Imagination Is my Vision.

 

I would always hear the phrase “eat more carrots” and your vision will improve or I was told, “Read a book”. Somehow, my gut always told me this was true. If I ate more carrots, my vision would get better and if I kept reading books, my vision would improve. I’ve learned many visualizations in my life, but one thing I knew for sure was my vision did not defy who I was as a person. 

My right eye always struggled more than my left eye. I would always think to myself if both of my eyes visualize the same things, why did only my right eye get affected? That’s when I stopped believing terms like “technology messes with your vision”. If technology messed with my vision, why weren’t both of my eyes messed up? I always enjoyed reading a book. I wasn’t the typical person who would rather play outside, but I would rather enjoy a book because I can use this special term called “Imagination.” Imagination is a big part of who I am and I believe without my vision, I wouldn’t have my imagination. Imagination is a vision of me. I can imagine all the fantasies in my world. I grew up in LA, but I was born in Mexico and that was always hard for me since I was not treated the same. 

Because of that, I had to use my imagination a lot. I had to imagine myself working; I had to imagine myself being a detective, or I even had to imagine myself voting one day. Imagination was all I had because my vision tends to lie to me from time to time. I remember viewing all the discrimination that my family had to go through and now today, I can say that imagination is the reason I am now working hard to earn an English degree and my vision will always view things but It will not always view the right things. Helen Keller said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” To me, vision is imagination and the only thing worse than being blind is not being able to imagine what I can accomplish. 

www.marveloptics.com

-Ana Munos

Blog post 4/ Reflection on research

Writing class has been very interesting throughout the semester and honestly, I did not expect to be working on a research paper or research project throughout the entire semester. I expected to be writing tons of essays and tons of papers, but honestly, it was nothing like that. Instead, we got to research about something that we wanted to do which made the class interesting. My research had to do with undocumented immigrants and how somehow medical is way more expensive to undocumented immigrants than to those who were born in the United States. During my research, I did not find any good reason medical is more expensive to undocumented immigrants. Instead, I just kept finding reasons it is very expensive towards them. Many articles that I read explain to me why undocumented immigrants have to pay way more medical bills and that is simply to them not having a document that states that they were born in the United States. I think that the main thing that I got from this research is information and how to teach others about the information they don’t know. I get why so many undocumented Immigrants are afraid to go to the doctors or are afraid to go to their daily dentist appointment. That is because they are afraid of getting deported. Deportation is a big reason Americans have a higher rate of going to doctors and going to the emergency room. That is because many undocumented immigrants don’t know their own rights and think that by sharing their publicity, they would end up getting deported. Which is why I’m thankful that I am doing this research because now I can educate people like me and teach them not to be afraid because in my community they are many of us who don’t have papers and are afraid to seek for medical help. For Hispanics cases like diabetes or cases like high blood sugar are high on rate with people because they simply don’t go to the doctors, there have been cases like undocumented immigrants get injured at work and they ignore it and many of them have broken bones. For example, I’ve experienced that because my father works in construction and he is a man who is undocumented and since he is afraid of paying all the medical bills that he will have to pay he ignores his health a lot and that is a terrible thing. After learning all this research, I now can teach my father not to be afraid. All the articles that I’ve read have taught me that medical is one reason undocumented immigrants struggle so much with money. There is a reason a broken bone is more expensive to undocumented immigrants than to immigrants. There is also a myth going around that I read in one article that I’ve read that says that the reason undocumented immigrants have to pay so much for bills is because they’re paying for other people’s taxes and how is that fair. Simply because Americans don’t want to pay for their taxes or they don’t want to pay for the taxes we have to suffer the most? Another thing that I’ve learned about articles is that Immigrants are one of the most hardworking people here in America and they are the reasons why poverty is so high.

