Mexico Project ¡UPDATE!

Today after checking out my teammates blogs, I stumbled across a link that Jessica posted that the Smithsonian had published. The website was all about the culture on the border of two neighboring countries and how in history, these areas were major trading ports of goods, religion, and culture. After reading about half of the article (it was an incredibly long article by the way) I realized that it wasn't completely related to our topic but it was none the less very interesting and insightful.

Even though it didn't help me directly for the video script, it did give me more of a background knowledge about my subject and that's what you really need to be able to understand. Comprehending is not based on the fact that you can understand the basic principles but rather that you understand the full concept and all the little details that go along with it. So after thinking about it, reading the article actually will help me for this project!

1. Smithsonian
   

"Borderlands have often been the locale of major folk cultural achievements, from the outlaw ballads of the Scottish-English border to the heroic "corridos" of south Texas. Energized by the lives of heroes and others, borderlands continue to spark themes of frontier lawlessness, national pride, rebellion against injustice, and a community hero's stand against all odds. What is it about a border that triggers these and other cultural forms, such as souvenirs, duty-free liquors, retaining walls made of automobile tires, and "maquiladora" assembly plants? Is the border a particular kind of region or social environment? If so, does the border tend to produce a particular kind of culture? And what is the relationship between this environment and its culture?

Goal Updation

• Finish Script by Tuesday
• Interview on Thurday
• Revise storyboard
  

Socratic Seminar Part 2!

Today we were able to discuss our topic "white priviledge" the conversation tended to learn more on the quesiton of gender vs. race issues and at sometimes was a bit uninteresting. I think that out of all the seminars I have done since 7th grade I participated in this the least. This was not because I didn't feel like adding to the conversation or that I was lazy and didn't read it but quite the contrary. I read it about three times reading it over and over again mostly because I strongly disagreed with the author's views and found that her feminist opinions were highly biased. I think I talked more about it between Andrew and Olivia before the seminar than I did during it. The problem was that the topics that were brought up didn't really stimulate me into saying anything and I was going to talk for the sake of talking.

Granted there were a few moments during the conversation that I decided to speak up, but for the most part I was dissatisfied with the text and thought that the topic could have been much more provocative with a different text.

In the end the group did a good job for what they were working with and I tip my hat to them because what I find normally happens is that the people who usually don't talk don't and the people who usually do, (I would classify myself as that) do. But this time most everyone threw something important out there that most likely added to others thoughts and developed opinions.

Socratic Seminar

Today we held a Socratic seminar on the topic of "Culture of Power." Unfortunately I was not on the inner circle because I had a few points to throw out there at the time (now of course I can't remember them) but overall the inner group did a farely well job of it despite it being dominated by the usual people and again the usual people who don't talk didn't. I'm really interested in seeing a seminar this year where everyone throws out their thoughts and adds to the overall experience but oh well...

Tomorrow is my circle's time and we were reading this incredibly feminist author who was talking about how white people and men should learn to give up their power instead of equalizing the playing field. Unfortunately the text was not very long in did not go into much detail of the proposal but instead shot of a thousand examples of why being white is good. 90% of her comments were redundant and went over the same topics over and over again with small little scenario changes which bored the hell out of me when I was reading but its all good. I hope that my circle will bring up some cool points that we will be able to discuss with interest for the full time.

Mexico Project ¡UPDATE! (don't tase me bro)

Today while doing more research I stumbled across two completely different sources! This will help me compare and contrast more for the pros and cons.

1. Minute Men
   
2. Anti-Fence article
   

The minute men offer numerous facts about the number of illegal immigrants in our country (they say 30-40 million) and other statistics like how illegals represent 29% of crime in America which is filling up prisons to the brink. That plus the fact that they are filling up our schools and emergency rooms making it harder for legal citizens to obtain their public services. They claim that they kill 5,000 innocent American citizens and cost the government billions which is causing the equivalent of a 9/11 every single year.

The anti-fence article instead offers less statistical information but still amounts to a worthy case. They claim that instead of America trying to gaurd their borders they are causing human rights crimes by routing the immigrants into really dangerous areas. This is causing hundreds and hundreds of deaths to innocent Mexicans immigrants who are just coming to try to make themselves and their families a better life.

Goal Updation

1. I added alot more information to our script making it approx. three pages.
2. Found more credible sources.
   

Mexico Project ¡UPDATE!

