, John had killed a canary that Mrs. Wright had bought off of a traveling salesman that reminded her of her pre-married life in which she used to sing all the time, in effect it was as if he was murdering her or her spirit all over again. And she in effect killed him. In reality I as a reader know that there are methods of getting away from an abusive relationship and what Mrs. Wright did was obviously a tad excessive however, I can't really blame her for wanting a way out of that situation...

I can't say that I'm thrilled to have read this short story however I didn't dislike it. Its a very in between piece of literature for me.

Watching a mini-series; The 60's

The 60's mini-series stars people like Josh Hamilton, Julia Stiles, Jerry O'Connell, Bill Smitrovich and Annie Corley. The series shows the side of both African Americans and Caucasians in the time period of, obviously, the 60's.


The Caucasian family, the Herlihys, are a working class one originally from Chicago. we see the father Bill Herlih is a former marine that as we learn through the series is very set in his ways, he approves and supports the Vietnam War and is outwardly discriminant but rather a more silent one, the mother Marie is a typical housewife; she cooks, cleans and takes care of her children, a quote that aptly describes her submissiveness ways is when she says 'I've been married a long time, I know what battles are worth fighting' however she does taken a stand in that same scene by signing a presidential campaign petition to end the war that her son Michael gives her.  The three children take completely different paths, the oldest son Brian joins the Marines right out of High School much like his father after not being offered a scholarship to Sacred Heart College which  is offered to his best friend and goes to Vietnam, the second son Michael becomes involved in the civil rights movement he campaigns for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, both of which his father looks down on him for, he becomes involved in radical politics, and little sister Katie gets pregnant at a party by a lead singer that moves away to San Francisco, prompting her to make the move herself after a less than desirable reaction from her father when she informs him that she's pregnant, she then joins a hippie commune 'Pig farm' if I'm not mistaken. In the end we see how oldest son Brian comes back broken from the war and how his brother Michael is one of the main reasons of why he gets better, Michael himself speaks on behalf of his movement protesting the war and asking for the government to bring back the soldiers from Vietnam and sister Katie is reunited with her brothers at Woodstock and finally comes back home with her child Rainbow.

Meanwhile, we see the Taylors that are an African American family living in the deep South. The father a pastor is very much involved in civil movements and after a protest march in their community of which they've been a part of for what looks to be a long time, their house and church is burned down forcing them to move. When Willie Taylor, the father is shot to death by a police officer in a riot protecting his son, his son Emmet moves to the city and eventually joins the Black Panthers, serving as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton. After he is killed, he takes up the position of leader in his community.

Fundamentally I must say that I do like this series, it gave a pretty good insight as to what it was like to live in that time period; I think it was more than historically accurate, it showed both views, and truly showed how society would function in the situations that were presented. Of your interested in this period I fully recommend watching this series and for you to give your own thoughts on the situations.

What happend in the 60's?

Thought these past weeks my literature classmates and I have been watching a mini-series titled '60's'. While I have to make two posts on the series I want to take on of them and use it to give you an overview of what actually happened in this time period as so that when I upload my next post about the series you can have a pretty good sense of what is going on... Shall we begin?

The 1960's... an eventful time in history not just for us in the western hemisphere but also to our counter parts in the eastern hemisphere. However, for now I'm going to concentrate on the western hemisphere just to keep it relevant toward the series. The economy in the 60's is know for being a prosperous one. A time were the unemployment rate was down, jobs were there for the taking, technological development was at an all time high with factories and the like offering many opportunities. In politics we clearly remember President Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and his succession by President Lyndon B. Johnson. We see how both President Kennedy and Pres. Johnson focus mainly in their camping to the betterment of the economy. Were introduced to Medicare, food stamps, monetary funding for education, the decrease in taxes and upping military spending due to the presence of America in Vietnam. Pop culture in these times is stepping out of the Elvis Presley era and coming into The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, we get to see Woodstock in its prime, we see the iconic smiley face and we see a great many fashion icons such as Elizabeth Taylor. Socially speaking we find one of the most trying times in our history, we see racial discrimination, gender discrimination, political discrimination religious discrimination and ideological discrimination. We see how much energy was put into the war effort and just how much energy was put into the protest of it...

