UFW

  Robert F. Kennedy said, "Cesar Chavez was an important heroic figure for the legal rights movement. To this day Cesar Chavez is a legacy that continues to impact farm workers to fight for their rights. Their most recent fight is the Cesar Chavez National Holiday Coalition that is asking the U.S. Congress to consider his birthday as Cesar Chavez Day. Cesar Chavez is unforgettable because he believed in equality and considered that the people deserved to work in decent conditions and a fair salary. In 1965 grape workers were being paid .90 cents an hour and an additional .10 cents per basket that was picked. In addition, the workers had to buy and share .25 cents cups and were also forced to pay 2.00 dollars per day for temporary housing that was usually infested with mosquitoes. In 1962 Cesar Chavez decided to form The National Farm Workers Association. The fight for higher income continued as the growers kept decreasing their pay. Cesar did not only concentrate on organizing the people for wage increases but he also wanted to establish a union that would protect the workers from living and working on unsanitary conditions and unsafe equipment. Their fight was long and risk full for something that seems simple and fair. Young children were working out in the fields instead of going to school because income wasn't enough. Women also worked out in the fields when the sun was at its brightest, some were even pregnant. The workers united when in 1965 two strikes occurred to help gain a wage increase that the growers submitted to however they did not approve the union. At the same time there was another strike of hundreds of Filipino and Mexican grape pickers in Coachella Valley. When my father first arrived the U.S. his first job was out in the fields, luckily laws had already been established to protect the workers, yet he says that some growers weren’t always sympathetic. There were times when he came across with racists that would try to take advantage of them by making them work overtime with regular hourly wages. I can’t imagine my father working in the conditions that many workers went through before laws had been established or my mother working out in the sun while pregnant. Working out in the sun first out in the fields and then in construction has made his skin tone change to dark color skin when he had light colored skin before he arrived the U.S. I choose this image because Iam very emotional about children. I have a two year old little boy whom I want to keep safe and provide him with all his needs. Every step I take is for my little boy. To think that children were out in the fields with their parents surrounded by chemicals and out in the sun. Im am very lucky and thankful that I was fortunate to have been provided with decent living conditions and that Iam able to do the same for my little boy.

Feedback

My paper was revised by three students and they all agreed that I had to work on my conclusion. Personally, I agree because conclusions have given me a hard time and this paper was not the exception. I was told that I shouldn't relate so much in the conclusion, that I should bring out all the main points from the entire paper and sum it all up in the conclusion. However, I'm afraid it will sound repetitive. I’m not so sure of how to summarize without making the paper sound boring at the end. I also had to change the title of my paper because once it was revised I was told that the title was irrelevant, in which I completely agree. Once my paper had been revised and I had read all the comments I realized that my title had nothing to do with my paper. I also need to make corrections on the quotes because I misplaced the quotation marks. When the first person revised my paper I felt very confident receiving positive feedback. Once, the other two gave me their opinions I felt very confused. I also tried to follow the quote sandwich format and received an “Almost” there format. I thought I had followed the instructions correctly but instead it just got me confused. I received more positive feedback than negative, but the negative points are just tough for me to develop. So far I need to correct my quotations and work on my conclusion.  

Revised Rough Draft

Erika Rodriguez

Professor Knapp

English 1B

October 18, 2011

A Child of Rebellion

            My name is Erika I was born and raised in San Jose, CA. I have always lived with my parents Juan and Estela. I come from a numerous family, so I have always been surrounded with cousins my age. In addition, I grew up with my one year older sister Edith. Even though my sister and I are so different there was a time when we enjoyed playing games with our cousins like hide-and-seek, tag, karaoke, or something as simple as riding bikes. I remember my childhood; as exactly that, childlike. I enjoyed playing with my Barbie’s. Dressing them up in elegant puffy dresses, combing their soft gold like hair; and accessorizing every bodily inch with jewelry, purses, shoes, make-up, and everything you could think of. I don’t recall not once having to think about possible problems that were occurring in my family. Being a child and not realizing my surroundings was what made my childhood memorable. In Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi we witnessed the awareness and knowledge this child has during the Islamic Revolution. The character, Marjane changed from a child to a very strong opinionated young lady who fights for what she believes. In this book we noticed how class distinctions were made which caused Marjane to rebel against her religion and family beliefs.