While searching through possible sources I stumbled upon this one which has a strong anti-fence bias to it which might help my group: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engAMR510031998

It mentions a lot about human rights violations on both sides of the fence due to law enforcement maltreatment. These include the killings of both US citizens and the illegal abuse of border hoppers. Numerous incidents include the captivity of illegals and detaining them with out food, water or warmth. Other incidents are sexual harassment and the beatings of prisoners.

Despite the fact that children are one of the most mal-treated of the bunch, they are not provided the right to an attorney. All of this information will be very helpful in our video presentation.

I updated and beautified my goal list for this week!

• Revise and add to the script and finish by Friday
• More research!

Mexico Project ¡UPDATE!

On Friday my group (Jessica, Guadalupe, and I) traded our script with Andrew's group and got some interesting feedback. One of their main comments that Spencer agreed with was that our script was muy too short. So I plan to work on that mainly this coming week. Another goal I set for this week was to research and delve more into the subject by getting a wider variety of sources. Now that we are done with our interview we have to concentrate mainly on the final draft of the script and our flash which is due Wednesday.

This weekend I have been going over the interview on the camera over and over again and am trying to take notes on what we want in our final video and what we need to cut out.

Adrians Blog!

http://othersidepage.blogspot.com/2007/09/farming-news-report.html

^Above is the link to Adrians script post that he wrote. After reading this I have a couple suggestions on the script

1. Unless your interview is going to be really long you should try and make your script longer, as of now it probably wouldn't stretch out for six minutes.
2. Add more detail to the stage directions and research facts. Both of these will enhance the script performance and clarity alot.

Other than that the script is looking very good and I can't wait to see the end product on pesticide usage!

Mexico Project ¡UPDATE!

Today my group and I went Downtown to visit with our expert source Lilia Velasquez. Our interview was extremely insightful and was a total of 13 minutes long so we are going to have to do some serious editing. She comes from Mexico legally and has a very un-extremist standpoint on the issue of the border. She used a lot of laws to back up her claims such as the right to sovernity. To be honest she was much more balanced than I expected an immigration lawyer to be and all in all i was pleasently surprised.

On a lighter note Andrew and I won our chemistry rap contest with the help of our best friend Austin Han. (Pictures soon)

And in Spanish class we learned the meaning of De Colores in the smash hit....de colores... it was hardcore.

Mari's Blog!

Mari had a very interesting post about the Mayans:

"Almost all the urban centers were built in tropical rain forest. This is theprobably the biggest reason why the Mayans never developed a fully urbanculture. Topical rain forest is difficult to live in. and can only support smallgroups of humans. While plant and animal growth seems almost out of control andthe rains never stop, tropical rain forest makes very poor farming land. Agreater amount of area is required to support each person—and people tend tospread out rather than form cities.Priests and noblemen would willingly piercebody parts, usually their tongue, ears or lips and "give" blood to the gods.Themore important a person was in their society, the more blood they were expectedto give to the GodsThe feathered serpent is the god of civilization, andconnected to the planet Venus and the wind. He represented the forces of goodagainst those of evil. According to one legend, Quetzalcoatl was driven from thecity of Tula, the Toltec capital, and wandered for many years until he reachedhis homeland, the east coast of Mexico."


This post answered some small questions that had been rotating in the back of my head about these very subjects like why didn't they become a booming example of civilization. The answer to that was that the Mayan civilizations were mainly centered in or around rain forests. This made it extremely difficult expand and become a thriving city. Another cool fact was that despite the rain forests' non-stop rain, it is incredibly hard to produce agriculture. I never would have guessed!

Mexico Project ¡UPDATE!

September 19th, 2007

On Monday my group and I set up our week schedule which says that we will have our rough draft of our script, done by friday. I hope that we will be able to accomplish this goal on time. On the other hand, we are going to our interview downtown on friday also!

Class as of 9-17-07

Today in Spencer's class we learned more about the Spaniards and Indians, specifically the Encomienda. The Encomienda was enforced by the Spanish conquistadors and it let them enslave the indians and disperse them amongst themselves. I found this highly disturbing and one guy who agreed with me was named Las Casas. He preached about how what the Spanish were doing was illegal anyways and that the Indians and Spanish should live in peace. Unfortunately nobody listened to him.

Mayan Expansion/Conquest

What approximate dates marked the height of this civilization's growth?

• The Mayan classical period was believed to be between the years of 250-900 C.E. During this period in time the Mayan civilization saw the increase in urban structures and large scale construction, important inscriptions, and the height of the artistic and thought period.
• The decline and collapse of their civilization happend soon after the peak (8th and 9th centuries). For reasons that are unknown the lowland urban areas began to disperse.

