March 7

Catholic Influence in Columbia

The Church

-present everywhere and rarely questioned
-formal actions greatly important
-attendance at mass high, more serious among women than men- church attendance attested to womans virtue
-primary rites such as baptism, communion, marriage, and extreme unction marked the main turning points in life, identified you as a social being
-Part of everyones cultural heritage passed on like language

Class Influence

-members of upper class had close personal relations with members of religious hierarchy
-in the rural villages, they were more devout but their catholicism was different than those in cities- fused with practices of indigenous, African, and Spanish
rural villages more careful to fulfill religious obligations to protect themselves from supernatural punishment
-Virgin Mary and Saints were deeply revered, said to be more accessible than God and could intervene in ones temporal affairs

Social Influence

-church exercised considerable influence in many areas including education, social welfare, and union organization
-control over education in Columbia was strongest in Latin America and even greater than the officials suggested
-Center for Research and Popular Education organized by church and staffed by diocesan priests
-Colombian Charity and Communal Action set up by church for  social welfare

 

Resources: http://countrystudies.us/colombia/52.htm

https://prezi.com/6jlbkxadmhzy/religion-in-the-colombian-society-in-1950/

September 28

1950’s racism as explored in Brooklyn

In the Brooklyn, racism is one of the big themes. Toibin doesn’t use this theme for just let readers emphasize with Eilis’s immigrant experience. It is a historical fiction, the book published at 2009 but it passes at the 1950s therefore, to be able to give the taste of the 1950s, Toibin uses the themes that created conflicts at that time period. Racism is one of them and actually, it comes with the immigrant experience. In the part of the book, it clearly stated that white people don’t like black people. They think black people will come and steal their job and life. As I researched and understood, the situation was exactly like that, it was actually harsher but in a nutshell, I think Toibin is right.

I found out the situation was poor -compared to now, but the African American community also had been doing better economically, largely due to wider trends of the United States. I can’t say the same for the racism though… Racism was much more open and the sharp competition for the lucrative manufacturing jobs often led to street violence among migrant blacks and other immigrant groups. As we can understand, the situation was not so bright. Right now, if the cops are shooting unarmed people now when they know they are on camera, I can’t imagine what they were like to blacks before the dawn of phone cameras and the Internet like in the 50s.

Speaking of racism, there were two (actually more) iconic victories in the supreme court. One of them is Brown Vs. Board of Education Topeka (1954). This was an iconic and landmark court cases that reflected on the future of blacks for education. This court case declared the laws of segregating black and white schools to be unconstitutional. The second one was, Sweatt vs. Painters (1950). Hemen Marion Sweatt was declined access to school in the University of Texas. The university didn’t want any blacks or mixed to be a part of the district. In Travis County, the state court issued a school only for black students in Houston Texas.

If we look at the book, we can see Eilish is different from the other immigrants. She treated differently and in my estimation, this is because of the Father Flood. As we talked about in the class, the religion is very critical in those days. Eilis would have never gotten to America without him. He went to school thanks to him, and she has some legit immigration papers -and it is arduous to get at those days. Probably in the future, those papers will help her about job or wedding. Other immigrants might not get a proper job, but she can and she did in the book.

People changed a lot. Racism is still a major problem in the worldwide but people started to unite. I still believe we have a long way to the worldwide peace but we made some pretty big steps towards to light. Especially new education systems like IB and AP, show how to be the one for the world, not for a nation or a skin color. The news is easily around of the world now, a photograph, a video can change a person’s mindset. It affects the world both ways but we can’t ignore the positive ways.

September 16

The Lonely Book in “Brooklyn”

5 years ago, I read a small text about a lonely book. I never thought that someone can be that lonely. Look around you… We are living in a huge planet and there are millions of people. How can someone be that “lonely”? However, in the text that I read, the author was describing himself as a colorful kids book. The book was the fortieth book in a giant shelf, there were lots of books; the green one, the red one, the black one and neither of them can understand the author. In the shelf, they never spoke. They had different stories, different words but they never spoke with each other. In the middle of the text, the books’ colors changes and one by one they fall off from the shelf.

Loneliness is one of the most powerful effects on a human being. Expats know this feeling, teenagers know this feeling. I know this feeling and, Eilis knows this feeling. Being lonely or isolated is a curse for some people. For some people, it is just an another obstacle in a marathon and they just jump over, Eilis is one of those people. The first time she came to Brooklyn, she was scared, she felt alone and isolated but the most important thing was her home was not there. She knew no one so she was no one for those people in the city. However, she makes a quick shift with help from her boyfriend, Tony. Tony is a big symbol for her. He is a part of the family for her. In the end of the text that I read, a little girl comes and reads him and other people come and read the others. The books relief and people put them back on the shelf. In the book, Tony puts Eilis on the shelf, he reminds her that she is not lonely. When Eilis understands that, she knows, the home is about the people, not about the land.