Recently I read Almost a Woman by Esmeralda Santiago. In the last blog post I only read about 25 pages of the book and I basically had no idea what the book was going to reflect on. In the last blog post I stated that the memoir was a reflection of her success of going to Harvard University(stated in the author's biography), but that is not what the book is about at all. It was actually about the experience she had in life from 13 to 21.

    The book stayed consistent throughout and I actually enjoyed the way it was written. The amazing detail made me feel as if I were sitting right next to her in 1965. There are many pros to this book including: the details, the juiciness of her life, and need for me to not stop reading it. The only con I had with the book is that it didn't become juicy until about ¾ of the book was done. But I understand that this is nonfiction and that this is someone's life we are reading about. The only question that I really have for this book is: What happens next? The book basically leaves you hanging and it stops just before her 21st birthday. Hopefully there is a third book. Anyway below is what the book is actually about and my thoughts on why she made the decisions she made in life.

    The memoir actually starts out slowly. I didn't expect it to be fast paced or anything because it is a person's life but, I did expect it to move a little faster than it did. Santiago is basically explaining how she didn't know a lot of English, how she learned it and became an actress at a performing arts school, and how she met people and stereotypes that she had not thought existed. In the memoir she explains racial tensions and explains how she was not Puertorican, in America, but Spanish. She learned in the acting business that she was not an asset because of her puertorican background. I think that her background was a important aspect in the memoir that made it interesting. If she wasn't puertorican and if she were Caucasian than her life would be completely different. She would have gotten parts in plays and she would probably be successful, as an actress and a dancer, and not have written this book explaining the very crazy details of her life.

    After graduating high school, and she was the first in her family to do so, she got jobs and went to school part time. This confused me because in the biography it was stated that she went to Harvard University, but it is possible she might have gone after the age of 21. She graduates and meets lots of new people from her many jobs, plays, and classes. She meets some of her best friends at her job as and office secretary over the years. Her best friends Regina and Shoshana were there for long periods of time and helped her through things that she never thought she would get through. Unfortunately her best friends leave her to do something else with their lives. This is important because they contribute to the overall theme of the book.

    From graduating on, she was partially independent because she was out of the house, where she lived with her strict puertorican mother, to go to school/ work. This means she could secretly date men, which is something she could not do before. She dated many men and fell in and out of love with them. This is a consistent theme because without the vivid details of the experiences that she had with these men, the book would be absolutely boring. After she started to date men the book got more interesting. I mean at one point in the book she was going to marry a man that she met just 3 hours before he proposed to her. And to make matters even worse the man that she was going to marry stole planes for a living! Luckily she called off the wedding 2 days before they were going to get married. Other guys she met were minor but added more drama to her life that I didn't think happened in real life. But one man named Ulvi, a famous Turkish film director, was the most important. After knowing Ulvi for just a week, after asking Santiago to play the lead in one of his films, she lost her virginity to him, while some guys she dated for years wouldn't have even touched her because of her strict morals taught by her mother. I think that Ulvi is the most important guy Santiago ever dated not only because he was her longest relationship and that Santiago lost her virginity to him, but because he created the hardest decision for Santiago: the love of him or the love of her beloved Mami.

    The overall theme of this book is: Other things may change us, but we start and end with family. Santiago changed remarkably when she came to America. She wanted to be more American, with makeup and high skirts. Then when she graduated she became a different person with different men. But in the end she always came home. The last chapter of the book is devoted to her mother. It explains how Ulvi wants her to leave her mother's house to come live with him without marriage. Knowing the only thing that her mother wanted from her, other than a great education, was marriage(which is why she didn't leave her mother's house until he was 22). The last passage summed up the whole book and made me realize the theme of the book, “Over the seven months we had known each other I had relinquished my will to his. I'd stopped seeing my friends, stopped dancing, ran from work straight into his arms. But I still went home at night to sleep under Mami's roof. Without say word, Ulvi was asking me to give up too, to choose between them... Covers were pulled over my head to block out the noise, the confusion, the drama of my family's life, I knew, just as Ulvi knew when he asked, that I had made my choice.” ( Santiago 310). It explains how people come and go but family is forever.