As we can see, these are but a few things that the 1960's gave us. I hope that now you may be able to capture what the mini-series is about...

'Freedom' A poem by yours truly

FREEDOM

Freedom,

It’s that little aspect,

of not being tied down,

It’s that feeling of Zen,

It’s that feeling of peace…

I love that feeling.

 

Freedom,

I have found that people have been privy to it,

This feeling,

The feeling of freedom,

I pity those that have perpetrated this,

Those that take freedom away,

For they themselves are not free.

 

Freedom,

So empowering and magical,

The endless possibilities of freedom,

You’re free to dream and wonder,

Wonder and dream about the beauty of the world.

 

Freedom,

Some might find peace with it,

But it means so much more than that.

We strive for freedom,

Yet we sabotage our own,

Why?

 

 

 Anthony Hamilton~~~ Freedom (Django)

Performing in front of the class

A couple of weeks ago my classmates and I had the task of presenting a sketch or play just for us. Since we have been covering the theme of discrimination, goes to show what our sketches were about. We pretty much covered all of the basis for discrimination; race, sexual orientation, living arrangements, religion, etc.

My group 'THE Writers' covered racial discrimination. Our sketch is titled 'TSA' and in overview it's  about a Mexican and his day at an airport. We see him and our other characters going through the TSA checkpoints and after clearing the first one, our main character is detained and questioned at the second checkpoint by a racist TSA agent because he is belived to be an illegal immigrant, another passenger overhears the dispute and goes to the aid of our main character. The actual process of coming up with the idea for racial discrimination, the dialogue, assigning characters and whatnot was simple enough. I consider on of the hardest parts of the assignment was the fact that we had to tie in a poem that had something to do with the sketch itself. We ended up going with a poem titled 'I Rise' by M. Angelou. Which I think is pretty much a straight forward poem as to what a person that has felt the brunt of racial discrimination actually feels.

The actual process of the sketch to me was pretty enjoyable in a way... but I much rather be in the creation process of it all than actually acting. But I must say that the theme while sometimes overdone is still a very prominent problem in society. I can even relate to this situation basically in its exact detail. Which I find outrageous not because of the fact that it happened to me but because that its happening in this day in age when we know the kind of consequences that stem from discrimination and we as a general society should know better...

What it meant to keep a journal...

 

 

So for the past months I've been keeping a journal as part of my literature class...Quiet frankly its been a very interesting process. Personally I've never kept a journal be it because I never really found the time to write in one or because id rather talk to someone than actually write down what I'm thinking. However, this experience has turned out to be much more pleasant than expected.

A very unique thing about my journal is that it was personal, from the outside in. My outside cover, as well as that of my classmates, was completely covered in pictures and quotes that basically speak to the kind of person that I am or of what truly interest me and or defines me. I think it was both fun and quirky for our professor to have us do that as it also made us as classmates get to know each other better. Our professor set up some guidelines for us in the beginning that we had to follow to the best of our abilities. This I must admit was one of the harder parts of the journal as a whole. The main difficulty I had with them was the fact the we had to basically disregard grammar and spelling and just keep our hand moving and letting our ideas flow. This to me was very hard because I would always be thinking that I had to disregard spelling therefore every spelling mistake that I would make I would stop at, think about and then reluctantly move on from. It was easier as I got the hang of it but it was almost always in the back of my mind, making the process a little hard for me. However, the fact that we had a 'time limit' of ten minutes per writing session, I thought was very useful in a way. In my experience I found that the ten minutes was not only a good and or convenient allotted time for witting but also that whenever I knew I had something to write about, the fact that I just had ten minutes to write about it made me completely forget about spelling and whatnot making me concentrate only on what I was writing about and as one of our other guidelines said I would 'go for the jugular' of what I was writing.

