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Definition:Squalor

“ a state of being extremely dirty and unpleasant, especially as a result of poverty or neglect.

"they lived in squalor and disease"

In Luis J. Rodriguez poem it meant that when he would look in people's eyes he would see pain and how unpleasant they were.

Los Angeles Public Library. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/trauma-transformation

Stephanie  Padilla

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Word: syndicated - Definition of syndicate. syndicated; syndicating. transitive verb. 1 : to subject to or manage as a syndicate. 2 a : to sell (something, such as a cartoon) to a syndicate or for publication in many newspapers or periodicals at once; also : to sell the work of (someone, such as a writer) in this way. The word in the poem means that the Mexicans come over from Mexico to the U.S.A to become many things like babysitters, chauffeurs, syndicated cartoonists and other things.

California - Some Information about California is that California leads the U.S. in agricultural production. California is also home to famous cultural institutions and national parks including: Hollywood, Disneyland, Yosemite National Park, Alcatraz, Angel Island and the Golden Gate Bridge.

References

History.com Staff. (2009). California. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/us-states/california

: Luna Morales

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Marked: clearly notable, evident

in Carmen Tafolla's poem we see she wants to clearly make a mark or a clearly notable and evident piece on this earth and is inspiring kids to make their own mark, whether it be with peace or violence.
~Emiliano

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Vocabulary

squalor

a state of being extremely dirty and unpleasant, especially as a result of poverty or neglect.

In the poem they see you as a dirty person.

MANTLE

an important role or responsibility that passes from one person to another.

a loose sleeveless cloak or shawl, worn especially by women.

I think it means in the poem that you can be who you are.

Interrogators

a person who questions someone closely, aggressively, or formally.

a device that obtains data from a computer file, database, storage device, or terminal.

In the poem, it means to question them back.

succumb

fail to resist (pressure, temptation, or some other negative force).

die from the effect of a disease or injury.

I think it means don’t fall into their traps.

perpetual

never ending or changing.

occurring repeatedly; so frequent as to seem endless and uninterrupted.

I think in the poem if someone of your race did it’s probably going to you because you're their race.

In the end of the poem it tells you don’t accept the demonization that happens to people in the world in schools and in public because they are racist.

by Jaeson

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I would sing into a solitary Waiting. Then it came. The calling. I waited all of 16 years for this time.
Somehow, unexpected, I was called.
It brought me out of my room.
It forced me to escape night captors
in street prisons.
tape recorder, music never to be heard.
I would write my thoughts
in scrambled English;
I would take photos in my mind
-plan out new parks, bushy green, concrete free,
new places to play and think.
That poem was first written when I was 16 years old and jailed during the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War. The date was August 29, 1970. Some 30,000 people took part in the largest anti-war protest in a community of color at the time.

After law enforcement officers attacked a mostly peaceful crowd, a riot ensued, leading to millions of dollars in damage and the deaths of three persons, including Chicano journalist Ruben Salazar. Hundreds were arrested. I recall several of us being Maced while handcuffed in an L.A. County Sheriff's bus. Others beaten.

However, after releasing most people within hours, five of us "cholos," Chicano gang youth, were not released. Instead, sheriff's deputies held us in the murderer's row of the Hall of Justice Jail in downtown Los Angeles (which was illegal-you're supposed to be 18 and over). I had a cell next to Charles Manson. The first night I was there, two murderers put a razor blade to my neck. I stood up to them, showing no fear, although I was scared to death. Deputies threatened us with charges in the riot killings. I was lost for several days while my parents tried to find me in juvenile hall and other facilities.

But, charges were never filed. Deputies woke me up in the wee hours and released me without a word. Their apparent plan to make scapegoats of us "gang bangers" backfired when Chicano activists produced photos and film of police beating and shooting people, including of the Silver Dollar Bar on Whittier Boulevard where Salazar was killed.

These activists preceded the video age by 40 years.

Two young men hold a banner which reads, "National Chicano Moratorium, East Los Angeles, August 29." Groups of people marched in the moratorium on that day in 1970.

This incident, nonetheless, pushed me into a new trajectory of life-from a rageful, heroin-using, high school dropout to a conscious, active, revolutionary writer, thinker and organizer.