    Overall this book was AMAZING! I want to know what happens to the rest of her life. Her acknowledgements explain that she is married and has two children and that she graduated from Harvard, which makes me want to know how she got there. This is such a descriptive book and I hope there are more of them I can read them.

     The book that I am currently reading is Almost a Woman by Esmeralda Santiago. This inspiring memoir explains the struggles and hardships of immigrating from Puerto Rico to New York. It also demonstrates how your weakness do not determine your abilities; an example of this in the book would be how Santiago goes from knowing a modicum of English to becoming an actress at an amazing performing arts school and graduating from Harvard University.

    The book cover of Almost a Woman has a picture of Santiago as a young lady and in the background a skyline of New York. This emphasizes the fact that Santiago moved around New York at least 20 times from age 13 to 21. Also, the picture of her on the cover has Santiago in a school uniform. This is a major part because in the book it explains how she wants to be more like an American girl and wear her uniform skirts high and hair done because the girls at school jerThis emphasizes the struggle of pressure, of any young person, to be an imitation of everyone else, instead of being yourself.

    Santiago's photo and biography are located in the first 3 pages of the book. The picture is of Santiago in her young adult age. The biography explains how Santiago moved from Puerto Rico to New York in her adolescent years. It also explains how she came to graduate from Harvard University and how her eloquence in writing earned her 3-award winning books. This is important because it says the success of Santiago, and this will make the reader want to read of how she got her success.

    The Los Angeles Times stated, “ [Santiago has] the skill to render the most minute details of her before and after lives... Richly evocative.”, on the front cover of the book. When I read this statement it made me want to checkout the book immediately. Detailed books, in my opinion, are always better than books without much details. In non-detailed books I feel as if I am just reading a book. But in detailed books, such as Almost a Woman, it seems like I am sitting right next to the person while a part in the book is happening. .

    The coolest thing I found about the book was the table of contents. In the book, every chapter's title is a quote from the upcoming chapter. The first quote, I thought, summarized the whole book; the quote is “Martes, ni te cases, ni te embarques, ni de tu familia te apartes.” (Santiago P.2). It means “On a misty Tuesday, I didn't marry, but I did travel, and I did leave my family.” (Santiago). This basically is what the whole book is talking about; it talks about her family, her travels, and her struggles of love. I like the quotes as chapter titles for an upcoming chapter because it gets me excited about what is going to happen next in her life.

All in all, I think this book is super interesting and I look forward to reading the rest of it.

 Car Explosions All Over U.S.A Cause Lower Gas Prices

Jaelyn Jeff
March 2, 2031

Last week working-class Americans set their cars on fire to let the gas companies know how they feel about the extremely high gas prices. On February 23, 2031, gas prices rose to a whopping $12.13 for a regular gallon of gas. This week gas prices dropped to the lowest it has been this century, $1.98 a gallon. The cause for this extremely low gas price: the American peoples strike against gas prices.

The Department of Motor Services of America estimated that over three-fourths of the cars in the United States were set on fire and exploded, last week. The head of the Department of Motor Services of America stated, “ The American people have gone crazy... this will devastate our economy for the next half of the century, not to mention ruin the history of automobiles for the younger and future generations.” The DMV of America is not the only one furious about the American peoples actions. The oil companies, who seem like they are making quintillions of dollars off of the outrageous gas prices, are devastated by the lack of income in just a week. Oil companies such as Texaco and BP have already reduced the salaries of most of the workers and are ready to let go of as many employees so they can continue to produce oil.

The inflation of gas prices have been a problem for the American people since the beginning of the new century. The catalyst for the rising gas prices this century was 9/11. Most of the oil produced for the U.S comes from Middle Eastern countries. When 9/11 shocked the globe, the United States was very selective in gas which caused inflation. Social and political change also caused inflation. In 2011 there were numerous revolts for reform in the Arab world, which is where the greatest quality oil was produced ,. As a result of this Libya shut down there oil production until the revolts seized. This caused massive inflation in the U.S and took years for the gas price to go down to under $2. . The increased demand for oil in places like China and India, high gasoline taxes, civil unrest in Venezuela and in the Middle East, and too few refineries in the U.S were also reasons why gas increased over the past three decades.

Many have questioned why gas prices rose to such extreme heights over the course of thirty years. Amanda Wilkerson, a school teacher from Illinois, set her car on fire in protest last week. She exclaimed, “ It is ridiculous that I have to spend $42.00 or so for me to go to work, to the grocery store, and to pick up my children in a day. It took less than $2.00 for my mother to do all of the same tasks when I was younger.” When asked what she thought the reason gas prices inflated over the years, she responded, “ Oil companies are exploiting money from all of the loyal hard working citizens of America.... it will be alright if the oil companies lost some people and money..” Others disagree with Wilkerson. A boy who grew up in the Middle East, Muhammad Dub, said, “The inflation of gas prices has brought prosperity and wealth to my nation... inflation increases salaries and produces more jobs for people in the U.S. And the Middle East.”

There are many reasons why oil production is important around the world. It produces jobs, wealth, and transportation around the world. The American people were just sought up with the majority of their money being taken away by oil. With three-fourths of the cars gone and more to go in America, oil production is down and this will affect the economy of the world for years to come. We will just have to wait and see what will happen with our economy, but until then most of America will be walking, bicycling, and carpooling to work, school, and to the grocery store.

Reflection

I choose this gas prices to satirize because the gas prices directly affects me. It takes me an hour to get from home and school, which results in a fair amount of gas money. With the gas prices rising like they are now, by the time I will be able to drive myself to school it would be nearly impossible for me to drive to school. In my satire I made the fact that gas prices will get high enough to where people will start burning their cars. This masks the fact that in 20 or so years this may actually happen. My satire would attract anybody who is old enough to drive and pay for their own gas. This includes young college students to old retired married couples. I choose an article to express my opinion on this because first I can't set a car on fire for a video and second I can not sing. In all seriousness an article can be more informative than any other media and you can learn a lot more than you anticipate from reading an article. The definition of satire is the use of humor to emphasize human weakness or imperfections in social institutions. My satire emphasizes that people,especially Americans, will not know what to do if gas prices were to get to $12.13. If this were to happen hopefully someone will come up with an alternative to gas that everyone will start to use. The three literary devices that I used in my satire were: euphemism(to let go of instead of firing), understatement ( it will be alright if the oil companies lost some people and money; if this happened this will tank the economy of America and the Middle East), and hyperbole (who  they are making quintillions of dollars off of the outrageous gas prices).

 The inflation of gas prices in the past decade are do to many reasons. "The increased demand for oil in places like China and India, high gasoline taxes, civil unrest in Venezuela, war in the Middle East, political instability in Nigeria, and too few refineries in the U.S. are the main reason why we have had such an increase of gas/oil prices in the past decade." ( Dart, The Cause and Effects of High Oil Prices).

A catalyst for the rising gas prices in the United States over the past decade would be 9/11. "Most of the oil to make gasoline is produced in the Middle East and North Africa." (Ryabtsev,).
This makes the Arab world very important to the United States. With the new uprisings in the Arab world today, gas prices have shot up 30¢ in the last month because of the (Ryabtsev).


Another very important factor to the inflation of gas prices over the last decade would be disasters, natural or man made. Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the BP oil spill (2010) both rose gas prices up 5¢ in the first week after the disaster. "When the economy plummeted in late 2008 gas prices rose to levels of where they are now, $3.33 per gallon." (Williams,).


