Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Identities

Identity is what defines us and describes as subjects or communities. Everything you do, say and think is part of your identity. It is a set of features of an individual or community. These features define and describes  the subject or the community against the rest. Jamaica Kincaid want the world to know the true identity of Antigua in his book. Antigua is a small island, but attracts tourists. Before, there was racism and traffic. Jamaica wants to remedy these perceptions, and what can be seen as the past affects the present.
  I think one of the most shocking things that Jamaica is the aspect of language because the government impose a new language and when you’re changing your language you’re changing their identity. She had no control over this and not realizing the government changed its language and today is the language she uses. Government changes her identity.
in her case I felt I had no identity, incomplete. as long as the government wants to implement things to communities without care about our identity. In a way I feel identified with Jamaica because like Antigua in Puerto Rico want to implement the language (English). A language I do not master a language that is not my language, a language that I do not like. After so many years with some established customs and habits you want to change who you are and how you are. These chapters can make people reflect on their identity. People know what they are, but you never know when you cease to be. Wise Jamaica who was born in Antigua, but did not imagine I could come to feel so lost as tourists without identity. Identity is something that the world doesn’t gives you, but if you Neglect the world can take it away.

On "Small Place"

"Small place" is a book written by Jamaica Kincaid, the speaker in this book on a small island that has a large tourist activity. I had the opportunity to read the first two chapters and I found it very interesting because it talks about things that we always see, but never analyzed.
      Tourists are people who travel to other places for some reason. Tourists always have an idea or perspective of where they may think proper as it may have a wrong idea. Most of the time have a wrong idea as only set in the tourist areas of the site. For this reason, the bad reputation of a place is created.
      In these chapters the author criticizes the perspective of tourists and as tourists ignore the social problems of the places they visit. In this respect I was identified as in Puerto Rico this happens very frequently. The tourists will spend their good time and see the beautiful places in the country they visit, ignoring the problems and needs of Puerto Ricans. Tourists come to enjoy the natural beauty, leaving aside social disasters. Most of the time the tourists do not know anything about the place of sight-they are only aware of tourist areas. For this reason, described Jamaica as tourists lost ones who go in search of something that maybe there is not.
      During these first two chapters I was able to see that Jamaica is trying to open his eyes to the world and especially to tourists. She talks about this problem because she lived it, as a child witnessed incidents of racism, it's basically the same except that when her was little and now with a country. Jamaica basically what it does is expose tourists and open your eyes. Just like each country's history and perspective that deserves to stop the tourist ignorance. Surely you change your way of seeing tourism when you read these chapters.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

My Island, My Identity

      Identity is all the traits of an individual or communityThese features are the subject or the community against the other.Identity is what defines a person, by his behavior, as it is expressed and where it comes from. People define you by your cultural aspects is that we all have two identitiesthe real identity of ourselves and the identity that others have about us.People judge you by how you express yourself and the way you speak, the language is part of your identity. Identity is something that everyone should care because in my opinion your identity is the perception that others have about you.
        I read an article about identity written by Peter Roberts. This article talks about identity and perceptions that people have about identity. Communities like people have a particular identity. The identity of a nation is judged by the identity of its people, its food, customs, beliefs, etc. I was looking for information about the perception that has the world on my island (Puerto Rico) and the world has a misconception about my country. People say that Puerto Rico is a very violent country and nobody is safe here. I am an expert in Puerto Rico because I have my whole life living in Puerto Rico and I know what the world thinks is false.
       Puerto Rico is a beautiful island, where I was born. Puerto Rico is a small spot on the globe, but over time we have become known. Puerto Rico is a very happy country that celebrates everything. Foreigners are determined to put the name of Puerto Rico in the soil and cannot be. Tourists come to Puerto Rico for a week and depend on what happened this week judge Puerto Rico.  Much of them say is Hell and others said it is Paradise, in my opinion both are wrong because they do not research or analyze Puerto Rico. I am Puerto Rican and my duty is to protect the identity of Puerto Rico, because if my country loses its identity I lose mine.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Neil Perry

The dead poets society was a group of students who met secretly to read poetry. This action was banned in school because parents paid for their children to be professionals and not artists. The dead poet’s society was composed of a group of friends who decided to follow the footsteps of his teacher, who was one of the founders of dead poet’s society along with other students.
    During the movie I saw many internal and external problems, but the character that caught my attention was Neil Perry. Neil Perry is a student who belongs to the "Dead Poets Society”. He is the one that had an external and internal journey at the most, because he wants to be an actor but his parents wanted him to become a doctor and not an actor. In his internal journey Neil wanted to be an artist, because there was nothing he liked more than that. But in his external journey he knows that is difficult, almost impossible serious because his father did not like the idea of became an actor. In this external and internal fighting, Neil decides to take his own life because he cannot stand the pressure of his father.
    I think that Mr. Perry (Neil’s father) is actually responsible for his suicide because he as a parent didn’t wanted to listen his own son on what he wanted to do and Mr. Perry forced Neil to be a doctor, something that he didn’t wanted. In my opinion Neil took a drastic measure to take his life. Even though it was a very hard situation to Neil, I think that was exaggerated kill them just for a problem. In the case of Neil, I had spoken to my father to come to some agreement and if he refused taking other measures such as escape, but never kill. Sometimes we let the problems get caught without seeing the solutions, just think of the consequences of the problem. Often addiction problems remain unresolved because we always do as Neil seeks the most drastic measures, because they are the easiest. The problems must be solved reaching some agreement where no one gets hurt.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Piece of myself.


         Sometimes we do not know who we are, sometimes we do not know where we came from, and sometimes we do not know where we go. Sometimes we know a little bit, or just think we know. Sometimes I feel lost, so lost that I did not recognize myself. Is difficult to decipher the code of life, but who said life had a code? The greatest mystery of life is to know who you are and why you are here.

         My name is Hector Luis Padilla PiƱeiro, I was born on March 30, 1995, in Rio Piedras. Before birth the doctors told my mother I was a sick baby, my mother did not believe and trust that I would be born healthy. I was the largest and heaviest baby around the hospital with only 7 months. The doctor says that it was a miracle. With each passing year I grew healthy and strong, like a normal child. The doctors told my mother I need to be medicated, but my mother said that the medicine is not necessary because she believe in God. I had a perfectly normal childhood, my mother handed the situation perfectly. Do not know what would happen to me if my mother had taken different decisions that her took. During my teenage years I had a few incidents where I lost the patience and reacted in an aggressive manner, but over time I learned to control myself.

        I grew up with 2 brothers. My brothers are very different from me. My sister is the oldest of 3, was the first and only girl. She had some advantages that my brother and I never had. On the other hand my brother never liked school. He always said he would not go to college, and he didn’t. However I always had good grades and everything I do is for my parents so they could be proud of me. They deserve it. Be the baby is not easy as people think. Your parents overprotect you to not make the same mistakes they made and not do the mistakes that your older brothers have committed. In my house were all of us were raised the same way, but each one decided to create our own way. My entire family expects great things from me, since I’m the only one who is in college.  I hope to not disappoint anyone.