How did this civilization develop and grow in strength?

• Things that springboarded the upbringing of their classical period included the building of their first pyramid, numerous advances in literature and a long distance trade network.
• The trade network reached out to other civilizations like Teotihuacan and the Zapotec. Common trade items included cacao, salt, sea shells, jade and obsidian.

How was this civilization conquered by the Spanish?

• Unlike the Aztec and Inca civilizations, the Mayans were much more difficult to conquer for numerous reasons. The most important was that there was not one political center, that after being overthrown, the rest of the Maya would fall into their hands. Instead the conquistadores had to over take one area at a time which proved to be harder due to the stiff resistance that was brought forth by the Mayans.
• It took the Spanish 170 years to conquer over the entire land, much longer than the other civilizations.
• The main driving point behind the conquest was the promise of riches in substantial amounts of gold and silver.

Mayan Tech

What tools did this culture use?

• On wood, the Mayans would use either fire or basalt axes to shape and manipulate it. They didn't have any metal tools due to the fact that metal was not a mineral in their inhabited area. On stone they used tools made of flint, obsidian, granite, and limestone.
• Since they were so intrigued with the stars and astronomy, Mayans also invented a calendar that they referred to as Tzolkin. This calendar had 260 days.

How did they employ the use of their tools?

• They used their tools for things such as deforestation (for agriculture) and art making.

How did they get their food?

• The Mayans were a very agriculturally advanced society that implimented techniques such as permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting. Their agriculture was based on "slash and burn" techniques. This allowed the farmers to have more fertile lands by deforesting, and burning the trees so that the ashes would enrich the soil.

What types of food did they typically grow and eat?

• A few cultivated items include: corn, beans, cacao, chile, maguey, bananas, and cotton. Although the Mayans were excellent hunters and fishers, they did not typically eat meat unless on special cerimonial occasion.

http://www.courses.psu.edu/anth/anth008_cmg149/mtl.html

http://www.crystalinks.com/mayanagriculture.html

Mayan Religion

What is the basis of their religion?

• The Mayans held strong belief in the nature gods such as the son god, rain god, and corn god. They also practiced the importance of astronomy and astrology, and a priestly class (or those high up in hierarchy such as kings or priests.)

Are they mono- or poly- theistic? What is/are their god/s?

• The Mayans were polythestic because they believed in many gods, especially the gods of nature. They believed that the gods controlled the universe and the different weather patterns (such as rain or sun).
• Their most important god was the creator god named Itzamná. He is also the god of fire and the god of hearth.

What ceremonies are praticed around their religion?

• Their common religious practices included: Astronomy, divination, human sacrifice, elaborate burial for royalty, and worship in stone pyramid-temples.

How do they observe their religious beliefs in their everyday lives?

• The Mayans believed that science and religion were one and the same. They were very intrigued by time and were able to calculate a solar year. Mathematics and astronomy were related to everyday religious rituals.

How does religion affect the hierarchy of their society?

• The Mayans believed that the priests were messangers of the gods and so they treated them with much respect. Also the higher in rank you were, the more pain you were supposed to endure during rituals. The higher one's position, the more blood was expected. Blood was drawn by jabbing spines through the ear or penis, or by drawing a thorn-studded cord through the tongue; it was then spattered on paper or otherwise collected as an offering to the gods.

How does their religion differ from Western faiths?

• Well, since most all Western faiths are monotheistic they are complete opposites. Westerners believe that there is one god and that he created everything and controls life itself. While the Mayans believed in numerous nature gods that each had their own good and bad sides and they controlled specific things in the world.

http://www.religionfacts.com/mayan_religion/index.htm

Mayan Music

What does the music of this culture sound like?

• I was not able to find information on the type of music it was, but from what i read it sounded like they used it in a mostly upbeat fashion because they were used mostly during times of celebration. On the other hand, the second most popular function for music of the Mayans was for funeral functions. During this period they had very solumn music.

What instruments are used?

• They had many different assortments of flutes and drums but absolutly no known string instruments. They used bone and whistle flutes, drums, and rattling cups

What social function does music serve?

• As I said earlier, music was most popularly used during times of celebration (such as after winning a war) and mourning (such as for a funeral), these two instances had completely different tones.

Who performs it?

• The people who performed the music were generally known as 'musicians' and it was their job. They were held above common townsfolk in hierachy terms.

http://www.mayankids.com/mmkpeople/mkmusic.htm

Mayan Art

What forms of art were practiced by this culture?

