Ralph the Chosen Chief

He lost himself,

He was overcome

With astonishment.

He found himself understanding

the wearisomeness of this life.

The place of the assembly

In which he stood,

Was roughly a triangle

But irregular and sketchy,

Like everything

They made.

We have never had an assembly

This late,

But we need to put thing straight.

There must be no mistake

about this assembly,

no chasing imaginary.

The trouble is,

If your chief

You had to think

You had to be wise.

We need an assembly

Not for fun

Not for laughing,

And not for making jokes,

Or cleverness.

He took the conch,

The yellow and pink

To near-white and transperancy,

He faced the place of assembly

And put the conch on his lips.

I am from...

I am from the Mp3

From Apple and Sony.

I am from the annoying

Honking cars

To the sight

Of the distant boats.

I am from the wannabe-trees

The plastic, the fake, the outcast of nature.

I am from the family fun night

To family argument night

I am from the not going to church

And playing basketball instead.

I am from “It’s not too late.”

To “there is nothing you can do.”

I am from the faith of God

To the proof of Science

I am from going to Protestant Church,

To Catholic with my mom’s relatives.

I’m from Ecuador,

Where the hot Caldo de Bolas

Are served.

To American,

Where the smell

of fresh made Corndogs

Fill the air.

From the soft ball skills

My grandfather has kept,

The time when we

(The whole family of my dad’s side)

Went to go watch his game,

Meeting people,

I might not remember.

I am from the boxes and small books,

Hidden in the closet,

The pictures which shows

What I once was,

With memories long forgotten,

And hard to remember.

Photos that find their way

To the heart of the tree,

Where they will be safely

Stowed away.

Pray For Japan

The devastating earthquake in Japan was fitful; nobody was expecting such earthquake with such magnitude. Japan is copious when it comes to people, and this has affected the lives of many people not only in Japan, but Worldwide. Other then this 9 magnitude earthquake, it was followed broadly half an hour after, an over 10 meter tsunami that wiped out many areas of Japan.

Many family members who have relatives or friends in Japan have been fastidious with the news and trying to desperately contact them. Most people who watched the news the date of the occurrence, felt a pang of pain for the footage they showed of the people affected, and all the houses being dragged by the tsunami.

The nuclear meltdowns in the nuclear facilities, is said to decelerate Japans economic growth. They also have had electrical shortage due to the fact that these nuclear facilities create most of the energy in Japan. This is why Nuclear Plants are crucial in Japan. The nuclear meltdowns have also caused a 10 mile radius of radiation, and it has been said that the wind may carry the radiation, up to the coast of California, United States. Japan is trying to grapple the situation of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns.

Many rescue and search parties have been deployed in the coasts of Japan and areas affected by the tsunami. Adept doctors have also been sent for the aid of the survivors. This natural disaster has claimed the lives of over 10,000 people. The nuclear meltdowns have caused the evacuation of over 200,000 people.

The Japanese government is trying to keep everything under control, and are taking care of the situation gingerly, and having to make quick decisions. Other countries of the world have also gone to Japans aid, and have volunteered to help Japan get back to its formal self.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The significance of The House on Mango Street is that this was the where her new house was located, in which the memoirist-Esperanza-with her mother father, two younger brothers, and sister moved into. Also this was the first house her family had owned, “The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn’t a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom.” (3) This is where Esperanza spends most of her coming of age years. Mango Street is where she learns life lessons that will help her in the future, and it’s where she creates her ambition of being a free women.

The memoirist of the book is Esperanza, a young Mexican girl who moved into Mango Street. She had to face different coming of age issues such as being self conscious about herself and how she looks, Awareness of sexuality-as in she was noticing boys more, “All night the boy who is a man watches me dance. He watched me dance.” (48).She also had to face situations and problems that she didn’t have full understanding of in the moment, moment she wasn’t ready for and was too young to understand.

The story is set up in chronological order from the time she got onto Mango Street, and each story is set up in vignettes that talk about parts of her life, in which she learned life lessons and discovered who she was. They never specify her age, but the reader can give a good guess on what her age is, depending by the story. The farther into the book you go, the older she becomes and more the more knowledge she acquires, from people she meets along the way.
Esperanza came to find out about herself was that, she wanted to be a free woman, not one that was stuck indoors, but one that could go out when she wanted, she wanted to enjoy life. She also learned other life lessons, watching and experiencing different moments in Mango Street. Mango Street, the people, and her personal experience there have taught her much of the knowledge she has.

This book was interesting at many points to read, it shows you how a person from Mexico can have a hard time living in America, through the eyes of a young teenager growing up. It shows you how people stick to stereotypes and judge people before they know them. Every vignette keeps you thinking on how this is actually happening to people, many of her stories can be related to. It is a really good book; Sandra Cisneros kept the book real and intriguing to read.

two lines I loved were, “In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It mean sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.” Pg.10 and, “Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake.” Pg. 28.

