Central American History and Heritage

The Many Faces of Central American People

The Good Cripple: Essay

The Good Cripple: Essay

The Good Cripple is a story about how a man lives after being kidnapped for a ransom. Rodrigo Rey Rosa, the author of the book, shows the struggles and dilemma of Juan Luis Luna, the protagonist, in coping with being kidnapped and having his foot cut off. But the story presents an argument about how roles of women are changing.

The history of society in Central America shows us that society has been mainly patriarchal and male dominated. Men were thought of as bread-winner, where they are the sole providers for the family. Meanwhile the women are supposed to be stay at home mothers, where they cook clean and stay home and take care of the children. Women were expected to be completely obedient and loyal to the men of the family. They were expected to not talk back, not have their own ideas and opinions and just basically be servants to men. Bunny’s mom shows this as she is shown to be a traditionalistic women, where she is the housekeeper and also is obedient to most of Bunny’s orders.

It wasn’t until recently that women started defying these roles and started doing what they want. More women now have their own opinions their own thoughts. They wanted to be treated with the same respect as men are treated. They don’t want to be below men but they want to be as equal as men.

Juan’s relationship with his wife is based off of this sense of equality. They both communicate with each other effectively and they both have a say in what goes on and happens in the relationship. This is seen when they both agree to live in the middle east. This change in attitude by women has been seen as really radical and has been defied by traditionalists. Rodrigo Rey Rosa presents this conflict between Juan’s father and Juan's wife.

Juan Luis Lunas wife is a perfect example of how women's roles are changing.When she was Juan Luis Lunas girlfriend first, Juan's father didn't like her because she was not like a typical house women. She had her own ideas and wasn’t afraid to express them and she wasn’t afraid to challenge men. He resents Juan’s marriage because their relationship is based on equality, instead of the traditional relationship where the women is subservient to the man.  When Juan Luis Luna was kidnapped she was devastated by the fact that his father didn’t want to pay the ransom at all. She pressured and argued with him to pay the ransom. Seeing how effective she was at convincing him, and realizing their love for each other, Juan’s father became accepting of their relationship and marriage.

After Juan Luis returned, they settled down and married. She wanted to go to the middle east and convinced Juan to go. While there she made sure that living there wouldn’t be a hassle for Juan to live there since he had a missing foot. She would go and get the groceries cook clean and do other household activities so her husband wouldn’t be burdened. She was making sure that everything was well for Juan and that they both could have a happy life. She was taking care of the household, as a traditionalist women , but she was also making money and taking care of her and protecting her family.

She supported him in choosing his career as a writer. She gave feedback to his stories and was a big influence in his writing styles. If this story were to be set at least 30 - 50 years before, her thoughts and ideas probably wouldn’t have been well received and would’ve been seem as idiotic. She also convinced him and gave him advice on how to approach his favorite writer.

After a while Juan Luis decided he wanted to go back to Guatemala and his wife agreed with him. When they went back she decided to go back to school so she could get a degree in something. This is a clear example of how the roles of women has changed. Women going to school had been seen as radical and was not well perceived up to that point.  She also is allowed to go out with friends and allowed to have guy friends. Juan Luis’s wife is the perfect representation of the “new woman”, showing us how they are progressing so they could be viewed as equals to men.

However, Central America is a place where the traditionalist view of women is still held into high regard.  Rey Rosa shows this with Bunny’s mom and Juan Luis’s father. She is in charge of keeping the house in order and has to be obedient to the men of the household. Bunny loves her for this but he doesn’t seem to high respect for her. In a part of the story, when Juan Luis finds out where Bunny leaves, he blames this on his mothers ineptitude to handle difficult situations for him. Juan Luis’s father also doesn’t appreciate how Juan Luis’s wife is more progressive instead of being a housekeeping women who has no ability in having her own ideas or opinions.

