Anna Melgoza

Anna Melgoza

A student’s
Journey

               
School has taken up 13 years of my life, I remember thinking, “what’s the point
of going to school? We’re all going to end up working anyways. Why not start
now? I’ll just start working with my mom cleaning houses.  My room is
always clean so I think I’m good at that.” I was only ten years old and I
wanted to work because I couldn’t stand being at school. I wanted to help my
mom, I always saw her tired after work and I wanted to help her so she wouldn’t
be tired anymore. Years went by and I didn’t think about that anymore. I
started to like school after I started going to Newark Memorial High School.
There, I learned that you need to finish going to school in order to get a job
you want, to become a doctor, a nurse, an architect, many things were possible.
But I never saw those things in reality for me. Growing up the media portrayed
people of color as no goods that never amounted to anything, and that’s what I
thought was going to happen to me-I was scared. But going through the years in
high school I realized I could do good, get a good job and have a house; I just
needed the education to get me there. Now in college it’s more real to than
ever before and I know I can make it. Self-determination, opportunities, and Right
family help me keep going in college, or anything I set my mind to.

When I was growing up I was only taught Spanish.
And when I started pre-school I felt out casted, and alienated. I remember
dreading going to school, but I never spoke of it because I really didn’t have
a choice. Later when I was moved to kindergarten, my English was fairly good
but I still had like an accent the way I seemed to mix my words in sentences
was like the term “Span-glish”. My teacher then told my parents to stop
speaking to me in Spanish at home so I could learn English better. But my
parents did not listen and they kept with their usual ways. My dad used to
always say “huh, querían que no te hablarámos en español, pero eso es como
queriendo quitarte la cultura, quierndo, mira cuantos muchachos hoy en día que
son Latinos,  son morenos como tu y
yo y no saben nada de su lenguaje.” When my parents told me that story I was
glad because I liked speaking two languages because sometimes it made me feel
like a secret language between my family y los Amerícanos. Within 5 years I was
in the 4th grade and I spoke English almost like everyone did. That winter
break my family and I went on vacation to Mexico in my parents’ hometown of
Aguilillia, Michoacán, Mexico. I was confident in my Spanish because I felt it
was my strongest language I knew. But soonly I was about to be proven wrong. In
the US my Spanish was pretty good for an 8 year old, but when I got to Mexico I
felt like I was in pre-school all over again. My family joked around about it,
I know, but it still hurt. Then it got me thinking what was I supposed to do?
Who I was supposed to be? But what I know that I didn't know back then, was
that I hadn't really developed code-switching. So when I came back to
California I paid a little more attention in Language arts, class and when I
got to high school I wanted to evolve my Spanish speaking and go further and
learn to read and write better than I already knew. I worked hard and even got
to Spanish 5 AP.

   
The way my parents work, made me realize that I didn't want a life like that.
Don't get me wrong, I love my family and my parents say they love their life
but I have seen their struggles with their jobs, and money. My father came to
the United States when he was 14 and graduated high school here in California.
He had jobs ranging from working with foster farms pulling out all the insides
of a chicken out to now being a mechanic at apartments in Los Altos,
California.

   
My mother's story on the other hand was the most interesting. While in Mexico
she had to go to school behind my grandfather's back because he didn't believe
women had to necessarily finish school because there was work to be done at
home. My mother and her identical sister switched off going to school without
my grandfather ever noticing. Her life was like those of TV shows where the
twin sisters would switch off when one was in trouble and would go out while
the other stayed home covering for her and ridiculously didn't get caught. But
without my mother's and aunt's self-determination they could have just stopped
their schooling when my grandpa had told them to do so, and they would have
never completed school and get their diplomas. And if it where up to them they
could have gone to college but that was more complicated to get away with.

“She’d become
sick and tired of how her brother and all the men were acting so superior just
because they knew how to drive. She headed back to the shiny black truck.
She  would teach herself how to drive right now.”

