My Experience with Humanities Core

Humanities Core wasn’t what I expected. I thought it was going to be a simple history class where we would discussed the rise and fall of a variety of empires. Even though we did talk about some classical examples of empires, the approach that lecturers had to their respected subject matter was different from one another. This part is what most surprised me about this course. Another aspect that I did not expect, was the the manageability of the class. The course is not too hard, but it also is not a walk in park. It challenged me without ruining my GPA. I also, liked the fact that it took care of a lot of general education courses.

In terms of which quarter I enjoyed the most, I would say that Spring quarter has been my favorite. I like the fact that we have been focusing on specific stories about people and their encounters with empire. This has allowed me to understand others perspectives and overall be more open minded. I especially felt this way with professor Vo’s lectures. I had no idea that the United States bombed Laos and Cambodia. The hardships that Cambodians and Vietnamese people had to go through are heartbreaking. What is worse is that not many Americans are aware of the bombing or of the horrific stories many had to face due to the Vietnam war. Vo’s lectures were eyes opening. I truly admire her effort to bring awareness to the atrocities that many faced during and after the war. Another lecture that I loved, was professor O’Toole’s. Often times, we are led to believe that groups such as the Incas were easily conquered and they completely resisted colonization. Although many did do this, a vast majority of them intermixed with Europeans. The most shocking part of her lectures was the fact that race did not play a key role in colonization until the 1800s. Religion and different cultural ideas are what led to the Spanish and other Europeans to feel as though they are superior to natives. I had always believed that race was a main factor in Europeans believing that natives were barbaric. O’Toole’s lectures completely changed the way I view colonization in South America.

Drawing 147. The Inka asks what the Spaniard eats. The Spaniard replies: “Gold.” by Guaman Poma de Ayala

The history of colonialism and imperialism is incredibly important to know, especially because the United States has been notorious for it. In elementary, middle, and high school, students are often given a very skewed perspective of history that makes the United States seem as if it is perfect. As students, we are taught that America’s only intention is to help people and that as a country we have never made mistakes. It is vital for students to know and understand the good and the bad that America’s colonialism has caused other people. For this reason, I am glad that I had the opportunity to take Humanities Core and a part of me is going to miss it.

American Progress, (1872) by John Gast

Sources:

369 [371]

GVAINA CAPAC INGA, CANDÍA, ESPAÑOL1

/ Cay coritacho micunqui? [¿Es éste el oro que comes?] / Este oro comemos. / en el Cuzco /

CONQVISTA

/ Kay quritachu mikhunki? /

1 Aquí Guaman Poma confunde varios datos relacionados. Pedro de Candía apreció las riquezas del Inka en Tumbes, no en el Cuzco, durante la expedición de 1527. No se entrevistó con Huayna Capac, pero fue éste quien hizo construir allí el templo del sol que tanto impresionó a Candía. El uso de “español” para el griego Candía no refleja necesariamente el desconocimiento de Guaman Poma de la nacionalidad del artillero; como en otras ocasiones, Guaman Poma empleará el término con el sentido de “no-indio”. Véase la nota, p. 369.

El episodio de Candía lo relata también el Inca Garcilaso siguiendo la versión de Cieza de León (Garcilaso [1617], libro I, cap. xiii, 1960 [Bib]: p. 32).

Gender Roles: La Esclava Blanca

La Esclava Blanca is a Colombian telenovela that is about the life of a young girl who lives in a small colonial town in 19th century Colombia. Nicolás Parreño, a rival of her father stages a house fire, which results in the death of her parents. The girl’s caretaker, a black slave, saves the girl and takes her to a small village in the middle of the jungle created by escaped slaves. The girl grows up as the daughter of the caretaker and her husband for 12 years, however the Spanish discover the village and destroy it. The villagers that survived are enslaved. The girl, Victoria, escapes and is sent to live in a monastery in Spain. Years later, she goes back to Colombia to search for her family. The show La Esclava Blanca greatly details the unjust treatment of slaves and the cruel actions of the colonial governments in Colombia at the time, especially towards women.