            Money played a very important role in this book because this helped Marjanes family get away with many dangerous situations. We realize that Marjane is in the middle class range because they have a maid whose name is Mehri. According to Marjane, she got along with Mehri quite well. She says, “This is Mehri. She was eight years old when she had to leave her parents’ home to come to work for us. Just like Reza, Leila, and Hassan. We have too many children, 14 or 15 including her…She was just ten years old when I was born…She took care of me. She played with me. And she always finished my food. She also told me stories about jackals that scared me(34).” First of all, my mother was not lucky enough to have a maid to take care of us. She was a fulltime housewife. We lived in a small house that was apartment like with one room, one bathroom, a small walk in closet, a small kitchen with a dining table all together and a small living room. I am now married and I’m also a full time house wife. I live with my husband and an almost two year old boy. Sometimes I do wish I had a maid because my son alone is a handful not to mention having to cook, clean, and run errands every day. I have to watch my son every second because he is very active and never seems to get tired; however, I can’t imagine having a ten year old watch him like Mehri did to Marjane. The only two persons I trust to watch my son when I can’t is either my husband or my mother. I don’t see myself asking my eleven year old sister to watch him for me by herself. I remember being a ten year old and only wanting to play. I didn’t know about responsibilities other than going to school. Another example of money being a significant source of survival was when Marjane’s maid, Mrs. Nasrine was impacted by the priceless life of her son. Mrs. Nasrine tells Marjanes mother the very hard situation she is dealing with. “You see this? It’s a plastic key painted gold. They gave this to my son at school. They told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them into heaven(99).” I thought this was inhumane, comparing someone’s life with a plastic colored key. No life as poor as it can be is unworthy. Now, even though the fundamentalist were recruiting children within the age of fourteen they were making exceptions. For example, Marjane calls her cousin Peyman; who was also fourteen, to see if he had been given the golden colored key. Surprisingly, he wasn’t given the key but was planning a party instead while many children were being thrown into battle without proper training(101). As a mother, I only want to keep my child

safe and I would do anything to keep it that way. I can’t imagine my reaction to someone giving me a key in exchange for my child’s life. Money helped Marjane’s family get away from the recruiting and other dangerous situations. For example, after attending a party disregarding the war that was going on, Marjane’s family were pulled over by religious police for inspection. They were followed all the way home to inspect their home as well. To avoid the police from searching their homes Marjanes father had to pay them because he was afraid they would find things that had been banned like board games, alcohol, and music. After Marjane and her grandmother had flushed all the alcohol down the toilet, Marjane’s father walks in very disappointed and is asked where the police had gone. “Where indeed! Their faith has nothing to do with ideology! A few bills were all he needed to forget the whole thing(110).” Now, this only left me thinking of what if it was Mehri who had been stopped by the police? Would they have let her go so easily? Probably not and in addition, she would have had to pay the consequences of her actions and receive her punishment. Another example on inequality was when Mehri falls in love with the neighbors son and writes love letters to him.  Marjane explained how she wrote the love letters for Mehri since she didn’t know how to read or write(35). “I wrote the letters for her, one each week for six months. I was very devoted(35).” Mehri had a sister of her own who was Marjane’s uncles’ maid. She found out about Mehri’s crush and decided to expose her sisters’ love life. “Her jealousy was more than she could bear and she told Mehri’s story to my uncle, who told it to my grandma, who told it to my mom. That is how the story reached my father(36).” When Marjane’s father realized that Mehri had been faking to be his daughter he immediately went out his way to clarify the situation. He went to the neighbor’s house. When Hossein (the lover) knew about Mehri he returned the letters to Marjane’s dad demonstrating how he didn’t want to continue with his romance. This is when Marjane’s father explains to Marjane of why their romance could not continue. “You must understand that their love was impossible. Why is that? Because in this country you must stay within your own social class(37).” Marjane seemed to disagree with her father’s argument. To prove her disagreement she decided to go to a demonstration against the Shah whom her parents supported. I have only felt small and humiliated once in my entire life. When I first started dating my now husband I didn’t know much about his background but he was well aware about my surroundings. He had seen our two bedrooms home and he knew that I shared my room with my siblings. As our relationship got stronger he decided to take me to meet his family. His oldest sister lived in Stockton, so we went up there. When we arrived I couldn’t believe it was his sister’s home. I hadn’t realized that they were financially well. Not to mention his personal house, almost mansion like. I felt so small and embarrassed. Even though his family treated me with respect and admiration I felt like I was being lied on because he hadn’t mentioned his economic status. Yet, when I told him how I felt he said that he didn’t mention it because he didn’t think it was important and that he was afraid I would feel uncomfortable. This situation reminded me of Mehri. Although were in a different era and my husband didn’t care about my wealth I can’t imagine to think of what Mehri felt when she had been turned down because of the social groups.