-Victor
Villaseñor, Rain of gold

But when I
see my parent's hands and feet I can tell they did a lot of work with their
hands. Their hands are hard with calluses, parts of their body ache like there
is no tomorrow. Knees need to be given a good sobada –massage- because they
can't bare walk on it any much longer. Hands hurt with arthritis from wrists to
the tip of each finger. One of my uncles works two jobs from day and night to
get food on the table for his family of 8. I can't imagine myself working like
that and I don't plan to. The thought of ending up like this is my motivation,
my drive; it’s what keeps me going when I want to give up on school. The
stereotype of Mexicans are only good for making babies before reaching the age
of 18, or working at Taco Bell, mowing the rich man’s lawn, constructing homes,
and working at Home depot. Those fears are the ones that keep me working past
the hills and mountains of the education system. And the thought of what it has
cost to get to where I am today.

“I happen to
be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made
about me. I became an English major my first year in college, after being
enrolled in pre-med.”

-Amy Tan,
“Mother tongue”

Anna Bertha
Melgoza Oseguera

Opportunities
are everywhere; you just need to know which to take advantage of.

At age 14 my
Dad had come to the US to work and go to school. He became a citizen, graduated
from high school, and had a job. He thought he was doing really well as he
would say “en el otro lado”- the other side. But then my grandfather got sick
but didn’t have enough money to afford medical attention in the United States,
so they moved back to their hometown of Aguilillia, Michoacán, Mexico. Moving
back my dad wasted all of his money and desperately needed a job to support his
family. My uncle Pancho asked my dad if he could help him out building a house.
Because most of the men couldn’t take the heat of the sun, at first my dad said
no, because the job was out in the open and people knew he had jus came back
from the States so he was supposed to be ballin’ with money people would say
“Mira, ¿que no es esé Adan Melgoza el que se fue al otro lado? Y ahorá anda
trabajando aquí” –isn’t that Adan Melgoza the one that went to the other side
and now he’s working here? But he soon changed his mind and went to work. He
started working on a little house where the family business was connected next door;
the store name was called Abarrotes Oseguera. My Dad worked well almost a year
on the house and he had noticed a beautiful young woman that would sweep
outside the store and bring them water.  Then on the last day of the job
he asked the young lady out, little did he know she was the woman whom he was
going to share the rest of his life with. If my Father had not taking the
opportunity my uncle Pancho had given him, maybe I would not be around to tell
their story.

Opportunities
come in many shapes and sizes, some you don’t see. Being a Mexican-American I
had the chance to learn two languages. Because of this ability it has opened
many doors for me, seeing that more and more Hispanics are moving to the US
each year. Since this is occurring it’s creating more jobs for translators.
Opportunities can come by joining a program to better your self. Puente is a
program they most community colleges, it’s a program that helps us the students
become more comfortable in college and also give us the tools to succeed in
college.

"A scholarship enabled me not only to attend college, a rare enough feat in my circle, but even to study in a University..."

-Scott Russel Sanders, "The Men We Carry In Our Minds"

Mi Familia 

I wouldn’t
be in college if it weren’t for my family. My parents would always tell me to
do well in school or I’ll end up working like they do. Throughout Jr. high and
high school my mom always tried to keep my grades in check, anything lower than
a B was unacceptable. I usually kept my grades good but in senior year I had a
really bad case of “senior-itis”. At every family gathering my uncles and aunts
always asked the same question what are you going to study in college? And I honestly
didn’t have a clue. But then my cousin Fabian started telling me about his job,
and I soon began to have an interest in radiology. He’s helped me out very much
in what I need to take and what he had to do to complete the program.

            With
out my family and self-determination and organization college can be a big
obstacle in succeeding in. Right now I am a freshman at Foothill college, and
am proudly enrolled in the Puente program, and have all A’s and B’s in all of
my classes. 

Critical thinking blog : Teens missing, machete found.

CNN: Teens missing, machete found
*2 teens missing: Adrian Rios and Jose Campos.
*A machete, knives and burned remains have been found at the home of missing teen Jose Campos.
*they have a tremendous amount of evidence to infer the worst.
*Campos' truck is missing also. Is Campos responsible for this crime? or is there another person involved and is a mere victim?

View 1: Maybe Campos is the one responsible for this crime because its his home where all the evidence is found. And his truck is missing also. Supposedly the story is that the two teens went to some one's house to watch a charger's game, Adrian Rios' mother reports him missing because he doesn't come home. But police suspect the teens were at Jose Campos' home when everything went down. And now the two boys are missing. and found a machete, knives, gas, and i think a gun or just the bullets. Police also found a charred foot, probably adrian rios'.

