TorresPortfolio
Author: Judith
DACA
   The purpose of DACA is to protect eligible immigrant youth who came to the United States when they were children from deportation. Since the Trump administration announced on September 5, 2017, that it was ending DACA, several lawsuits have been filed against the administration for terminating it unlawfully. The supreme court stated that DACA recipients who currently have or previously had DACA can continue to submit applications to renew their DACA. I’ve decided to reach out to the Supreme court because even though they’re not the reason for why this became an issue in the first place but because they have the final say in all of this. I’ll also be talking to the Dreamers because we are the ones who are being affected most by this act that the Trump Administration has made.Â
   The only reason I’m saying “we” is not because I’m part of the immigrant youth but because I have family members who are immigrants and whose life will be changed and affected by whatever decision the Supreme Court decides on. Not just their life will be affected but also mine and other people who will be forced to say goodbye to family members. Think about your decision carefully and cautiously. Please don’t take DACA away, it gives them the opportunity to further their own development, provide for themselves and their loved ones, and participate in their communities without fear of deportation. These individuals are called “Dreamers”, named after the DREAM Act, a piece of legislation first introduced in Congress in 2001 that would afford these individuals permanent legal status. About 800,000 dreamers have DACA. Just think about those 800,000 individuals whose lives are going to be affected by the decision you all agree on. Dreamers should be allowed to stay in the United States, even if they came here “illegally” because they did not make the choice for themselves. There’s no place in American law that penalizes children for the actions of their parents.
   DACA has provided a pathway for children and young adults, like you dreamers, who came to the United States with your parents to legally obtain a Social Security Number, driver’s license, enroll in college and work. Terminating DACA would mean that 800,00 of you will be losing your jobs which may mean lacking income to make payments on a car loan, rent, mortgage, school tuition, or to help your families. It could also mean being sent back to your motherland, even though many of you probably can’t even remember living in any country other than the United States, where you all have grown up. They don’t seem to understand that the reason for why you guys are here in the United States is for a better life, greater opportunities, medical support that your motherlands may not have, to support families back at home, for a second chance, etc. They blame all the hate and crime on you dreamers because they don’t seem to want to take responsibility for their actions and take the blame. You dreamers need to show that you all are stronger than ever and that you all will fight to protect your DACA and everything that comes with it.
Citations:
DACA and DREAM Act 101, September 7th, 2017, World Relief
Daca-and-dream-act-101Â
National Immigration Law Center, DACA Heads To The U.S. Supreme Court, September 25, 2017
Daca-heads-to-scotus-scenarios
U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services, February 14, 2018
https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca
Reflection On Annotated Bibliography
My annotated bibliography was based on Stephen King Horror Films. I learned a lot of things from writing this annotated bibliography. What I first learned was that all of the sources started by giving the reader a summary of the plot of the movie then they go in depth on the ending of the movie. They talk about why that was the ending and why it’s so significant/important to the overall film. They all also talk about what the films overall message/idea is and they try to think about what lead King to think of such a message and still be able to convert it into such an amazing horror film. What I learned from writing this annotated bibliography is that all of Stephen Kings novels and films end up being a New York Times bestseller. I also learned that all Stephen King’s books are all connected. Many of his books share locations and characters across parallel universes. Which only means that the movies are also all connected because they’re based off of the novels. From the topic of my annotated bibliography I would like to learn how Stephen King comes up with the ideas of his novels. I know that for ‘The Shining’, it was inspired by The Stanley Hotel and a dream that he had while staying at The Stanley Hotel in room 237. So it would be interesting to learn if all his novels and films are based on dreams and personal experiences or how else does he come up with such amazing novels. Some strengths that I learned I have was that when an interesting topic/question comes up and I have to do classwork or homework for it, my mind quickly thinks about what it wants me to write down on paper. Sometimes I just keep writing and writing, even if they’re imperfect sentences, because I don’t wan’t to loose my train of thought. I understand what I wrote or what I was trying to write so I go back and fix my sentences so they’re grammatically correct and proper to read and understand incase the teacher wants us to share what we have written down with other students in the same class or if it’s so we can hand it in on open lab as homework. For example, for this reflection homework it was easy for me to do because it’s just me reflecting on work I’ve done and my skills in writing. I don’t need to look something up on the internet for it to help me with my homework because this homework is based off of knowledge not a passage I had to read and try to understand. Some challenges I had was that I’m not the best at rewriting someone else’s work in my own words for my homework so sometimes it takes me a while to do my homework. For example when writing about a short story we read in class, I don’t want to copy down exactly what the reader wrote because sometimes the writers explains what he is trying to communicate which might also be what I’m supposed to do for my homework so it’s hard for me to not want to write exactly what she wrote so I try my best to say what she wrote but in my own words as if I’m the reader and I myself am trying to explain what I was trying to communicate to the reader. What I would like to evolve is how much I write and if my grammar and punctuation are correct when I’m using them.