Progression One: Reading & Responding to Texts

Progression One: Reading & Responding to Texts

For today’s reading I decided to read “The Silent Words” by Ines Arredondo. This story was about a chinamans struggle to live in Mexico because he wasn’t like most mexicans. From what I could tell he immigrated from china a long time before this story took place. He works for a man named Don Hernan who sympathized with the chinese.The chinese man has adapted the name Manuel and his real chinese name is never revealed. Manuel had a wife who he called Lu, because he couldn’t call her by her actual name. He had three kids with her but she ended up leaving him for another man taking the kids with her. He is liked by the community but he’s unable to communicate with them properly. In the end he seems to commit suicide because his kids take the land that was left to Manuel by Don Hernan.

I liked this story. I did not realize that there were asians living in central american countries. i realize that they too suffer discrimination while living there. The way that Manuels life was portrayed as discriminatory seems similar to what thousand of immigrants living in the US suffer daily.

Letter to a Friend

Dear Erick,

I am writing to you today because I wanted to inform you about two articles I read for my Central American Studies class called At the Margins of Nation by Alejandro Lee and Central American-Americans. Both articles seem similar in that they are analyzing a type of diaspora. A diaspora is a dispersion of a people from their original homeland. Margins of Nations seems to analyze the Chinese diaspora into Mexico (Chinese people in mexico? weird right?). Central American-Americans seems to be analyzing the migration of Central Americans into the United States. These articles are really interesting because they highlight the struggles of both the chinese living in Mexico and Central Americans adjusting to live in the United States.

Margins of Nation focuses on how Chinese people lived in Latin America and how they were portrayed in literary works.In most works they are portrayed in some sort of negative way since they weren’t able to assimilate to the Hispanic culture at that time. They couldn’t speak the language so they couldn’t communicate effectively with the people who lived in Latin America. Life for them was hard because of this and they were targets of abuse.

To me this is really interesting because I had never thought about people migrating to Latin America to have a better life. It especially surprised me that Chinese people would be willing to migrate to there. The lives that they seemed to live seemed to be a hard life.They faced a lot of discrimination because people didn’t know what to think of the newly immigrated chinese. It didn’t help that they couldn’t communicate with the people there. The chinese are also excellent marketmen and this caused jealousy from the natives since so many chinese were able to become successful.

Central American-Americans focuses on  Central Americans migrating to the United States. The many years of Civil war affected many and were forced to migrate to avoid all the bloodshed and death. The article talks about how these Central Americans come here and try to assimilate into the new culture and forget their own culture because they are trying to forget everything horrible they left behind. They have a sense of lost identity because of this. I would recommend you to read these articles.

Sincerely,

Misael

Argumentative proposal

Misael Argueta

Professor Maritza Fonseca

CAS 115

7 October 2013

Argumentative proposal

This nation is built by immigrants. It is also built on the idea that every human being has inalienable rights which include the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Many students in this country would like to pursue these unalienable rights but aren’t able to because they were not born here. Undocumented students, or “Dreamers”, shouldn't be denied the right to continue their education after high school because they worked hard to go to college. They should be allowed access to financial aid, since they completed the same educational requirement as documented students in America.

After graduating high school, many of these undocumented students don’t know what to

do seeing as there is no help for them. They can’t get jobs because it is against the law to hire undocumented immigrants. Going to a college or university isn’t a real viable option because it

can be very expensive. For undocumented students there isn’t much help for them financially.

Applying may even be a waste of time because they won’t be able to get a job. Since there

isn’t many options available many give up their education resulting in high dropout rates and

conversion of many young teens to gangs.

The DREAM act was the first legislation that was intended to help undocumented

students in gaining citizenship and getting financial aid. If passed, the DREAM act would allow

“current, former, and future undocumented high-school graduates and GED recipients. Students

eligible for federal work study and student loans, and individual states would not be restricted from providing financial aid to the students.”(Ewing 1) This would help grant undocumented

students a pathway to legal citizenship that was previously not available for them. It is estimated

that the beneficiaries of the legislation range from 800,000 (Sharry 1) to 2.1 million (Ewing 1).

