My Response to Grace's Blog #3

"Cowboys and Sherlock Holmes"

 

 

This is great! I love you how applied the reading to something you have encountered/ like! It is interesting how many things in the readings cause us to think of things completely "unrelated" to the material, but upon further investigation we can find relationships. I have not seen Sherlock Holmes, (read one of the books), but this looks really good! :) Love the comparison between the gauchos and Holmes!

Blog Número Tres

 

 

I love music. Any kind. My favorite is pretty much anything with a beat, and especially orchestral covers of popular songs. I have a very strong preference for string instruments, seeing as I play both violin and cello, so when in Sarmiento's Chapter 2, I came across the musical aspect (on page 63), I did a little research I would like to share.

The Argentina's were known for their musical abilities. Sarmiento says, "When an Argentine is presented at a home in Chile for the first time, he is invited to sit at the piano immediately or they hand him a vihuela... because being an Argentine, he must be a musician."

 

 

 

A vihuela is very similar to a guitar and lute. The curving sides were made so that they could be played with both a bow (de arco) or with fingers (de mano).

 

 

 

 

 

 

But after the late fifteenth century, a short bridge was introduced, and therefore made playing with a bow impossible. For those of you not familiar with stringed instruments and their components - just look at the bridge differences between the violin and guitar. The guitar's bridge is flat, making the strings all equal which allows someone to easily strum the strings in a smooth downward motion. The violin, however has a large curved bridge, making the strings slightly curved. This allows the bow to only hit one string at a time. If the bridge was flat, you would not be able to hit only one string at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vidalita was a popular song, that was actually song. The video below doesn't have the chorus (I unfortunately couldn't find one with words) and is a little shorter than most versions of Vidalita. This song originated with the indigenous people, but became a popular base for bards and cantors, to which they would put their own words and stories. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more history and descriptions on the vihuela, check out this site: http://cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/aboutLute/Vihuela.html

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

 

 

My Reaction to Alexis's Blog #2

I completely agree with the irony and your thoughts on the situation! That is a really good connection! I would add, however, that the difference between the two, is that in America the wealthy attained their wealth by hard work, not because they were given that place in society because of their background. (The only slight exception I can find is celebrities. But yet in that elite society, it still is talent and hard work that gets you in...) I think that may have been one of the reasons the people in Latin America found fascinating about the U.S., is the ability to start from scratch and make your way toward wealth and higher society. 

Blog Número Dos

For this blog post, I have some questions and my own person answers, but I really want to here from you. What do you think?

1) The majority of this week we have talked about nations. And what really brings up the following question is in Sarmiento's Chapter 1. As I was reading it, I was trying to find whether or not I have a biased on who is civilized and who is not. Throughout our highschool careers, we've talked civilized versus barbarism, the Indians who the settlers thought were barbarians, and have talked extensively about the same issue in South and Latin America in this class regarding the Aztecs, Mexicas, and Incas. We've talked about what defines a civilization, but on the flip side what defines a barbarian?

2) Another question from Sarmiento's Chapter 1 was one I related to Burns' writing. In Burns', you'll remember that he talks about how the ideology of the elites was shaped by the enlightenment among other things. The idea of the enlightenment was that if people had the opportunity to know the truth, they would select "civilization" over "barbarism". Sarmiento makes a comment in his chapter that "Civilization, then, can never be attained, barbarism is the norm..." But if this was the days of enlightenment, why didn't they try and erase that ignorance and change the barbarism to truth?




My Answers:
1) I personally, believe there are higher and lower forms of civilization, but they are all civilizations. People were created equal. The reason Europe became so "civilized" and advanced is all because of how we viewed it. We have been able to study the society of Europe from the beginning of time, but not that of the New World societies. In order to see how far something has advanced, you need a starting point. If you are measuring the length of a pencil, you need a start point and an end point. With no distinct starting point for the New World societies, I don't think anyone can come up with a true analysis of how far these societies have come. So I don't believe there are barbarians. No matter what race, gender, social structure, religion or culture a people has, they all possess intelligence and have the potential to become something better, to improve. Some improve slower than others, but there are many factors that go into progress so I'm not going to go into that. :)

2) In the context of this excerpt, he mentions before that the culture of intelligence was neglected in the [Arab or Tartar tribe] and is not only neglected but impossible because if they were to implant a school, would children from ten leagues (about 34.5 miles) away  come to attend? There is the same issue with the church. Because the people are so spread out in many directions, they cannot decide on a proper place to build a church or school so that people would actually attend. So in this context, I can kind of see where this comment came from. However, I still don't quite understand why, in the enlightenment idea, that they didn't not build churches and schools in various spots and believe, since it was the enlightenment idea that you would pursue civilization if the chance was handed to you, that people would come and attend in the pursuit of knowledge and civilization.

Feel free to answer my questions, or question both my questions or answers! :) Enjoy your extended weekend, everyone!

Blog Número Uno

First, about myself. I'm Leah, I'm a commuter, my major is Biomedical Science and my minor is Spanish, and I will probably end up minoring in Chemistry as well. I am going for a Physician Assistant, specializing in pediatrics or surgery.
I chose Latin American Civilization because I enjoy studying Spanish and Spanish history. I took 2 years of Spanish at Plymouth Christian Highschool which was all that was offered. It is my dream to study abroad, still deciding where, but either a 3rd world country or Spain. Another reason I choose Latin American Civilization is because I hope to go down to Bolivia this summer on a mission trip, and in the future, hopefully to Mexico and other Latin American countries.