View 2: Another view that i have is that

"the men we carry in our minds" thinking about the text blog

1. The men he knew "were twisted and maimed in ways visible and invisible. The nails of their hands were black and split, the hands tatooed with scars. Some had lost fingers.." some people got ulcers from racing the conveyor belt. The laborers' ankles and knees hurt from years of standing on concrete, some lost most of their hearing, squinted because they couldn't see very well etc... but what he noticed the most was that men wore out faster than women, women would be able to live to an old age.
2. Those men never seat or break down like mules, and he almost never saw them work at all. They just looked bored 24/7. They were people that would just sit around and wait for the wars, transfers, leaves, promotions, and the end of their hitch. He says soldiers are like the hammer was for driving nails.
3. These men he spoke about where business men. they dressed nicely and wore hats and luxuries, something the laboring man did not have. it seemed to him it was farther than ever to reach to that point in their society with minority groups. An example he showed was when his father worked his way to a white shirt and tie job but because of the earlier years of labor had finished his body quickly and didn't retain the job for long because he was too battered up that his body couldn't take it anymore.
4. His father had worked his way to a white collar job in a an office, until he had to stop.
5. According to Sanders women has had a better life because the men were the ones working their butts of day and night with no rest because when the men would get home the would have to work more to keep their home together. And that they weren't the ones being shipped off to a war to die. Because when the man of the family lost their job and money would stop coming in then the men were the ones who had failed , not the women.
6. The white man was never laid off or lining up to get welfare because they always had money and had cars more than then Sander's house, unlike the the minority and laboring man that lived in "los barrios" and "ghettos".
7. They want to share the power and glory and the say over their future for jobs worth their ability, and the right to live in peace that the rich white man has, like the white man's daughters'.

summary self-evaluation blog

Q: What was the most challenging part of writing the summary? What was the least challenging? Why?
A: The most challenging part about writing the summary was sectioning out the paragraphs and seeing which went together because some looked like they all went together, but there would be a slight difference. Also, trying to make everything make sense and putting the right transition words so it doesn't sound redundent.
Q: Did you get the grade you expected on this summary? Why or why not?
A: I really didn't expect anything because i wasn't sure if i had done it write or not. but i do wish i had done better on both the first and second part of the assignment.
Q: Based upon my comments, the summary rubric and the concept handout, what do you think your strengths are?
A: i don't know what my strengths were; just that i did the assignment with time, and got help when i needed it. But i feel that my weaknesses were that i don't know how to put down what i am thinking or explain it well; i overwhelm myself.
Q: How will you improve for the next summary?
A: maybe get more help on stuff that I'm not certain of, and ask more questions, also not psyching myself out for something thats pretty simple.

feminist shouldn't be a dirty word

1. do the author's survey results indicate that feminist is, by and large, a dirty word for her fellow students? what in the essay makes you agree or disagree?
-yes because they agree with what a feminist is but do not say or consider themselves feminists. like for example we know what bad words are or what certain ones mean, and we might use them in certain situations, but there are situationa where you don't say bad words and you don't use them.
2. what reasons does libby offer why there are not more self-identified feminists?
-she asks some boys why they aren't feminist and they responded that feminists are only for girls and that that wasn't their place to be. or others don't consider themselves feminists because they agree with it but do not do anything to support it, so they feel its inappropriate to identify themselves like that. also, they call themselves feminists because they don't think these problems still exist anymore.
3. why does she think more people should identify themselves as feminists?
-becuase feminisms is not just for females, but for both female and males.

Memorization blog

the way i noticed that i can memorize things easier is when i have to memorize a topic in class i write down notes in class that make sense to me. then i write and re-write it over and over then causing me to memorize what i was writing down. aslo another way i use to memorize i use the method that you showed us in class when you gave us the in class to memorize. with the words i make a sentence and i use it to memorize. but i probably can only memorize it for a little while and it stays in my short-term memory.