In a nutshell I managed to complete 45 journal entries in this semester. Much more than I have managed to come up with in my whole life. Because of this experience I have learned not only the benefits of keeping one and jotting down ideas, thoughts and feelings but also expanding my writing capabilities in general. In my journal I would write to myself, another person or to an audience; I learned to clear my head and write what was really important and I learned about myself as a writer. All in all this experience as helped me gain a lot and I hope to continue it in the future.

That Room had a View

So today I watched an... interesting... movie called 'A Room with a View' by James Ivory. Quite frankly it was a pretty god movie all in all. Many of my favorite actors are the main characters in this movie including Helena Bonham Carter that plays Lucy, the leading lady, Julian Sands playing George Emerson and Maggie Smith playing Lucy's older cousin and chaperone. The movie is centered on the typical period drama of girl comes abroad along with a chaperon and meets boy, boy might have hidden agenda, situations arise and boy and girl develop feelings for each other and plot twist girl is actually engaged to another and is confused but will do her 'social duty' and will marry to whom she was promised and ends her relationship with boy and after a brief time girl ends relationship with fiancé and boy and girl finally give into their feelings and stay together.

However the interesting concept that the movie allows us to see is the differences in social classes that existed in that period and how clearly marked it was. You had a clear sense of what your place was and no one would ever let you forget it. With Lucy being a young middle upper class lady and her fiancé being a full blown snobbish upper class man, you can see how different the country folk, that even Lucy was friends with, are treated by the fiancé whom is a clear depiction of how society would have treated them.

I find this both interesting and sad to the fact that we see those same divisions in class now a days. In today's society you fall under the categories rich and powerful, middle class and hard working and poor and trying. Its sad to see how even in this day on age we all still tend to stick together and try to keep to ourselves in our little social standing group. Sure, we might see one or two exceptions and that's a very positive thing but sadly you are still marked by that social group in which you belonged previously and no one will let you forget that. It duly does make you think about how little progress we have actually made when it comes to society.,,

On Looking; What happend just now?

 

 

So, I just read a poem by Alexandra Horowitz called 'On Looking'. I must admit that although I found that her actual poem was in a way long and tedious, it had a very big message behind it. By her simply describing how most of her walks around her neighborhood, her nearby park with her dog and or her excursions to hiking trails with her dog that turned into her nature walks, she is giving us a clear representation of her now. Even as you read it one does not really see the tense 'it was' or 'it will be' only 'it is'. This piece of literature makes you ask yourself to very important things;

~How many times are we actually focused on the present? How many times do we stop and really look at our surroundings to take in every detail that it has to offer? Almost never. Like right now as your reading this blog post you are probably thinking about your past and evaluating whether or not you live in the past or in the present or even in the future, as now you probably making plans to be more attentive in the future as to what is in that now.
~How do I pay attention? Was I ever taught to pay attention? Am I doing it correctly? Many will probably answer no to these latter questions. This is because even though as children we are told pay attention, our teachers wanted us to pay attention to them and them alone. However, events where still happening all around us, be it a pencil was falling, it started to get sunny once again or many other situations that come to show that we were taught, albeit sadly, to concentrate on one single thing at a time. I love her phrase ' Attention is an intentional, unapologetic
discriminator', because that is what it actually is. A one thing at a time type of concept. At least for most.

Now I am aware that we can't all observe and pay attention to everything at the same time and sometimes things will slip. But it is the principle of not always being in that position of not paying attention to your surroundings. I think that, that is what Alexandra tries to convey to us. To start paying attention.

A little bit about me...

So my name for those of you that don't know is Paula Delgado.

