Author: Brian

As of right now , the world is dealing with a deadly virus known by everyone as the coronavirus or COVID-19. It has deeply impacted the world as we get to see how many countries have gone into lockdown or have taken action in order to stop the spread of this virus. We can see people starting to panic buy and immediately emptying the isles of many supermarkets in order to be stocked just in case of a home quarantine bound to happen at any given moment. The way I am dealing with this is just by staying at home and not leaving at all that is unless my mom or aunt want to go buy products at the supermarket so we could be ready for the quarantine. I am sanitizing myself everytime or even washing my hands as advised by everyone. I can see how it has impacted my family living in the house because of their jobs. Recently, my aunt’s job has been closed for two weeks. My mother’s job has been closed for two weeks as well and my uncle who works in a restaurant doesn’t experience a busy day anymore due the restaurant only has the option to deliver or pick up. My cousin no longer has school but his school is taking the similar action of most colleges right now and that is trying to work with online classes. I am very confused as to why people are buying toilet papers, I have seen people literally fight over toilet papers and yet I have not seen a logical reason behind this. Right now I am getting all my news from social media and my family that live with me since they watch the news a lot. The thing that has shocked me was that Italy has tallied more than 793 deaths in just one day and this has happened recently and this record is more than their previous tally which was roughly about 400 deaths in one day.

Reading the article based on the coronavirus was all new information to me. I found out that the coronavirus is part of a family of 6 other common viruses and this is the first to have an immediate impact on humans. I found an interesting fact in the article which was the fact that people would have had this virus before it even became a big problem. The journalist explains how it would have been difficult to detect due to having a lack of surveillance on the coronavirus. I also found out that this virus is known to emerge around the winter time just like the flu or even influenza. Besides this, this type of virus needs a body in order to thrive because in the article it states how it can be easily killed off if it were to be in cardboard, steel or plastic.

 

After reading American Slavery and ‘the Relentless Unforeseen’ by Sean Wilentz, I get to see how the ideal of slavery was portrayed throughout the world. We almost get to see a chronological timeline of how slavery started and the begining of this ideal presented in the essay would be the Portuguese arriving to the new world. Besides this, the essay also talks about the first plantation which was located in Chesapeake, one of the first settlements in the New World. Reading this essay makes me relate to the 1619 project by Hannah Jones and the fact checking article on the 1619 project because it helps contradict the fact that the colonies wanted their independence to preserve slavery. I get to read two views of what people think based on slavery and America and they easily contradict each other. The Article by Wilentz gives me better understanding of what was happening with this topic of slavery in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. I agree with the claim Wilentz has portrayed in his essay which is “Yet it is too often at best consigned to the inevitable, as something that was bound to happen as if in the natural unfolding of progress” because I do feel as if slavery was bound to happen due to the greed and power and superiority that fueled many of the countries to dominate and destroy anything in their paths. This ideal also contributes to the topic of the Civil war because we can see that this was bound to happen due to the influence of the American revolution. In the American Revolution we have two sides, the British and the colonies, and they both believe to be right in which contradict both their ideals. Eventually a war happens and the colonies emerge victorious and this influenced the Civil war because we can see that the Southerners believed slavery was their right and it shouldn’t be abolished while the North beleived that slavery would put an end to what was known as their Union and would seperate the country. The Civil War was inevitable due to many of the ideals that have been presented before the war itself and due to many of the tensions that have arisen during that time period.

The essay also bring up a great point and it deals with many people that were opposed to slavery such as Thomas Jefferson. The essay expresses how Jefferson was against slavery and believed that the slaves were equal yet he did not do anyting in his power to stop this. We also get to see how Abraham Lincoln wasn’t too fond about ending slavery, his main goal was to stop the South from seperating which would break up their nation. In this ideal we see how people can have their viewpoints about slavery but yet their actions and endgame don’t display it as much. The essay includes how eventually there is some sort of action taken in order to contradict slavery and we see an example of this through the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage which were a group determined to abololish slavery.