Despite my personal battle with drugs, losing 25 friends by the age of 18, and other arrests for attempted murder and later for trying to stop police officers from beating a handcuffed young woman while they held her on the ground, I returned to school, obtained my high school diploma, painted eight murals, worked with gang and nongang youth, wrote articles, plays and poems, and led school walkouts for social change.
Take it off! Hands/minds, they are carving out
A sanctuary. Use these weapons
Against them. Use your given gifts
-they are not stone.
Make your own mantle.
Eyeball the death in their gaze.
Say you won't succumb.
Say you won't believe them
When they rename you.
Say you won't accept their codes.
Their colors, their putrid morals.
I went two steps forward, one step back, but soon I found my footing. By age 20, around the time I held my first son after his birth, I became crime free, drug free and gang free.

Today I have 15 books in all genres, including a memoir, "Always Running," that has sold close to half a million copies and is one of the most checked out books-and one of the most stolen-in the LA public library system.

And last October, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti chose me as the city's Poet Laureate.

What happened? How is this kind of change possible? Can it happen to others?

This is the journey from trauma to transformation-and my example is what can happen to millions of troubled young people so they move from violence, crime and addictions to centered and vibrant lives.

I have five steps in one's personal passage to leave the paralyzing affects of pathological and addictive behavior.

One:
Get help. Find a healthy and sustainable community. If you can't find one, create one. These communities can be temporary, which they often are, or long-range. There are many already out there-from churches, AA, social justice organizations, therapy circles, cultural centers, schools... I can go on and on.

Two:
Find your art, your passions, your innate purpose-to live out the story written on your soul the day you were born. My poem "The Calling" directly addresses this issue-about living the life you were meant to live, not one imposed on you or one you feel you must live for others.

Three:
Find a spiritual path. The key to this is that there are many ways to go. Spirit doesn't care about the particulars of the form, the church, the belief system. Spirit does care in the essence, to be engaged by what speaks deeply and singularly to you. This is how you access vitality for the physical world, with all its hardships, betrayals, pains, losses, and, yes, even its lures and intoxications. Being spiritually strong is how one maintains a quality of presence wherever you go.

Four:
Find a cause bigger than yourself. Personal trauma has sources in society, family, community. A full circle has to be completed: All personal healing and growth are to help you become an impactful, positive and meaningful person in relation to others. There are any causes. Mine were linked to making a better and decent society. I was concerned about ending poverty, fighting for a clean and green environment, for social equity, and for peace at home and abroad. I learned these issues are not separate silos to be achieved in a vacuum. These challenges are tied to the same source-an archaic economic system-and to a common aim-a cooperative and thriving world for all. But I also learned, again, that people had to find the causes that best speak to their heart, their intelligence, their spirit.

Five:
Learn to own your life. With addictions and gangs we tend to turn our lives over to other people or things. Over time we mold ourselves around their pull on our psyches-with drugs or alcohol making all needs, one need. They fill in-although superficially and temporarily-the empties in our circumstances, of our families, in our spirits. We stop owning our lives. Once you take back responsibility, with codes and propriety tied to your interests, you become liberated. The goal is to be an autonomous, authoritative and independent person. That's the best kind of person to intertwine and connect to others. Personal authority is powerful. It allows you not to fall under the authority or pathological complexes of other people or groups. But to also be part of the whole, integral to family and community.

Somehow, someway, I've been able to take these steps. And I've helped others caught in violence or addictions to do the same over the past forty years. For community, this means proper initiations, rites of passage, mentoring, and imparting of knowledge, culture and skills to our young people.

This works-and I've maintained for decades this is cheaper and more effective than any prison system or institutionalization where many of our troubled youth end up-going nowhere, wasting away, alienated, detached, their lives erased, unseen and unheard.

In California alone, we spend more than $43,000 a year to house one inmate-around $252,000 annually for juveniles. This is in a prison system that incarcerates 140,000 people at a cost of $10 billion a year. We can and must do something other than this, something truly transformative and restorative for our youth, or we condemn them to suicide, addictions, lives with no meaning.

As my friend, the renowned mythologist Michael Meade, says, "Most people have heard the old African proverb that 'it takes a village to raise a child.' Fewer know that the second part of the proverbial statement suggests that if young people are not fully invited into life, they will burn the village down."

If properly recognized and welcomed, from the heart of violence can come the peacemakers-towards beauty, truth and good.