            Marjane’s experience with inequality was one of the reasons she began to rebel but also her strong opinions of freedom as well. In addition, when the F-14s attacked Iran Marjane acted patriotic by saying, “Those assholes! Dad! Do you remember what you learned during your military service? Are you going to war? Are you going to fight? We have to teach those Iraqis a lesson! What are you talking about? Of course I’m not going to fight. Why should I fight? How can you say that? The Iraqis have always been our enemies. The want to invade us(80-81).” This patriotism soon changed to rebellion. When the Islamic Revolution took place many laws were being changed among them the veil. Marjane didn’t agree with wearing the veil mainly because she didn’t understand why they had to wear it(3). Marjane didn’t approve the new laws that were taking place because she was raised with a more westernized culture. Where they didn’t have to wear veils or be separated from classmates because of gender. Marjanes family had a Cadillac, played board games like monopoly, listened to American music, and wore American clothes. Despite being aware of the new rules, Marjane’s family disregarded the dangers that breaking them could cause. One example is when Marjane’s parents take a trip to Turkey where Marjane asks them to bring back a couple of banned souvenirs. “During the war there were no imports from the west. A denim jacket, chocolate, a poster, no, two posters. One of Kim Wilde and one of Iron Maiden(126).” Since they couldn’t get caught with the posters when they arrived to Iran they were thinking of possible ways to smuggle them. “And then my mother had a great idea. Take of your coat(127).” Why would anyone risk so much for a couple of souvenirs? I know I wouldn’t risk my parents like that. Thinking about what could be done to them because of fulfilling my childish desires. I wouldn’t risk them and my parents would not give in to what I want especially knowing that it could be dangerous. Another scene in the book was when Marjane goes out to the black market to obtain more illegal items. Now she doesn’t go to the market dressed properly instead she decides to wear the denim jacket her parents brought back from Turkey along with the Michael Jackson button and her 1983 Nike tennis shoes. Unsurprisingly, she is caught by the Guardians of the Revolution. “They were Guardians of the Revolution, the women’s branch. This group had been added in 1982, to arrest women who were improperly veiled. (like me for example)(132).” Although Marjane tried to distract their attention, she didn’t succeed and was almost taken to prison. She managed to get off the hook by lying to the guardians and saying, “Ma’am my mother’s dead. My stepmother is really cruel and if I don’t go home right away, she’ll kill me, she’ll burn me with the clothes iron! She’ll make my father put me in an orphanage(134).” I was really surprised of her fast thinking and her ability to mislead the guardians. I have never been a fast thinker. I’m one of those that have to plan ahead. Not to mention my acting skills are not so good. First of all, I would not go to the black market captivating attention. I would at least try to be discreet. I don’t remember ever being caught doing something wrong, at least not while I was doing it; I would always get caught after. I have broken a couple rules but not so severe where I could be put in jail. The worst I have ever done is ditch school when I was in high school. Of course I had fun when I was out instead of in school however I had to pay the consequences when my parents found out.

Our actions have consequences and this is what Marjane didn’t seem to understand. Marjane was defiant to all sources of authority from teachers to her parents. The scene of the cigarette was a symbol of rebellion against her mother. “As for me, I sealed my act of rebellion against my mother’s dictatorship by smoking the cigarette I’d stolen from my uncle two weeks earlier(147).” I identified with Marjane because it reminded me of several differences I had with my mother. My relationship with my mother has always been like a roller coaster; it has ups and downs and wild loops, yet you still love the ride. Our thoughts and opinions are very different. I did have a time of rebellion in which I didn’t want to go to school. Ditching school was my way of rebelling against my mother. I rebelled because I wanted to go out more, like my friends did. I wasn’t allowed to go out by myself I always had to take my younger siblings along. This frustrated me because instead of me being the babysitter I was the one who was being watched. The mistrust that my mother had towards me was what tore us apart. Also, Marjane rebels against the teacher at school. Once again Marjane acts defiant with her teacher. She knows that wearing jewelry is not appropriate according to the new laws or wearing jeans. “I had learned that you should always shout louder than your aggressor. If you’re still wearing jewelry tomorrow….Yeah I know! And the next day…Let me see your wrist. What for? Let me see it, I’m telling you. With all the jewelry you steal from us, you must be making a pile of money. What happened? Marji hit the principal(143).”  I thought Marjane had overdone it with this.