This is the shows the three main characters: Victoria, Nicolás, and Miguel (Victoria love interest)

The main villain in the show is a slave owner called Nicolás Parreño, who illegally buys slaves and sells them in Colombia. At the start of the the show, his mother and wife begin to question his manliness and his ability to properly run his land. This hurts his ego and he decides that he is going to do what he wants to do. This causes him to decide that he needs to have a child to inherit his land, so he rapes his wife repeatedly while also sexually assaulting the slaves on his plantation. The life of his wife means little to him, which is why he did not care that she died giving birth. She did not give him the son he wanted. His wife was not the only person who had to deal with this man. Unfortunately for the slave women that Nicolás owned, he had a strong attraction to them. He even fell in love with on of his slaves and in order to not arouse suspicion from his mother, Nicolás whipped the poor slave woman. Despite the fact that the woman’s back was oozing blood from her wounds, Nicolás starts kissing her and rapes her.Nicolás Parreño reminds me a lot of William Byrd, who is mentioned in Professor Block’s lectures. They are both men who do not see an issue with their actions towards women. Due to their culture and their awful egos, they believe that they can do what they please with a woman. They do not care for the wellbeing of their spouse and prefer to indulge themselves in disgusting adulterous acts that make them feel powerful. It is also important to mention that Nicolás’s mother is well aware of the terrible actions of her son. She considers herself to be this perfect Spanish Catholic woman, and yet she allows her son to be a completely immoral person. She is a complete hypocrite.

This photo of shows Nicolás molesting the slave he is supposedly “in love with.” The scars from constant abuse are marked on her arm.

Although the character of Nicolás is fictional, I have no doubt that men like him existed. It is baffling that someone can treat another human being in such an awful and disturbing way. People such as Nicolás, consider anyone who isn’t European and a man to be animals, and yet they are the ones who lack the most simple of human traits: empathy.

 

Sources
First photo
Second photo
Liliana Bocanegra and Mateo Stivelberg, creators. La Esclava Blanca . Caracol Televisión, 2016.
Sharon Block. “Marriage.” Powerpoint. April 16, 2018

Young Love

Shakespeare’s portrayal of romance has always baffled me. I remember sitting in my freshmen English class while reading Romeo and Juliet, and thinking “is this really the love story that everyone goes on about?”  Romeo and Juliet just seemed like two young and idiotic teenagers who were confessing their love for one another and died for each other without even knowing what one another’s favorite color. This exact same “love story” was repeated again in Shakespeare’s The Tempest with the characters Ferdinand and Miranda. They did not even know each other for more than an hour before deciding they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. Again, I couldn’t help but think “Ferdinand is, at least to his knowledge, the next ruler of Naples and he is choosing a random woman he barely knows to rule beside him? Has this he lost his mind?” I understand that Prospero isolates him and that by all accounts Miranda is pretty, but for him to all of a sudden throw any common sense out the window seems odd to me.

In my search to try and find out what on Earth Shakespeare was thinking, I came across a Youtube video titled “Does Romeo and Juliet Suck?” In the video by Doug Walker, or The Nostalgia Critic, argues that Romeo and Juliet is not about true love but rather young love. Walker goes on to say that when we are young and in love the flaws of the person we are in love with don’t really matter because the feeling is so good. The strong reactions of Romeo and Juliet are the result of feeling the emotion of love for the first time. Due to their families strong prejudices against one another, the two lovers were not allowed to truly explore love. The more their families pushed them apart, the more rebellious they became and the more they wanted to be together. Ultimately, the families inability to listen and properly guide the two lovers through their confusing emotions is what led to their tragedy. Walker ends by stating that Shakespeare did know what he was doing and this story was more about the consequences of having a close mind and not allowing young love to be explored.

