After I graduated high school, I was watching an old formula race from the late 80s and that when I started to pay attention to the livery of the cars that had all over them “Marlboro”, “John Player Special”, “Benson and Hedges” and “Camel” all cigarette brands sponsoring the teams. Tobacco companies were using motorsports to advertise their products. But in 2006 Formula 1 stopped all tobacco advertisements so the first thing that came to my head was how are they advertising it now? And that’s how the question was born. How are modern tobacco companies targeting Bronx teens? While in high school I’d see students rush to the bathrooms, or wait till the teacher turns their back, so they can take a pull of their vape, as their friends giggle and glorify it. I thought nothing of this, until I understood that vapes contain tobacco. Then I saw the correlation between vapes, cigarettes and Tabacco companies. Maybe I was desensitized to it, maybe it was the new norm, maybe I knew it was not affecting me, so it did not matter to me. But I still wonder why teens are vaping. Do they not see the harm? Do they not realize they are becoming addicted? Do they not realize that it is the modern cigarette? Something many of them despised!!! I want to say it’s not their fault for becoming addicted to nicotine, although the reality is that I don’t even know if it’s their fault, or the fault of modern tobacco companies. This is why I’m conducting this annotated bibliography. I want to enlighten myself on this topic. While conducting this research I expect to find if tobacco companies are targeting Bronx teens, and if so, how are they doing it? What are their tactics? And how are they getting away with targeting minors?
Author: Jose Batista
In “The Most Important Day by Hellen Keller” she describes her learning  experience as a deaf and blind 7 years old. More specifically how her teacher Anne Sullivan, was able to get thru to her and help her understand basic words like water,doll and mug. In order to convey her ideas, Hellen Keller uses her personal experience explaining her journey as a deaf and blind kid. Keller concludes on the note of how she is became a happy child eagerly wishing for the next day to arrive.
After reading both “Five Minds for the Future” by Howard Gardner and “When I Was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago I found that I enjoyed Esmeraldas reading more. This nostalgic reading touched me. I was back in the summer of 2012 all over again. When my mother, a warrior in the face of adversity, enrolled me in elementary school. She could barely scrape together the words “THE” which she pronounced “DE” and “KID “which she pronounced “KI”. Her translator was my 12-year-old brother who learned a little less than basic English back in our country. Esmeralda’s reading was so enjoyable to read because I can identify with many of the experiences she spoke about, like noticing students’ lack of willingness to learn, or her teacher Miss Brown, who is equivalent to my first teacher when I moved to the United States, Miss Valerio. Who was from the same country as me. She took me in as if I was her son as she did with all the other students and taught us how to pronounce the ABCs in English. I can also relate to her emotions of worriedness when she started school and her character of being a fighter which some can misinterpret as a “mal educada”.
