Well, these past weeks have flown by! I’ve really enjoyed our class overall. I think that the combination and variety of the readings really made for some diverse discussions. I do think we came back to the same issues a lot of the time, that’s just a reality when you take into consideration the era and group of people we’re reading about. I think a lot of us brought some really interesting points and ideas to the table, and we came up with some great observations all together!

I’m going to say a bit about Marti, as a lot of people have put down his readings. I really enjoyed them overall. Partly perhaps because I read them in English afterward, but also because I really enjoyed, as we know was extremely prevalent, his descriptive style. I loved how he used lists of Spanish words most of us had never heard, but had important meanings. Words which some of the time, only exist in Spanish!

As most have said about “Salt of the Earth”, it was so much fun! I am guilty as I voted for the 80’s movie, but I am quite happy we watched the one we did. I’m suspicious about how realistic it was, as this idealistic version of New Mexico with Anglo’s and latinos living together. Obviously there was some racial tension, but I’m talking about the workers and the lower class. Everyone seemed so happy! It was a refreshing break from the readings, that’s for sure!

Despite the slow start and dragged out chapters, I ended up taking a liking to “Who would have thought it”. I think that Ruiz de Burton does an excellent job of portraying this mass transition over time of a New England family during the civil war. Her detailed chapters and stories within the novel show us the importance of class, race and gender obviously. But also taking into consideration her being a Chicana, I think it’s interesting reading knowing the thoughts in the novel are coming from her mind. Funny how her name wasn’t on the book to begin with…

I’ll stop there, and say that I’m so exited for the next few books that are coming! You’re all in for a treat with Julia Alvarez, let me tell you! I think as we now slide to somewhat more contemporary literature, primarily in English I believe, we’ll all be able to relate much better, and form some interesting discussions.