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Final Individual Project

By Julio Cuatianquiz Ochoa in News on December 17, 2020.

Julio Cuatianquiz

What I have learned in this course was that when we studied Christopher Columbus, I actually learned what his true intentions were when he discovered America. When I was in elementary school, they would always teach us and portray Christopher Columbus as a saint and that he was a good person because he was a great explorer. What they didn’t teach us in elementary school about him was that him and his people forced the Indians who were the actual ones to discover America, they forced them to adopt to their religion. According to the article “Open Veins” BY Eduardo Galeano, he states that “f you do not, or if you maliciously delay in so doing, I certify that with God’s help I will advance powerfully against you and make war on you wherever and however I am able, and will subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their majesties and take your women and children to be slaves, and as such I will sell and dispose of them as their majesties may order, and I will take your possessions and do you all the harm and damage that I can” (Galeano, 13). This shows the true colors of Columbus and his men and how they were cruel and obnoxious to the Indians who stood no chance against them. After reading this essay, I was able to realize the type of man Columbus was and how as children, they brainwashed us to believe he was a great man that discovered America.

According to the short story “Kimberle” by Achy Obejas, these are the songs that relate to it. The song, The Last Night, by Skillet relates to the short story because it talks about committing suicide and it says, “You come to me with scars on your wrist You tell me This will be the last night feelin like this” and in the story it states, “She was asking me to keep her from killing herself. There was no method chosen yet—it could have been slashing her wrists” (Obejas, 14). The way these two are related is because when someone tries committing suicide, one of the first ideas they get is to slit their wrist and that’s what Kimberle wanted to do. In the song, “Bring Me To Life” it says, “Bid my blood to run before I come undone save me from the nothing I’ve become.” These lyrics relate to the short story because it states how the narrator was scared of Kimberle committing suicide and she knew that Kimberle was at risk, so she sheltered her which in a way is saving Kimberle because now the narrator is able to keep an eye on her (Obejas, 17). The following song that can also be related to this short story is “Nobody’s Home” by Avril Lavigne because in the lyrics it says, “too many, too many problems don’t know where she belongs where she belongs she want’s to go home but nobody’s home.” These lyrics relate to the short story because it states “she went home one rosy dawn and discovered that her landlord, aware that he had no right to do so but convinced that Kimberle (now four months late on her rent) would never get it together to legally contest it, had stacked all her belongings on the sidewalk” (Obejas, 16). This is an example of how Kimberle is facing too many problems because besides from wanting to commit suicide, she now has another problem which is her being homeless so now she has no idea where she belongs, and she can’t go home because the only home she got is to live in her Toyota. Furthermore, the song “Dangerously in Love 2” by Beyonce relates to the short because Beyonce sings about a person making the confusion go away and that ties to the short story because Kimberle has faced many obstacles but her love for the narrator has helped her forget all her problems. Additionally, the way the song “Teenage Fever” by Drake ties to the short story because Drake sings about if someone had their love and gave them all their trust, would they comfort them, and it relates to Kimberle giving all her trust to the narrator by entrusting the narrator to be on suicide watch.

An article that relates to Pandora’s Box by Arturo Arias is the article, “California Today: Transgender Surgery Comes to Major Southern California Hospital” by Jennifer Medina and it explains that many people in the west coast have people running into many obstacles to try to accomplish their wish of having the surgery they wanted. The way this relates to the story is that this man Juan isn’t too sure about becoming a woman and eventually he goes through with the surgery, he wakes up and realizes that he has fully been transformed into a woman and honestly it was one of the best decisions he has ever done, and it was a dream come true because he was always doubtful about being a man. After the surgery he explored his body, and he was just full of excitement and joy because everything just felt so right to him. The newspaper article relates to the story because the article supports these surgeries and are fighting for these surgeries to become legal. There is a doctor who accepts public insurance to undergo these surgeries and it honestly has made it easier for people in the State of California to do these surgeries because before a lot of people would reject them and will not do these surgeries because they felt like it was not right. Dr. Cedars was able to make all these peoples wishes would come true and has performed over 100 surgeries which relates to Juan because he was one the people whose wish came true. Not only are these surgeries for men looking to fulfill their wish of becoming a woman, but also for people like Pandora who wish to become a man.

After cleansing myself with Don Juan he opened up my mind and helped me decide what I really wanted. I left Don Juan knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I got home packed everything I held value to and didn’t look back. The only thing that I was worried about is reuniting with the person I loved the most, Antenna. I’m tired of being afraid to love and be loved, it is time I faced my fear and just do things impulsively instead of overthinking all my decisions. I bought my ticket not caring about how much it was and I got on the first flight leaving to New Zealand.

Thirty hours later I finally arrived at New Zealand, and the first thing I did was email Antenna that I was here and needed to see her. She replied with disbelief and provided directions to her job because she didn’t want to leave work and see that it was a lie of me being here. Once I got to her job, I saw her gorgeous face and just dropped everything and gave her the tightest hug possible. Once I let go, she looked at me with a shocked face. I asked her what’s wrong, that why is she not excited to see me. She sat me down at the nearest table and told me that she didn’t think that there was ever going to be a relationship between them because she was not planning to leave New Zealand because she finally decided to settle down with someone and she thought that there were only going to have an email type of relationship. Hearing these devastating news I ran up and left back to the airport crying, wishing that I would have never came looking for love that was never there.

The way these two images are related is because they both illustrate a sense of being trapped. In the first image, you see that there is a rope around the tree to symbolize that the tree is captured and has no escape and the same is illustrated in the second image because there are three animals that were captured and put into the same cage with no escape. The only difference between these two images is that even though the animals in the second image are trapped in a cage, they still have a sense of hope in being able to escape because they are living creatures that are able to move, meanwhile the tree is forced to suffer in place because unlike the animals, the tree is not able to move. Another similarity is that both pictures illustrate how humans are aware that they are stopping the growth of nature. At first it started by taking down trees, to help us produce more trees, which effects our oxygen. After they started capturing animals for our amusement and use their skin and fur to produce materials which helps us understand that humans are destroying nature and killing the homes of these animals.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LMYWMYZTVcm1qRKZUcI_3f9sUkJlQ1cW/view?usp=sharing

The way the poem, “Mexican Heaven” by José Olivarez is related to the clip from Party of five is that in the poem it states, “Mexican woman (illegal) and Mexican man (illegal) have a Mexican (illegal)-American (citizen). is the baby more Mexican or American? Place the baby in the arms of the mother (illegal). If the mother holds the baby (citizen) too long, does the baby become illegal? The baby is a boy (citizen). He goes to school (citizen). His classmates are American (citizen). He is outcast (illegal)” (Olivarez, 3). The way this quote relates to the clip, is because the parents are illegal and they own a restaurant, meanwhile their oldest son and their daughter are in school. This relates to the part in the poem where it mentions how the boy is in school and has classmates that are American meanwhile, he is an outcast and illegal because his parents were born in Mexico and migrated to the United States meanwhile him and his sister were born in America which makes them legal. Additionally, in the clip you see how the mother is holding her baby who is just a couple months old before she gets handcuffed by ICE and this relates to the poem and how it mentions that if the mother holds the baby for too long, does the baby become illegal even though the baby is a full citizen of the United States. It is unfair to how even an innocent baby can be judged to whether they are illegal or legal just because the parents are not born in United States.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gZ26NfLp_fgE_yVkV8STqskmE_e56x45/view?usp=drivesdk