Ana Munos

Bells Hooks, Audre Lorde, Cherie Moraga

All the authors are related because they’re all women of color. That they’re women of color makes them more powerful and makes their articles more interesting. The reason that I say this is that usually when I read any article that has to do with white poverty or white enforcement, I can’t seem to get it because it is not remotely close to being interesting as reading an article of people of color. I pay more attention, especially if it’s my race, because as time goes by, we hear about all the different things that white people have done and how history repeats itself and it is still repeating itself today. Another thing that makes Audre, Cherie, and bell hooks related is that they all have a strong definition of feminism and strongly believe in feminism. Another thing that makes them related is that they all say a powerful message when writing and they’re all known for their writing and their race, because I believe that their race makes their writing powerful. Audre Lorde is a powerful woman because not only was she a colored person but she was also part of the LGBTQ community and she addressed racism powerful. Another thing that all three authors have is that their writing caused them to win different awards, which just proves that their writing is actually powerful and tells us a powerful message. Their life and the way they lived play a big role in their writing because it was their personal images that made them the writers that they are. Let’s be honest here, if they were born a different way or had it “easier” like society likes to label things nowadays, their writing wouldn’t be as powerful as it is and many people wouldn’t be able to relate to them. When another color person reads articles from the same skin color they are, they understand the writing a lot better and if it wasn’t for their lifestyle, then they wouldn’t write about the struggles they faced every day. The gender also plays a big role here because males don’t have to struggle how women do, especially if you come from a unique background. Which is why I believe that if they were born differently that they wouldn’t have gone through the way they went through and they wouldn’t have to write about defending feminism so much. Reading all three articles made me realize how powerful words can be and even if they don’t explain to you what they went through, you can hear it in the tone of the articles, especially if they use rhythm and similes. I learned that the more information that you add in an article or a story, the more deep that you go. It is most likely that the readers will understand you better. I learned that for my research project I should be as descriptive as possible, especially if I want to show a strong message like how healthcare is more expensive to immigrants than people who live in the United States even though immigrants tend to work 2x harder than Americans in my opinion.

Ana Munos

Documentary 13th

While watching the Documentary in class I had many questions and many thoughts about it. We’ve been learning more about racism during class and being completely honest I did not expect my writing class to be about racism. This brings me to find the class even more interesting because you assume that you’re going to learn about grammar and etc but instead here we are watching documentaries on people’s rights, especially color people. You think that back then segregation was worse and you would think that everything was worse back then based on the history you learn during class. Once you actually sit down and learn more about the history of other people’s rights then you would actually understand it a whole lot better. There was a video we watched during class where a lady was telling us about how people tend to treat others differently based on what skin color they are and the sad part that is the truth. People tend to treat you differently, for example, you’re at the bank and if people see that you are a color person it is most likely they’ll be more afraid of you than being afraid of a white person. That is just the way society is nowadays and it’s sad. It’s sad because people who are white have more privilege than people who are colored and that’s just reality nowadays. The thing that I am mostly disgusted by, and I saw that happened in the documentary is that cops think that colored people are always looking suspicious. A color person could just be walking around and would get called being suspicious and they will get arrested but if it was a white person stealing it is most likely they’ll be held off with a warning and it makes me disgusted that today we see this happening a lot. It gets me disgusted knowing that the thing you are supposed to be protected by is the thing that ends many color people and that is society’s fault. I always question why does god let these types of things happen I always question why did god bring in racism how is it fair that we are treated the way we are through something that we cannot even pick when we are born. This is the way you’re born and you have to deal with it but if you’re colored people if you are an immigrant being born will bring you consequences just because of the way you look. I want people to stop being afraid I want people to stop putting labels on other cultures because labels shouldn’t exist in this world just like racism. Yet I find it so funny how America grants freedom to all Americans which was something that was said in the Documentary and it is the truth. Another part that I could relate to in the documentary is the part where they said those who were born white do not know the struggle of colored people and that is true. I could relate to this because being an immigrant is not easy either we don’t have many opportunities like Americans. It’s hard coming from a background that we can’t choose from.

Ana Munos

First learn your background.

So far I’ve learned a lot through the articles we’ve read and the video/podcast we watched. It’s been like a dramatic rollercoaster going through these topics but it’s nice because I personally enjoy reading. Reading about my history always leaves me shockingly mainly because you could never believe how cruel people were in the past. You think that the world, hasn’t changed but it has gone through so many stages like racism, movements, and many other awful situations. Reading topics like these makes me question a lot of things especially why cruel things happen, I don’t understand what people win by judging someone’s skin. Especially when I heard the video about Kimberle, that she came here for a better place to get a job but instead of getting a job she got double discrimination not just because of her skin color but also because of her gender and it’s honestly sad. I’m not going to lie reading those articles made me a bit confused because one article we were talking about one topic and then you read the next article and it’s a completely new topic. I’m not really a person who likes to read articles, being honest I barely understood what the articles meant. Overall I did get the main point which was how communication affects us on a daily basis and how they’re different types of social classes when it comes to racism. It’s pretty interesting what we’ve learned so far about how racism has grown over the past years and centuries. I never really like to go into depth mainly because it is a sad topic honestly I had no idea that we were going to be learning alot of about racims in our writing class. I feel like im good with writing but when it comes to describing articles of the past I just cant seem to get to it mainly because I tend to ignore news and stuff like that because I don’t like seeing how tramuatize people get. The worst part is that racism still happens as of today and there isnt really much we can do because all the power lands in the government. I know that if the government really wanted to stop slavery they would’ve done so a long time ago but the government is too ignorant to make any changes in my opinion. I think that no one deserved to be judged by their skin color mainly because I’ve nbeen judged by hispanics and now its sad that hispanics and chinese are not getting attacked because of their culture and where they come from. Just like the article said I don’t think anyone has the right to judge anyone by their skin color if they havent really focused on learning about it and the backgrounds because if were being honest everyone has ancestors so like the article mentioned technically we are all a little “negro” excuse my language since I don’t really like to use or mention that word mainly because I think its disrespectful. Anyways reading the three articles especially the one about communication was a pretty interesting topic to cover because I learned how communication tends to get stronger is we change ourselves a little. Communication can get better just like learning where someone came from isn’t that hard but what I’ve learned is that you should’ve judged something unless you really have the supporting evidence to judge it.

