Diego Marquez is a Cuban soldier who serves for, and is devoted to the Cuban military of dictator Fulgencio Batista’s regime. He experiences many aspects of the revolution, but his loyalty lead him to his own fate. In this journal, he writes about his experiences in battle and the importance of his cause. Despite what he has learned throughout these experiences, Diego decides to persevere until the bitter end.
After many years of famine, injustice and racism under the corrupt regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban people decided that it was time for an inevitable revolution. Starting from street protests and small rebel groups, the people presented their hate for the government and eagerness for change. However, the government ruthlessly murdered these innocent souls who have already suffered enough repression. The brave revolutionary Fidel Castro takes a stand and leads the rebel group M-26-7 to victory and ends this horrible regime. Shortly after the liberation of the Capitol (Havana), a new temporary government under Manuel Urrutia is formed and it lasted for a few weeks until Fidel Castro started to gain control over it. Fidel Castro eventually becomes the new dictator of Cuba and makes new reforms such as increasing the literacy rate, providing better housing, and offering free healthcare for Cuban citizens. He also signs the First Law of Agrarian reform which distributed land to peasants who didn’t have any. Apart from those changes, Castro also legalizes the Communist Party in Cuba and nationalizes all previously owned American industries which triggers the US government. On the contrary to what the Cuban dictator claimed on social media, he was actually turning Cuba into a communist country and some of the rules that he had made were downright inhumane in the eyes of some citizens. These rules consisted of death penalties for all members of the previous government, the suppression of the freedom of expression, and short-term arrests for anyone who expressed their opinion on human rights and advocacy for similar things. These actions have equalized the level of corruption in Castro’s regime with Batista’s Regime and expressed to the world that a perfectly run utopian society doesn’t exist.
Category: humanities
Paper Fidel Castro liberates Cuba
The Cuban Revolution in plain English by Josh & Emily
In a political revolution such as this one, the primary focus is on the the individual desire of a being and their willingness to change society. For example, Fidel Castro Ruz was born into a wealthy family but oversaw the suffering of others who were living in poverty and helpless against the corrupt government under Fulgencio Batista. He knew that there was something humanly incorrect and had the audacity to try and change it. In most cases, there is an obvious inequality present in the population, however, the oppressed fraction of the population never mentions the problem in fear that they will suffer consequences set by the ruling fraction. The ones who are unafraid of the consequences though aware of them are the true leaders of the revolution. Leaders such as Fidel Castro are a representation of the people’s desires to correct society and are supported by the people, for the people. Just like how John F. Kennedy claimed that “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable,” a violent revolution will always occur if a corrupt ruler deems peaceful protests negligible. For instance, dictator Fulgencio Batista murdered over 20,000 cubans in 7 years through involving the police force in peaceful street protests and executing rebels without a trial. The citizens couldn’t bear these things any longer and a violent revolution occured.
Summary: The Cuban revolution was one of the revolutions that greatly affected the world, in fact it was the closest the world had ever gotten to nuclear war. Starting from a coup in which a cruel dictator seized power from the government, the citizens of cuba were devastated by police enforcement and famine. Cuba was a nation where tourism and production was for satisfying the foreign population in the country rather than the citizens. Due to these factors, the dictator, Fulgencio Batista must cease to exist in the country. Therefore, the revolution occured. Young revolutionary Fidel Castro and his companions who disliked the current state of Cuba decided to rebel against the government by forming a rebel group known as the M-26-7, named after their first mission where they failed to fulfill their goals. After being captured on their first attempt to overthrow the dictator, they were released through an amnesty from Batista himself because of the number of protests that begged this to be done. Exiled to Mexico, Castro and some rebels meet fellow revolutionaries such as Ernesto Ché Guevara. Once prepared, the rebels would go on a dangerous mission across the Caribbean to Cuba, where harsh conditions and the Cuban military would awaited.
Was it only Frenemies, Homework, and Legos?
“Google It” is a book by Anna Crowley Redding that presents the history of the technology company “Google” in a chronological manner. It covers details from the very start of the journey, (1995) to near present day (2017) and introduces a variety of features that Google has developed. The story takes place in America where undergraduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin are working on a project at Stanford University when they come across the idea of organizing the entire world-wide-web (WWW). It illustrates every aspect of the development including the monumental milestones and technical issues. One theme of this book is that “When determined to resolve a major problem using one’s own unique way, while unbothered by others’ opinions and failures, success may be obtained one way or the other.”
I would recommend this book because it shows that the world is changed by the few people who think differently. For example, the book included discussions about why the creators of Google decided to ignore previous norms established by traditional companies and why they created so many of what people considered abnormal features. It explores innovation throughout history and the creation of technology that is so efficient that we are not even aware of them. These include Google Translate, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Home, a nice blank-ish page that doesn’t destroy your eyes, and many more. The book covers details and explores new concepts with hilarious side notes, quotes, and anecdotes that exemplify the reason of why something exists.
In addition to the enjoyable experience of reading this book, I have learned that taking notes and re-reading are key in enhancing your understanding of a topic. Previous to this unit, I would read a page and not know the heck of what the author was talking about. These new strategies are excessively beneficial if you want to consume knowledge at an accelerated pace.