I Believe...

I believe in Music,
To calm a person down
Like the ocean,
After a ferocious storm.

I believe that brothers
Can be a pain,
But they always find a way
To teach you something new.

I believe in Patience,
To wait, observe, and listen
Like a predator
Stalking its prey.

I believe that a person
Can’t and doesn’t change,
But just learns
How to act differently.

I believe in creativity,
It creates who you are,
And what you’re going to be.

I Believe that playing a instrument,
Doesn’t only take raw skills
But dedication and time

I believe in taking risks
Even if the out come
May seem bad.

I believe that everyone
Should have a chance
To live life at its full potential

I believe that a beginning always has an end
And the length of it

is variable.

Memories to Remember

Thrown into the interrogation room John sat down on the chair and his head started to hurt. He felt claustrophobia and began to swelter. He never was a big fan of closed rooms. The room had four walls; one of the walls had a big window that he couldn’t see through from his side. In front of the table that he was sitting was placed a chair, which he apprehended that was for the person who was going to interrogate him. Time elapsed slowly and he began to feel as if he was shackled to the room as if he was never going to leave.

Suddenly a thin man wearing a black suit came in with a note book and said, “We are going to ask you a few questions and you must answer them thoroughly. Also we have a lie detector, so don’t even think of lying to us. Now wait till my work partner arrives. Oh and I’m Steven, my partner is Dave.”

5 minutes later another man came in also wearing a black suit. Johns head began to hurt more, and didn’t know why. Then he receives memory of blood and a knife and a silhouette of a person running away, which seemed to be running away from him. John falls off the chair grabbing his head. The two men kneel down and help John up.

“Should we really continue this interrogation, I mean he clearly doesn’t seem to be feeling well, and he has suffered memory loss.”

“Well, his wife did hit him with a baseball bat in the head, because he was trying to kill her.” John watches as the two men murmured between each other, his headache has seized, and he was able to remember vague things that he had forgotten. “Was he really trying to kill someone, did he succeed, who did he try to kill?” these were the questions he was thinking of. His mind was in a state of anarchy, he had no clue what was going on. Then Steve began to interrogate him and later Dave also did the same, but they weren’t able to get anything.

“It’s imminent that he will recover those memories, but we must help him remember them.” Whispers Steven to Dave.

“All he remembers was that he was hit really hard by something. He also remembers that he was arraigned, but he was clueless of what. His doctors said that little by little he will first uncover vague and small memories, and later he will recall the scene. Maybe if we take him to his house he would be able to recall the scene.” Says Dave.

“Good Idea.” Responded Dave (Him and Steven almost never have dissensions which is why they are one of the best work partners), and tells John that they were taking him home. When they go inside the house, John noticed that the place they called “His House” was completely calamitous. It was completely bizarre that John didn’t remember even though he was in the actual crime scene he had caused, but suddenly while they were walking next to a sports store John saw a baseball bat and his head began to ache. Then he remembered the bat he had given his wife when they were at a baseball game, and it got signed by the player he lionized. This was the same bat she used to him in the head. Then he remembered that he has conspired to kill his own wife, because she was driving him insane, and getting him mad.

Once again Dave and Steve meticulously helped him up, but then John made a run for it, he had been caught and it was imminent that he was going to go to jail and going to jail was the last thing he wanted. He ran as fast as he could and lost Dave and Steve, and assimilated into the multitude of people. There was a killer on the loose…

The Dispute

“You guys have to be likes Samuel! He always does his homework and gets A’s!” My Mom says directing it to my brother and me. He is being lionized once again eating pounds of ice cream and watching T.V. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was grinning right now, because he knew we would be grounded and he would be able to use my Computer (Which I will hide).
“Mom, HE is in THIRD GRADE and I’m in EIGHTH GRADE don’t you expect things to be harder in my grade, and look this test grade is just a B+ yeah I probably could have done better, but I wasn’t well prepared.” I say
“Yeah, because you’re always chatting on Skype instead of doing HW, and you always tell me that your done doing homework AND studying.” I knew if I kept this dissension was going to keep going and the outcome was going to be negative, so all I did was say that I was sorry for not studying properly… bla bla bla. This wasn’t enough she was going to come back later, but for now it was all SHE needed to hear.
Next was my brother Zachary’s turn, He has to fend for himself. My mom is already mad at me enough, and hiding homework deserves a big consequence. I meticulously place my ear on my brother’s room door, and listen to my mom talk to him seriously about not hiding his homework and things like that. I got bored after a while and decided I wanted to go take a walk in Multicentro.
“Hey Mom can I go to Multicentro?” I ask
“Yeah, Yeah you can do whatever you want!” She answered, yeah she is still mad, but she said yes.
I go to the movie theater and assimilated into the line of people waiting to buy tickets and left when I got to the counter. I just remembered that I left my money at home.

"Damn I have to return home now..." I say to myself, and walk out into the sidewalk of the streets.