1495, three years after Columbus's discovery of the new world, Maximo Zamoria, a Spanish conquistador, set off to the Americas in search of gold and glory. Maximo gathered a crew of one hundred strong and well-trained men, along with his right hand man, Samuel. With the permission of the Spanish king, Maximo and his men gathered enough supplies for half a year of travel, and got the finest Spanish sailing vessel to set off for the new world.
The book I am reading is Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario. I predict that the author will explore the human rights issue of Immigration Laws and the plight of illegal aliens in the United States. I believe that this issue will be important in the story because Enrique the main character in the story is very driven to find his mother who has gone herself illegally to the United States to earn money to provide an education for her children and to better the life of her family. I made this prediction because Lourdes leaves her children in Honduras as she goes to make money in the United States and her son Enrique is left saying “Donde esta mi mami?” “Where is my mom?”
In Central America, some parents leave their children, and set out a journey to the United States in hopes of making a better life for them. Throughout the years, the children who are left behind eventually go on a journey to be reunited with their family. On the journey, the children acquire many character traits and skills that ultimately make them grow as a person. In the book by Sonia Nazario titled Enrique’s Journey, author Nazario writes about Enrique, a young Honduran boy, who goes on a long and strenuous trip to find his mother. In the article “Desperate Voyagers,” by Ioan Grillo, it talks on the subject of children fleeing their country due to gang violence.
In the book Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez recalls his life story and personal history being raised, growing up in a family of migrant workers, in California. Born in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, in 1943, Francisco’s childhood, majority of the time, is spent working farm fields around California and various employments. However, regardless of the struggle of keeping the family household composed after being caught by border patrol, demanding labor, and facing poverty he was able to stay hopeful. Furthermore, he went on having an outstanding collegiate career. He went to Harvard University, but a graduate of Santa Clara University and acquired both a Master’s Degree and Doctorate from Columbia University.
The documentary film “The Harvest/La Cosecha” is based on migrant agricultural child labor. In some countries, children work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of those countries is the United States of America. Every year there are more than 400,000 American children who are torn away from, their friends, schools and homes to pick the food we all eat. The film has three main characters being Victor who is a 16-year- old boy, and two girls who are Zulema (age 12) and Perla (age 14).Out of those 400,000, three of them are Victor, Zulema, and Perla.
Rhetorical Analysis “Down on the factory farm” The last thing that comes to our mind when we order a piece of steak at a restaurant is how that animal we are about to eat was being treated while they were alive. According to author Peter Singer’s article "Down on the factory farm” he questions what happened to your dinner when it was still an animal? He argues about the use and abuse of animals raised for our consumption. In Singer’s article he states personal facts and convincing statistics to raise a legitimate argument.
The McFarland community is widely made up of poor farmers who pick fields day and night in extreme weather conditions for minimum wage. Further, the runners also help their parents pick crops from a young age while also attending school. Coach White is astonished when he comes to know that they do not pay the farmers “by the hour. [They] get paid by the field.” (McFarland USA).
Cesar Chavez had a great pride towards everything he stood for, whether it was his catholic beliefs or protecting his fellow man from the oppressor. Growing up in America, Cesar Chavez witnessed discrimination from being Mexican first hand. By growing up in a family oriented catholic home, he was raised to care about the well being of others and to approach life in a nonviolent manner. Having a father who was a farmer, he witnessed the poor living conditions and wages that were given to him and knew that something had to be done. Cesar Chavez’s fight for improving working conditions for farmers helped him gather a large following of Mexican Americans.
Miguel Hidalgo When people think of an epic hero, do they think of an epic hero as being only a story-base character or can they be real people? Miguel Hidalgo certainly fits the epic hero exemplar. He has strong enough qualities that can support an answer stating that, real people are able to represent an epic hero. Most people define an epic hero as “brave and noble character in an epic poem, admired for great achievements or affected by grand
“The boy said nothing. He got up, adjusted his clothing, and picked up his pouch. I’ll work for you, he said. And after another long silence, he added, I need money to buy some sheep” (Coelho 50). He decided to quit his journey but eventually he changed his mind.
Enrique is the central character of Enrique’s Journey authored by Sonia Nazario (2007, 2014). Enrique’s journey is a touching account of the repercussions of an economically distressed society and the effects that this circumstance has on the citizens of Honduras. Enrique is five years old when his mother Lourdes is forced to leave Tegucigalpa, Honduras to the United States where she believes she has a better opportunity of earning an adequate amount of money to support Enrique and his sister Belky. As years pass, Enrique becomes more disheartened and decides to take the dangerous trip of traveling North to be with his mother.
For instance, in paragraphs twenty five through twenty seven he uses repetition to emphasize the understanding from the audience to on how the farm workers are going to progress through the life when they were expressed by the growers with complete disapproval to have pride and confidence towards oneself. Therefore, by using that repetition he uses a authoritative and sympathetic tone and gives the audience a strong connection with Chavez was discussing about. Another example, in paragraphs sixty through sixty three mentions how the promises for farm workers in after the election of Deukmejian, they were promised false hope, for instance they right to vote and the right to negotiate with the employer in a civilized manner was all a hoax. The farm workers were going to be thrown from their rights and the unjustful condition will continue for them with no mercy whatsoever. However, towards the end of the speech, Chavez speaks about the future, describes how the future will look like – that they will be growth of Hispanics and their children will be consisting purely of farm workers, and not dominated by growers.
The first piece of artwork I critiqued was the famous Virgin of Guadalupe. The Virgin of Guadalupe is currently exhibited in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The piece of art is not solely a painting, but an enconchado. It was made into wood, and it essentially creates a reflective surface that appears as moving. Also, I like how they explain their theory on the woman of the apocalypse and how it relates to this piece of art.
When Cesar was just ten years old, he learned early on and never forgot about the lessons of the lack of fairness in society, justice, and trust, in his life due to the dishonest deal that his father made with the hypocrite and foxy Anglo neighbor. Cesar’s father had agreed to exchange eighty acres of his farmland to receive the endorsement of the forty acres land which was next to the family’s adobe home. After the Anglo neighbor broke the agreement, he sold the land to another person whose name was Justus Jackson. Cesar’s father went to a lawyer to ask for help. The lawyer advised him to make a mortgage loan to buy the land back.
The legend of the Virgen de Guadalupe has become a common symbol of hope to many incoming immigrants of Latin American countries. Due to U.S. governmental and economic interventions in Latin American countries, it has caused many people to migrate as refuges and flee unstable environments. These mass migrations have been followed by torturous trails and stories that many times end in death or abuse, however, other times it has allowed refugees to move away and live stable lives in the U.S. However, once in the U.S., these immigrants are faced with discriminatory policy based on false accusations that makes their lives unsafe and unprotected. Therefore, Latinx religious faith becomes a strong component of community for these groups.