 

After reading the 1619 project I was really shocked because the cases and events that were presented in the article were in fact hard to read ranging from lynchings to beatings. The author states how she is merely confused about how her father is proud of such a country after all that hate that was presented to the afro-americans. That is when a key point pops up and it is that the afro-americans took part in building present day America and this should be why they should feel proud and honor their flag. After reading the 1619 article I went and read the fact checking article and the “After all, didn’t america invent slavery?” article and these articles brought up many points. I related to the “After all, didn’t america invent slavery?” article because when slavery would be brought up I would point the fingers to the United States and would mostly relate slavery to America but after reading this I can see that slavery has existed before it took place in America. Besides this, the fact checking article fact checks  the main idea that America wanted to gain independence in order to preserve slavery and the articles refutes the two events that took place which were the Somerset v. Stewart and the 1775 proclamation.

After reading the article, we can relate the topic of slavery to the present day relating it to the topic of immigration. Lately, in the U.S we have seen a huge number of immigrants entering the U.S illegally and legally and the deportation of these immigrants as well. We have seen two sides to this main topic and they are that most of these immigrants are criminals and are taking away many opportunities for americans and come here for no good while the other point is that immigrants come to this country to provide a better life for their family as well as for themselves and they are escaping their country due to many problems arising. I support the second argument because many people come to the U.S in order to stabilize themselves and to support themselves financially by getting a job or even to get an education. Besides this, I can take a point from the 1619 article and say that just like afro-americans, immigrants are fundamental in building present day America and we see this from all over starting with running the economy by either working in their careers and contributing to the U.S by paying their taxes and even fighting for their own country. There are many rebuttals in which talk about how they have had a bad influence on the country because of their criminal activity but they also forget that immigrants aren’t the only people that commit these sort of crimes, native born american also take part in this increasing criminal activity in the United States. We should be proud because immigrants are the engine to the United States as their hard work propels the United States to succeed even more.

 

After reading the chapter of Aurora I was surprised to see what yunior and his girl were up to. At that age i wasn’t really expecting Yunior to be involved in drugs but it also made sense due to him trying to survive the real world. With everything going on seeing his friends and his girl gave him that escape from reality and moved him into a place he would be comfortable with. I can compare to Yunior in this aspect because I try not to stress myself out with what is going on in my life such and school or work by going out with friends or even my cousins in order to clear my mind and enjoy the moment. In the chapter we get to that Yunior is involved with drugs as he takes them as well as sells them and Aurora plays a big role when it comes to drugs. We get to see that Yunior gives heroin and cigarettes to Aurora every time they see each other and in a way they both use each other in a way that Yunior uses her for his pleasure while Aurora uses him for the drugs and cigarettes. After reading the chapter we can interpret that their relationship is toxic but yet they both still have love for each other.

 

Aguantando gave us a sense of how Yunior spent his childhood with his brother and mother in Dominican Republic. Yunior would spend time playing with his friend Wilfredo or even climbing trees. He even gets sent to his aunt’s place for about twenty days and talks about his stay such as trying new foods and her awkwardly staring at him while eating.The mother gets played by the father many times as we get to hear from Rafa, he sends letters saying he is coming back from New York but eventually ends up going out of radar and being “lost” due to no one knowing about him. She recently got a letter from him again and suddenly disappeared for five weeks to recollect herself. After reading I felt sympathetic towards the mother because she works non stop as mentioned by Yunior and also it was a joy for her to see that her husband might come back but he ends up ditching her over and over again. It seems like Rafa has already gotten used to it and it doesn’t hit him as hard as it hits their mother.

 

Drown is one of the chapters that really surprised me because it was totally unexpected. Yunior gets informed that his old pal came back to town but he doesn’t seem that excited about the news. The mother talks about how close they were and that they should really link up again but Yunior doesn’t seem to give him the time at all. We get a backstory of Yunior and Beto and their time as friends, we get to see the wild stuff they did such as stealing and getting caught as well as sneaking into a pool but it was common as many kids did the same. The chapter was pretty normal and that is when the problem showed up and it was that Beto started to get closer to Yunior. He would be all up on Yunior and this left Yunior in a completely frozen because he didn’t know what to do. After this occasion, this started happening constantly every time they would meet and this caused Yunior to hesitate meeting up with Beto. Like I said before, I was really surprised because it came out of nowhere and I was expecting Yunior to do something like he did in the first chapter but instead he was frozen and didn’t know what to do. I am intrigued to see what would happen next if Beto and Yunior stumble upon each other once again, whether to see if Yunior takes a different course of action or not.