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Immigrant Labor and Ancient Maya

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My 2021 Books in Review I personally am not much of a reader, and so the only two books I have read this year were the Popol Vuh  and Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies . I have never been much of a reader, other than cartoon books or children's books I read when I was little. I did really like the two books we read in our class this year though, as they were very interesting, and very informational about my culture. Christenson, Allen J. Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Ancient Maya . Brigham Young University, 2007. As I read this book this year, I was very intrigued. The Popol Vuh is basically the Mayan book about the creation of the Hero Twins and their victory over the lords of the underworld. It includes the ideas behind the origin of everything that is what it is today.  Most of it people consider Mayan myths, but to me the book was interesting. I have always been into only fictional books, as they seem so new and not normal to this boring world. Just imagine, having Hero Twins that wo
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Arpilleras and the Pinochet Regime

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Arte, Mujer, Y Memoria: Arpilleras from Chile The artwork created by Gabriela Martinez, to illustrate the people of Chile fighting back for justice After viewing an electronic piece of art, through Molaa.org's online museum , I found this very colorful and meaningful piece of art. The artist, Gabriela Martinez, the Director of Education at MOLAA, made the work to illustrate Chile in around 1990, when the Chilean citizens lived throughout the brutal seventeen year Pinochet regime. The artwork was not specifically made for anyone, but instead to show what has happened in Chile for many years now.  Martinez's work shows Chile and how traumatizing the era of Pinochet was for them. Officials at the time even tried to hide or deny the human rights abuses conducted under his administration. The art is very colorful, with bright-colored buildings, colorful brown mountains, and a shining sun in the top left corner. All of these deviate from Pinochet and what truly happened at the time i
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Letting Music Pave The Way

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The Influence of Our Past into Music      On the most recent segment of Latino USA, titled "How I Made It: Las Cafeteras," host Maria Hinojas sits down with some members of the band. Las Cafeteras are a band out of East LA that met while doing community services. As they began playing at a cafe, they discovered Son Jarocho, which is a traditional Afro-Mexican genre of music from Veracruz. "Las Cafeteras made a name for themselves with their politically charged lyrics," speaking out against the "realities they see everyday in their communities" (Latino USA 2:30-2:50).  The Las Cafeteras band members      I really enjoyed how they explained that "the music [they] create is influenced by the way [they] grew up." (Latino USA 4:50-4:55). I personally love to make music, and expressing myself into beats and music is something I can relate to doing daily. Music as a Language      After reading a separate article about the impact of Steven Loza on Latino
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Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: A Review

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"Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies" Summary In "Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies," anthropologist Seth Holmes visits immigrant field workers, in hopes of bringing a focus on how social, economic, and healthcare inequalities cause damaging yet avoidable injuries and health problems. He visits a group of Indigenous families for around 18 months as they cross the border, work on some farms, and then return to their hometown. Constantly bending over causes physical problems in the future for these workers Throughout the story Holmes illustrates everything he is seeing, especially all the mistreatment of the workers. Most of these workers suffer poor health due to their class position, including "increased rates of nonfatal injuries, musculoskeletal pain, heart disease, and many types of cancer" (Holmes 101). These examples played a big role during his time with the families, as most of the story was centered around the field workers being mistreated which would eventually
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Imagine... Leaders and Equality

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We Imagine... Us      The 25 minute radio program included host Maria Hinojosa and Futuro Media, who brought up the idea of "We Imagine… Us: The Long Way Around," which is Futuro's first-ever fiction podcast series. There was so much to learn about this new podcast, including how "we as the world come together and share ideas to create an equal and better post-COVID world". (Latino 2:15-2:18) The "We Imagine... Us" Project      I learned that it is not only going to be a fictional podcast, but there is also going to be an animated version for visual viewers and learners. I personally enjoyed hearing about the ideas of the new series, as well as what it could do for the newly changed world. The only thing I did not like was the hosts looked too far into the future. I have never been one to look far into the future, because to me, we should focus on now. The more we focus on just the future, everything around us now will go and we will regret taking ever
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The Hero Twins and the Dangerous House of Bats

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The House of Bats The Hero Twins in the House of Bats From Xibalba, to the house of cold, later to the house of jaguars, then to the house of fire, and finally, to the house of bats . The bats "were great beasts with snouts like blades that they used as murderous weapons" (Christenson 172). Hunahpu and Xbalanque were thrown into many houses, to be beaten down and defeated. The twins knew they were on their last going, both weak and beat down like an old newspaper in a garbage can.  Murderous Sharp Snouts "When they arrived there, they were to be finished off," and they "even had to crawl inside their blowguns to sleep so that they would not be eaten there in this house" (Christenson 172). Christenson describes the adventure of the Hero Twins to visit their grandmother, but get set up in traps along the way to truly see how much of "heroes" they really are. Both end up talking about leaving their blowguns to see if it is dawn outside yet. Hunahpu
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La Venta, of the Lost Kingdoms of Central America

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      After watching BBC's "Lost Kingdoms of Central America," and reading an article titled "La Venta," by Rebecca Gonzalez, us as the audience have gotten lots of information on the Mesoamericans and their history and background.       The Youtube video is about Jacob Cooper, an archaeologist, who explores the rise and fall of the forgotten civilizations. He travels to where the Olmecs settlement used to be thousands of years ago. Cooper talks about the Olmecs and how "no other emerging mesoamerican civilization had an elite class as privileged as the Olmec rulers (Cooper 12:40 - 13:30).  A map of Mesoamerica An Olmec head (One of the 17 heads) The Olmecs and the resources needed to survive      Also on the topic of the Olmecs was the article, which stated that "the s ocio-political organization of the La Venta Olmec has not been clearly defined. It is apparent that this society comprised an elite sector, a wide range of specialists - farmers, fishe
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