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I recently watched this movie and related it to the text in class, Deep Rivers. It had a completely different setting and social group, being Mexico/New York and the Cholombiano subculture in Monterrey. With this, it had many of the similar themes of wanting to be part of a group and finding identity within society that Deep Rivers had. Within Deep Rivers it is a focus on societies internal to Latin America, while this movie does as well, it has the more intimate struggle between indigenous and Spanish descent. I've attached the trailer for the movie to have a basic background of it. It deals with many themes of losing a place in culture, both in the  of the subcultures of Mexico, as well as in the States. The Cholombiano culture is one of both Mexican gangs as well as a love for Cumbia dance and music. The story finds a young man sneaking into the US to avoid being killed by a cartel and finds himself in a completely new world, unable to communicate to those around him. He has a large amount of culture shock, finding solace in his traditional Cumbia music.  He finds himself not just at the scrutiny of English speakers but also fellow immigrant, further showing  that he has no home there. As the movie continues he changes from the pressure, cutting his hair(important to his Terko gang's culture) and trying to hold onto his identity. In the end he returns to Mexico to see his friends have left the Terkos gang and joined criminal gangs. His hometown, now filled with more criminal activity, leaves him alone. The ending scene is him overlooking his neighborhood, listening to Cumbia. The mp3 dies, showing his unchanged attitude has left him alone without a 'home' and not wanting to accept reality. Both pieces have a young main character finding their way through an unfamiliar part of the world and battling with sticking with tradition or adjusting to the social normalities. The identity each of these characters hold is one that doesn't belong in either place and leave them in the middle, or rather completely separated from both cultures.

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Ya no estoy aquí | Tráiler oficial | Netflix

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Rigoberta Menchu and Johnny Clegg are voices for struggles and injustices done to those around them, being similar in message despite their vastly different context. Rigoberta is a voice for her indigenous group in Chile, Johnny Clegg being a voice in South Africa. He was outspoken against Apartheid and a leading force for equality. Both artists, though different mediums, had a platform to spread a message throughout the world reaching those not immediately aware of the injustices done to these groups. Johnny Clegg was heavily entrenched in South African culture, both traditional and his own relation to it, being a white man. An interesting point to bring up is him using his elevated platform as a white man during this time in South Africa to push forward these ideas of coming together and world peace. My father introduced me to him, from listening to him in high school in Cairo and Geneva, showing the effect that a single voice can have to bring attention to something like this and disperse it throughout the world. They speak of death metaphorically and literally, of atrocities and their own positions on matters in the world. Both people preach ideas of coming together and peace and moving forward in the world, while still holding to tradition and the individual. They often called him the 'white Zulu' and an ambassador of true South African music.His lyrics, much like Menchu's writing amplify the voices of those unable to speak to the public.  Despite these two people, one a poet and one a musician, they both used and Menchu continues to use her platform to educate the world and those around her. Menchu and Clegg expands a reader's/listener's mindset and gets them to pay attention not only to themselves but to the entire world. Writers like these have educated me on topics that I would have a more textbook version of, rather than these first and secondhand retelling of history and the modern world. I've attached one of his songs that has very powerful lyrics speaking of South Africa and Apartheid.

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Marquez's writing of solitude portrays that it is an unavoidable part of life. No matter what, you will at some point be alone, either physically or mentally. Isolation can make someone go mad and obsess over the past, something seen in the writings of both Garcia Marquez and Yann Martel. For context, Martel is the author of Life of Pi, the story told by a boy lost at sea with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra and a tiger. Each of the first three animals kill and eat each other, ending with the tiger then eating the hyena. You later find that he was not alone with these animals when telling this story, but that it was a cook, a sailor and his mother. The tiger itself is a representation of Pi looking to himself, that part of him then disappearing into the jungle. This can be related to the writings of Marquez in that while some of the characters are not always physically alone, they are put into a mental state that isolates an event or their entire selves from reality. Major themes that feed into both of these authors is that of God. The idea that we cannot control our fate is transformed with the main character, either accepting reality or denying it. Martel has said the main two themes of his book are "that all life is interdependent, and that we live and breathe via belief" and that "A story with God is a better story". This helps further the ideas of magic realism and that shift in what is reality and what is not. Both authors face heavy topics not often sought out in traditional western material, not shying away from bizarre, complex and dark fantasy themes. Both authors create new worlds in their stories, ones that fantastical but rather monstrous when taken at the face value of 'reality'. Yaan wanted this to happen, neither the animal or "true" story of Pi able to be proven or disproved by the conclusion of the book. Like many of Marquez's writings as well you are left with a feeling of uncertainty and curiosity for the characters left in their own mental solitude.

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The Original Angel concept and The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

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The Original Angel concept and The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

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This was a very interesting story to me that led to what I believe was a very thought provoking discussion from class. The idea of whether the old man was an angel or not got my attention. The phrase "Do not be afraid" being spoken by angels is interesting in this context, especially with their depiction of beautiful human-like creatures. When looking into it, some believe that angels are actually large ugly creatures that take the form that wouldn't scare people. I've added below what some believe is the original concept of an angel, that if we saw them I don't think many would accept is an 'angel'. This ties in the story that many saw a dirty old man with wings as something awful, and completely ignored the wings. According to the bible angels are messengers made of supernatural energy and are incorporeal. When taking physical forms, many have multiple faces or giant sets of wings, just as the man in the story has. Many images also have a fallen angel as a beaten and battered man with torn wings, lying on the ground. Could it possibly be an angel taking a more human form? While noticeable, would still be less strange and terrifying than this other concept some have drawn to.

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The Zahir by Jorges Borges has a theme of an item or thing you know exists but cant quite identify in your mind. During the class discussion one of my immediate thoughts went to this image, a strange and almost creepy photo-shop I saw on Twitter. The idea is that each part of it looks familiar, but you cant really tell what it is. It was the thing that made the ideas from The Zahir more real to me, or at least something that I could then understand. In the story, it is everyday items that are suddenly foreign and unrecoverable in their memories. This image gives me the same feeling, thinking I see something familiar but not entirely sure if it is actually there.  Within The Zahir there is mention of an infinite tiger, twisting in mind bending ways, much like this image, you are unable to find a beginning and end, much less a place to focus or remember. A concept of an unforgettable object is much like this, drawing your attention as long as it can and leaving not satisfied with what the content is. The idea of a common object or person becoming unrecognizable is terrifying to me and this image gives me that same sense of unease and confusion that the themes of Borges' writing gave me.