Thursday, October 31, 2013

Latino USA: A Cartoon History

 What i liked about this graphic novel is that it is written in the form of a play. Also there are a few characters that break the fourth wall in order to explain a few Spanish terms, but also they sometimes add a bit of comic relief in order avoid making the story mundane. The purpose of this graphic novel is to shed light on how the two countries, USA and mexico view themselves culturally. Such as Spanish speaking people are dubbed as Latin American or Latinos and most Americans believe that this term applies to the rest of the Spanish speaking nations in south america. but this isn't the case since many Hispanics who live in their native country such as mexico would consider themselves to be a Mexican or Poblano.  the reasons i believe that many people that speak Spanish in the us are dubbed as Latino is because there is more than one dialect of Spanish and also the culture that pertains to one country is different from another and this is what makes it difficult to have an exact term for each and every Spanish speaking country.

Coyote and the Pebbles

I found the reading Coyote and the Pebbles to be an interesting graphic novel because its written in the style of  a myth or legend, that way a story of creation was told. This to me was interesting because of the fact that the author himself is not a descendant of a Native American, since this is the style the graphic novel was written. The basic premises of the story is how the stars came to be and also to try to explain to the reader as to why coyotes howl at the full moon, and also what made this story relate to traditional legends is that the animals in the novel were able to speak, but also have the ability to transform into a human at will. The explanation of how stars was made, is through an accident that occurred to coyote who was being self center thinking he was able to draw a better portrait but ultimately he trips and inadvertently ruins the other animals portrait by scattering their pebbles across the night sky. Then the author gives the reason why a coyote howls at the moon and its because its coyote trying to get a second chance among the other animals.
aside from that there is a subtle moral lesson which is to not think about yourself only but also think about the other, because your action may lead to consequences.