Feminist Shouldnt Be a Dirty Word

The Author's survey indicates that Feminist is not a dirty word for her fellow students. Most of the results she got where meanings of the word, not so much of the answer she was looking for. After all the surveys she did what made me agree that feminist is not a dirty word was the definitions that many of the students gave her, they all had to do with the rights of women. The reasons why Libby offers why there are not more self-identified feminist is because they don't know the true meaning of it. They act on by the definition of the word, many don't know the true meaning of this word so they don't consider themselves to fit in this category. The meaning of this word can be seen in many different ways but it all depends on the person and their actions to see if they fit in. Libby thinks that more people should identify themselves as feminist if there wasn't a confusion on the meaning of the word, and if one beliefs in these ideas then they should call themselves feminist. As for Libby her belief and definition of the word is expressed in paragraph 12 as she states " Feminism to me is about giving women and men the chance to live the life they choose, free of sexism, sex exploitation, and oppression of every kind". Her definition of the word is what makes her believe in the word Feminist.

Chapter 8 Developing Your Memory

The most valuable technique that I learned in this chapter was to connect with my lectures. I find it very useful when i do this specifically with English. For example when i read Rain of Gold i am able to relate to the text. Since its based on Mexican heritage I was able to relate more often then i thought so. This technique for memorization can't be used in all types of memorization, since you have to relate you can't relate to a math problem unless it was a simple equation. This technique best works with English, since we read many stories it easy to find a similarity throughout the text.

Transfer Motivational Conference

In the transfer motivational conference my biggest highlight was the meeting the other Puente classes, I discuss with one of the other students about what they are learning and how are their teachers. There was many things in common that we had with many of the other classes, for instance once we got there I noticed that this program was very diverse, but Latinos being the majority group. All the Puente students that I met were very nice and polite, the experience was great. I think we should have gotten a longer campus trip so we could get an idea of the college life in a CSU. For my workshop i attended the AB540 class, but the instructor was very off topic. She talked about her success and she included Financial Aid something that i could not relate since i am a AB540 student, I think we would should have had an AB540 student that became successful throughout their college experience. This experience really brought our class together and i was able to see the "other side" of my fellow classmates, all this was part of the conference. I also think we should have had 2 workshops instead of one because i was interested in a couple of them but at the end i could only attend one. The food was great, the CSU system treated us really good and i felt very welcomed. I really like the presentation by the Latino attorney, he made a lot of points about community college and i really support his idea on the fact that community college should be free, education itself in general. I was really inspired by him, he showed our Latino community that we can go any where in life and all we have to do is work hard and never give up. I thought about his career and if he ever faced some type of discrimination since he was a Latino successor in an American society. At the end of the day i appreciate that he goes back and talks to younger generations and inspires them to be successful.

Anzaldua Blog

Dear Anzaldua,
As a Spanish speaker I can relate to your text, and most of your examples apply to me in a daily routine. It's hard for me to adapt to this environment where it seems that I am neglected because of my language or the way I speak it. Being born in Mexico but coming to the states at an early age it was hard for me to ignore the American culture and at some point it became a part of me. My family, an ordinary Mexican family has always had big expectations for the new generations, the expectation of keeping the culture going. I don't listen to "corridos" or go to church every Sunday and my Spanish is not that clear, these are good enough reasons for my family to start complaining that I'm starting to act like a "gavacho". The Spanish I speak differentiates in my environment, for example when I'm with my friends I usually talk with a mix of the two languages(spanish and english) which is very well understood among us, but i cannot go home and speak to my dad because he won't understand half of what I'm saying. In the text you start of by using the dentist story as a metaphor to relate to our language. The story applies to many Spanish speakers in this country, the Dentist playing the role of America and the tongue playing the role of Spanish speakers. I really liked the introduction, I can apply to it personally. I believe that family has a big factor on how you adapt to your environment since your own family is the one that tells you to learn English to succeed in this country but they are expecting you to stick to the family culture. One is stuck in between the two cultures, each culture asking for you to be a part of it completely. At the end you will always know where you came from it's just hard to fit in after being surrounded by another culture for so long. "Being Mexican is a state of soul not one of mind, not one of citizenship" (pg 46) I strongly agree with this since being Mexican is all within yourself and not in what country you live in.

Blog Response Part III

What would people be willing to sacrifice in times of hardship?
People are willing to sacrifise what ever it takes to be where they feel they need to be. Sacrifising something speacial in your life takes a lot of will power to do, its not easy to gain something when you must lose something in return.