Even though this hasn’t been approved by congress, many states have taken it upon their

power to help many of these students. These states include California, Illinois, Kansas,

Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. Even

though these states don’t have the power to grant permanent status, they allow these students to

gain financial aid from the state. Many students receive little to no financial help for college and

are already hindered by the fact that many colleges refuse to accept undocumented students

simply because they are seemed as illegal even they were not at fault.

Even if the students finish college there is nothing left for them to do. For a person to get

a job they need either a SSID or a work permit. Being undocumented, students don’t have either

of these so even after they get a college diploma, they can’t find a job. Because of this, many

students are discouraged to go to college and this leads to higher high school dropout rates. By

approving the DREAM act, many of these students would actually be inspired to continue their

education after high school. Many of these students came here while they were kids and had no

say in whether they want to come here or not. The students being undocumented is through no fault of their own.

Many of them do not realize that they are undocumented and many of them are usually

at the top of their class. When they discover they are undocumented, they give up on school

because they realize that regardless of all their hard work they are still going to be discriminated

by college and when they’re looking for work. These students have high potential and should be

rewarded for trying their best to succeed.

The DREAM act would benefit the economy and universities. “This legislation would

give beneficiaries access to greater educational opportunities and better jobs, which in turn

means more taxable income. Letting the talent of DREAM Act students go to waste “imposes

economic and emotional costs on undocumented students and on U.S. society as a whole.” The

DREAM Act would also stop brain drain by allowing our most talented students to remain in the

country. Currently, only 5-10 percent of undocumented high-school graduates go to college.”

(Ewing 1) America should keep these talented students in America for their benefit. If more

students could go to college then there would be less drop outs who use government benefits and

their income they gain for working after graduating college can be taxed.

Opponents of this bill argue that this bill wouldn’t be fair to legal students here because

they believe that federal aid belongs to students who are legally from America and that we are encouraging criminal behavior. Also, “opponents of the DREAM Act fear that giving amnesty to

these immigrants who have broken immigration law will only encourage more illegal immigrants

to come into America knowing that their children will have a pathway to legal residence.”  Arguments are also being made, that there is already foundations for helping out these students. Also many arguments can be made as to why these students should get more leverage in college and financial aid applications than people who were born here. This would cause more problems for the already controversial Affirmative Action. Should these students, who many feel are being discriminated against, be protected by affirmative action and allow them to take advantage of their legal status to use as a factor when applying to college.

 
Affirmative action may be seen as a solution to the fact that undocumented students may be discriminated against. Affirmative action is defined as “ an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, esp. in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination.”           (Webster) If so, does this mean that undocumented students can appeal for admission through Affirmative Action? And if they do, does this mean that there is enough help for undocumented students already, so they don’t need anymore help? The answer is a resounding no. Even though Undocumented people, not just students, are being discriminated against, Affirmative Action only helps people who have been or can be racially or sexually discriminated against.

Works Cited Page

Ewing. AMERICA'S VOICE RESEARCH ON IMMIGRATION REFORM." Immigration

Reform Americas Voice RSS. America's Voice, 15 Sept. 2010. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.

Sharry. The DREAM Act." Immigration Policy Center. American Immigration Council, 18 Nov.

2010. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.

"Affirmative Action." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.

Argumentative Dialogue

Misael Argueta

Professor Maritza Fonseca

CAS 115

26 September 2013

Argumentative Dialogue

The conversation takes place in a radio talk show in Los Angeles, California on September 25th 2013.

Radio Host John : Welcome ladies and gentlemen to 99.8, and you’re listening to WXY radio. My name is John and today we have with us two very special guests. With me today, I have Alejandro Lee, author of the article, At the Margins of Nation. I also have present Lok Siu, author of Queen of the Chinese Colony.  We are going to be discussing the chinese Diaspora on Central America and its effects on the culture. Alejandro in your articles you seem to be talking about how the Chinese are alone in Central America. Can you elaborate on that?