I call this process "tuning up" the six strings of the guitar that make up who you are-the mental, physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and cultural-to be in accord, to align, to be in harmony.

Of course, all guitars have to be played, to get out of tune. So having the right practices, spiritual and/or artistic, as well as renewing touchstones are necessary to get tuned up again. To return to rhythm and balance. Only, of course, to get off balance and off-note the rest of the time.

That's life. That's living. But each time you stop, pay attention, tune up, you sound richer, feel fuller, become wiser in your bones.

I'm ending with a poem that speaks to not accepting the demonization that happens too often to our youth from adults, schools, police, and even parents. It's an invitation to rise above the limitations in and around us-to the dreams, visions and inexhaustible spirit already in their grasp and to realize their own true selves and a world worthy of all our children.

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The calling came to me while I languishedin my room, while I whittled away my youthin jail cells and damp barrio fields.It brought me to life, out of captivity,in a street-scarred and tattooed placeI called body.Until then I waited silently,a deafening clamor in my head,voiceless to all around,hidden from America's eyes,a brown boy without a name.I would sing into a solitarytape recorder, music never to be heard.I would write my thoughtsin scrambled English;I would take photos in my mind-plan out new parks, bushy green, concrete free,new places to play and think.Waiting.

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“3rd chair musicians, movie extras, bouncers, babysitters, chauffeurs, syndicated cartoonists, featherweight boxers, fruit-pickers and anonymous poets.”

The word chauffeurs means someone who drives limos and cars for a living.
Retrived from
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/chauffeur

-Salvador Perez

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Mutulu Shakur: Mutulu Shakur is a convicted felon for escaping his sister Assata Shakur from prison. He was also part of the Black Panther party.

“Mutulu Shakur.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Feb. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutulu_Shakur.

-Leah Haddad

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“Communism.” Dictionary.com,
Communist a person who supports or believes in the principles of communism.
-LaDarius Miller

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Geronimo Pratt-Who is he/she?

He was Tupac’s godfather. He was also a Black Panther like Tupac’s mother. He was actually a high ranking leader of the Black Panthers. He served 27 years in prison for a wrongful crime.

Tupac-Where is he from?

Tupac Shakur is from Eastern Harlem, New York City, NY. Tupac grew up there primarily then moved to Baltimore.

-Akiyah Wafford

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What does Americani mean as used in the poem?

Dictionary definition:   unbleached cotton sheeting originally made in America and used in Africa and the Far East
My Opinion: I think it shows that he isn't an American but wants to call himself one. So he uses Americani.

-Amro Mostafa

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What does, “Like a piece of turquoise marked,”mean in the poem?

This line means that through simple but vivid details the mother covers a lot of ground, outlining the diversity of ways in which the daughter can make her mark in the world. From writing with ink to fertility from growing berries or babies, to activism, and spilling her blood when necessary.

What is the meaning of marked?

The meaning an affixed or impressed device, symbol, inscription, etc., serving to give information, identify, indicate origin or ownership, attest to character or comparative merit, or the like, as a trademark.  The idea of “making a mark” in life is played against the idea of being “marked” throughout the poem. A gang member might “tag” a building, marking territory. Tattoos can be seen as simultaneously making a mark and being marked.

-Gabriela Zizumbo

References:
Marked. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/marked

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Vulnerable

Susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm.
In the poem they describe the child as having vulnerable eyes.

Vulnerable. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/vulnerable

Frail
(of a person) weak and delicate.
This mean that in the poem the son has weak confidence.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/frail
Marcos Rios

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2. Brota

Brota means to shoot, bud or sprout

In the story it uses it like here here sweet sprouts here or buds here so like it is covering it and I think that it is what it means because in the text they are hiding from the la migra and this is why I think it means that they are trying to be covered and hide and sweet means it's sweet to find this and that we can hide like it is used like this in the story “Agua dulce brota aqui aqui”.

2.

When was this poem made and where does it take place ?

The poem was made in 1993 and it is about  2 kids that are by the Mexican border and they are saying what they know/see so they are using their advantages and disadvantages to beat one another. The 2 kids are 1 male and 1 female so one is trying to prove what gender is better, boy or girl with the girl coming out on top. This is what I found out about la Migra and where it took place. The reason why Mora wrote this at the time was to teach about sexual assault by the border patrol.