Slapping the principal is something I have never even thought of doing. My parents taught me to respect my elders no matter what. I can’t imagine my parent’s reaction of knowing I was being expelled from school because of hitting the principal. This is when Marjane’s parents realize that her ideas were beginning to go to the extremes. They were afraid of the punishments Marjane would receive from her impertinence. So they came to the conclusion of sending her off to Vienna. This is when Marjane realizes that all her actions eventually took effect. Because she couldn’t control her thoughts she was being separated from her family. I was always very attached with my family and if I knew I wasn’t allowed to do something because it could be dangerous or against the law, I wouldn’t do it. Laws are made for us to follow them to keep an order of certain situations. If you know the consequences of your actions, why would you risk it?             

Rough Draft

Rodriguez 1

Erika Rodriguez

Professor Knapp

English 1B

October 18, 2011

A Change Of Heart

            My name is Erika I was born and raised in San Jose, CA. I have always lived with my parents Juan and Estela. I come from a numerous family, so I have always been surrounded with cousins my age. In addition, I grew up with my one year older sister Edith. Even though my sister and I are so different there was a time when we enjoyed playing games with our cousins like hide-and-seek, tag, karaoke, or something as simple as riding bikes. I remember my childhood; as exactly that, childlike. I enjoyed playing with my Barbie’s. Dressing them up in elegant puffy dresses, combing their soft gold like hair; and accessorizing every bodily inch with jewelry, purses, shoes, make-up, and everything you could think of. I don’t recall not once having to think about possible problems that were occurring in my family. Being a child and not realizing my surroundings was what made my childhood memorable. In Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi we witnessed the awareness and knowledge this child has during the Islamic Revolution. The character, Marjane changed from a child to a very strong opinionated young lady who fights for what she believes. In this book we noticed how class distinctions were made which caused Marjane to rebel against her religion and family beliefs.

            Money played a very important role in this book because this helped Marjane’s family get away with many dangerous situations.

Week 5 Prompt 1

The blog post I decided to expand and include in my formal paper is Wealth. I found this topic very interesting. In the book Persepolis, money was used for several things but most importantly money helped Marjanes family get away with many dangerous situations. I will mostly be writing about this topic and I will use the Read Response critical theory. I found this theory easier for me because I had many reactions to the events in the book. I also found very distinct opinions on what they were going through during the war and how they managed the situation. Money seemed to be very important for Marjanes family; however Marjane seemed to disagree with her parents social class beliefs. Marjane believed for equality this could have been one of the many reasons she changed into a rebellious young lady. An example is when Marjanes maid is writing a secret love letters to a neighbor’s son and is exposed by her jealous sister who tells Marjane’s uncle where later words get to Marjane’s dad. “Her jealousy was more than she could bear….That is how the story reached my father. Who decided to clarify the situation….Ok, I’ll get straight to the point: I know that Mehri pretends she is my daughter. In reality she is my maid…. Without Hesitation, Hossein gave all the letters he had received to my father(36,37)! This showed how Marjane’s father was disgusted by the idea of Mehri lying about being his daughter. He clarified the situation because he didn’t like the attribution Mehri had taken by saying that he was her father. In this case, he wanted to make people understand that she was only a maid. This proves how he was very strong opinionated about social classes and in this case, how dating had to be within their own social groups. Marjanes reaction proved patriarchy when she decides to demonstrate against the Shah, who her parents supported. Another important symbol that I found very significant towards wealth was the key. While being in war and the recruiting of young men from the lower class, Marjanes family was preoccupied in hairstyling and party planning among other things. Mrs. Nasrine was the maid which had been one of the unfortunate to receive the key. “It is a plastic key painted gold. They gave this to my son at school. They told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them into heaven(99).” I thought this was very humiliating because they compared a young life with a plastic colored key. No life as poor as it can be is unworthy. Being thrown into battle with no prior knowledge or a basic training is just inhumane. Marjane thought that because one of his cousins was in that specific age range he would have also been given the golden key. To her surprise, he didn’t know anything about it. In addition, her cousin Peyman was throwing a party. “Hey! Peyman? What?...Next week you’re having a party?.. I’ll ask my mom. Tell me, at school, did they give you the keys to paradise. Keys to what(100)?”  

