Hey
everybody! Since today we looked at a bunch of José Guadalupe Posada's work, I
thought I would share this picture of the mural that my friend created last
year for her final AP Spanish project. (My project was an Apples to Apples game
in Spanish, in case you were wondering J) Obviously, the black and white parts of this image are a
recreation of Posada’s “La Calavera Catrina,” and my friend added in
color where she saw fit!
Since I
finished Weavers
of Revolution yesterday, I thought I would
do a sort of book review of Aviva Chomsky’s A
History of the Cuban Revolution and Peter Winn’s Weavers of Revolution (I can’t believe I read two full books in
less than two weeks!). I would have to say that I enjoyed reading Weavers more than A History. My main complaint of Chomsky’s book is that she uses
quotes way too much. Not only does she use quotes from actual Cubans or other
historical figures relevant to the Cuban Revolution (which is fine), but she
also quotes other historians and authors a lot. Especially when these quotes
are up to a paragraph long, they get really annoying. (And now I understand why
when you’re writing an academic paper, you shouldn’t use quotes to make your
points—saying it in your own words not only demonstrates your understanding,
but as a reader it’s less annoying as well.) Chomsky was pretty interesting,
but I found the more focused topic of the Yarur workers in Winn’s book to be
more interesting.
To
me, once I got into the meat of Weavers,
it read like a political/social drama. One of my favorite quotes was:
“I told you that this could not be,”
Allende fumed.
“What would you
say to two thousand workers who are all on their feet demanding socialization…demanding
that the president fulfill his promises,” Varas replied. “What would you say? ‘No,
that you can’t.’ They would throw me out of there feet first.”
I
loved it when parts like this read like a novel, and I think that the story of
the Yarur workers would make a great film. Winn’s writing really made me
empathize with the workers, and when all of their accomplishments (spoiler
alert?) were thrown out the window in one chapter when Allende was overthrown, I
actually felt kind of depressed.
Anyway,
these are my thoughts on these books. I’m glad that we get to watch a documentary
on Chile for Professor Serrata’s part of the class. I watched it today, and it
kind of tied up the loose ends that were left at the end of Weavers. Pinochet doesn’t stay in power
forever; eventually democracy returns to Chile!
First of all, I really do like that print! I like that she focused on colors that are common in Latin America and stayed true to those. Warm colors are used most often.
ReplyDeleteI also really like the idea of making the story of the Yarur mill being turned into a movie. I feel that there is definitely a story there that could appeal to many. I mean its the typical story of people fighting for what they believe in and its suddenly and spontaneously taken away from them. One of my favorite scenes to film would have been when the workers would sneak their newspapers describing the union movement in the fans/coolers and then let them rain down on the factory floor. The characters mix of emotions would work very on the movie screen.