identity paper

Bria Marquez

English 1A

Knapp

23^rd March 2012

                                         Behind my Identity

Identity is most simply defined as a person's own sense of self; their personal sense of who they are, but what influences a persons identity, how do you become who you are? Gloria Aznaldua writes about how culture, region, and language shaped her identity, In the story “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. Reading “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” really got me thinking about what shaped my identity. I think that who I grew up with, and the culture in surrounded by really influenced my identity.
The first thing that influenced my identity would be my dad.When I was 5 My father left my mom due to her constant drug use and took my brother, my sister, and i with him. Growing with out a mom is hard for any girl to go through, mothers are suppose to teach their daughters how to be a lady and to become a young women. My father had to play two roles in our family, to be a father and to be the mother. My dad made me the person i am today, he taught me to never give up, to always ask questions, and to always be proud of who i am and where i came from. I'm more than grateful to  have grown up with him.
The last thing that really influenced my identity would be the culture i grew up around. I was born in southern California and lived there until i was nine years old. I moved a lot when i lived there, I've lived in Redlands, Orange County, LA, San Bernardino, and Riverside. When i moved to San Jose everything was completely different than southern California. In southern California every body seemed to be nicer, everybody was more laid back. To me southern California was like the TV commercials advertised California. i was surrounded by my family and the beaches. So when i moved to the bay area i wasn't use to the claimant changes and the people. I've experienced a lot of different ways of living and many different cultures. I think of my self a  melting pot of culture and experiences. Viewing life in different ways really made me more accepting and opened minded to people.  

How To Tame a Wild Tongue

Difficulty Paper
 When i was reading "How To Tame a Wild Tongue", i had some difficulty grasping the what she was trying to say, not because you used some Spanish in her text, but because she wrote really proper and she put a lot of information in a short paragraph. For example, Anzaldua writes, "For  a  people who are  neither  Spanish nor  live in a  country in which  Spanish  is  the  first  language; for  a  people who live  in a country in which English is  the  reigning tongue but  who are  not  Anglo; for a people who cannot  entirely identify with either  standard  (formal,  Castillian)  Spanish  nor    standard  English,  what  recourse  is left to them but  to create  their own language?".  For some reason i couldn't quite grasp what she was saying in this paragraph so what i did was i re read it a couple times and i used context clue to understand certain words. i finally understood what Anzaldua  was trying to say. I do agree with her, and people shouldn't judge other people for trying to find a common ground, in this case language, to feel accepted. What i also did was ask my grandmother to help me understand what Anzaldua was trying to say, especially when it came to the Spanish parts.  My grandmother (age 74) comes from the same background as Gloria Anzaldua and know exactly how she felt, so it was extremely interesting to here my grandmother story and how it connects with Anzaldua's story.

gender

            In my family there's no such thing as gender roles, so there's really no tradition on who does what in my household. I grew up without a mom which now and days its the normality to have one parent. I do believe that who you grow up with can affect your gender role and your identity. My father raised me, which i think played a major role in who i am today. So how would gender shape my identity? My dad taught me everything, so saw a lot of things threw his mind. He had to be both the dad and the mom. growing up with only my dad really shaped the way i think, because i learned how to think from both sides of  gender. In my family my dad would BBQ and sometimes i would do it or my sister, everything shifts. I feel like my dad wanted to make an environment where gender didn't matter in what you did or what you wanted to do.

My family..age 7 :P

          When i was growing up, i would say that i had chores any other kid would have: cleaning my room, the living room, kitchen and so on. They would alternate  between my brother and sister, so we all would eventually do what the other did. There are chores that mainly women do and chores mainly men do. For women it can be laundry, cooking, cleaning the inside of the house. for men it can be cleaning the gutters, mowing lawn, fixing house hold appliances.  So in my family i think that the chores we all did where gender contemporary. My dad taught us how to do everything, so for instance i know how to fix electronics and i know how to cook and do laundry...(which i think everyone should know how to do :p ) I'm really happy for the way my family and i grew up.  

