The Colors of Peace: Mexican Revolution Journal

I’m Sofia, an ordinary middle-class young woman whose main concern is the safety of my family. I lived through the chaotic decade that was the Mexican Revolution and recorded my experiences in my journal. Read my story below!

Throughout the Mexican Revolution, something that stayed the same was the constant desire for land reform. The revolution started because of the mishandling of land belonging to indigenous peoples and peasants, and the gap between the poor, middle-class, and wealthy grew noticeably as a result. Four leaders were unsatisfactory for the revolutionaries in this regard and were subsequently overthrown. In order, they were Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Madero, Victoriano Huerta, and Venustiano Carranza. Only the last president Obregon managed to satisfy everyone’s needs equitably.

Something that changed throughout the Mexican Revolution was women’s rights. Before the revolution, women weren’t recognized as citizens of Mexico. Their entire life consisted of being prepared to find a husband, who would be chosen by her father, and performing their duties as a housewife for their remaining years. The soldaderas (or adelitas) all took part in the revolution in some way or another, whether it was simply helping out in the camps, encouraging their husbands or relatives to keep fighting, or taking part in the fighting themselves. Over these ten years, women earned their place in Mexico through their invaluable help in the revolution.

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March 29

The Fight For Land and Liberty

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A desire for change is almost always the catalyst for a revolution. This was the case for the Mexican Revolution, a chaotic and bloody struggle to end dictatorship and initiate agrarian reform. Mexico cycled through a whopping five presidents during those ten years, not counting the interim president who reigned for only forty-five minutes. This video discusses the major events of the Mexican Revolution from the perspectives of certain key players in the revolution, such as the revolutionary leaders Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, the dictator Porfirio Diaz, and the politician who started the revolution, Francisco I. Madero. Some factions believed in different kinds of change than others, exemplified by the Conventionalists (including Villa and Zapata) and the Constitutionalists. The former believed in dramatic economic and social reforms, including taking land from the rich land-owners and returning it to the peasants and indigenous peoples. In contrast, the latter wanted democracy but was less willing to establish land reform. They came together briefly to overthrow common enemies but divided soon after and clashed in a violent civil war, which only ended when the Constitutionalists were victorious. Ultimately, peace was brought to Mexico, but whether or not the bloodshed was worth it is up to you to decide. Watch the video below to see if you think the Mexican Revolution was successful in what it was trying to establish.

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January 29

Unbroken Broke My Brain

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Set in the twentieth century, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of Louis “Louie” Zamperini, a former Olympic runner who became a pilot at the start of WWII. After a calamitous plane crash over the Pacific Ocean, he drifted for more than forty days before being captured by the Japanese as a prisoner-of-war. Throughout this perilous odyssey, he would encounter many dangerous opponents–sharks, enemy planes, starvation, and sadistic guards–and adapt the courage, cunning, and fortitude to keep going. From start to finish, we follow his life’s journey from troublemaker to athlete, pilot to castaway, and prisoner to survivor. It’s both a vivid description of the horrors of war and an inspirational story about how one man overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

This page describes my first central idea: perseverance/a desire to win help people keep going. Throughout Louie’s life, he had always had a defiance for authority, and when he was captured as a POW, this defiance and refusal to lose makes him defy the Bird–a notoriously cruel and sadistic guard–‘s orders. The page is split into three sections, two “smaller” ideas and one independent thought. To follow my thought process, follow the arrows and the color-coded sections.

This page describes the setting of the text, specifically the ocean that Louie drifts on for 47 days. During this time, he was tempest-tossed and attacked by sharks, but when he drifts into the doldrums–an area of the ocean near the equator with constant windless weather–he sees the calm side of the ocean, which is full of beauty. One of the two ideas–in chaos and danger, there is also peace and beauty–eventually developed into the second central idea below.

This page describes my second central idea: chaos and danger cannot exist without positivity and beauty. Despite the terrible circumstances that Louie goes through, he also finds unexpected kindness from others, such as when a guard named Kawamura offered him candy and “gentle smiles and goodwill” at Kwajalen, the island where he is first captured.

