"It usually happens when I hear someone talking in Espanol. You see, I don't do Espanol either. I use to do Espanol, but it got me in a lot of trouble." (Herrera 175)
-In this quote Herrera is talking about speaking spanish. It's interesting that through the whole book he speaks so much of his culture but only at times like these shows his experience with it. The fact that he gets in trouble for speaking spanish is an interesting thought because that proves his point that American culture is so oppressive when doubled with a different culture such as chicano. The way he speaks about not being able to speak spanish seems kinda of reserved, he doesn't necessarily feel bad about it, its just easier.
"The explosion was the secret. The flavor, let's call it a flavor; it set out on its own. So fast, so alive - it disappeared. Then, I appeared."
-The above quote is from Herrera's last stanza in the last piece of work in the book. The piece is called "How to Make a Chile Verde Smuggler." While there are many different meanings that could be taken from this passage it struck me he was talking about his creation into the world, possibly his conception and birth. How he was made out of this "flavor" or this overpowering force, and it is what makes him and drives him. This could be love, although in the beginning he mentions the chiles from Food City and the "flavor" he speaks of could be related so, possibly, he is referring to his culture, because chiles are a very large part of chicano cuisine and one that he enjoyed. If this is the case he is trying to say that he is his culture, he is what makes it up, it lives inside of him and inside of his family and friends, He smuggles that culture around with him at all times, kindof like smuggling a chile....or being a chile verde smuggler.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (152-174) QR
"The Madonna also said that Tomasa needed 'un picaso' to be born: a pinch, a prick, a tony hole so she could burst forth. Three years later, blam, I was there." (Herrera 170)
-This quote explains how some people in Herrera's culture used their religion to get on top. Herrera doesn't seem to either dislike or like this in anyway. Similar to many of Herrera's opinions, he doesn't really feel particularly invested in it. It is his religion, yes, but who is he to judge how other people use it? This theme of non-judgemental thoughts about people is reoccuring throughout the book but, interestingly, only with people of the same culture. When it comes to other cultures he is overly critical.
"Hanoi knew what he was talking about. She knew it. She relaxed her thick left arm, took a breath, and called the dude with the white corduroy loafers." (Herrera 171)
-The above quote eludes to the enchilada sillouettes that Herrera talks about very often. The way that Herrera explains the mutual understandings between all these old friends makes you get a sense of the depth of their community and how tightly wound it is. The way that Hanoi responds to the demands of other people in the book is an interesting parrallel to draw with Herrera's mother, another prevalent woman character.
-This quote explains how some people in Herrera's culture used their religion to get on top. Herrera doesn't seem to either dislike or like this in anyway. Similar to many of Herrera's opinions, he doesn't really feel particularly invested in it. It is his religion, yes, but who is he to judge how other people use it? This theme of non-judgemental thoughts about people is reoccuring throughout the book but, interestingly, only with people of the same culture. When it comes to other cultures he is overly critical.
"Hanoi knew what he was talking about. She knew it. She relaxed her thick left arm, took a breath, and called the dude with the white corduroy loafers." (Herrera 171)
-The above quote eludes to the enchilada sillouettes that Herrera talks about very often. The way that Herrera explains the mutual understandings between all these old friends makes you get a sense of the depth of their community and how tightly wound it is. The way that Hanoi responds to the demands of other people in the book is an interesting parrallel to draw with Herrera's mother, another prevalent woman character.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (131-151) QR
"Of course, I am lying again. When you are down, like we've been, money is never the answer. By the time the bills roll in, we've transformed into being "espirituales." We've conned ourselves into a crazier gear than the one we were living in." (Herrera 136)
-This quote shows how Herrera believes that everything in his life has changed him forever. Being poor has made it so money won't help him. He believes that his position in society has made him so seperate from everyone else that now he is in a completely different "gear." He lives a life seperate from the rest of the world, him, his close companions against the world.
"Jim smiles at me. I mumble and stretch to one side. Sirens and hipsters shoot by the neon-spoked dreamy night. How about a smoke?"
-The above quote shows Herrera's discomfort in this situation. Jim for some reason seems to make him uncomfortable and shifty, which is shown through the nervous tone in his writing. The way Herrera touches on the "neon-spoked" night but avoids talking about it by saying "how about a smoke" lets the reader know he has many more thoughts about the idea of "sirens and hipsters."