Reconstruction key terms -radical republicans

Ten percent plan- provide that once ten percent or more of the voting population of any occupied state had taken  the oath, they were authorized to set up a loyal government  (page 210)


Radical Rebublicans - favored strong protection for black civil rights and orivision of their franchiement as a precondition for the readmissiom of southern states. (page 211)


carpetbaggers- recent arivials from the North ( page 217)


wade daivs bill-  the legislation  required that 50 percent pf the voters take an oath of future loyalty before Reconstruction began, 


radical reconstruction- passes a series of acts that recognized the south after the civil war


13th, 14th, and 15th amendment-  defined on other post.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

While reading An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge I thought that Peyton Farquhar would go back to his wife and start a family and begin to live life better than he had before because he had come so close to dying. Maybe he would also become involved in some sort of humanitarian work or attempt to find a way to end the war and unite the North and South after seeing the horrible things they could do. I also thought of the possibility of him abandoning living with humans other than his wife and going to live among nature, away from the evils of mankind that he had witnessed. This seemed like a very likely possibilty because when Peyton rose from the water after being shot at and almost drowning he stands on the bank of the river and doesnt even want to escape any further because he feels so at peace away from people. Once the shots ring out from the bridge however he runs through the forest and landscape, in awe from all of the scenery and also thinking about his family the entire time. It really seemed to put his life into perspective coming that close to death, he realized that war and violence against your neighbors is not what you want your life to be all about, but instead you should live your life with your family and grow old happy with them.


It was almost shocking for me when the author, Ambrose Bierce, reveals that Peyton had never escaped or gone back home to his family, and he was actually hung by the Northern forces who had tricked him. It just seems like such a waste because with his lastsecond thoughts of escape it feels like he had really sorted his life out and would no longer be a threat to the Northern forces but they kill him anyway in cold blood. The story really shows how much hate there was between the North and south, which was so surprising because it seems like it was barely long ago that they had all been united against Great Britain and had loved their country and all of their countrymen. I think that Ambrose Bierce is trying to tell the reader about how quickly people can turn on eachother and how if people are taught to hate something enough than they well go to almost any means to destroy what they hate, even if it is in a very gruesome and heartless fashion. I believe that stories and themes like these will never grow old because people are constantly being told to hate certain groups of other people, sometimes for reasons they dont even understand. People will go to any means of trickery in order to eliminate their enemies, as shown by how Peyton was killed after being tricked into thinking that he was helping his counrty. Overall i felt that this was an extemely powerful piece of anti-war literature that gives a good insight into the feelings between soldiers of both sides and civilians during the Civil War, and if anything, it shows how they think, feel, and act just like us.

reconstruction era glog

http://www.glogster.com/brie64/reconstruction-era/g-6lmm52sf4iesvpa1idl2ga0

radical republicans/ not complete..

As radical Republicans of the untied states of America , we want to keep unity within our nation by protecting the rights of freed slaves ; they hold the right of to practice , "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and we want to grant justice for the free men woo been deprived of the their rights by nationalizing civil rights. as radical republicans, we  came upon obstacles of the reconstruction of the south. for example, the ten percent plan, which provided full pardon for the southerners, but only 10 percent of the population in each state who tool an other to set up an loyal government. we opposed the 10 percent plan, so pushed congress's Wade Davis bill it required 50 percent of the voter to take the oath which passed in 1864; how ever Lincoln vetoed the bill.

habits/african america rights/ definitions

Reading habits:

I'm constantly reading books and articles, its something i love to do. so when it comes down to reading habits, i know what works and what doesn't. when I'm reading for fun, can sit all day in a comfy spot and read non-stop, but sense school started i haven't been able to read the books i want too. Reading school assigned books for me can be blase , every so ofter i get book that I'm able to fall in love with and read, history happens to be one of the subjects i can read with out dreading it. With lodes of homework, reading assignments can become impossible to complete. what i do in order to complete them is manage my time really well, and when i have spare time i crack open the book and read as much as i can will annotating it, so i can look back later at the notes. when ever I'm sitting around for class to start, I'll read a small section of the book. when I'm home i will do my blogs for English and math homework, which is very time consuming. Right before i go to bed i watch some TV just to relax and what not, but when my reading load becomes to much i will take that time to read instead of watching TV. i love reading, so doing it for homework isn't such a big deal.

policies against african americans :

