Goodbye Gabo

Gabriel García Márquez is a recognized Colombian author who very recently passed away. He is not only a great writer and person, but he is also responsible for giving Latin America a voice in the world of literature. Through his work many Latin American countries can identify their history and contempt from the world. He won the Literature Noble Prize in 1982, and in his acceptance speech he once again gave Latin America an identity we can all connect to. Through the use of eloquent diction, ethos, pathos and repetition along with allusions to his works, Gabo throughly made his point and touched the hearts of his audience.

Never coming down from educated words Gabo played with his syntax and word choice in order to transmit a more significative meaning to his audience. He played with the title of his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" throughout the whole speech, you can notice one example in the sole title of the speech "The Solitude of Latin America", a variation to the title of his novel.  Furthermore, he uses repetition of the word at the end of two distinctive paragraphs. He ends one saying "This, my friends, is the crux of our solitude," while ending the other "This, my friends, is the very scale of our solitude." Here it is clear how his syntax plays along with his word choice. By utilizing eloquent words such as "crux" and repeating "solitude" at varying moments he emphasizes his point. He tries to convey in a more profound way the history of violence and sadness that has enveloped Latin America for a long time. Gabo never misses a chance to represent Latin America and tell its story to everyone. 

Nonetheless, by narrating different situations and circumstances some South American countries like Uruguay, Chile and Argentina have lived. He connotes a sense of emotion and empathy towards its people. It evokes a sense of sentiment and care in the audience, that is not only touching but poignant too. For instance, he notes that "Latin America, neither wants, nor has any reason, to be a pawn without a will of its own; nor is it merely wishful thinking that its quest for independence and originality should become a Western aspiration." Strongly posing Latin America's opinion regarding the Western culture, Gabo employs the use of not only ethos but of pathos as well. 

It is undeniable that Gabo is an extraordinary writer. He never fails to take the chance to defend his heritage show pride for his culture. He not only talks about Colombia which makes him even more important. Putting aside his true nationality he feels a connection to his neighboring countries and feels identified with them too. We may we from different countries and places, but in the end we all share the same history of colonization from Europe, to civil wars to sharing the same language. 

Feedback

After hearing the feedback Mr. Tangen gave my paper I thought different things. First, i wasn't really amused when he said my essay had some typos and that it was all over the place. I struggled at first finding a topic to talk about and changed my initial topic to the one I used. Even though it was a topic I knew I could spend a long time talking about, it was a very broad topic and didn't exactly know how to lead the idea of my paper. I did struggle with the organization and topics I was going to talk about in it so his feedback regarding this didn't surprise me very much. I realized too that I made a lot of general statements, and i'm glad he made me notice that so I can further improve my writing skills. 

Are We Calibans?

After I read this article from Barnard College, I realized that behind the characters from Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, there is a deeper meaning. I came to believe that the play as a whole is a representation of the colonization in North and South America at the end of the sixteenth century. Caliban and cannibal can be easily be confused as being homophone, by sounding almost alike, however they are not as they do not sound exactly the same. Nevertheless, it is clear that there is a connection between them. Possibly being that "Caliban" originated from the word "Cannibal" and noting that Caliban is treated as he were an aborigine or a savage.

In the play, Prospero enslaves Caliban and is treated as a primitive person be being a native to the island. He is forced to work towards Prospero's own benefit without any chance of escaping. Caliban is constantly tortured by "Prospero's demons" and he is constantly afraid of not being submissive enough for Prospero and facing her magic. Caliban and Prospero can be translated to the Native Americans and the European colonizers. This case specially serves for the Indigenous cultures of Latin America, such as the Mayas, Incas, Muiscas or Aztecs who endured many hardships during colonization. Their land, culture, community and resources were stripped from them without much mercy. Just like Caliban, they were enslaved simply for being natives and seemingly inferior to their colonizers. They were forced to learn a new language and adapt to a completely strange culture. Prospero teaches her prisoners English, just like the Spaniards taught the natives Spanish. Nevertheless, being forced to a new culture as an adult is harsh and it made a new identity rise in the America's: "the mestizo" as it is most commonly known. Their own culture as simply forgotten and eliminated.

Colonization shaped the way our country is nowadays. The way we talk, the color of our people and even the widespread knowledge that without the colonization of Spaniards we would be in a completely different situation right now. Some claim there would be no violence and that we would be a much wealthier country right now. Many Latin Americans can connect with Caliban and feel their country's history identified with Caliban's situation. However, as harsh and barbaric as our country's history might be it formed our identities and made our country be what it is today. As Latin Americans we all share the same history and heritage. It is impossible to not compare, and relate our story to Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest.