The Paerregaard article talks about how the transnational citizens use the Virgin of Carmen as a mediation and media to express their ties to the original community in Cabanaconde. When people moved from one place to another, it is difficult for them to not feeling any cultural shock as well as the conscious difference. Therefore, they tend to use objects that could represent their culture in order to keep their original identity when being in a foreign land. Because I think when people moved to a new place, they may encounter the difficulty of distinguishing themselves. Their identities as Cabanacondes would be blurred and may be override and they will find themselves lost to both of them. Thus, the practice of the traditional habits or original customs are the ways they could potentially use to stay in their true identities and not being fully washed. Virgin of Carmen is a great example of showing this. People practicing this fiesta, traveling back to their homeland and spending thousands of hard earned money only means to preserve their ties to their culture and identity and connect to the tradition. However, when people are practicing the Virgin of Carmen, difference and divisions are shown. The preparations for the fiesta will emphasize some people’s success and exclusiveness over others who don’t have the chance and it’s often a signal to distinguish those who have achieved the social status as both transnational migrants and global cosmopolitans and those who do not.

But the old tradition changes with times and there are several big changes. The used to be villager’s agro-religious calendar and big event that emphasize protecting the good will of the local religious force has changed to serve as a tool for the migration to show their loyalty and their success in the cities. Also, it has switched from a rural religious life into a metropolitical lifestyle. It creates new relation of inequality and social tensions that thorough the change of the meaning of participation into the religious activity.

U.S. Imposes Sanctions on 10 More Venezuelan Officials

Venezuela, in recent years, has experienced some serious economic downturns as well as political chaos. The country’s vulnerable economy, which mainly relies on the exports of the oil, has been greatly influenced by the decrease in the oil price. Despite the fact that the country is troubled by the economic issues, the irresponsible government is not taking their responsibility to protect their citizens’s well-bings, which even further deteriorates the situation in Venezuela. In addition, the policies that the president Maduro and his bureaucracy have made are not helping the situation, but generating more problems. The U.S has blamed the government for their inactions and call the president Maduro a dictator. In this article, U.S shows their stance towards the Venezuelan government by imposing the economic sanctions on more than ten Venezuelan officials.

In fact, the U.S has long been having issues with Venezuela. In 2002, the bilateral relation has hit the worst when the then Venezuelan president accused the U.S of supporting a failed coup attack against his presidency. In reaction to the U.S inlegitemate conduct, the country starts to form alliance with countries that are amity to the U.S and rejected the aid from the U.S-led help group when there are millions of people inside the country who cannot access to the basic life necessities.

Several days ago, the U,S president Trump has ordered the economic sanctions against serval Maduro’s bereau. The reason for the sanction upon those officials, from the U.S perspective, is because those people have violated the human rights, engagement in corruption, illegal interference in election and inhibition of freedom of speech. Five of them were charged of participating the regional election using clandestine methods, several of them were accused of aggressively controlling the news media and the vice president was designated as a narcotics trafficker who controlled the planes and drug routes and protected and facilitated other narcotics traffickers operating in the South American country.

In my opinion, this news is connected to the course theme because economic issues are negatively affecting Latin American countries. South America used to be the most vibrant economy in the world with its high-speed annual growth rate. However, countries like brazil, which was considered to be the strongest economy in South America diminished. Also, often times, the economic issues are often correlated with the corrupt governmental agencies. The president is not taking a spear role in reforming the economy and the bureau itself, but to stir the election, trying to seize its power. Therefore, establishing the responsible and competent government agencies are the most indispensable steps to address the issues like economic instability.

The day of the dead(Días de Muertos)is one of the biggest festival across the Mexican mainl. It is widely celebrated asthe national holiday by most of the Mexicans and people with Mexican ancestry in the U.S. It is also recognized by other countries as well. During this day, people will build private altars and use calaveras or the favorite food of the departed to honor the dead. People believe that the the dead will temporally come back to life on this day.

Yesterday, in Mexico, they held the annual festival of the day of the dead. Only one thing is different this time, people also paid their tribute to the people who had been killed during the 7.1 magnitude quake that almost causes the tsunami. The quake resulted in more than 500 people getting killed. People were feeling low and sad. But the tragedy did not stop the people from attending the parade. One of the person who had joined the parade says that the “parade could be a distraction, a way of escaping”. Thousands of onlookers had shown their spirit with the casualty and demonstrating the resilient characteristics of the Mexican people. More than 300.000 people have joined the parade, up from 200.000 last year. People painted their faces as skulls and bodies that ensemble the skeletons. 

This news is corresponding to our course theme: identities in latin America. This tradition is a great way to show that the unique culture shared by the Mexican people and its mental relief over people.  Participants demonstrate their resilient and unbroken characteristics even in the time of extreme conditions. “Be Strong Morelos,” said of one of the participants, Reuters reported.

First, Thank you to People who commented on my talk page.

They said that since the topic is very interesting and less known, I should add some information why the monks chose to renovate La Cathedral. Thus, I will incorporate the reason for the renovation in my talk page. And in terms of the sequencing the sections, I will fix that in order to fit the flow of the passage. And I will paraphrase the direct quote that I have used in order to prevent the plagiarism. However, speaking of the sources for the article, It is difficult to find more sources for the article since the topic is indeed a narrowly focused topic and even though it’s been presented in some of the books or journals, still, only a small number of words have been given for the description of La Catedral. Most resources that I could find is through the periodicals.  In addition, I intend to add a section that mainly addresses how people have dug deep inside the prison to find the hidden money Pablo Escobar has buried underground. It would be an interesting fact to add to the passage.

The central argument in this chapter is that the racialization of the Reggaetón in the U.S. has created the social prejudice to the hispanic artists in the same way they did to the African American musicians. The images and messages delivered by the media portray the hispanic and African American as violent, dangerous and deviant and their value as a counterpoint towards the mainstream value. The music genre, like raggaetón and hiphop are considered as “urban”, for their hyper sexual lyrics. Hence, The negative portraits of the music genre only will deepen the racialization and impose negative influence on the race itself.

The process of racialization represented Reggaetón and communities associated with it as “not quite black” and therefore, makes the artists less likely to assimilate into the mainstream. Then, with the false delivery which only deepens the negative influence toward the Hurban musicians by the media, people start to relate the Reggeatón with the hiphop music and even consider the booming music genre as part of the hiphop culture. With the efforts the Reggaeneros has done, it gradually become a music genre. However, its situation only gets even worse. The economic factor actually plays an important role in the evolution of the Reggaetón. Since most of the artists who performed Reggaetón are from lower class and poverty afflicted neighborhood, their lyrics always reflect their true wishes. However, it gives the media a reason to portray the reggaetón as the urban and deviant without the proper coverage of the underlying reasons.

The Raggaetón composes an interesting way to help understand and learn more about the cultural exchange. I think the media plays a major role in shaping people’s view towards the newly booming subject. Right now, most of media covers the news with prejudice, which poses the difficulty to the people to actually understand the subjects. For instance, without totally understating the social background, it is too partial to just relate the Reggaetón or Hiphop as deviant and violent.

Comment on Jovi’s Wikipedia project.

In my opinion, this Makoko floating school in the article serves as a model for combating the issues of education in Latin American. In some areas that are greatly affected by the climate change and natural catastrophe, the model of the floating school is extremely helpful in adjusting to the extreme weather. The students wouldn’t have to move around when, for example, the flood or the heavy rains come and they will have more opportunities to study. As we all know, the human development is a serious issue in some Latin American countries. In order to address the problems and better the society, the wholeness of the education is the key. Therefore, attention needs to be drawn to those kids who don’t have the chance for a good study environment. Because they’re the future of their countries and they are the ones that could save the country. Adding more information to this section may give people an idea of the Floating School.

Comment on Cesar’s Wikipedia project

The culture of the indigenous people, not only just in the Latin America, but also across the globe, is being threatened. As well know, some cultures still play an influential and important role in the national level. Countries like Mexico are giving attention to the preservation of the indigenous groups’ identities. But, as Cesar puts it, countries like the Guatemala is not giving full attention towards the protection of the indigenous group. I am seriously concerned about some sub-culture in China being threatened due to the urbanization. Therefore, I believe that if we could add more information and spare more energy in the protection of the indigenous group, people would have more opportunity to know these indigenous groups more, which could help increase the public awareness.

Comment on Keira’s Wikipedia project

I think the understanding of the La Violencia and the National Front a great step toward addressing the serious violence problems in Columbia. The result of the La Violencia is intimidating. The liberal civil war claimed more than 200.000 people’s lives. And the ending of the civil war also gave birth to a bipartisanship in Columbia. In order to address the serious issues that are now entangling Columbia, we first have to understand its history. The key to the future is the past. The history could tell us a great deal and help us to make predictions of the future. In addition, the disarming of the FARC group could also give us the hint of its future roles in the Columbian politics. We would know that how the coming of the new player would benefit the political system in Columbia or actually will deteriorate the current situation. (it’s not related to the blog)

Baozou Big News Event is a very popular weekly Internet talk show in China. Starting from 2013, Baozou Big News Event has been on for 4 years and has 5 seasons. The show covers the topics of news, literature, history, psychology, geography, politics, chemistry, biology and more. The Host always wears a headgear of the Rage Comic and uses humorous words to report ridiculous news events. Since 2008, it has been watched 0.38 billion times. The show is an important component of Chinese people’s free time. But I cannot find a very updated information from the Wikipedia page. The wiki article is only two paragraphs long and it’s not even accurate.  Since the talk show is closely updating, I find that the last edited time is half a year ago. In addition, the description for the talk show is painfully simple and there is nothing about several important characters which compose to the overall popularity of the talk show, for example, Wang Nima, Tang Maru and etc. The reference is also not updated and they are all the information from 2015. Therefore, we could see a huge content gap.

Link used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bao_Zou_Big_News_Events