Transfer Motivational Conference blog

The biggest highlight of the transfer Motivational Conference for me was the workshop i attended. the workshop i attended was called "que toca la musica: an historical overview of chicano music". It was about how chicano music came to be and how all types of muscic has influenced it. like for instance jimi hendrix, marvin gaye, cold blood, brenton led zepplin, james brown, the beatles, etta james, billy stewart, towere of power, and even micheal jackson. But not only musicians have influenced but the times they where living also, like there was a time where they were locking up all the chicanos in penetentionaries, and when people can out they would share what they had been through in their time there in music. also, groups would writes songs from the heart of what it was to be mexican and what the mexican people have been through having to cross the border and the american dream altoether. The speaker at my workshop really caught my attention in the way he spoke, his and gestures, the music of choice he used to show exapmles, and some of what he was spea=king of really got me into the topic of chicano studies and music. i feel that if they offered this at foothill i would take this class in a heartbeat. Another thing that was important to me at the transfer motivational conference at sacramento state was when the guest speaker was speaking which was none other than cruz reynoso, the first latino superior court justice. he spoke about how he believes that community college education should be free. and he spoke about his past experiances fighting alongside with cesar chavez to improve minority in california.

Anzaldua Blog response #2: The Anti-Essay.

In "How To Tame a Wild Tongue" Gloria Anzuldua writes about the spanish language and how it has transformed. Like for example as pointed out by Anzuldua castilian spanish (proper spanish) you would say "maíz, cohete, lado, or mojado" but in the newly used spanish or Tex-Mex you'd say "maiz, cuete, lao, or mojao". She also writes about how our language has influenced our identity in an non-traditional way. All these points she writes about in this article is written in an academic format. In other words, it allows you or the reader to "enter" that conversation and contribute to those ideas. She wrote it this way so it can people can relate to what she is writing about. Not just one culture can relate to this topic, although it is aimed mostly to the latino community. Also, she tries to report in a way what is occurring with the Mexican culture, Anglos are trying to get rid of the Spanish language in the United States. You can see this throughout the whole essay but this is where it caught my attention the most,

“’we’re going to have to control your tongue’ the dentist says… My mouth is the motherlode. The dentist is cleaning out my roots. I get a whiff of the stench when I gasp… ‘We’re going to have to do something about that tongue,’ I hear anger rising in his voice. My tongue keeps pushing out the wads of cotton, pushing back the drills, the long thin needles. ‘I’ve never seen anything as strong or as stubborn,’ he says. And I think, how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do you brindle and saddle it?...” (para # 1-2.

Even though you it’s not facts or anything you see where she is going with it. It’s the attention grabber, you have to think and compare what similarities it has with the Spanish language. Basically her question is how are you going to control a language that is so strong and so present throughout the world? When she says the dentist, an American, is cleaning out her roots, she means her culture and language, and he starts getting angry because her tongue keeps interfering with the cleaning of her “roots”. Her tongue is fighting it, because you can’t control Spanish in the US like the Americans tried to do. Spanish has evolved, and is getting harder and harder to get rid of. I feel that soon it’s going to take over.

VARK activity

READ/WRITE: During this process of finding out what my preferred learning style helps. this is because i already knew that i learned better by visual and by doing things myself but knowing what my weaknesses are i can prepare myself for when i have other professors with that type of teaching style. if i just stick to one learning style i might just fustrate myself and will give up on what i am doing.

Liturature circle blog response#3

Q: How is Juan Salvador's faith Changing?
A: When Juan was a child he believed without a doubt about God, and what his mother had taught him about God. But after being on his own for awhile when he was missed the train he begged god for wings, he was in the sand storm, and when was sent to jail(and prison) and defend for himself. Having to go through numerous attacks, almost getting rapped he began losing faith but did not admit it still. But after he had broken out of prison he met Duel, a half Greek and half Turk man,

"it was the first time Juan had ever come close to a man that wasn’t Catholic, but readily admitted that he didn’t believe in God.”

(page 218). Duel was the first friend Juan had that was not Catholic and did not believe in God but did believe in the devil. Duel took Juan under his wing and taught him how to play poker and taught him how to “The art of taking money from the greedy workmen who drank too much”. Also by hanging around Duel and making business in the basement of a whorehouse by then Juan realized he had lost his faith by completely and seems as if he gave up on God.

What is the value of bravery when your actions are foolish?