Alejandro: Why yes. And really quick I just want to thank you for having me on your show today.

Radio Host John: (interrupting) Well thanks for being able to be here on today’s show.

Alejandro: In my article I argue how in the early 1900’s, and this can still be seen today, Indigenous people of Central America did not care for the Chinese and even resented the newcomers to Central America. The natives wanted to disassociate themselves as much as possible from the new Chinese immigrants. It did not help that the chinese could not speak spanish and communicate with the natives. The natives only associated with the chinese strictly for business.  

Radio Host John:  I see. So, from what I understood, you are saying that because of the social implications of being a chinese immigrant, it was hard to leave a cultural imprint on the Central American society?

Alejandro:Your statement is correct and I would even say that it is still hard for the chinese to have a cultural impact on this society.

Radio Host John: Well thank you for your opinion and now I would like to hear what Ms. Siu has to say.

Lok Siu: Well I would like to start off with a Good Morning to all the viewers and I would like to thank you for having me on today’s show.

Radio Host John: (interrupting) Well thanks for being able to be here on today’s show.

Lok: Well I have to disagree with my fellow colleague here. I wrote an article called Queen of the Chinese Colony, as you had mentioned before John. My article shows that there is actually signs of cultural life among the chinese in Central America. There are signs of Chinatowns similar to the one in the US. My article shows that yearly there are beauty pageants involving the chinese of Central America. I have been to one and not everyone there is chinese. There is a cultural blend of Chinese and Native latinos there enjoying the chinese culture. To say that there is no imprint is wrong.

Alejandro: While what you have said about the chinese is true, what I was talking about is leaving a total cultural impact on history. While there is a nice cultural blend with the beauty pageants these pageants occur once a year and when they occur it seems to be more like a step backwards. In your article you noted that the chinese still live in the past, preferring chinese speaking women over a mix of these traits in a woman. If they were to leave a nice cultural impact, don’t you think that a combination of best of both worlds would be better?

Lok: While they did prefer a true chinese women, the pageants seem to change. In my article I also state how when Miss Honduras had her win taken back for the more preferable Miss Costa Rica, there was an uproar. Miss honduras, a women that represented best of both worlds, lost to someone who seemed to be the model chinese women. The people didn’t like this showing how progressive they were getting. I also want to point out one last thing. In your article you give examples to help prove your point on how the chinese are alone. You mention three books that detail the life of three different chinese in Central America. While the main point of these books was to show how the chinese were alone, don’t you think it is also an example of cultural impact, with the chinese-Central American reaching their impact into the writing of Central American literature?

Radio Host John: That is a really good point by you Lok but unfortunately we have run out of time. Hopefully we can have you guys back on the show. To you listeners I hope you enjoyed this riveting discussion and I hope you guys have a wonderful day.

Progression Two: Argument with Research

Misael Argueta

Professor Maritza Fonseca

CAS 115

23 September 2013

Progression Two: Argument with Research     

American imperialism has had a huge impact on history, mostly on Central American history. After the Central American countries won their independence from the european countries, USA decided it was going to be their protector from any more dictator or european influence. From this the Monroe doctrine was created warning the world, mainly the european countries, to stay away from the Americas and that USA was the new protector of the continents. And thus the seeds for American Imperialism was born. The chapter of the Gospel of Democracy goes into depth of American Imperialism, talking about why were Americans so willingly buying into this new idea of imperialism. It also analyzes what Americans thought about  these Central American countries.