-This quote shows how Herrera believes that everything in his life has changed him forever. Being poor has made it so money won't help him. He believes that his position in society has made him so seperate from everyone else that now he is in a completely different "gear." He lives a life seperate from the rest of the world, him, his close companions against the world.
"Jim smiles at me. I mumble and stretch to one side. Sirens and hipsters shoot by the neon-spoked dreamy night. How about a smoke?"
-The above quote shows Herrera's discomfort in this situation. Jim for some reason seems to make him uncomfortable and shifty, which is shown through the nervous tone in his writing. The way Herrera touches on the "neon-spoked" night but avoids talking about it by saying "how about a smoke" lets the reader know he has many more thoughts about the idea of "sirens and hipsters."
Thursday, May 17, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (106-130) QR
"How to roll up your catholic pleated skirt & look favorable, How to make braids out of anything even masa, or calcetines, How to take a two by four and make skates, surfboards" (Herrera 110)
-This quote is from the Notes on Other Chicana & Chicano Inventions. It shows Herrera's ability to see things realistly, just the way they are. He mentions catholic pleated skirts and your attention is once again brought to religion and the stress it puts on his culture. Rolling them up is a way of combatting that part of the culture. Making braids out of anything is also a way of saying that through all of the different difficulties in his cultures, arise being able to make the best out of anything even a "two by four."
"Ain't nothing better, than pulling over - after the pizca in Fresno, on the way to the next one in Delano. On a hot day leave the troke running..." (Herrera 114)
-The above quote explains how Herrera feels about this sense of freedom he gets when he's on the road. It's as if he's escaping from everything that his culture and all the cultures around him bring onto him. The way he says "troke", however, helps you to remember that even with this sense of freedom he stills feels weighed down by his accent, and a constant reminder of his life. This is in no way saying that he wishes he weren't chicano and isn't assuming it is bad to be chicano, but the way he describes his way of life makes him seem like at times he would just like to be a person, not a white person, not a chicano person, just a person in general with no affiliation to some particular culture or obligation.
-This quote is from the Notes on Other Chicana & Chicano Inventions. It shows Herrera's ability to see things realistly, just the way they are. He mentions catholic pleated skirts and your attention is once again brought to religion and the stress it puts on his culture. Rolling them up is a way of combatting that part of the culture. Making braids out of anything is also a way of saying that through all of the different difficulties in his cultures, arise being able to make the best out of anything even a "two by four."
"Ain't nothing better, than pulling over - after the pizca in Fresno, on the way to the next one in Delano. On a hot day leave the troke running..." (Herrera 114)
-The above quote explains how Herrera feels about this sense of freedom he gets when he's on the road. It's as if he's escaping from everything that his culture and all the cultures around him bring onto him. The way he says "troke", however, helps you to remember that even with this sense of freedom he stills feels weighed down by his accent, and a constant reminder of his life. This is in no way saying that he wishes he weren't chicano and isn't assuming it is bad to be chicano, but the way he describes his way of life makes him seem like at times he would just like to be a person, not a white person, not a chicano person, just a person in general with no affiliation to some particular culture or obligation.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (81-105) QR
"The invisble skull on the desolate hills of every California town opens its jaws of arranged imprisonments and decapitations. But, who listens?" (Herrera, 83)
-This quote is Herrera expressing his thoughts about the communities of California, and the world. The invisible skull is the mass culture that everyone is so imprisoned in and that seems to take everyones independence and along with it their happiness. The way the jaw of the skull opens is to Herrera a stirring in society but do they actually stir or do they just like the idea? No one truly listens to the poets lyrics, they just take novely in the idea of poetry, not the unique meanings of the words and emotions.
"This sounds religious and pious again, a bad Chicano habit." (Herrera, 86)
-The above shows Herrera really identifying with something that makes Chicano's different in his mind, makes his community unique. He doesn't necessarily despise it even though he calls it a "bad habit", he is only trying to express that it's something that defines him, and his relatives, his culture. The way he describes this habit and religious and pious is interesting because the words have very similar meanings so it must be that he is trying to draw attention to this religious factor. He doesn't necessarily embrace it but states it as a fact. Simply something that happens whether you try or not.
