Maria Full of Grace

Maria Full of Grace would fall in the movie genre of drama. It was a very interesting movie without much graphic scenes. Though the context of the movie was about drugs trafficking , it did not judge real traffickers in the movie. This is not a true story but reports some of what happens everyday in real life.

Maria- the title character is a bold, beautiful, strong, determined, and smart seventeen year old. She grew up in a small rural town north of Bogota. She worked in a menial job but had to shoulder the responsibility of her family. She left that job and got entangled with drugs but did it without her family knowing. The movie showed Maria's unpredictable odyssey from Columbia to New York- risks, determination, survival.

Take note of the title -'Maria' means Mary in Spanish; also Maria was pregnant in the movie without any vivid information of a father, just like Mary in the story of the Bible. Take note too of the picture with Maria looking up as if she is receiving communion... like what is done in a Catholic church. Why did the writer make this connections? I wonder. Also in some scenes in the movie I noticed some symbols of 'Jesus' depicted in stores as well as Maria wore a cross on her chain throughout the movie. In the hotel, one of the drug kingpins, while watching television (waiting for mules to release pellets) did the cross action across his upper chest. What's up with all these connection to the 'spirit', considering the acts that were being done? Is that all these people connected in the drug trafficking were seeking protection from the holy spirit or is it that viewers were to see them as innocent despite what they were doing? Is it that we were expected to look deep for the morals of the story?

This guy, Don Fernando, played a 'good Samaritan' in the movie. It appears as if he owns a funeral parlor and is aware of the ' drug mules' situation in New York. He helped out Maria in some sense after she told him the story about Lucy. He managed to 'pull some strings' and found Lucy's body, so she good get to be buried decently. Don Fernando appears to be a popular community figure. Lucy's sister, Carla took Maria to him so she could get a job, however he helped Maria in other ways.

This movie had much sadness, suspense and drama but exposed that there is hope after all the trauma. This is maybe another reason there were so much religious symbolism in the film. I would surely recommend others to see this film.

Tom Yoder on Great Depression

Interviewer -Studs Terkel
Interviewee -Tom Yoder
Year of interview- 1971

In this interview Tom spoke about The Great Depression of 1929. Tom is a son of a suburban housewife. He mentioned that he had never gone to bed hungry. Tom spoke about food shortages and the poverty that reigned in the Great Depression.Apparently he was told by his family who were alive in this era. He said that the depression had left scars on many people. From his interview I gathered that the upper class were the ones mainly worried because they were never used to poverty and not used to not having enough. The poor on the other hand, had it even worse because even they were accustomed to poverty but they were feeling it greatly during the depression.

Tom mentioned that the generation who grew up in the Great Depression did not want to talk about it to their other after them generation. Tom said to that it appears as if the sufferers were ashamed of the poverty they endeavored at the time. He believes that people should not be ashamed because that was a great depressive time in America's economy and that it had taught America a lot and hopefully they have learned from it and hope that it will never happen again. He thinks that the government should be the ones to be blamed and should be concerned mainly.

From the interview I gathered that Tom maybe did not have enough information about the Great Depression in a sense. It sounded like he was repeating information about what was told to him by his family who maybe were a part of the depression.


Whatever it is and however it occurred, I do pray it does not happen again... Do you think we could possibly survive another Great Depression now?

Dem. President & Congress

I hate discussing politics but since this an assignment I have to complete let me comply. There is no quick fix to the pestilineal problems that America's society is enduring right now. However, being that America is now under a new system of governance with both a Democratic President and Congress there is much to think about. Could this also mean too much government?

I do not think it has so much to do with the same party President and senate. I think it's Obama's appeal to both parties that will make a difference, if any.I hope there will be more money for schools because the youth will need this for OUR future. The next four years will definitely be challenging for us all. Having a Democrat President and senate does not mean that the Congress will support the President. The Republicans also have the liberty to stop the Democrats from passing certain laws because senate does not have 2/3 votes to do as they like.

These were the same senate and President who were with President Clinton and they created a system that caused all this financial crisis now. I figure also that a lot of 'big' government will be getting even more involved in state government.

Also I think many people will stop saving, if they have not yet done so. In previous years American saved up to 12% of their money over year. This changed when Clinton took over; and this may happen again in the next four years.

My prayer is that it all work out for the benefit of us all.(Even though we are expected to separate church from State: We will pray in secret). When everything on earth fail, we have to turn a spirit. What's your take? I understand that the spirit may not be able to help us during these four years but... it will worth a try.

To end I think both Congress and President will work to stimulate the economy but it dos not mean that all is well because they are of the same party (majority in Congress). Let's see...

Hutu & Tutsi- blog for 11/3

Well, apart from these names (Hutu, Tutsi) sounding close to curse words, there were valid and interesting information in this document. It appears as if history is repeating itself. Hutu and Tutsi is have been in fighting for years now. They have been fighting for land and identity and it seems as if they are in this rubble presently. The Tutsi are considered to be the rebels. They used to be the upper class in Rwanda and they were slaughtered in 1994 by the Hutu. Almost 1 million of them died.The Tutsi were killed by Hutu who were normally agriculturalists. The Tutsi, on the other hand, were normally cattle farmers.
The Tutsi were scattered all over the world but many returned to Rwanda after the Hutu were kicked out of Rwanda in July 1994.This seems to be an everlasting conflict that has been going on for years.Normally, every ten to fifteen years gap with peace then outbreaks of breaking occur. At times the Tutsi and the Hutu are supported by outside sources, that is, Burundi and Congo respectively.
Tutsi put up a strong fight and removed the Hutu. There were also rapes committed by the Hutu on the Tutsi people. The Tutsi were also fighting for identity in Rwanda. The Hutu in Rwanda were aided by the Hutu in Burundi: Burundi has a lot of Hutu and the Hutu feared that they were going to be under Tutsi rule like the Belgians tried to have race classes and said that the Tutsi were superior to the Hutu but capitalism changed that. Actually, both Burundi and Congo are "in bed" (supporting the Hutu) with the Hutu.