Walker’s take on Romeo and Juliet definitely changed my mind on Shakespeare’s view on love or more specifically young love. Like Romeo and Juliet, Ferdinand and Miranda were both young in the play. It is unclear as to whether or not Ferdinand had been in love before, but the beauty of Miranda took him by storm. Just as Romeo, Ferdinand’s actions are no surprise considering that many boys that age think with other parts of their body and not logic. Miranda’s situation is a bit more reasonable, in that she has only been around two men her entire life. The first is her father and the second is a weird island person that tried to rape her, so a prince from a far away land is a blessing. An interesting point that Professor Lewis mentioned in lecture, is that The Tempest in many ways was an autobiography with Prospero representing Shakespeare. It is no wonder that Shakespeare with his knowledge of young love had Prospero use this concept for his own political gain. Prospero pretended to dislike Ferdinand in order to “push” Miranda away from him. Unlike the families of Romeo and Juliet, he is well aware of that the two will want to be closer together if he does not allow them to explore their attraction for each other. He knew that Miranda would immediately go to Ferdinand’s side, when he was rude to the prince. At the end of The Tempest, Prospero even allows the two lovers to stay together. This was the ending that Romeo and Juliet never got to have.

As Walker stated, it is important to view both of these love stories with a more “adult perspective”, which is what helped me to change my view. Shakespeare explored both a tragic and happy story for young lovers in his works.

Sources:

Shakespeare, William, and Robert Woodrow Langbaum. The Tempest. Edited by Robert Langbaum. 1964.

Mahoney, John, et al. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare. Letts, 1987.

Walker, Doug, director. Does Romeo Juliet Suck? Youtube, 25 Feb. 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG_OC8ODqRE.

Lewis, Jayne. “The Tempest.” University of California Irvine. 5 February 2018. Lecture

First Image: The Droeshout Portrait of William Shakespeare, from the First Folio

Second Image: Zeffirelli, Franco, director. Romeo and Juliet. BHE Films, Verona Produzione, Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica, 1968.

Third Image:“The Tempest.” London, Royal Haymarket Theatre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resistance to Empire: La Pola

The Spaniards had a strong hold of Latin America between the 16th and 19th century. They colonized those continents at the expense of the indigenous people that inhabited the area. Between those centuries, a social hierarchy had formed. This hierarchy was based on skin color and where people were born. At the top were Spaniards from Spain then Spaniards born in Latin America. These two groups were treated the best socially and typically had the most opportunities. The other three groups of people were the indigenous people, mestizos, and Africans. Mestizos were often treated as lower class citizens by Spaniards due to the fact that they were the result of a Spaniard and an indigenous person. Spain later lost its hold on their Latin American after a series of revolts leading to the independence and formation of the countries we know today. A Colombian telenovela that encapsulates these ideas, is La Pola. 

La Pola is based on true events that occurred leading up to Colombia’s independence. The series centers around a girl called Policarpa Salavarrieta or La Pola for short, who in real life was a large asset to the people fighting for Colombia’s independence from Spain. She is presented as a strong, independent, and eccentric woman who cared more about someone’s personality than their race. As a girl, she experienced a wide array of injustices due to her being a mestiza and a woman. In one instance in the show, her sister is offered a marriage proposal from a rich Spaniard. Her sister didn’t tell the man that she is a mestiza. Her sister urges La Pola to hide because La Pola has the tannest skin of the family and can be very outlandish. La Pola is angered by her sister’s request, but agrees to it. She stays away until she hears the mother of the man insulting her family due to their humble home. This prompts La Pola to insult the woman back, which ends the marriage proposal for her sister. Another instance of La Pola fighting against the norms of her town, was when she defended her mother at their local church. It’s an unspoken rule that women of high social standing are the only ones allowed to sit in the front seats of the church. La Pola’s mother was feeling very classy because her husband had given her a new veil and decided to sit in the front. This leads to the women sitting beside them to make rude remarks against her. La Pola becomes furious and pulls downs the rude women’s’ veils.