Q: What is the value of bravery when your actions are foolish? :
A: Bravery is not worth much when those actions make it foolish, an example from the book is when Juan was playing games with those boys and betted he could hold on the longest while the train road away. But he knew what he was doing was ridiculous but because he was trying to prove to boys that he had just met only weeks before that he was brave. Which was useless and wasted his time and made him go through something he didn’t need to go through. This is because he ended up running after the train and tripping and falling… making him miss the train. Now he is forced to run on the tracks instead of waiting for the train for another 2 weeks. His bravery got him is this predicament which made him run after the train for miles while he suffered with thurst.

Q: How does sacrifice influence/impact the family? :
A: Many people live for their families, many would give up their happiness to make their family happy. For example, say you mom wants you to be a nurse but what makes you happy is play soccer, and you want to be a professional, but becuase your mom really wants you to be a nurse your going to do it because it will make your mother happy. Also many people will sacrifice for their family without thinking twice. Like in Rain Of Gold. After Juan makes the foolish choice of playing with those boys and misses the train. Later he finds his mother begging in the streets; he overhears what people say about her calling her basically "an old ugly begger". This is significant because Juan's mother a proud, strong woman. He never imagined seeing him mother this way. How would you feel seeing your mother, the person who has taken care of you your whole life being disrespected and on the streets putting her pride and honor aside just so your family can survive? People do crazy things for their family especially so they can survive.

*tiPS t0 SUCCEED iN C0LLEGE.

literature circle new ROG.

On the first page i drew from the pages 95-97. My drawing is about the section in the book when Don Pio is looking for land for his family and he is very sad because he hasnt found any good lsnd for him to use. He is sitting on a knoll and begins to pray to God and pulls out his roasory and begins pleading to god. Then haz if God is comeing to him he  realices he doesnt have to look for land anymore because he had found it. They were alrwady on it. He realizes this becuase he knew that if they were to become rich that his family.. Generations from then would become the power crazy savages like the ones he had faught before. This is important becuase of the beliefs Don Pio were for good,and with faith he found what he was looking for. And all he wanted was his family to be a decent and honest family.

on the second paragraph i drew when Don Pio went to see Don Porfirio to speak to him because "the president" was being unjust and cruel. For the littlest reason he would kill someone. Like for instance a man cut a piece of alfalfa for his horse and got shot for it. But it took until one of his  good friends grandson got killed for that very reason. But when he got to the outskirts of the capital he was stopped by Don Porifirio's men and told to wait till hefinished withis festivities. When he got to the river he saw they rest if the colones the soldier had referred to. It took 10 days for the party to end. And Don Pio's grandson had been shot  becuase he wanted justice for what had happened to don pio. I think this was important becuase if don pio hadn't handled don porifirio's outrageous acts maybe it wouldn't have gon that far.

what is the value of your name when it is being vilified?

if my name were to be vilified i would be proud of my name more then ever. But if i needed a job badly and had no other choice but to change it a little to get the job i would do it. Especially if i was supporting more than myself. But if i had more uncommon name i might fight for it more.

leave

"leave your cellphone at the classroom door"

    the consequences of assimilating into the digital culture is that once you start integrating technology into your life it can either complicate or make it easier. For example, those who are digital immigrants its difficult adapting cellphones, and computers into their like. Like for instance my parents are digital immigrants, they have no idea how to use their cellphones except how to make phone calls. And for me i was born around technology, for me i can pick up a cellphone and figure out how to use it pretty quickly. And because the need of computers in school it was important to learn and use them, so for me technology is easy to use. its only a matter of time that  everyone i the world will be digital natives.

Literature circle

On the first page I drew the scene at the beginning of the book, on pages 8 through 10, when Espirito (an Indian) follows a deer in desperate need to find water for his village, because all the waters have dried. He then watches the deer and waits for it to leave so he could go to the stream. When he drinks the out of the stream he says it’s the sweetest water he has ever drunk. But before he had drank the water he took a “stone” from a cliff next to the spring where the water was trickling down creating the spring. He then went down the mountain and went to a store which was owned by Don Carlos. Espirito wanted to trade the water he discovered telling him “he had the sweetest water in all the world” to trade for food and clothing. But Don Carlos said no because he couldn’t trade for water. Because he lived by a river already, but then Espirito showed him his “stones” and Don Carlos and screamed at him that he would trade him all the clothes and food he needed for it. This is because the stone wasn’t actually a stone but a gold nugget.