MSND Magazine-Shakespearean Idols: Unlimited
Am I a Renaissance Humanist?
Humanism was a leading philosophy present in the renaissance era and reflects the perspective of some major thinkers within the time period. Beliefs within Humanism consists of Idealism, Secularism, Individualsim by Joochyosh
The Consequences of Time Travel.
Paragraph 1:(Introduction)
Have you ever wondered if it was even possible to change time itself? Well, in the short story called “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury , the past and future can be changed by time traveling to the past and making changes that shouldn’t be made. The topic is a very unrealistic concept and is a conflict much larger than just Man vs Nature. In the story, the whole space-time continuum is being reverted unnaturally. The main protagonist, Eckels is anticipating a riveting Safari to the past with fellow hunters to hunt the king of the monsters: The Tyrannosaurus Rex. While traveling in the time machine, the two Safari Heads often warn the men not to step off of the “Path”, because there will either be dire consequences, or the death of whoever is responsible for the “crime”. Upon arrival, Eckels great underestimates the size of his prey and hunts carelessly until the real thing is summoned right in front of them; this is when thing go off of the path. Going back in time is an extreme action because if you change something rather insignificant in the past, you can alter history as a whole. An infinitesimally small change done to the past can add up in un-proportional ratios and result in an unchangeable future. What were the intentions of the author and what did he do to create an interesting theme.
Paragraph 2:
In the story, “A sound of Thunder”, by Ray Bradbury, the author believes that changing the past minimally can have a conspicuous effect on the future. Upon exiting the time machine, Eckels asks the Safari Head Travis on why it’s so important to not step off of the path that separates the past from the present. Travis responds by giving him a realistic example; “’Say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of this one particular mouse are destroyed, right?…Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It is comparable to slaying some of Adam’s grandchildren. The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their very foundations”’ (Bradbury 226). Travis, the prominent Safari Head of the group explains the entirety of the theory to Eckels to prevent the happening of it in reality. In this part of the book, Travis’s theory supports the fact that if something is altered in the past, there would be a series of negative effects in the future. Say, Eckels steps on a small creature, generations that came from one creature would be destroyed. The author is trying to emphasize the importance of keeping things intact in the past and that changing something will affect the influence of that particular thing on other things. For example, there is a rabbit who is supposed to live for another 3 years, but instead was shot by a hunter from the past. The rabbit is dead, and its interactions that were supposed to be made in the time span of 3 years are destroyed. The detailed explanations that the author included were to elaborate on the topic, Time Travel, and enroll it along with his personal perspective on time travel. Time travel is a very vague and indefinite concept, but along with a theme and a core focus such as the effects of it on the present world, it can interweave in a hypothetical, and somewhat philosophical tale of what the author thinks of the future world when time travel becomes a reality. Later in the story, when their prey, the tyrannosaurus rex approaches them. Eckels steps off of the path and is later punished by having to take the bullets out of the cold and putrid corpse of their prey. The real consequences appear after being unnoticed when the men travel back into the present and “[Eckels] fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod of dirt, trembling, “No, it can’t be. Not a little thing like that. No!” …Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead” (Bradbury 236). In this line of the story, it appears that the warnings Travis has told Eckels were in fact true and now that this reality has happened, Eckels will regret ever going back in time. After their arrival, the author rewrites a sign advertising Time Safari in a version that seems to be very misspelled, as if the deprivation of knowledge or the change of language were caused due to the death of a butterfly. The author’s intentions were clearly to emphasize the point that minor changes in the past can lead to grim and noticeable consequences.
Accepting Inner Culture: (Found Poem representing Conflict)
Explanation to my Found Poem:
This found poem represents the conflict in the short story “Fish Cheeks” by the Chinese-American author Amy Tan. Throughout the story, the conflict lies in where the main character/Amy herself, faces challenges with accepting her family’s culture and traditions. She fights against herself (internal conflict) about the culture she should embrace and what she should do about fitting in with her classmates and friends who are not Chinese. She is embarrassed about the Chinese culture and its customs. When Amy finds out that her crush, Robert (an American) has been invited to a Christmas dinner at her house, she further emphasizes the point that she doesn’t want to be a part of the Chinese traditions and describes the food as foreign and unordinary. She does this even though the food she described were her personal favorite. For example, in paragraph 6, Amy’s father burps loudly and surprises the guests, Amy feels stunned and embarrassed even though she knew that it was a polite Chinese custom. I tried to show the internal conflict by using words such as strange, appalling, stunned, throughout the poem to express the main character’s embarrassment towards her identity and traditions. Another example of this would be in paragraph 7, where it explains Amy’s true intentions on why she is conflicted against her culture. Her mother explains to her: “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside, but inside you must always be Chinese”, “Your only shame is to have shame”. This reiterates the point that Amy is always Chinese inside, as stated when she thought about the words of her mother long after the events on Christmas dinner, and claimed that the dinner had included all of her favorite foods. It is ironic how Amy describes her favorite food as foreign. I included the main character’s initial feelings at the start and slowly progressed it towards the point of realization.
In my design, I drew a giant fish as in one of the dishes in the story. It represents the embarrassment, realization, and character development within the short story. Chinese-American identity is very interesting, and many people like Amy try to fit in, and notice that they can be perceived differently. Chinese American Identity.
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