As one can tell, La Pola is not one to follow social rules if they are at the expense of another person. She strongly believes in equality and liberalism (this is the trailer from the series and the most important part is from 0:00 to 0:55 and 3:58 to 5:45) . These values are what lead her to join forces with Antonio Nariño, he was also an actual person. Antonio was interested in the revolutions that occured in the United States and France against their ruling monarchies. He acquired the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” from France and translated it to Spanish, so that people in South America could read it. He, like many other people in South America, were tired of the abuses of the Spanish crown. Antonio began to get support of his community and led a rebellion against the Spain. La Pola joins Antonio due to the fact that her family suffered a great deal because of the unfair high taxes they had to pay. She convinces others to join the fight and helps gather supplies. Unfortunately, the rebellion is defeated and La Pola is executed for her involvement. However, La Pola story continues to be told in that town and the bravery of those in the rebellion continued to inspire people. Rebellion such as these are what prompted people to fight for Colombia’s independence. This television series is a great example of people fighting against an unjust empire.

Sources:

Sergio Cabrera and J. Carlos Perez, creators. La Pola. RCN Televisión, 2010.

Cover photo of show

Photo of La Pola holding a gun

Photo of Antonio Nariño

The Spanish soldiers

La Pola fighting in the rebellion

 

Rousseau and Hollywood’s Sexual Harassment Accusations

Hollywood is a key part of our entertainment. Due to streaming sites such as Netflix and Hulu,  watching television shows and movies has been easier than ever. We admire these actors, writers, and directors etc… for their ability to give us a compelling and entertaining story. However, with the recent harassment scandals, it has put into question the industry as a whole. What makes the allegations of sexual harassment even worse is that many Hollywood were well aware of it. In fact, many actors and actresses would warn each other about people such as Harvey Weinstein whose allegations were what sparked the stream of women coming out telling their own stories of harassment. Another point to note, is the “casting couch.” The “casting couch” is when actors or actresses sleep with producers or directors or really anyone in power in Hollywood in order to get a role. This role could potentially kickstart a career for aspiring actresses. Just because this is consensual does not take away from the perverseness of it all.

An image from the movie The Producers

Jean Jacques Rousseau was a French philosopher during the Enlightenment period in Europe. One of his most famous works is his essay called Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. The main point that Rousseau argues for is that civilization takes us away from our natural selves. He considers “progress” to increase inequality. Rousseau believes that any hierarchical system to be a miserable and deformed state of being. For example, master and slave, tyrant and subject, or rich and poor are what Rousseau is referring to.

A portrait of Jean Jacques Rousseau

The opening page to Rousseau’s essay

How do hollywood’s sexual allegation scandals and Rousseau’s points fit in together? One of the major reason why hollywood executives, producers, actors, etc. are able to get away with so  much is due to the fact that they are very powerful. That is why many women were so afraid to speak out. They were scared about being ridiculed or being ostracized by everyone in Hollywood. This an example of what Rousseau considered to be a miserable and deformed state of being. Hollywood culture has allowed itself to be tainted by power and money. It forgot its roots providing entertainment to people. According to Rousseau as a society progresses, the arts and knowledge as a whole do as well but this takes away form the simplicity of life. Although, we as humans are at an advanced stage of human history, we treat each other horribly. The unfortunate reality is that it hasn’t only affected grown actresses and actors, but it has occurred to many children in the industry. Hollywood is a perverse empirical industry that prioritizes vanity and power.

Sources:

Fisher, Luchina. “Is Hollywood Cleaning House amid Sexual Misconduct Scandals Fallout?” ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/hollywood-cleaning-house-amid-sexual-misconduct-scandals-fallout/story?id=50864551.Rousseau,

Jean-Jacques, and Donald A. Cress. Basic Political Writings. Hackett, 2012.

 

Elements of Empire in High School Musical

The poster for High School Musical

Empires have certain characteristics that make them up. Kipling2448, a certified Ph. D in International Relations, explains that those characteristics are a centralized leadership, standardized currency, ethnic diversity, expansionism, centralized power, vast territory, an imperialist agenda, diversity, and a strong military.

Recreation of Roman Empire

High School Musical is an original Disney Channel movie. It is about a basketball player and a studious girl who meet and singing a duet together. The basketball player, Troy Bolton, discovers that the girl he sang with, Gabriella Montez, transferred into his school. They meet once again and accidentally audition for their school’s musical. Word gets out to the rest of the school that Troy, who is often depicted as an air headed basketball player, auditioned and the new girl who is highly intelligent got a callback. This causes complete chaos in the school.  