• Mayan art consisted of painting, sculpting, and carving. Like all other cultures their art reflected the thoughts of their society and culture.

In examples of this art, what visual symbols are prevalent and what is their significance?

• In mayan art, they commonly depict men and women who serve the purpose of ensuring the history of their culture. This includes people like kings and other important men and women who are in power and serve the common goal of restoring their cherished history.

Are there recurrent themes that all art from this culture has in common?

• There are many recurrent themes in art (particularly vase painting) which include: story telling, sports, accession, and bloodletting rituals. The most common vase scene is that of the royal audience (or ahau).

What mediums are used and how are they acquired/produced?

• One very popular method for painting involved delineation and painting upon paper and plaster. They also used stone and wood for carving and terra cotta figurines from molds.

http://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-art.html

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED405247&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED405247

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/wilson/ant304/projects/projects98/gaffordp/art.html

http://www.indians.org/welker/maya.htm

The Mayan Ball Game

I found out alot more research about our clever Mayan Ball Game:

• When was the rubber ball invented? Rubber and latex were used for balls by Mesoamericans as early as 1600 BC. That’s more than 3500 years ago. Centuries later, Europeans began making balls of leather, but they didn’t bounce.
• When Spaniards first saw the rubber ball bounce, they wrote in their journals that the ball must be bewitched.
• How big was the rubber ball used by ancient Mayan people? The size varied between softball and beach ball size. It weighed 8 pounds, at about the size of a watermelon.
• Were the balls used by the ancient Mayans hollow or solid? Rubber strips were wound around a smaller object to form a large hollow ball. Because it was hollow, it bounced better and higher than a solid ball.

The best quote out of here was the one about the Spaniards thinking that it was bewitched! I thought it was funny because most history books will show the Spaniards being the technologically advanced civilizations and that the indians were fools, but here it seems that the rolls were reversed.

http://www.cradleboard.org/curriculum/powwow/supplements/mayanball.html

Interview Questions

Today I worked on writing my interview questions for our Mexico project. My topic was on controversy over bulding the border fence between Mexico and America. These were the ones that I came up with:

1. Can you tell us some quick pros and cons of the fence?
2. Do you have any personal ties to the border?
3. What kind of effects will occur from a fence?
4. Do you think that a border fence will stop illegals of encourage the to try more dangerous ways of entrance?
5. On the other hand, what kind of message do we send to the illegals by deciding to back down on the fence?
6. How would the fence effect people living directly on the opposite sides (Imperial Beach, etc...)
7. Would raising the fence have good or bad effects on our economy?

The Mayan Ball Game

The Mayan Ball game was an ancient game played by the mayans that acted as a type of religious experiance. The game was very difficult and usually ended when someone scored just one goal. The captain of the losing team was often sacrificed. They played with a hard latex ball and stone hoops.

"Solid rubber balls were burned in front of images of deities and inside pyramids and shrines. In addition to the symbolism referred to above, the rubber balls were symbolic of fertility as both the Aztecs and the Maya equated the latex that flowed from inside of the tree with blood and semen."

"The goal of the game was to pass the ball around, without having it touch your hands, and then get the ball to pass through one of the rings. Since the rings were so high and players were not allowed to use their hands, it was extremely difficult to get the ball through a ring. In fact, when a player did manage to get a ball through a ring, that usually ended the game. The game ended otherwise when the ball touched the ground."

"The winners of the game were treated as heroes and given a great feast. The penalty for losing a game was unusually harsh: death. The leader of the team who lost the game was killed. This fit in with the Mayan belief that human sacrifice was necessary for the continued success of the peoples' agriculture, trade, and overall health. "

I am going to change my topic from weapons to this.

Border Fence Arguments

Today I researched arguments for and against the ever controiversial Border Fencing issue. To summarize, the main point for the side that is for raising a fence, their argument is that if we don't we are only sending messages to mexico that it is fine to illegally enter our country, that we dont really care. But what is really happening is that they are filling up all ready over crowded prisons and putting pressure on the economy by pressuring lower wages and driving others out of the job market.

Arguments for not putting up the fence include the fact that if we do that will not stop illegals from entering our country. All that will happen is that they will find some more clever and possibly more dangerous way to enter such as tunneling or illegal boating.

Source:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0314/p08s02-comv.html

The Mayans 9/4/07

After reading some information on Maya weaponry I found that before 1960, historians believed the Mayan culture to be peaceful living souls due to the lack of defence structures. Yet this was no where near the truth, Mayan city-states lived in constant warfare with each other.