America gained its independence from the British crown in 1783 following a revolutionary war. Seeing this as an example, many Central American countries took this opportunity to fight for their independence. In 1823 the last countries received independence from Spain. Following the Spanish independence wars, the Central American states were in political turmoil because they had no idea what to do after independence and had no idea how to self govern themselves. Seeing as how these newly developed countries could be easily taken advantage of by other powerful countries, America declared the Monroe Doctrine stating that no European countries could interfere in American affairs. This was the first major foreign policy move as a America was moving from an isolationist policy to an imperialistic policy.

American Imperialism became to be because of three main reasons: fear of European influence, perceived Central American Inferiority and because of Manifest Destiny. Americans feared that if Europeans interfered in Central American affairs they would have a strong influence there and then could potentially launch an invasion against America itself. The other reasons, which can be connected to each other, where the feeling of American superiority and the Manifest Destiny. As John Winthrop said, “We must consider that we shall be a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.” Americans took this to heart and tried to disassociate with European countries  and wanted to be seen as a “... a bastion of democracy, it stood apart from other nations as a city upon a hill.”(*see works cited page for explanation).  They wanted to expand their democratic ideas westward and throughout the whole continent. They believed that this was their destiny, a Manifest Destiny.

The author argues that America tried to influence the Central American countries but ultimately failed because America was contradicting itself in this policy. “In the end Racism bore a paradoxical relationship to U.S Imperialism. On the one one, prejudicial disdain for colored people offered justification for the forceful acquisition of influence and territory… On the other hand, the presence of nonwhite peoples… posted an unwelcome possibility that they may have to be incorporated into american society,  thus altering its racial composition and lower its quality.”(*) As well, one can see that while America tried to incorporated democracy it eventually started developing these countries into despotic nation in order to feel the political, social and economic needs for the American people. While the author argues that the social experiment that is Manifest destiny failed, one can see that America's intervention was not a complete failure. They helped introduce a form of democracy, whether it was an illusion of democracy, to the countries of Central America. They also helped them financially, even though it was forced. So the Manifest Destiny cannot be seen as a complete failure.

Sources

*My main source was the Gospel of Democracy article that was uploaded on moodle. I was not able to find the author of the book, nor the name of the book so I did not know how to cite the article. I would be glad to discuss this with you some other time.

The Good Cripple: Individual Argument

Misael Argueta

Professor Maritza Fonseca

CAS 115

4 November 2013

The Good Cripple: Individual Argument

The Good Cripple is a story about how a man lives after being kidnapped for a ransom. Rodrigo Rey Rosa, the author of the book, shows the struggles and dilemma of Juan Luis Luna, the protagonist, in coping with being kidnapped and having his foot cut off. He shows how Juan has to adapt to society even though he just wants be his own self.

When Juan Luis Luna was kidnapped he wasn’t exactly a star child. He was rebellious to his father and refused to listen to his father in being a great man that is accepted by society. His family was well off financially so he was kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded ransom from Juan’s father  but since his father didn’t see him as a good son he was refusing to pay for his ransom.

The kidnappers tell Juan to write his father a letter pleading to him to pay the ransom so he can get out. In writing the letter Juan tells his father that he will change in order to become the son that his father always wanted. He will listen and obey to his father's orders in order to become the great man he wanted him to become.  His father accepts this and pays the ransom and later Juan has started to take his father's advice. He got married and settled down.

But as he settled down he started to try and make himself unique. He listened to his father, getting married, settling down, trying to get a stable job. But his father also wanted grandchildren which he refused to give him. His father also wanted him to go into finance or government and stay near by him but instead Juan luis decided to become a writer. He also moved to the middle east and lived there for a while.

Juan Luis does all this because he wants to find his happiness, in his own way. As discussed in class, Juan luis was happy with his life before the kidnapping. He lived life the way he wanted to without much care in the world. He did not want to follow his father's advice because he did not think that he would live a happy life like that. But once he was kidnapped, he was forced to bend his way of living in order to make his father happy. He no longer could live the way he wanted too because he wanted to please his father. He felt indebted to his father for saving him so he wanted to please him. So he changed his way of life to please him, and in a lesser extent society.

