One article that I also enjoyed in the month of November was the Latino USA reading. I found it interesting how their were so many different meanings and names to different places. An example is the river and how some Hispanic people called it Rio Bravo while others called it Rio Grande. I think this comes mostly from the many different types of Spanish. If it weren't for the different types of Spanish then mostly everything would have the same name in Spanish. This cartoon made me realize how diverse my culture really is. I also thought it was a bit biased because it mentions certain things that not every Hispanic or Latino person does such as play soccer or eat rice and beans like it mentions in the end of the cartoon. This article could possible give people biased views if they read it for the first time. It is very informational but does not present the information in a fair way and this can confuse many people. This article is all over the place when it comes to giving information about Latino and Spanish people. Also if someone is reading this for the first time they might not be able to understand the ideas and facts that are being talked about because it jumps from new thing to new thing.

In the essay by Taigi Smith I found that she has very persuasive points when arguing against gentrification. She uses many supporting details in her arguments and actually makes it so that people like me and others could relate to what she talks about in the essay. What's most important is that she makes it personal and relate able. She mentions how a neighborhood can mean so much more than just people and structures. To her it is the place where she grew up and had so many memories. So when it got destroyed it is like you are taking away part of a person that they can never have back. Change is good in my opinion but not destroying and rebuilding a neighbor like she mentioned in the essay. In the essay it is like she is left out. She mentioned this when she talks about her college days. What she talks about are things that are actually going on in today's world. It is true that whites are taking over neighborhoods that are mostly Hispanic and black. It even happens where I live. The reason this happens mostly is because of money and if middle class or poor people can't afford to pay the rent then eventually someone new will takeover and get people to live in that area that could afford to pay the rent money on time and fully. This is probably why I enjoyed this article out of the many other articles that we have read. Overall, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this article because it was actually something I could relate to and also the topic was very interesting.

I thought that the video that we watched in class was very interesting. It was more detailed than reading excerpts that we have been discussing in class. She told her story very clear and she also touched on a lot of topics that I actually talked about in my first short paper. During the video I was sort of comparing my first short paper and her story. In both of them stereotypes were talked about. In my short paper I talked about how after 9/11 a lot of people would start to associate middle eastern people with bombs or terrorist. Even a picture and they would assume things of this nature and this relates directly back to the video we say in class today. She was talking about how that even still happens today with the example of a book that had the title of American Psychopaths I believe. With this title she was talking about how this would actually make some people think that Americans are actually all psychopaths when they really are not. Another example that we discussed in class and that was in the video is the idea of how many TV commercial may portray Africa as a poor continent when in reality there is really a rich side to Africa that is almost never shown on TV or around social media. All of these examples can relate to each other and it is mostly what I was thinking about when I watched this video in class. The general idea of all these stereo types that are falsely created and in reality do not prove anything about any culture, countries, continents or anything like that. In the video she says that people even said that Africa was a country instead of a continent which is something I find very sad.This shows that the people that are creating the stereotypes in the first have no knowledge whatsoever about the continent of Africa. Overall, this was how I felt about the video we watched in class and how it connected to many other experiences in my life, and other ideas discussed in class.

Dutiful Hijas Opinions

This text and pretty much everything we have read in class has to do with feminism in a way. This text was actually more interesting to me since it had to do with Hispanic traditions and I am Hispanic myself. I never knew that all of this was going on and that it was this intense. Yes, the daughter is supposed to have some responsibility to help. I feel as if though in this passage what is going on is too much dependency on the daughters when the males are perfectly capable of  having some dependency put on them as well. If the men are making money wouldn't that mean that they should help support their spouse and daughters to help them have a better future. It would be more effective this way if everyone contributed instead of everything just being put on the daughters. This is only my opinion, but I feel like most people would agree with me. This shows how the traditions in America differ from traditions in other places. It is just not fair. In this article they say suffering will make a good woman out of you but I believe this is not true. I think this will just stress women out more and it is not fair and should be stopped. Everyone should have equal rights no matter where they are. There is just no reason to put all the responsibility on women. At the end of this excerpt I feel like her mother taught her all of the right lessons on how to be a strong women and sort of move away from feminism in a way but still hold those values. She will probably still have those feminine values but not let anyone take advantage of her and put all of the dependency on her. She learned about power and authority.

I actually feel like most of the texts that we are reading are sort of similar. They all have to do with race or ethnicity in some way. The text about colorism can relate to Little Failure because it describes certain groups based and race and that was what little failure was all about. In a way Gary changed his names so he was not viewed as lesser in the community like some of the slaves were during slavery. Gary wouldn't have experienced discrimination as intense as slavery, but socially he would of felt some tension if he didn't change his name based on where he went. He was basically trying to fit in. In today's world some of this is true but I feel like it is not as intense as back then. Today someone can have a non-american name and still fit in. Some might ask why this is. I think that in today's society being the odd one out or the different one is sort of trending because people want to be original now. Back then I also feel like there was more bullying because of this. Now there are always commercials and advertisements about how bullying is wrong and how serious action could be taken against it. Back then I don't think there was really that much awareness which is another reason why Gary might have changed his name to fit in.

I felt that the colorism piece that we read was very harsh towards African Americans. I was actually a bit surprised when seeing what they were comparing African Americans and dark skinned people to. They were comparing the to objects, Someone brought up this point in class but I forgot who. I feel like this passage further expanded my knowledge on how America has grown and how far the government has came to making things fair for everyone. This passage describes a major course of events in our history. I feel like it covered a lot of topics not just slavery in general. It talked about history even when Christopher Columbus discovered land. It was a lot of information to remember over a short reading. Readings like this personally make it harder for me to remember what was read because its like different topics are all crammed into one reading. Going back to the main idea, this passage also shows not just how to government has grown but people in general. I know for a fact that there are not as many people today in America that are prejudice or racist than there was back when this passage took place. This is also an example of how people have grown over the generations to become more fair towards others. Sure we still see racist crimes or people but is much less than before when slaves would actually be beat and used as if they were not human beings.