My Success

Lit Circle

During the second scene Juan Villasenor, as a young man he did many things for his family, putting himself at risk, sacrificing what he loved the most to feed his family and others. These where two important scenes in my perspective. In the beginning of the chapter he starts of by yelling "Villistas" to drive away the attention of Cara de Nopal one of the men that own some corn fields. At the time Cara de Nopal was known for shooting anyone that would steal from his corn fields. As for Juan he cared less, as he ran across the small town people would hide, once they did this Juan and his two sisters ran to the corn fields and got corn. This meant a lot to me because he put his life on the line for his family, knowing that he could get shot, but it was all for a family he had to feed. The second scene that got my attention was when they were waiting on the train tracks for the train and there was so many people and Juan's family had nothing to eat but Juan's old burro. When his mom mention sacrificing his burro he could not take it, but once he made up his mind he did not just end up feeding his family but many people around them. This was very important because he showed that he really cared for his family, he was able to sacrifice his burro that he loved to feed his family. Through his actions you can see that Family meant the world to Juan.

Reflection on Munoz

What are the outcomes of leaving your name at the border?
Leaving your name at the border can have many outcomes, some can be downgrading and others can improve your lifestyle in a foreign country. By leaving your name at the border it can increase your opportunities on getting a better job, or not be discriminated against because of it. Most of the downgrading outcomes have to do more within yourself as a person. One can be viewed as a follower or someone trying to fit in to a society that vilifies one's original name. There are two ways you can view the fact of leaving your name at the border, one being that you are trying to have a better future for yourself and improving your lifestyle, and the other as a person trying to assimilate and forget about their past. Growing up in this country having a name that has been mispronounce by many people, personally has never crossed my mind of changing it. Even though many of my peers call me Benny instead of Benito has never been a problem with me, as it all started through my parents with the reason that my dad has the same name and at home it was hard to know when family members would be calling me or my dad. With that reason it got stuck with me, friends know me as Benny but I like to introduce myself as Benito no matter where I'm at. I say this because some people may like to be called by a different name depending on their surroundings, with the fact that they like to "fit in". I am proud of my name, and i have not yet faced any barriers caused by the origin of my name and if i was to ever change it, it would be for a better lifestyle, not to "fit in".

What is the Digital Culture?

Digital Culture can be described in many different ways, for me its the use of technology in our daily lives. As i sit here writing this essay, i am listening to my Ipod and I'm texting. I'm surrounded by technology, we all are and its hard to avoid it since many of the things we do in our daily lives requires us in some sort of way to use technology, from writing an essay to a simple text message saying "hi". As i read in my FOCUS book, it implies how technology is going to be a big part of our college experience, how we are going to "need it" in many different ways, the Internet has become a necessity in our daily lives. The usage of all this technology is making us humans more dependent on it that we cannot function without it. We all know that its much easier to log in online and read about the news than to go out and buy the newspaper, why do we do this? i believe technology has made us more lazy. Digital Culture consist of many lazy people willing to take short cuts, for example human beings would rather fly to LA than ride a horse there, just because its faster. Technology againgst an old fashion traveling, reading a book to watching a movie, this is the Digital Culture.

My Motivation to Attend College

As I was growing up my parents would always let me know that school was very important in life. When I was young school was just boring and a waste a time in my eyes, but as I got older my eyes opened and I saw that in order to have a good future education was a big factor. Growing up surrounded by friends that wanted to go to college encouraged me to follow my two older sisters steps.Once my sisters started going to college there was some sort of pressure from my parents since they were expecting me go to college too. During my sophomore year in high school my grades dropped and for some reason college was not a big thing in my eyes. That same year I got my first job as a clerk at a supermarket "Lucky", I worked there for one year, after that I could not take that job and I quit. I did not want to work in a place like that for the rest of my life and I knew this would happen if I would not get my education. I want to major in business, and in order to get there college is the only way. This is important for me, college ,because I know that I will get far in life and one day repay my parents for what they have done for me. I was glad to be introduced to the Puente program since it caught my attention from the first day i heard of it, and I'm sure this program will help me succeed in college. Having my family motivating me is the reason why I am attending college and I will continue until I reach my goals. Throughout my senior year I picked up very good habits that I think will help me be successful in life. I have become more organize and more responsible, thanks to my AVID teacher that showed me life will run smoother if you have this characteristics.