As always I started this weeks readings with some research on the authors. Miguel Angel Asturias is definitely a very well regarded author is more than qualified to write about the topics in his stories. Asturias first story legend of the singing tablets was so incredibly captivating and colourful. His prose invoked so many beautiful images into my mind regarding indigenous culture in pre-colonial Latin america. I think legend of the singing tablets was meant to recognize the importance of song and written culture, specifically symbology in indigenous culture. The wonderful images of moon and the singing competition the usage of cycles encapsulates a lot of themes in pre-colonialization latin american indigenous culture.

Legend of the crystal masks was just as colorful and the introduction of the sentient creation of beings like jaguars and giants had me rereading lines and basking in the lyrical component of the story. I don’t think I was fully able to grasp the meaning of this piece but I did catch on to the mention of colonialization and white people. More importantly the ending was very jarring. The natural betrayal of man by his own creation is somewhat symbolic of the cycle of life. Creation then death. I’m not sure I understand the meaning of nurse rain but the blindness and the mask invoke an image of complacency. I think it might be about how the indigenous people were receptive of the colonizers and the blindness to their effects. Honestly the story was so absolutely beautiful I’m kind of amazed.

Legend of the Silent bell was a very creepy story in my opinion. The gold imagery I think was used to denote the colonial extraction of latin american resources, specifically gold. The story was easier to grasp in terms of thematics; the obvious struggle between colonial and indigenous identity, the betrayal of christians and the piracy. The gold, silver, bronze bells. The sacrificial element of indigenous property. Taking away from all these stories I think Asturias attempted to preserve the beauty of indigneity (indian nun) whilst also exposing the internal struggles of the colonized and the usurption of culture. Asturias uses notable latin american symbols like gold, jaguars, snakes, the moon and sun, and contrasting that with spanish imagery like christian religion, the bell all the wealth being melted into the bell. Asturias stories capture intrinisic elements of latin american identity struggles bursting with colors.

After finishing each of this weeks readings I think I can safely say that I have no idea what is going on. About half way through Peron’s writing I decided to do some research on her and found out a lot about her history and her husbands political career. Reading about her life and subsequent death was pretty astounding especially the funeral procession that Argentina held for her. To be honest I had never heard about her or her husband at all in my life but my quick wiki browsing left me quite intrigued and I learnt a lot about Argentina.

In terms of her writing I did enjoy reading it but after a while it got kind of boring. It feels like a speech and I’m sure that if I had been listening to someone read this in an invigorating and passionate tone (which probably isn’t hard, this piece is very heartfelt in my opinion) I would be captivated and inspired by her words. The messages she sends the people are anti-imperialist and pro workers reform especially in agriculture and industrial setting. Her strategy of demonizing the oligarchs probably won her a lot of favour with the working class that was being exploited.

Reading Borges at 1 am was probably a bad idea because I literally have no idea what is going on. I’m not sure if it’s me fading in and out of sleep but the best I could gather from his writing was that he was expressing opposite views of Peron. Borges achieves this by writing a story of one mans adventures which ultimately lead to the unwarranted death of another. The writing is difficult to follow unlike Perons and provides a ficticous account of the negatives of group mentality in order to critique the followers of Peron.

Of both these writings I much preferred Perons but I will be going back later this week to try and reread Borges. During my readings I learned much about the political history of Argentina in the 20th century and I’m excited to discuss the readings and politics that contextualize the readings for this week.

Hi

My name is federico angel. I was born in bogota colombia but moved to vancouver british columbia when I was 6 months old. I’ve spent my entire life here in vancouver and it is currently my second year here at UBC trying to major in economics. Im interested in latin american pop culture because i never really got to be a teenager in colombia and i thought what a better way to immerse myself in the pop culture of my country of origin than take a uni course dedicated to that. See you in class!