Some things i know about policies agains african americans were the black codes and the jim crow laws. Black Codes (18650 1866) were instituted in the South to regulate the activities of slaves. Black Codes were passed by southern legislatures to regulate what ex-slaves could and could not do. In some states, blacks were only permitted to work as domestic servants or in agriculture. Other codes made it illegal for blacks to live in towns and cities. Blacks were denied the right to vote or permitted to possess firearms. The  south used Black Codes to try and reinstate slavery following the Civil War, but the codes angered many in the North. When Black Codes were declared unconstitutional or removed during the period of Reconstruction, the South reinstated them in the 19th Century in the form of laws called Jim Crow Laws.Jim crow laws were a casting system which became a way of life, under these laws aferican americans become seconed class citizens. i dont know much in detail about the jim crow laws. the laws lasted from 1876 to 1965.


Defitions:
Judicial- pertaing to judgment in courts of the justice of to the administration of justice

legislative- having the function of making laws or pertaining to the enactment of laws

Amendments

The 13th Amendment:  This amendment bands slavery in the US and how Congress is going to in force this law. section 1)"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction". section 2) " Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."


The 14th Amendment:  Section 1) This section of the fourteenth amendment talks about how all persons naturalized and born in the US hold two citizen ships, one for the United Sates, and one for the State you live in. All states can not take the rights away from their citizens that are made by the United States. Section 2) This section of the 14th amendment talks about the age in which a male has to be in order to vote, 21. Also that they can't deny any male, over the age of 21, the right to vote, unless they are accused of or associated with crime, rebellion. " Section 3) This amendment basically says that you cant work for the United states government if you have committed a crime, and or an act of rebellion.  Section 4) This section talks about how.... "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void." Section 5) This section basically says that the Congress will enforce this amendment.

The 15th Amendment: Section 1) This amendment is giving citizens in the US the right to vote and how they can't say "no" because of your race, color or prior condition of being a slave.  Section 2) States how the congress will enforce this amendment.


Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, Williams, Gross, Brands, Roberts A-12

Prior experience with US History /Civil War..

            I've had a lot of experience with US history, but only from WW1 until now. Everything before that i still need a little work on, its not my favorite part of history either. I had to write essays about world war 2 and whether or not it was right for us to practice Isolationism.  I know about the treaty of Versailles  (really pissed off the Germans)that was set after world war one, and which i think is one of the reasons that helped spark World War two .
            In my history classes from High School, i did have to write a lot of essays and summaries about the events that happened in that time and about current events happening now. Hopefully that will help me in English. There are some things that i think i need to refresh on but over all i think my prior knowledge of history  after the civil war will help me a lot in both my history and my English class. Well that's all i can say about my prior experiences, with US history.
                                                  
           What i know about the Civil War....

           I know that most people think that the civil war was based solely on Slavery, but it was actually the taxes on Cotton, slavery was a contributor, and of course it was a conflict between North and South ( Union and Confederacy). It was from 1861 and 1865. Abraham Lincoln was president. The North won... some of the biggest generals in the civil war were Ulysses S. Grant on the Union side, and Robert E. Lee on the Confederate side. It was considered one of the bloodiest wars in US history, with over 620,000 casualties.  It was the only secession in US history, the south wanted to break away from the United States to form their own country.  Jefferson Davis was appointed President of the new Confederate States, which consisted of North and South Carolina, Virgina, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas. The Civil war was first Industrialized war in US history. Well.... that's all i can really remember about the Civil War and hopefully this knowledge will help me do better in History 17b.

I am.

       So, hey!  I'm Bria and this is my first blog. Now, to get rambling about my self.... This is my second semester at SJCC and i plan to transfer to UCSU to major In Biological sciences, so like genetics, virology, you know all that good stuff.  One day i would like to work with the CDC. 
     My hobbies....I love reading and arts and crafts stuff. For some reason i like doing things that take time to complete and patience. I LOVE to cook, I'm a Certified chef  and  in baking and catering.
     My family.... i live with my dad and i have a twin sister (she also attends SJCC) and a younger brother in 11th grade.
I'm soon to be an aunt :D pretty excited about it. 
ummm so I'm pretty sure that's it about me... bye :P