Check out the translation for "brota" on SpanishDict! (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/brota

Analysis of Analysis of Pat Mora(TM)s La Migra - GCSE English - Marked by Teachers.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.markedbyteachers.com/gcse/english/analysis-of-analysis-of-pat-mora-a-tm-s-a-aoela-migra-a-a.htm

Enrique Ramirez.

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Chauffeur- A person employed to drive a private or rented automobile

“3rd chair musicians, movie extras, bouncers, babysitters, chauffeurs, syndicated cartoonists, featherweight boxers, fruit-pickers and anonymous poets.”

The word Chauffeurs means in the text that Immigrants can get these jobs if they go to the U.S and they can do those jobs.

California's largest ever fire was a force that could not be stopped. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epic-fires-california-20171231-story.html

California was on fire in the book it said we are all getting burned. California was on fire for a couple of days so it can connect to the poem to. The book connects to real life events.

-Freddy Cruz

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What does fell mean as used in the poem?

Fell means to cut, knock down or bring down

What does the bear symbolize to the natives?

To the natives, the bear symbolizes medicine and is often used in religious ceremonies. They also believe that the bear has magical powers and that's why they see it as medicine.

Fell. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2018, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fell

“Native American Bear Mythology.” Native American Indian Bear Legends, Meaning and Symbolism from the Myths of Many Tribes, www.native-languages.org/legends-bear.htm.

-Aramis Alicea

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1. What is the meaning of rapturing?- Transporting from earth to heaven

Definition: 1. The state of being transported by a lofty emotion; ecstasy.

2. often raptures An expression of ecstatic feeling: raptures of joy.

3.

a. The transporting of a person from one place to another, especially to heaven, by supernatural means.

b. Rapture An event in the eschatology of certain Christian groups in which believers in Christ will be taken up to heaven either prior to or at the Second Coming.

2. What happened in LA?- Officers beat up Rodney King. During the riot 50 people died, and 2000 people injured.

sources- “Rapturing.” The Free Dictionary, Farlex, www.thefreedictionary.com/rapturing

Los Angeles Riots Fast Facts. (2017, April 23). Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/18/us/los-angeles-riots-fast-facts/index.html

-Esteban Garcia

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Pakora are fritters made in India. This dish is served hot and can be made from  vegetables or meat, coated in seasoned batter.

In my poem these were served to the people.

Pakora | Definition of pakora in English by Oxford Dictionaries. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/pakora

Sophia Vargas

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Question : What does oppression mean ?

Dictionary Definition :  Prolonged Cruel or unjust treatment or control

Definition in context with the poem :  To be treated unfair or “unjust” in a “ cruel ”  way.

Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dictionary.com/

- Cera Flores-Ramos

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The effect of getting older would have to that they may not be able to move as fast as they used to be able to, also they are in need of lots of attention and also their vision may also decrease and they may have a hard time hearing stuff and their body may hurt sometimes. Also they may need to swallow their medicine and can’t go up the stair without help. Elders may also talk about their time which would be that back at my time they will say or the good thing that happen back then. They might get mad at how the world has grown since they were young and get mad at new ideas that are in the world. Their brains get worse and worse at handling dopamine which is how the brain regulates movement and emotion.
-Angel Gomez

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While some people grow older with grace and maintain their beauty, others age like a curse has been put upon them. But, eventually, we will all start to resemble rotting jack o' lanterns in both appearance and smell. Your pants start to slowly creep up your body and you become increasingly concerned about the state of your lawn. I may, technically, still be a young man but I can sense the passage of time starting to chip away at the best parts of me. I used to go on dates with gorgeous women but it's probably just a matter of time before I'm sending them creepy anonymous emails instead, like so many of my friends' dads.

Getting older often means allowing novelty to be slowly superseded by nostalgia. You start talking about "the good old days" which was a time when music was better and people had their priorities in line. It was also a time that never existed. You're suddenly afraid of new ideas and angry about things that don't quite fit in with your loose dogmas. You're worried about keeping a job that makes you unhappy so you can continue to afford living the lifestyle that you've grown accustomed to, while expecting the rest of the world to do the everything exactly the same way. This is how wealthy fifty-five year olds can complain about subtle tax increases from the bow of their yachts. It's an incredible and mystical process.