Final Essay: The Good Cripple

Misael Argueta

Professor Maritza Fonseca

CAS 115

20 November 2013

Final Essay: The Good Cripple

The Good Cripple is a story about how a man lives after being kidnapped for a ransom. Rodrigo Rey Rosa, the author of the book, shows the struggles and dilemma of Juan Luis Luna, the protagonist, in coping with being kidnapped and having his foot cut off. But the story presents an argument about how roles of women are changing.

The history of society in Central America shows us that society has been mainly patriarchal and male dominated. Men were thought of as bread-winner, where they are the sole providers for the family. Meanwhile the women are supposed to be stay at home mothers, where they cook clean and stay home and take care of the children. Women were expected to be completely obedient and loyal to the men of the family. They were expected to not talk back, not have their own ideas and opinions and just basically be servants to men. Bunny’s mom shows this as she is shown to be a traditionalistic women, where she is the housekeeper and also is obedient to most of Bunny’s orders.

It wasn’t until recently that women started defying these roles and started doing what they want. More women now have their own opinions their own thoughts. They wanted to be treated with the same respect as men are treated. They don’t want to be below men but they want to be as equal as men.

Juan’s relationship with his wife is based off of this sense of equality. They both communicate with each other effectively and they both have a say in what goes on and happens in the relationship. This is seen when they both agree to live in the middle east. This change in attitude by women has been seen as really radical and has been defied by traditionalists. Rodrigo Rey Rosa presents this conflict between Juan’s father and Juan's wife.

Juan Luis Lunas wife is a perfect example of how women's roles are changing.When she was Juan Luis Lunas girlfriend first, Juan's father didn't like her because she was not like a typical house women. She had her own ideas and wasn’t afraid to express them and she wasn’t afraid to challenge men. He resents Juan’s marriage because their relationship is based on equality, instead of the traditional relationship where the women is subservient to the man.  When Juan Luis Luna was kidnapped she was devastated by the fact that his father didn’t want to pay the ransom at all. She pressured and argued with him to pay the ransom. Seeing how effective she was at convincing him, and realizing their love for each other, Juan’s father became accepting of their relationship and marriage.

After Juan Luis returned, they settled down and married. She wanted to go to the middle east and convinced Juan to go. While there she made sure that living there wouldn’t be a hassle for Juan to live there since he had a missing foot. She would go and get the groceries cook clean and do other household activities so her husband wouldn’t be burdened. She was making sure that everything was well for Juan and that they both could have a happy life. She was taking care of the household, as a traditionalist women , but she was also making money and taking care of her and protecting her family.

She supported him in choosing his career as a writer. She gave feedback to his stories and was a big influence in his writing styles. If this story were to be set at least 30 - 50 years before, her thoughts and ideas probably wouldn’t have been well received and would’ve been seem as idiotic. She also convinced him and gave him advice on how to approach his favorite writer.

After a while Juan Luis decided he wanted to go back to Guatemala and his wife agreed with him. When they went back she decided to go back to school so she could get a degree in something. This is a clear example of how the roles of women has changed. Women going to school had been seen as radical and was not well perceived up to that point.  She also is allowed to go out with friends and allowed to have guy friends. Juan Luis’s wife is the perfect representation of the “new woman”, showing us how they are progressing so they could be viewed as equals to men.

However, Central America is a place where the traditionalist view of women is still held into high regard.  Rey Rosa shows this with Bunny’s mom and Juan Luis’s father. She is in charge of keeping the house in order and has to be obedient to the men of the household. Bunny loves her for this but he doesn’t seem to high respect for her. In a part of the story, when Juan Luis finds out where Bunny leaves, he blames this on his mothers ineptitude to handle difficult situations for him. Juan Luis’s father also doesn’t appreciate how Juan Luis’s wife is more progressive instead of being a housekeeping women who has no ability in having her own ideas or opinions.