-Ana Munos

I am a rose not a poppy.

Review:

In my creative project, I decided to re-create the poem “The Rose & The Poppy” by Adrianna. First, I want to say that this poem had me in circles. It was a poem I had to re-read several times in order to understand it. I didn’t change the poem completely, but I transformed a poppy into a Rose. Just like shown below, I’ve transformed lines like “I am not a ravishing ruby red” to “I am a ruby red rose”. Another example of re-creating the poem would be changing line 17 “Most times I am forgotten” to “I am never forgotten.”

While I was reading Adrianna’s Poem I noticed she used metaphors to compare herself to a poppy creating personification. I wanted to do something else, though. Instead of comparing her to a poppy, I compared her to the perfect Rose “always chosen”. In my eyes, I wanted to show everyone that they’re a rose and not a poppy, a flower that is known as a drug. When doing so, I created a paradox, causing confusion. I re-created the poem in an image of a poppy but describing it as a rose simply because we cannot change the poem completely and a poppy still plays a big factor here.

When reading the re-creation that I did, you’ll most likely be confused, and that is a good thing because I want you to be drugged by the poppy but be reminded that you are beautiful and cherished. Reading my re-creation of the poem will cause you to tilt your head like a druggie, but the words will keep reminding you of how lovely you are as a rose.

Thanks to Adrianna, because of her poem, I could transform a poppy into a rose even while still being imperfect.

– Ana Munos

Make me free

Both the poems have a very important similar comparison and that is that poems are sonnets I believe that both the poem “outcast” and the poem “The tired worker” both connect to each other lets keep in mind that both poems show strong language when it comes to emotions you can tell that Harlem is upset in both poems because he uses language like “Something in me is lost” in the poem outcast and in the poem “The tired worker” he uses language like “The ugly city”(Line 14). It took me a while to understand both of these poems but after re reading it for the third time I noticed that the poem “outcast” speaks for the poem “The tired worker” because he is talking about feeling trap in America he is feeling trap in his own home and even uses simile to compare Americans as aliens in the poem outcast “Alien gods I bend my knee”(Line 8).

We need to know something very important here which is that the poem outcast is a Sonnet but not just any type of sonnet it is a English sonnet. Outcast is reflecting to the tired worker because in both of the sonnet Mckay is talking about having no way out he is trapped, the way I saw it is that in the Outcast he talks about his emotions when coming to this place “America” while in “the tired worker” he talks about how he wishes night would come faster “O my rebel heart! for soon the moon”(Line 3) “O dawn let me rest!” (Line 12) he is desperately telling us in the sonnet that he wants to rest how he wishes he can go back home instead of being in this racial place America and how he wishes he can go back to “peace” and sing “forgotten jungle songs”. Both sonnets connect to each other by telling us the feelings of Mckay which is feeling lost and how he wishes to be free again even if that means going back to darkness because he world rather be in the darkness than “The ugly city”(Line 14).

– Ana Munos

Shakespeare a poet.

Shakespeare is a poet that I never understood, especially why he was so popular when reading his poems I always question them mainly because you never really know what Shakespeare is talking about or trying to say his poems are messed up and they have a sense of making us feel powerful. For example in the sonnet he wrote “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” he talks about how his mistress is nothing as how the poem describes his mistress is not perfect but his mistress is not real either there’s a line in the sonnet that really caught my attention which was “I have seen roses damasked, red and white, but no roses I see in her cheeks” (Lines 5-6) these lines in the sonnet caught my attention because of how powerful it is, it talks about imager and allusions how his own mistress doesn’t blush but that makes it perfectly fine but how does the sonnet connect to the video of David Tennent Is Catherine’s Tate new teacher? The meaning of this poem is to show strong feminine which is why when the girl in the video said the sonnet out loud it made it seem more powerful.