Troy and Gabriela singing a duet for the first time

The centralized leadership in this case would be Sharpay Evans and her brother, Ryan Evans who have been the leads of every school production and pride themselves in their singing and acting skills. Sharpay is clearly the school’s queen bee and due to everyone sticking to their own group means that she can continue being the lead role in every production. The fact that Troy and Gabriella are messing with the school’s status quo angers her. This would be Sharpay’s empire’s imperialist agenda. Diversity in the movie is shown by the variety of clubs and sports that the school offers. Everyone can only belong to one school clique whether that be the basketball team, the brainiacs, etc… Sharpay Evans and her brother, Ryan Evans, are the enforcers of this notion. This is perfectly represented in the song “Stick to the Status Quo.” In the scene, people admit that they have other interested outside of what club or group they’re in which leads to their schoolmates to shame them. The strong military would be the other students who agree with Sharpay and react harshly to those who don’t.

People confessing their interest in matters other than their assigned group.

Sharpay uses her influence to convince the drama teacher to change the callback to the same time as the basketball game, which would affect Troy and the school’s decathlon, which would affect Gabriella. Sharpay, however, is not the only one who takes issue with Troy and Gabriella. Troy’s friends are angry that their team captain is focused more on the musical then on the important basketball game that they have coming up. Gabriella’s friends have a problem with her focusing more on practicing for the musical than the upcoming decathlon. The friends of Gabriella and Troy team up with one another to separate the two. This is the empire that wants to get rid of anything that threatens its stability.

Sharpay Evans

Gabriella and Troy, however, break free from the status quo by attending their callback. Their duet together is called “Breaking Free.” High School Musical demonstrates that even in ordinary high school humans tend to put themselves in boxes and create empires.

Sources:

Kipling2448. “What are the characteristics of an empire?” eNotes, 20 Sep. 2017, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-characteristics-an-empire-614088. Accessed 1 Dec. 2017.

High School Musical. Dir. Kenny Ortega. Disney Channel, 2006. Film

Les Misérables and The Roman Empire

kinopoisk.ru

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful empires to exist in history. One of the main aspects as to why they were successful was their army. The military was a central part of Roman society. Every man actively served in the military as it was seen as honorable. The Romans truly cared about protecting their empire and ensuring its continual existence.

A recreation of the Roman army

The movie Les Misérables is based on a musical of the same name. It is set in Paris, France in 1832. The film was inspired by the July Revolution in Paris, which occurred years after the French Revolution. France was unstable economically and the government had become a constitutional monarchy, which many were upset about. Not only that, but many poor people were angry at the ideas of the ruler at the time, King Louis-Philippe. The movie follows two main plots. The second plot is the one I will focus on. Marius, on of the main characters of the film, is part of a society of students who are determined to change the French government. The society meets at a pub to discuss their plans of revolution. They gather weapons and plan to make their attack during a famous general’s funeral.

Marius and his friends meeting at the pub to plan their revolt.

Marius and his friends at the general’s funeral

Both the Roman soldiers and the students in Les Misérables care about their causes and will fight to the death for them. For the Roman soldiers it’s to protect and expand the Roman empire, and for the students it’s to revolutionize what they consider a broken government. One of the more cruel aspects of the Roman military, at least by today’s standards, is decimation. Decimation, as professor Zissos described, was when a Roman general determined that his men had not fought well enough, so he would order one out of every tenth men in the army to be executed. The men chosen die was completely by chance and the execution would be taken out by the friends of the fated soldiers. It is understandable to want your army to fight well, however, these actions are ridiculous and only lead to the murder of people who may have tried actually tried their best. In the same vein, Marius and his friends lost their battle. The result was the death of all of Marius’s friends. This led to one of the most heartbreaking songs of the film called “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” (this is the link to Marius singing this song.)  Marius goes back to the pub where his friends used to gather. The most sorrowful lyrics are “Oh my friends, my friends forgive me/ That I live and you are gone” and “Oh my friends, my friends don’t ask me/ What your sacrifice was for.” This relates to the Romans who, in the case of decimation, has to cruelly kill one of their good friends that was chosen at random. In the beginning of the clip of “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables,” there are women who sing about the fact that those student who died had families and its the same for the men killed in decimation. Both of these instances demonstrate the awful side of an empire and that it will destroy humans lives in order to maintain its power.