I was born and raised right here in beautiful Puerto Rico. Being from here truly does instill in you a very strong cultural and traditional sense of values that even if you are currently living 30,000 miles away, you still carry them no matter what. I have to say that personally I do believe in God, having been raised a catholic, however, I have always been encouraged to learn about different cultures and their religions so I have a pretty firm belief that anyone has the right to believe in whichever deity of non that they choose. I do consider myself an open book, but its all based on the fact that I'm pretty much a very positive person and I always have a smile on my face to share with anyone that might need it.

I am currently a first-year college student on the  road to becoming a psychologist with a minor in anthropology. As cliché as it may sound I really love to learn and more so when it becomes a challenge so a double major was a no brainer for me. Ive loved reading ever since I picked up my first Harry Potter book. From then on my life has been in constant  coming and going of books, I could probably read a book in about three hours if I had a chance... I also love animals, pretty much every single one of them except for reptiles because they sometimes creep me out. Art has always been an important part of my life from a very young age, I take classes at 'La Liga de Arte" in Old San Juan every Saturday. It probably is considered one of my main hobbies but to me its a true passion.

If there's anything else you guys want to know, don't hesitate to put a question done in the comments section...

A Use of Force; A work in progress.

*Re-posting of A Use of Force; A work in progress.

A Use of Force; A work in progress.

When reading the short story 'A Use of Force' I immediately decided that I had to re-read it. In my opinion there are a lot of questions that where left unanswered. I can't say it was my favorite short story, however I must admits that it does have its moments.

In the story we se the development of various themes. Such as family dynamics, a doctors patience when dealing with small children, patience in general and in my opinion the 'abuse' that could sometimes build up. When exploring family dynamics we see the father, the mother and the girl; we see how the mother and father try to restraint the girl and help the doctor at first but as they start to lose their patience their small semblance of composure fails them. I think this more related to the mother to the point where the husband asks her to wait outside while stays to help the doctor. The doctor at first was demonstrating patience and understanding towards the girl because of the fact that he probably understood how scary it must've been for her to have q doctor come to her house to try to diagnose her with a possibly fatal illness but after the child becomes violent and acts savagely he starts to employ force to make the child submissive so that he can continue with his diagnosis... As the child turns more violent, all in the room start to use force to try to subdue her. In modern medicine we do have to see how this can be labeled as child abuse. However does the end justify the means?

Are we supposed to be subservient to whatever method the doctor would want to use to diagnose you? Should we use force to both evade getting diagnosed and to help a doctor diagnose someone we love?

A Human and His Identity

*Re-posting of A Human and His Identity

A Human and His Identity

Its confusing to stop and think about how much energy the human being puts into finding their identity, their place in this world. I find it confusing because the world is forever changing. So are we. Our likes and interest can change even before the day is out. We go from republicans to democrats, from peacemakers to warmongers or from religious fanatics to complete atheists. These things are what, in some people, shape us and molds us into our identities. At the same time as being confusing... I must also point out the fact that it goes to show the never ending evolution of the human mind. However why do we put so much stock in our identities. Is it because it makes us different from our peers? Or maybe its because we have been taught to pit so much stock in it? To always be aware of our identity and mold it accordingly.

If we take Billy Mills from the film 'Running Brave' as an example, we must in some form or another agree that even in his childhood he started developing a slight conundrum with his identity. He was born a half-blood Native American, his father would cut his hair like a 'white man', he grew up in the Native American culture but he was always encouraged to venture out into the white world. Quite frankly its no wonder that as he grew up he would be confused in his identity. In the movie we see Billy referring himself as three different people. We see ' Billy the Chief', 'Billy the Runner' and just 'Billy'. Thought the movie Billy and his need to be identified is noticeably taking its toll. But then again wouldn't it be the same for all of us?

Again we spend so much time on figuring out who we are, the moment that it is challenged we fall apart. I think it has been ingrained in us to always know ourselves and know our place. Which if you truly look at it... its neither good nor bad. Its all up to what you believe is correct.