-This quote is Herrera expressing his thoughts about the communities of California, and the world. The invisible skull is the mass culture that everyone is so imprisoned in and that seems to take everyones independence and along with it their happiness. The way the jaw of the skull opens is to Herrera a stirring in society but do they actually stir or do they just like the idea? No one truly listens to the poets lyrics, they just take novely in the idea of poetry, not the unique meanings of the words and emotions.
"This sounds religious and pious again, a bad Chicano habit." (Herrera, 86)
-The above shows Herrera really identifying with something that makes Chicano's different in his mind, makes his community unique. He doesn't necessarily despise it even though he calls it a "bad habit", he is only trying to express that it's something that defines him, and his relatives, his culture. The way he describes this habit and religious and pious is interesting because the words have very similar meanings so it must be that he is trying to draw attention to this religious factor. He doesn't necessarily embrace it but states it as a fact. Simply something that happens whether you try or not.
Monday, May 14, 2007
First Paragraph for Comparison Paper
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler by Juan Felipe Herrera are both realist novels with romantic writing in the form of prose, and vignettes. They are both also about the authors’ growing up in America in a Chicano community. The books have very different feels, Cisneros is very fluid, with each piece pertaining to the last in a drawn out, visual story of her life. Herrera on the other hand is eclectic, showing the actual chaos of his life through the chaos of his writing. Both of the books also have one thing in common, they are incredibly relevant to today’s society. The way that children with all types of ethnic backgrounds are feeling growing up in America in contemporary times is shown in both books even if it wasn’t exactly the same time period when the books were written. The feeling of being trapped is one felt by many children today, with all privileges and all types of cultures. The American society has a way of strangling a person in their world, making them a prisoner in their life. The books show this feeling through incredible descriptive words and ideas. Both House on Mango Street and Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler are wonderful literary pieces to explain life in America today, and to show the way that writing can be so different but show the same thing so well.
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (56-80) QR
"Get horny with the wrong images...argue about salt...fear roses..." (Herrera 61)
-This quote comes from a poem titled Things Religion Makes Me Do. The way the author lists all of these things that are strange and out of place makes you believe maybe its his religion that is strange and out of place. Getting horny with the wrong images is simply his way of saying that it makes him believe things he shouldn't, care about things that don't matter. Arguing about salt is his way of saying his religion creates superstitions like the fear of roses, silly things that he believes are real and that make him argue for them and for his way of life.
"A woman asked me what writers influenced me, who did I read? I said, my mother. Lucha Quintana. Have you heard of that writer? The woman's neck twisted. No, she wanted to know "what writers"! She wanted to ask the usual worn phrase. Ginsberg, Anrtaud, Nervo, Lorca, Neruda, Popa, Hikmet, Rodnati, Walker. These are the shadows - I should have told her." (Herrera 69)
-The above quote shows you an interaction between Herrera and the people around him. He doesn't understand his "fame" in the writing world. He doesn't understand why, if people think he is special, which you should be to be famous, why they don't accept his differences, or even care about them. When he is asking the woman if she's ever heard of his mother it is a question he already knows the answer to but has meaning to him. To ask if she knows of her writing is to make her writing something that SHOULD be known and therefore something acceptable by the society as what he can base his writing on and what is allowed to be his favorite.
-This quote comes from a poem titled Things Religion Makes Me Do. The way the author lists all of these things that are strange and out of place makes you believe maybe its his religion that is strange and out of place. Getting horny with the wrong images is simply his way of saying that it makes him believe things he shouldn't, care about things that don't matter. Arguing about salt is his way of saying his religion creates superstitions like the fear of roses, silly things that he believes are real and that make him argue for them and for his way of life.
"A woman asked me what writers influenced me, who did I read? I said, my mother. Lucha Quintana. Have you heard of that writer? The woman's neck twisted. No, she wanted to know "what writers"! She wanted to ask the usual worn phrase. Ginsberg, Anrtaud, Nervo, Lorca, Neruda, Popa, Hikmet, Rodnati, Walker. These are the shadows - I should have told her." (Herrera 69)
-The above quote shows you an interaction between Herrera and the people around him. He doesn't understand his "fame" in the writing world. He doesn't understand why, if people think he is special, which you should be to be famous, why they don't accept his differences, or even care about them. When he is asking the woman if she's ever heard of his mother it is a question he already knows the answer to but has meaning to him. To ask if she knows of her writing is to make her writing something that SHOULD be known and therefore something acceptable by the society as what he can base his writing on and what is allowed to be his favorite.
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