Defiance

In Persepolis, Marjane mocks and disrespects everyone who has authority. As the revolutionist that she is, she becomes involved in the fight for freedom and her beliefs without thinking about the consequences. Rules are made to force us to follow them and not break them again. However, Marjane seems to not understand the importance of following them. An example is when Marjane hits the principle when she tries to take a piece of jewelry from her and is expelled because of it (143). There is no way I see myself hitting, not only the principle but an elder. Ever since I can remember my parents have always taught me to respect everyone even if they didn’t deserve it. I can’t imagine myself being expelled from school because of hitting the principle. To think about my parents’ reaction and the severe punishment that would be given to me by them is a reason enough to not even think about hitting someone. Also, one of the possible penalties of hitting a school employee would probably file a police report and an arousal of problems with the law. A bad record would follow me for the rest of my life. Another example that caught my attention was when she had gone to the black market to buy American music and is surprised by the “Guardians of the Revolution”(133). As we know, the guardians of the revolution were the women’s branch that had been added to arrest and guide women who were improperly veiled(133). Now, this brought my attention because even though Marjane knew that following American culture had been banned she was still being careless and decided to go to the black market to obtain music tapes(131). To me, it seems like she was looking for trouble. Why would Marjane go outside improperly dressed; according to the fundamentalist, and to the black market to purchase American music? As I read this passage I pictured a provoking, rebellious young lady in search of trouble. Was she trying to honor in some way the death and the beliefs of her uncle Anoosh? Hadn’t his death been a lecture enough to prove what would occur to those that opposed Iraqi laws? All these questions were running through my head. While she was being questioned by the guardians her answers were fast and insolent. For example, “Why are you wearing those “punk” shoes? What punk shoes? Those! But these are sneakers! I wear these because I play basketball…….Aren’t you ashamed to wear tight jeans like these? They shrank(133).” In my case; if I were to be the one being questioned by the guardians, I would probably not know what to answer and immediately apologize for any wrong doing. Even though she was careless and reckless about her actions I admire how strong opinionated she is. However, there is a limit to our actions and Marjane realized that when she was about to be taken to the committee where she could have been whipped or detained for days or hours. At some point, everyone will always have a limit. For example, a DUI(driving under the influence) could cause imprisonment, an expensive fine, community service, and possibly an accident. All actions have consequences that will not always end up nicely, so why take the risk?       

Wealth

In Persepolis, one of the many themes I thought was very significant was wealth. Money is the main source of survival that provides us with food, clothes, and something as simple as a place to live. In Persepolis, we witnessed the effect that money had during the revolution. For example, we noticed how Marjanes maid, Mrs. Nasrine, was impacted by the priceless life of her son. “It is a plastic key painted gold. They gave this to my son at school. They told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them into heaven. They told him that in paradise there will be plenty of food, women, and houses made of gold and diamonds (99,100).” This shows how the fundamentalists compared a lower income kid to a plastic colored key painted gold. They were fooled by their deepest aspirations. Being in a lower income household where they have a mother as a maid proves that their situation is completely different to Marjane’s family. To the point of believing that they would obtain everything that they didn’t have in the real world, but if they joined the army and were lucky enough to die they would obtain everything they desired, even women(99). Even though the fundamentalist were recruiting children, they were making exceptions because children who were in a higher class were not given the key in exchange for their lives. An example is when Marjane calls her cousin Peyman; after listening to her mom’s conversation with Mrs. Nasrine, to see if her cousin had also been given the key(100). While children with a lower income were being thrown into battle, others were planning parties. “In spite of all the dangers, the parties went on “without them it wouldn’t be psychologically bearable,” some said. “Without parties we might as well just bury ourselves now,” added the others. My uncle invited us to his house to celebrate the birth of my cousin (106).” Once again we can see how Marjane’s family was a lot more worried about keeping up with their parties and reunions in which they had everything that had been banned such as, alcohol, board games, and music. They even said that there life’s were practically over if they didn’t have their parties. Alcohol and parties were what they couldn’t live without while many poor young kids died in minefields with a promise to a better life (102). Money helped Marjane’s family get away with a couple of things. An example is when they were driving back from a party and were pulled over by religious police (basijies) and were followed all the way home (zohrehs blogspot). Marjanes father had to pay the fundamentalists for them to forget about searching their homes for possible things that were banned. “Where’s the guy? Where indeed! Their faith has nothing to do with ideology! A few bills were all he needed to forget the whole thing (110)!” In conclusion, money plays a very important issue in this novel. According to the book, before the Islamic Revolution people that were rich stayed rich and those that were poor stayed poor. Yet, when the Iraqis took control people that used to have lower income jobs; but supported the beliefs of the Iraqis, later became important people with no experience necessary. An example is when Marjanes uncle Taher had a heart attack and had to be seen at another hospital in England because they were not properly equipped where he was staying (121). “Only my aunt was allowed in. She had a big surprise. The director was her former window washer. She acted as if she didn’t recognize him to avoid offending him (121). Because they could not obtain the permit for Taher to leave they decided to seek for help elsewhere. Marjane’s father found another alternative to send his brother to England, a fake passport which was sold in the amount of $200. Once again money seemed like it was their way of resolving the passport concern.