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(2016
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2016 (index to #3 samples) #3: Web Highlights |
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Kimberly Loza
The Challenges of being a Minority and an Educated Woman
While looking through the website I came across some of the same ideas
that I really found interesting during my own learning experience throughout
this course, but I thought that it would be quite interesting to look at it
through the eyes of past students. It would be insightful for myself
to get their perspectives on the subjects such as the Mestizo,
Syncretism, and the roles of women. A few students' works stood out to me and
those students were; Eliza Cortez, who wrote, Syncretism in The Story of the
Virgin of Guadalupe, Stephanie Ali, who wrote, Malinche's Misfortune
Being a Female, and Maryam Chamber Delos Santo, who wrote, Independent
Thinker: Sor Juana De La Cruz. Each one of these young ladies presented
excellent research that was quite interesting to consider as well as consider it
along with my own.
For myself being a Latina, anything that has to deal with the Latino
culture or the role of women, I immediately gravitate towards and I find it to
be an interesting read. So, when I
started of with Eliza Cortez's Syncretism in The Story of the Virgin of
Guadalupe, I was hooked by the title because I have discussed the Mestizo
race and Syncretism in my own research posts, but I thought it was quite
interesting that she made this tie to the Virgin of Guadalupe. When reading her
interpretation of the character Juan Diego, which I really did not consider for
myself. Cruz states “ what draws me is the fact that in the beginning Juan Diego
is described as being a poor Indian and the name Juan Diego is a Spanish name”.
I never really looked this deep into the tale of the Virgin of Guadalupe in
which this Syncretism is present within the story. When I think of Syncretism, I
think of characters like La Malinche or La Llorona, but I tend to forget that
Juan Diego also represent this term. This is also quite interesting to
think that the Virgin of Guadalupe represents the creation story of Mexico and
also the Mestizo people as well.
The next submission that really caught my attention was Stephanie Ali's
Malinche's Misfortune Being a Female, this title also immediately caught
my attention and I also gravitated towards the fact that I love the story of La
Malinche. I found it very insightful how she provided the different versions of
La Malinche's story that I was not familiar with, it was great to see the
different versions fold out and to see how they all represent La Malinche (Dona
Marina) in the same way. I totally agree with what Ali said when she stated “
that Marina is represented in negative ways”, which is quite true in every
version. They treat her as if she were this illiterate, temptress, victimized
woman, but that is so far from the truth. She was actually was a quite educated
young woman and because of her gender that is what betrayed her in the end of
her tale. The way that Ali presents Marina's tale is absolutely amazing and it
is a great resource to use.
The final submission that I looked at was Maryam Chamber Delos Santo's
Independent Thinker: Sor Juana De La Cruz, I absolutely loved this
title because this was so true of Sor Juana De La Cruz due to she was so free
with her words in her writing and this was definitely not common for women of
this time. Santo's quote “ She (De La Cruz) was a feminist born too soon”, was
so accurate because when you read De La Cruz's poem “You Men”, you can really
get that sense from her. I also loved how Santo presented her as such an
inspirational figure because really De La Cruz is someone that most young women
should sort of emulate because she was a very educated woman not scared to speak
her mind, which for a woman of this time was an extremely big deal. So, by
looking at Santo's research I felt proud to be an educated young woman and was
inspired by the life of Sor Juana
De La Cruz.
I found that looking back at past students research, work, and ideas to
be very helpful as well as informative. Sometimes it takes the looking at the
perspectives of others to see something that you might not had learned or had
seen in texts. I also think that by tying these ideas into some interests that I
have within this course to help me further progress through this course. These
young ladies ideas will make for great references points for me when I do more
research later on within this course. By doing this activity I have learned that
even though some of us may be looking over the same texts and ideas, that we may
present a perspective that others may not have taken notice. This also shows
that there are so many ways to interpret a text that the ideas at times could be
a wide variety.
