Exploring Spanish Literature

  As I said in my previous post, today I am going to be reading the famous poem "Río Grande de Loíza" in both Spanish and English and discuss the poems meaning and literal details. There is not a clear direct title for this, but it is similar to the The Great River of Loíza. For some context, Loíza is a small town in Puerto Rico known for its rich African culture. In the 1500's Western Africans were brought over to this town and today it is known for the great culture, entertainment, and rich history of reflecting West Africa. This poem is an ode that uses the soul and in depth imagery of a beautiful river to spread awareness for the beauty and liveliness of Puerto Rico. Her use of the word soul brings forth this sense of longing and lack of meaning. She dives into every detail of that river, thus it is clear she is search for true meaning. There is also a sense of nostalgia and memories she brings to the piece, where the river becomes a symbol for her resilience and deep...

 Julia de Burgos is a very well known Puerto Rican poet who advocated for the independence movement of Puerto Rico. Her writings and poetry supported her civil rights activism including feminism.  She grew up as one of 13 children in Carolina, Puerto Rico. She received her college degree at University of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Some of her most famous pieces are "Poema en Veinte Surcos" (Poem in Twenty Furrows) and "Canción de la Verdad Sencilla" (Song of the Simple Truth). In her poetry, she often refers to Puerto Rico's past encounters with imperialism, so I was curious and did some research on Puerto Rican history. Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus of Spain in 1493, the indigenous group living there were called the Taínos. They lived in villages across Puerto Rico for many years, and their encounter with the Spanish ultimately led to their extinction. The Spanish were thrilled with the large amounts of gold found in the rivers, so the name chang...

 I recently read "Casa Dividida"by Chris Mercer in school, where I learned a lot more about the Cuban Revolution and the conflicts regarding communism. There were two perspectives in the book, one young girl who grows up poor and working tirelessly on a farm and living in a small shack. The other was a boy who came from a wealthy family and lived in a mansion in Havana. Through the Cuban Revolution, the goal was the balance out the severely high wealth gap, and have a more communist society. The changes made in Cuba after the war, like the nationalization of private businesses or better healthcare for the poor  are shown through two different viewpoints, making the book more universal and less biased. This made me wonder about the negative and positive results of the war, and the values that the government prioritized. Liberty and freedom of speech/expression was not a priority. In fact, government officials prosecuted or jailed those who expressed a controversial view on the...

 Born in the capital city of Uruguay, Fernanda Trias is known for her short stories and the novels "La Azotea"(The Rooftop), "La Ciudad Invencible" (The Invincible City), and "Mugre Rosa" (Pink Slime). Two of these novels have been published in English; Trias was also known to be a translator. She conducted creative writing classes and studied creative writing at NYU, she merged her culture background with her passions and academic goals, even the New York Times declared Pink Slime one of the top ten best books in 2020. She is a well traveled woman who has lived in New York, London, Montevideo, Berlin, Provins, and all around Latin America. Currently, she is living in Colombia while pursuing her interests for both teaching and writing. She received the Uruguayan Literature Prize in 2002 and the BankBoston Foundation Prize for National Culture in 2006. In my next post, I will be reviewing and discussing one of her short stories once I read it!  Sources: Sim...

 The direct meaning of this title is an "impractical idealist" and so I was curious if this contributed to the themes of the novel.  The book was published in two parts between the years 1605-1615. Alonso Quixano, a nobleman, sends himself away from his village chasing adventure. On his journey, he interacts with Sancho Panza, who is a peasant. Panza is promised an island once their journey is complete. They travel along the Spanish country side. Although he was seen as crazy, Quixano had this drive and motivation,  that won the dedication and honor of Panza. The book ends with him finally arriving home, his illusions coming to a rest, and his death. The developing plot of the book correlates to the meaning of its title. The themes that align most with the plot is romance and idealism. The book was truly ahead of its time, for its ideas on idealism show both the importance and insignificance of it. Idealism was what triggered his journey and his interactions and friendshi...