Many people have different opinions on why gas prices have risen to what it is over the last decade. Some people will blame the president of the United States for the increase in gas over the past decade. According to the this article (Eden,Gas Prices Have Risen 55% On Obama’s Watch And Continue To Soar) , some people blame the president at the time, George Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008, for rising gas prices. Others choose blame oil companies for being sinister and wanting the price of oil to rise for their own profitable gain. "But in the end gas prices increase and decrease because of the social and political situation in that the time period, there is no one person to blame." (McMahon).



                                                                                References


Dart, Andrew K., The Causes and Effects of High Gas Prices, 2011, January 1

Eden, Micheal, Gas Prices Have Risen 55% On Obama’s Watch And Continue To Soar 2010, May 13

McMahon, Tim,  Are Oil Companies Ripping us off with Gas Prices? 2005 October 17

Ryabtsev. Mark, Gas Prices Skyrocket, Oil Prices to Blame, 2011, February 27

Schiffman, Betsy, Gas Prices Creep Up After the Spill, Despite Weak Demand,, 2010, May 3

Williams, James L. ,Oil Price History and Analysis, 2007, January 1

Dear Diary,




Today I saw something that I'd never seen before – a married man and that man's sister in law lust over each other. Tita has always loved Pedro but I didn't know to this degree. He compliments Tita more than he compliments his own wife, Rosaura. Just today Rosaura made her first meal; Pedro said it was OK for her first time but when Tita brings out her food, he acts like he is eating ambrosia.




I must put a stop to this immediately. I just have not devised a plan to make Rosaura and Pedro leave my house and Tita's lust. Maybe I will have to make Pedro get a job elsewhere so he and Rosaura will have to leave and be as far away from Tita as possible.




Until then I will have my eyes pierced on both Tita and Pedro at all times. I'll have to keep Tita in the kitchen,where she belongs, making some of my most favorite meals: Christmas rolls, cake,and quail in a rose petal sauce. Maybe this will work out in two ways : I will keep Pedro and Tita away from each other and I also get the most delicious food out of her!




As for Pedro, I will have to keep Pedro at work with his father. There house building company is promising but not producing enough jobs. Pedro is home all of the time because of this. I wonder …. I could get Father Ignacio another part built for church. That will keep him busy for days maybe even weeks. This will give me enough time to get him and Rosaura away from Tita.




I've figured it out! I will send Rosaura, Robert, and Pedro to the United States where my brother works and get him a job. This is perfect; Tita will be here taking care of me while Pedro will be far far away and be with his loving wife and son. I've done it!




Until Next Time,

Mama Elena

1. Find a news story or celebrity similar to the myth.

Themyth that I choose a celebrity about was Narcissus. The celebritythat I chose that I think most represents Narcissus is Heidi Montag.I choose her because last year, she had 10 plastic surgeries in oneday to make herself look better. Narcissus who is so beautiful diedbecause he liked to look at himself. The plastic surgeries made HeidiMontag lookbetter in her eyes because she wasn't beautiful enough. So shechanged herself to be more beautifulso she could look at herself in the mirror all day. Below is thelink to her storyof plastic surgery.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/13/entertainment/main6092609.shtml

2. Create a comic retelling a myth. I choose Ali Baba.
Here is the link: http://www.bitstrips.com/user/223554/read.php?comic_id=1096156&sc=1

3. Create a poem alluding to a myth.

MyBride-to-Be

Thevigorous hours of labor

Butall the effort worked in my favor

Herlifelessness overwhelmed me

Thereshe stood

MyBride-to-Be

Thewaxy ivory glistening in the sun

OI wish she could breed me a son

AsI scamper closer to her lifeless self

Iwould give anything for her

Evenwealth

MyBride-to-Be

Iplead and plead to the one that could give her life

PLEASEPLEASE!!

Makeher my wife

Thewise Venus took mercy on me

Thensaid here is your

Bride-to-Be

Theivory, lifeless figure that I once owned

Sprangto life to come to our home

Shebreed me a son and brought me life

Shefinally rid me of all strifes

OhFINALLY FINALLY

Ihave my

Bride-to-Be

Guess which myth I alluded to!!

Thank you! -Jaelyn J.   thier