Annotated Bibliography
Judith Torres
Annotated Bibliography
                                                           Stephen King Horror Films
Stephen King is a very popular author of horror fiction. Stephen King who is also known as The unchallenged “King of Horror”. In his books, movies, etc. he blends elements of the traditional gothic tale with those of the modern psychological, thrillers, detective, and science fiction stories. As a boy king found a box of fantasy horror fiction books and stories that had belonged to his father, and he read them all. By the time Stephen was seven he had begun writing his own stories. Many of King’s stories are semi autobiographical, meaning that they are taken in part from some of his own experiences. Many of the locations he writes about are based on the places he grew up in and visited. His population comes from him being able to create stories in which evil occurs in ordinary situations. In 1973, King sold his first novel, Carrie, the tale of a tormented teen who gets revenge on her peers.The book became a huge success after it was published the following year.
     (“Stephen King Biography”, //www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/King-Stephen.html)
Some of Stephen King’s horror films are Carrie, IT: chapter 1 & chapter 2, The Shining, In The Tall Grass, 1922, Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game and Misery.Â
In the ending of Carrie: The house was set aflame due to some of the lit candles falling down. And it eventually sank underground, taking Carrie and Margeret with it. Carrie kills her mother by stopping her heart, but nothing happens to the house.Â
                              (Rodriguez, Maddie, “The Many Endings of Carrie”, Book Riot, //bookriot.com/2016/07/12/anatomy-of-a-scene-the-many-endings-of-carrie/)
In the ending of The Shining: It ends with the death of Jack, as well as the hotel that goes up in flames due to an aging boiler with jack freezing to death, and the hotel still in one piece, Kubrik said this ending would haunt the audience.
                            (Paonessa, Rachel, “The Shining Ending Explained.”, Indie 88, //indie88.com/the-shining-ending-explained/)
In the ending of IT: “Chapter 1: Bill can united with the others and together they overcome their own fears — each manifested again in turn by Pennywise — and attack the creature both physically and with their imaginations, wounding it badly and sending it back even further down into the depths beyond the sewers and tunnels underneath Derry. Then after having defeated him, for now, they come back and the promise each other to come back if Pennywise came back by cutting their hand with a rock. Chapter 2: They all go down into the sewers and begin to perform the ritual, which involves chanting and burning tokens, but it doesn’t work. Mike lied about the Ritual of ChĂĽd, not revealing that the Native Americans who attempted it were killed by Pennywise. Pennywise attacks again, this time taking the form of a giant spider/clown hybrid, sending the Losers running. Each once again has to face their worst fears. Eddie is killed by Pennywise after thinking he’s defeated it by stabbing it with the same metal weapon from the first film, but that provides inspiration for the others.” They realize that the best way to defeat the bully is to stand up to it and make it seem small. Pennywise shrinks and shrinks until he becomes tiny. Finally, Bill reaches into it and pulls what it calls a heart of chest, crushing it and seemingly killing it for good.
                       ( Hunt, James, “IT Chapter Two Ending Explained”, Screen Rants,             //screenrant.com/it-chapter-2-movie-ending-explained/)
In the ending of In The Tall Grass: “Whatever “wisdom” the rock gave Travis allows him to send Tobin out, back to the church on the side of the road. There, Tobin is able to warn Becky and Cal to ignore a past Tobin’s cries from the grass. He stops them from ever entering the grass by showing Becky the charm Travis gave him, after Travis took it from a dead Becky earlier. The nonlinear nature of time in the grass makes it so everything is happening at once, and since those trapped in it are reborn again and again, it gives Becky a chance to take a different path entirely. This time she chooses to turn around and go home to raise her baby with her family. Travis is also saved, even though he dies. We see the fate of those who succumbed to the rock’s evil when Becky gives birth in front of it. The ground opens, and it’s revealed those damned souls were absorbed into its roots where they were made to suffer for eternity.” They will never escape the grass. They were not redeemed.Â
            (Walsh, Michael, “The Ending of Netflix’s In The Tall Grass Explained”, Nerdist, //nerdist.com/article/in-the-tall-grasss-ending-explained/)
In the ending of 1922: “Wilfred discovers this not through the papers but from the ghost of Arletter; she, flanked by rats, corners him in the house’s basement and she “whispered secrets to me only a dead woman could know”. The farm falls into disrepair, with a massive hole in the roof letting snow pour in and a cow taking up residence in the living room. While the police wrongfully solve the mystery of Arlette’s disappearance, that doesn’t draw a line under it either; Wilfred end up selling the farm for a much lower price than Arlette ever wanted (the reason he killed her) and leaves for work in the city he once despised, only to keep having to move on after feeling hunted by rats. At the end, as he writes his story (the film’s framing device), rats pour in through the walls and surround him.” He begins to realize that everything bad that has happened to him and those around him is a result of his single, selfish, short-sighted decision. It’s a very dark version of the “grass is always greener” adage, telling a story where things can only possibly get worse from the start.Â
                              ( Leadbeater, Alex, “1922’s Ending Explained”, Screen Rant, //screenrant.com/1922-movie-ending-rats-explained/1/)
In the ending of Misery: “Despite being mortally wounded, she managed to escape the bedroom and died in her barn with her hands on a chainsaw, which she presumably intended to use on sheldon. In the movie, sheldon kills her by ramming a metal statue of her pet sow pig – names Misery after his stories – into her head.” Paul can’t write and has horrible visions of Annie coming to attack him, though he learns the troopers that they found Annie died from her injuries in her barn.
(“Misery Summary and Study Guide”, Super Summary, //www.supersummary.com/misery/summary/)
For a good portion of his career, King wrote novels and stories at a breakneck speed. The film The Shining released in 1980 and became a renowned horror thriller that has stood the rest of the time. King also wrote Joyland in 2013, a pulp fiction style thriller that takes readers on a journey to uncovering whos behind an unsolved murder. Then surprised the audience by releasing Doctor Sleep in 2013, a sequel to the Shining, with Sleeping hitting number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.Â
Movie review: The SAW movies
The Saw movies are psychological thrillers. These movies involve crazy murder machines and absurdly intricate storylines. Â According to The Hollywood Reporter by THR staff on the first Saw movie, “Saw boasts an undeniably original premise and clever plot machinations that lift it several notches above the usual slasher-film level.”. All eight movies are ranked from best to worst; 1. Saw (2004), 2. Saw II (2005), 3. Saw VI (2009), 4. Saw III (2006), 5. Saw V (2008), 6. Jigsaw (2017), 7. Saw IV (2007), 8. Saw 3D (2010). The first Saw movie is ranked number one because “Upon revisitation, the original Saw is practically quaint compared to the rest of the series, which levels up the gore and transforms the simple starting plot into a Byzantine rat ,as of interlocking and overlapping narratives.”. Saw 3D was the worst movie because “despite the fact that the franchise had accumulated more than $700 million over the course of six movies, and the fact that 3D cost a whopping $20 million to make, the seventh movie felt the cheapest by far.”.