 Background: Miguel de Cervantes was born in 1547 in Spain right outside of Madrid. He is the most historic and old writers I have researched so far. He was an early modern writer and was known to be ahead of his time. Many consider him the best writer in the history of Spanish literature. He was most famous for his novel "Don Quixote" which is known as one of the first modern novels of world literature. This novel is world known and has been translated into over 60 languages. He loved deep dives into a widespread of genres and was very experimental and passionate. His early education is mostly unknown, but he was the 4th of 7 children and moved towns often because his father was a barber surgeon. Surprisingly, he did not attend college. He went to Italy and enlisted as a solider against the Ottoman Empire for an army called the Holy League. When he returned to Spain after fighting, his ship was seized by Algerian ships and he became a slave for five years. He was released an...

 This poem is a sonnet titled "XXII Amor" by Pablo Neruda. It starts off with describing love without site, where love comes from so many places, like what you hear, then just how one may appear. Line 4 states that "You are the aroma of the cereales that I love" so the poet here is referring to a small detail of life and connecting it to an overarching idea about what love. We often see commas in the middle of lines, but on line 11, a period is separating two part of the line, which is unusual. I believe the volta appears at the beginning of the second to last line, so this period may be used to trigger the volta.  He describes love without really knowing it and describes it was this indirect thing that sometimes cannot be identified until it passes. The poet ends the poem with a metaphor. "Frente a mis ojos estabas, reinándome, y reinas. Como hoguera en los bosques el fuego es tu reino." This metaphor compares the love for this other person to a bonfire i...

 Hola! Hoy voy a escribir reflexiones solo en español. Estoy practicando y quiero ser mejor al escribir en español. Ahora, estoy viendo a una poema que se llama "Poema de Amor XXII" por Pablo Neruda. Estudio sobre la vida de Neruda y estos son algunos aspectos relevantes. Pablo Neruda fue el Senator de Chile. Él nació en el año 1904 en Parral, Chile. El fue un político y un poeta. Los dos cosas son muy diferentes, y este es muy interesante. El ganó el "Nobel Prize in Literature" en 1971. Escribió muchos sonetos, entonces era muy dificíl para elegir una para estudiar. En el proximo publicación, voy a hablar sobre los aspectos importantes sobre soneto XXII y la idea de amor.  

 This week, I will discuss some things I have been doing recently. I started a non profit this summer and connected it to a service club at my school, where I can gain members who share the same passions that I do. (For more info about my non profit, visit spanishsupportanddiscovery.org) I recently went into a Spanish class at a local elementary school and did an activity with the young students. It was such a fun experience and they also asked me all sorts of personal questions and we had many fun conversations in Spanish. I also have been uploading weekly Spanish grammar youtube tutorials, that focuses on a different concept per week. I am in the process of reaching out to principals at elementary/middle schools across San Diego to gain more clients. During our service meetings, we will also create awareness of current events in Spanish speaking countries, and it will be a time for everyone to discuss some of these major events. I also have a friend who recently became president ...

 Rosa Montero is a journalist and writer who was born on January 3rd, 1951 in Madrid, Spain. (which is really cool because I have so much history there). She is one of the most renowned female artists in all of Spain. She does journaling for television films, magazines, newspapers, etc. She has conducted more then 2,000 interviews in her lifetime, it is the biggest thing she is known for. She has interviewed well known individuals such as Richard Nixon, Malala Yousafzi, and Indira Gandhi. She has been a large influence at schools across Spain. She exploited her career by teaching a journalism and literature class at Madrid's Contemporary School of Humanities. She was also a screenwriter for a television show titled Media Naranja (my half orange, a metaphor that is like "my other half" in english) and wrote her own fictional contemporary books. She has taken so many paths at once using her passion and drive, and it has been shown through her series of awards. She won the W...