This might not affect everyone on the planet, but it'll happen to enough of us to really cause some serious problems. Voters and politicians everywhere fall victim to it every day. There are already a lot of people that are much more worried about their living room furniture than how they treat other people, let alone broad social issues or more complicated philosophical concepts. I know this because QVC and the Home Shopping Network have based their entire businesses model off it. For a lot of us, getting older means not worrying about changing the world anymore. New ideas will be a thing of the past and problem solving will become impossibility. If you know anyone's parents that own a dog, go to their home and watch how they interact with it. They'll just yell and yell and the dog will bark and bark. They'll try absolutely nothing and spend zero hours thinking critically or problem solving. In fact, until a friend or the television offers new advice, they'll actually claim to have tried everything. So often it seems like anytime someone tells me that they are getting older, they are really just telling me that they've decided to start giving up on things. There is no conciliable way that can end well.

There is this culture of cannot that is at the heart of getting old. This is why there are millions of old people that never figured out how to use the internet. That's sort of criminal because if there ever was a demographic that had a lot of free time and money to spend on online shopping and pornography, it's the elderly. But they just couldn't quite figure out that dag-nabbed computing machine. Chemically speaking, your brain actually does get worse and worse at handling dopamine as you age so you derive less pleasure from learning a new skill. But that doesn't really excuse you entirely from becoming so out of touch that people mouth "wow" to each other behind your back every time you finish a thought.

Rest assured that tomorrow's youth will always know more than your generation will. While you're too focused on prime time television and work to bother educating yourself on anything new, they'll be learning your history while simultaneously mastering the future. You'll be reminiscing like crazy about how soft toilet paper used to be while the rest of the world is deciding upon which retirement home to put you in. If that isn't a good reason to stay active, relevant and thoughtful, I don't know what is. But the worst part about getting old isn't having food perpetually trapped in the corners of your mouth or possessing a smell that is reminiscent of pee (which we all know probably is pee), it's the potentially wasted life that leads up to that point.

Some of the best conversations that I've ever had have been with an old person over coffee. Sure, you have to deal with the occasional impressively racist sentence, but it's worth it in the end. After retirement they reacquire the gift of having a real conversation about life, and they always give me the same advice about it. They say not to waste my time working for a big organization, not to let other people's rules box me in, build quality relationships and consider all time as "my" time. This advice is in direct contrast to almost every single adult I knew as a child and most of the ones that I know now. Nobody has to be trapped in a job they hate, surrounded by mediocre people while their thoughts stagnate in a mental swamp. You don't have a lot of time to be wasting. So you can take all of those little reminders that you're getting older and use them to keep yourself motivated or you can use them as an excuse to move into that culture of cannot.

About You Monsters Are People

Wisdom, wonderment and weird for everyone.

This entry was posted in comics, Current Events, Dark Humor, humor, Life, musings, science, society, Uncategorized, web comics and tagged age, comics that look racial but aren't, dads on the internet, excuses, feeling old, getting old, gray hair, grey hair, growing old, old people smell, politics, seize the day. Bookmark the permalink.

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While some people grow older with grace and maintain their beauty, others age like a curse has been put upon them. But, eventually, we will all start to resemble rotting jack o' lanterns in both appearance and smell. Your pants start to slowly creep up your body and you become increasingly concerned about the state...

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Bouncers ~ a person employed by a nightclub or similar establishment to prevent troublemakers from entering or to eject them from the premises. In the poem a Bouncer is immigrant that works at a nightclub.
Chauffeurs ~ a person employed to drive a private or rented automobile
In the poem a Chauffeur is a immigrant that is working to drive other people around.
~ Dayana Sanchez #312
Source 1 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bouncer

Source 2 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/chauffeur

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Dictionary: skin, hide, pelt

Contents of the poem: In the poem fell means to kill.

Fell. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2018, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fell

-Oscar Aguirre

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What are the mental side effects of aging:

Old age is said to be a time of reflection of your life and how far you have come. However because of aging people seem to feel as if they have lost control over their life because of failing eyesight, hearing loss, and etc. This can cause negative feelings and emotions to rise like depression and anxiety.

Source:
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/aging-depression.aspx
-Brianna Anthony

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"you should Fell him"

Definition-

to knock, strike, shoot, or cut down; cause to fall

Fell is used in the poem to probably state that if yelling at a bear won't work then try to shoot or strike it to make it fall , If not there's another definition to skin something so it might mean that too

“Fell.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/fell.

Takoda Espinosa