Literacy Narrative
The Perks Of Growing Up Bilingual
Going into my first years of elementary, I never really had any trouble with English. My first language is Spanish. I grew up talking in Spanish to both my mom and my dad all the time. But as I got older, I started talking to my sister in English and because of that, I Skipped pre-K because I didn’t need a lot of help with knowing how to write, read, and talk in Spanish. So going into kindergarten, of course my teacher was still a bilingual teacher because everyone in my neighborhood was latin/hispanic. So apart from knowing Spanish she knew english as well but it wasn’t a bilingual class. It was just a regular kindergarten class. I remember this one assignment she had given us, which was that we had to use the words she gave us on a sheet of paper to form sentences. I remember being the first one to finish the assignment. Some kids were still having trouble to form sentences because they couldn’t make of some of the words that were on the paper. For me, because I’ve been writing and reading in English since before I started school, it was easy. Since I had finished my assignment before everyone else in the class, the teacher congratulated me in front of the whole class for being able to finish early and without any help. Because I had already finished, I was able to do whatever I wanted to like draw, play, take a nap, whatever. Of course, as long as I was still inside the classroom. While all the other kids had to try and figure out how to form the sentences. This made me realize how lucky I am to be able to know how to talk, read, and write in both English and Spanish at such a young age. I didn’t struggle as much in my first years of elementary school due to what I already knew. I feel like if you know a certain language well enough, especially English, then you won’t struggle as much in whatever it is you’re doing because wherever you go there’s going to be at least one person who knows English. Knowing English is kind of like a perk because everyone knows at least a little bit of English. I guess you can say that English is a universal language. Of course I never forgot how to read and write in Spanish thanks to my parents which I’m thankful for because I didn’t want to loose that side of me; my Latina side.
Personal Experience.
I dont necessarily remember this moment, but I remember my mother telling me that I was ahead of  all the other kids in my year because most of the kids, since they were latin and some of them were the only child so they grew up only talking, reading, and writing in Spanish, had to take a bilingual class. Me, on the other hand, didn’t have to take a bilingual class since I already knew how to talk, read, and write in Spanish. So since english wasn’t a problem for me, I got to learn advanced materials than all the other kids. I even got to skip a grade. While everyone else had to take an extra class because their english wasn’t the best and their skills in reading and writing also weren’t the best. I obviously still had a teacher who spoke both english and Spanish because of the neighborhood I grew up in that was made up of hispanics and latinos. But because my teachers were starting to be only english speakers, my Spanish was fading away. I was starting to forget how to write, read, and say certain words in Spanish. English was starting to take over my Spanish. Which was beginning to scare me because I didn’t want to forget my first language, the language I use to be able to communicate with my family. So I began, not only talking to my sister in english, but in Spanish too. I’d also start writing and reading a lot more in Spanish than I’d use to. So not only was I got in reading, writing, and talking in Spanish but also in english.
Sandra Cisneros “Only Daughter”
I can relate a lot to how Sandra Cisneros feels. Not on the part of being the only daughter in a family of six sons but on the fact that I also want my parents to be proud of me and to recognize me for the things I achieve and as an individual apart from my sibling. Just like Sandra who wants her dad to think of her as more than a daughter who should go to college to find a husband, but as his only daughter, the writer. Instead of only his daughter who teaches. Everything she’s ever written has been for her father. To have his approval. Which I believe is something a lot of kids want from their parents; approval, understanding, appreciation, etc.
Malcolm X “Learning to Read”
What I found interesting about this reading was that Malcolm X didn’t waste his 7 years in prison doing absolutely nothing. He made use of his time by getting hold of a dictionary to study and learn some words. He started by copying words off the dictionary onto a tablet with his pencil down to the punctuation marks. Then he’d read out loud everything he had written down over and over again. Which I actually admire that he did because he didn’t let being locked away stop him from learning more words that he never knew existed or could possibly exist. I found it amazing that he didn’t just remember the words themselves, but their definitions all in a day. He took action, he changed the fact that he wasn’t able to express what he wanted to convey in letters that he wrote.