The meaning transformed to Catherine’s performance because she herself was nothing like the sun, in her performance she shows she isn’t perfect she shows that when she reads the sonnet she is giving out a strong aroma because she is a women reading a Shakespeare poem that describes what a women is. Catherine’s performance is being enhanced to Shakespeare sonnet because she reads the poem in a way where she herself wrote it and when she says at the end “bite me alien boi” it just shows how strong she felt after reading the sonnet because she was able to describe what feminism was through Shakespeare sonnet which is female beauty and she is showing female beauty by reading the sonnet through a very powerful tone because that’s what Shakespeare does to you it makes you feel powerful because he is a powerful poet. I also believe that the video connected with the sonnet because it helped us figure out what the tone is which is an aggressive, powerful tone it helped to see how the tone is in the sonnet.

– Ana Munos

Before my hometown got remodeled.

Gentrification is a topic no one really knows about or talks about unless it is by experience unless you go through gentrification yourself then you won’t really care much or know much about it. I remember once when I was living in the apartment I used to live in we all got a documentation telling us that they were going to remodel our building, by taking it down and kicking us out luckily it didn’t happened because we fought for it not to happen, but what about those who don’t have a voice in order to fight what about those who don’t have enough money to fight?

I can imagine how Antonio felt when he was going through gentrification, it is a sad thing that happens to many of us and then we have nowhere to go , In his poem “Triptych of the Adobe-Cotta Army” Antonio talks about how he feels about gentrification through tones, similes, and lots of Imagery, “Slung over ruined soldiers,” this is an example of Imagery by saying how he still remembers the soldier standing in front of the balcony like it was nothing throughout the poem the poet Antonio seems to be upset/angry because of the strong language that he used in a certain line “Who’s colors shout to the block who he fucks with” usually poets don’t include language like these in their poems because it makes the poem seem not professional but that was the point here, Antonio wanted everyone who was reading the poem to understand how upset he was at gentrification. “My chest flushed” meaning he was heated he shows imagery here by giving us a descriptive word “Flushed” he was hot because he was heated as he was watching the hooded saints tore “the covenant” meaning they were tearing the lease his home and all he was able to do was watch. Another line that tells us how gentrification connects to this poem is “A fist tucked as they placed bets” because he was angry he wanted to fight because he knew that he came across the border to have a better life and instead he had to visualize gentrification.

This poem helps us visualize the way Antonio felt which was anger by giving us harsh language, and imagery. This poem crosses the traditional borders of English poetry to the politics of gentrification because Antonio gives us imagery by expressing how gentrification made him feel through a power of words.

– Ana Munos

Angels? More like Devils.

Both the poems by Natalie Diaz “My brother at 3 A.M.” and “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation. Both the poems show a strong illustration of imagery and metaphors, both of these strong elements help understand the signal a return to her body. In Natalie’s introduction she explained how her own body does not belong to her which is why she writes poetry as a cry for help or as for the reader to understand that event poets are messed up in their own way but the reason she mainly feels like her own body does not belong to her is because of her origin and where she comes from, she understands that because she’s indigenous she doesn’t have the right to “belong to her own body” mainly because of society, but how do these two poems show a way that she’s back in her body? The way I saw it is the poem “My brother at 3 A.M” is filled with repetition and stanzas but the background of this poem that she even mentioned in her introduction is that her brother is an addict in the poem she described that her brother kept repeating “He wants to kill me, the devil does” this repetition helps us understand that the brother is on a type of drug that is causing him to hallucinate.

“The devil” is a metaphor though because “the devil” isn’t actually there instead “the devil” is himself. This type of poetic element shows us a signal on how the brother the addict compared himself to the devil because he was hallucinating the imagery here helped us understand that, and the repetition helped us get to the point where he was on some type of drug in this specific element shows us how the brother is signaling his return of his body because the devil is in himself. The poem Abecedarian Requiring Further shows a strong sense of metaphor with the word “Angels” because it was simple Indians believed that Angels were going to be their savior instead of getting an actual “Angel” they got the apposite of that, because “Angels” were the white men, who came and took all the land of the Indians and the angels were the Devils itself according to the Indians in her poem she said “Pastor John’s son is the angel — everyone knows angels are white” meaning that the angels were white people she’s comparing angels to white people. How does this refer back to signal a return to the body, because she is warning the readers how poetry can held such a great power and is warning us that history has a way to repeat itself and it is still repeating itself and through metaphors and illustrations we can see how her poem relates to today, and is the reason why many of us still don’t feel like we belong in our own body because of people like “Angels.”

Ana Munos