I selected this scene because I felt it was important. I felt it was important because if Espirito had not found the gold in the cliff the Americans would have never intervened and taken over their box canyon, and his village wouldn’t have had the deal with Don Carlos, which was that 2 fully loaded burros would be brought to Espirito’s village because he gave the cliff with gold for food and supplies for his people. But when Don Carlos sold the mine to Bernardo Garcia, and then soon after the Mexican revolution started. In result Espirito’s way of life in the box canyon went downhill. I saw that Espirito loved his land and the way he had lived before the “gold fever” had taken over box canyon. I learned a little more about the revolution in Mexico, by how the revolution was brutal especially to the civilians which were never safe. Also that people would be taken and killed for no reason. Another thing is that the people with power were so corrupt, one day you would be as poor as dirt next thing you know you find gold and would become rich, and be cruel to the people that you once had been. Money changes many, makes them greedy and selfish.

On my second page I drew the scene between pages 85-88. Which was when Victoriano gets caught looking through the mine’s trash. Señor Jones and El Liebre claimed he was stealing from him when that was not true. This is because people, before Victoriano, had been looking through the rocks even before Victoriano could remember. Next thing you know Señor Jones orders El Liebre and his men to get Victoriano so they could teach him a lesson, then hang him to make an example of what happens to a thief for the rest of the village. They planned to hang him in the town square so everyone would see. Then Lupe sees whats going on and starts yelling, then Doña Manza tells her to get her mother. When Lupe gets to the lean-to she tells Doña Guadalupe what is happening. Doña Guadalupe tells her to tell Don Manuel to stall so she could give her final blessing to her son. Quickly Doña Guadalupe grabs her bible stuff a knife in the middle and grabs her father’s old gun. She then quickly walks down the hill to the square to see her son standing there all bloody and beated down. When El Liebre permits her to give her blessings Doña Guadalupe starts secretly cutting the rope. Then when she saw that Victoriano was not responding to her instructions she bit him in the ear telling him to take the gun she then tells him to run when she cuts the rope and yells to the sky. But The Jack Rabbit already knew what was going on and drew his gun knowing it was an escape so he knocked Doña Guadalupe out of the way. Then Victoriano started shooting at the men when he knew he couldn’t get away from the fast man. Then he ran into the forest where they didn’t even bother to catch him. El Liebre was dead so then the soldiers wanted to hang Doña Guadalupe and Don Manuel for it. Then all towns people realized that they can beat the soldiers if they united. When they gathered together singing the redhead leader knew what was going on and got away before the people would take their wepons.

I selected this scene because I felt it was important that the community realized they could take back their town if they all came together and that everything was possible with some faith. Also the strength Victoriano’s mother had to do what she did knowing there was a chance that she would die. I connected this with real life crisis and how the government takes advantage of the people. But when we come together to help each other we can solve most of our problems and obsticles.

What is the digital culture?

To me the digital culture is how we use technology everyday in our lives. For example, our phones; almost every American has a phone from the ages of 9 to 60 and up. And phones keep getting smarter and smarter where you can have internet access up to GPS system. Another example is the use of the internet; before in the 1970's the internet did not exist. But now many high schools and college courses have online homework and online classes. And now a day’s many teens and adults all alike depend on their phones either of work or just to socialize. Technology is affecting our world from day to day basis whether you realize it or not.

My motivation to attend college.

My motivation to attend college is the fact that i am the first in my family to attend college. Both my parents went to high school and graduated but did not move on to college. I see how hard my parents work just to get enough money for the rent, how they struggle to put food on the table for 4 other mouths to feed (me, my 2 sisters and little brother) with just my fathers paycheck. I can see the stress on their faces when they have to pay bills and do not know how or where to get the money from. And seeing all of that that just makes me want to work harder in school so when i get to my career i can help them out and also be independent. I honestly do not want to work as hard as they do now, seeing how they have gotten arthritis or their limbs just hurt so much but they have to go to work and ignore the pain. i do not want to rely on them as much as i am at the moment. when i saw my cousin, whom was going through what i am now, go to college get a good job (and having a job she likes) and able to help her parents with what they need and help herself, that made me want to do the same. with a better education i can have more opportunities than with just a high school deploma. Also, just telling my family i am going to college and they responding with positive advice or congratualing me, or even helping me out makes me feel supported, and makes me want to give more than 100%.