An image of decimation

This is an example of decimation from the T.V. series Spartacus

Marius’s friends’ last moments before being killed by the French army

Sources:

Zissos, Andrew. “The Roman Empire Lecture 2.” October 2017. PowerPoint presentation.

Les Misérables. Dir. Tom Hooper. Per. Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Anne Hathaway. Universal Pictures, 2012. DVD.

ao. “Victor Hugo’s Inspiration for Les Misérables: The June Rebellion of 1832.” History Things, 21 Nov. 2016, historythings.com/victor-hugos-inspiration-les-miserables-june-rebellion-1832/.

Roman Empire Colosseum Wallpapers – 2560×1600 – 1450655, http://www.bhmpics.com/view-roman_empire_colosseum-wide.html.

Orientalism in Marvel’s “The Gifted”

 

In Edward Said’s Orientalism, he creates the phrase “Orientalism” to represent Eastern cultures. Said argues that Western cultures control their portrayal and how they are treated. He states that the West, which Said named the “Occident,” considers itself superior to the East. Asian, African, and Middle Eastern cultures are considered orientals or “other,” while the West is made up of European cultures.

The points that Said makes in the introduction to Orientalism can be applied to other works. One example, would be the the new Marvel series by Fox called The Gifted. This series takes place in the X-Men universe. In this universe, people who have the X Gene have superpowers that are triggered by traumatic events. The overall public are fearful of those with the genes and due to this, those with powers are treated poorly. The government severely punishes people who use their powers in any way. The series centers around family who discover that their children have the X Gene.  Andy, one of the children in the family, gets severely beaten in school and this sets off his powers. He destroys the school and his sister uses her powers to save them both from the collapsing building. The other students take notice of their powers and report it to the police. This causes the family to flee. A subplot in the show, deals with a group of people with powers who are fugitives. They allow others with the X Gene, who have been ostracized by their families and or society to be in their group. The orientals in this case would be those who have the X gene and the occident would be those without superpowers.

 

The daughter going to protect her brother

The societal name given to people with powers is mutant. The term is further used to ostracize people with powers. It makes them out to be sickening monsters when they are just normal people who did not choose to have the X Gene in the first place. This is similar to how Said was using the word orient because it makes those of that group seem weird, exotic, and inferior.

People without powers are prejudice against those who have the X gene. Before discovering his powers, Andy openly mocked those with the gene. In another scene, a little girl is taunted by a group of teenagers in a bowling alley for not being able to keep still due to her powers. Her father becomes irritated with the teens and tells them to stop. This tense situation causes the little girl to use her powers. However, she and her father are the ones forced to leave the bowling alley. The unfairness of these scenes are similar to the instances that Said faced for simply being Middle Eastern.

The power in the show belongs to the government. They view the X Gene as threat and treat those who have it as less. People with powers must go to a separate hospital that is heavily underfunded and in poor condition. Those without the powers are the West and those with powers are the orientals.  Society in the show, does not perceive those with powers as humans. That is why they discriminate against them just as the West ignores the humanity of those they consider oriental.

The government threatening to get rid of the group of mutants

Sources:

Said, Edward. Orientalism. Pantheon Books, 1978. Print.

“eXodus.” The Gifted. Fox. Flying Glass of Milk Productions, Donners’ Company, Bad Hat Harry Productions, Kinberg Genre, Marvel Television, Twentieth Century Fox Television, Atlanta. 2 Oct. 2017. Television

“rX.” The Gifted. Fox. Flying Glass of Milk Productions, Donners’ Company, Bad Hat Harry Productions, Kinberg Genre, Marvel Television, Twentieth Century Fox Television, Atlanta. 9 Oct. 2017. Television