This page is a character page, specifically a power map that records how much power that Louie has over the course of the book. This technique was last used in the realistic fiction unit, and I thought it was useful for this book because it was similar to a fiction book in how it recounted Louie’s adventures.

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October 31

Humanism: The Importance of Humanity

https://bpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.isb.cn/dist/9/4326/files/2023/10/Blue-Entrepreneur-Personalities-Business-Infographic-copy.pdf

Am I a Humanist?

My average score is 72.5%. I identify strongly with the belief that individuality is important and that social status shouldn’t define who you can be. I also enjoy learning about human history, and I believe that people should look to the past to take inspiration from previous beliefs. However, the present may also hold some ideas that are being overlooked, and it’s important to pay attention to other places as well. Finally, I disagree with the idea that classical art is the only kind of art worth studying, as art has many forms and to gain a more well-rounded understanding of it, it’s better to study all kinds of it, including modern art.

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August 29

A Close Shave

The story that my found poem is based on is Lather and Nothing Else by Hernando Tellez. The setting of the story is presumably the ten-year civil war known as “La Violencia“, resulting in horrific violence due to the political conflict between the Columbian Conservative Party and the Columbian Liberal Party. My poem shows the internal conflict (person vs. self) that the protagonist, a barber and secretly a revolutionary, struggles with. A man walks into his shop, who he recognizes as a captain named Torres who killed or mutilated many of the barber’s allies. This makes him the antagonist, in the sense that he is what the barber struggles with other than himself. While the barber gives Torres a shave, he agonizes over whether or not to kill him.

The conflict is internal because the barber is struggling with whether or not to make a difficult decision. In the rising action of the story, he weighs his reasons for both sides of the argument. On one hand, Torres killed or mutilated many of the barber’s allies. If he let him go unharmed, he would surely continue his attacks on them, as evidenced by this quote: “How many of ours had he sent to their death? How many had he mutilated? … it was going to be very difficult to explain how it was that I had him in my hands and then let him go in peace, alive, clean-shaven.” On the other hand, killing Torres would only lead to someone else taking over his role, and the cycle of violence would continue, as evidenced by this quote. “What is to be gained by it? Nothing. Others and still others keep coming, and the first kill the second, and then these kill the next, and so on until everything becomes a sea of blood.” He knows that he would be celebrated by some but condemned by others for murdering Torres while he was off-duty and defenseless. In the resolution, the barber decides not to kill Torres. He finishes the shave, having done his work honorably. Even though he’s an enemy of Torres and views him as murderous and brutal, he’s “a conscientious barber, and proud of the preciseness of[his] profession.” He doesn’t want to become a murderer like him, wanting to stain his hands with “just lather, and nothing else.”

My poem shows this concept by highlighting words that show the barber’s internal conflict, such as “it would be so easy”, “He deserves it. Or does he?”, and “What is to be gained by it?” The artwork I drew represents the barber’s two choices: violence or peace, blood or lather. The barber’s hand is holding the razor that he used for Torres’s shave. It’s covered in blood that drips down in a small stream (as he imagines it). The blood transitions to bubbles (or lather), showing the barber’s transition from violent thoughts to peaceful ones.

Did you hear about the guy who was almost murdered in a barbershop? He said it was a “close shave”.

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August 3

Welcome to Your New Blog!

When you blog you create posts and posts are categorised according to your subject. Some categories have already been set up for you. If you need more categories you can add them as needed. It’s important that your posts have the following:

An engaging title – this should not include the name of the subject since this is referenced in the category.
Body – this is where you share your learning. This can include text, images, embedded videos from Dragons’ Tube or elsewhere. You should always consider how your post looks to your audience. Is it engaging? Do they want to keep reading?
Category – select one that has been set for you or add a new category. Posts can have more than one category e.g. Humanities and Myself as a Learner

Click on the images below to learn more about blogging: