- "Porteño/a" - Person from Buenos Aires. As in "Soy Porteña"
- "Peronistos" - Followers/Supporters of Peron's ideas
- "proletariat"
- "bourgeoisie"
- "Montoneros" - People belonging to the Argentine left-wing Peronist guerilla group called Montonero Peronist Movement
- "tercermundistas"
- "entrismo" - infiltration
- Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo - People's Revolutionary Army
- "pistolero" - literally translates to a gunman.
- "fidelista" - Followers/Supporters of Castro's ideas
- "estancieros" - essentially Spanish ranch owners
- "people's prison"
- Not really a term but an idea: mock executions, where someone is sentenced to death by the guerrillas or being tortured and a pistol is put to their forehead and fired, but with no bullet. It's incredibly emotionally and even physically taxing.
- "coup de grace" - "final destruction to an already sinking ship" a death blow to an already wounded person
- Rawson Military Prison
- Vicente López Partido
- patria socialista
- Villa Devoto Prison - 1973
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Words and Terms
Words and terms to remember/consider using (to be updated):
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez
Reading Response
Zoot Suit
Page 49, Alice: We are all in jail, henry. Some of us just don’t know it.
I think this play was definitely a helpful one for me to read, seeing as it dealt with being a historical fiction, but it also dealt with how to mix English and Spanish in the dialogue. The idea of El Pachuco, a storyteller in a sense, worked really well for me. I love that when Henry was alone, especially when he was in solitary, he was able to talk to El Pachuco and see what El Pachuco showed to him. I thought the idea that El Pachuco was in control of the story, or could at least decide what the audience should see or not, was a really interesting choice.
It’s clear that Valdez had a really clear idea of what he wanted because he could even dictate specific sets with how the lighting should work. There were times when it was written that the lights would dictate the bars of the cells, and other times when newspapers would mark the edges. As a writer it’s sometimes difficult to write the dialogue as well as picture how it would look on stage, but I think Valdez does a really good job with this and works with the theme of the press’ influence over the lives of those involved.
There was really a lot of Spanish throughout the lines, and while I’m not sure if there was too much or too little, it really showed me how smoothly the two languages can be combined. There were times that I felt like, as an audience member, I might get frustrated by the amount of Spanish in the lines. But as I sat back and thought about it, I figured that what would happen on stage is that the lines would be conveyed through expressions and actions done by the actors. So, while I think there is a point where there is too much Spanish or too little Spanish, I don’t think the line is as specific as I thought. I think I can really learn to play with it, throw more Spanish in and if I figure there’s too much, then I can always pull some out.
I thought the ending of the play, however powerful, was a little too mushy for me. It felt a little too much like Valdez was trying to specify a point to the play or a moral. The dialogue in the ending felt a lot more cheesy than the dialogue throughout the rest of the play. I think as authors we can sometimes have a difficult time ending a play because we want to make sure that the audience understands what it is we are trying to say. The ending of my play is probably going to be one of the more complicated parts for me to write because there is so much I want to say and so much I want the audience to understand, that I’m going to have to work really hard to make my ending convey everything without being too over the top.
I also really like the idea of how much of a role the press can have in influencing people’s opinions. If what someone reads in the paper everyday is that the country is at war, eventually people are going to believe that the country is at war. So I think that I want to play some with this in my play and throw headlines in and news reports in because I think it might help my play. It might turn out that the press idea doesn’t work as well with my play, or can’t play a very big role, but I think I’d like to experiment with it and see where it takes me.
Zoot Suit
Page 49, Alice: We are all in jail, henry. Some of us just don’t know it.
I think this play was definitely a helpful one for me to read, seeing as it dealt with being a historical fiction, but it also dealt with how to mix English and Spanish in the dialogue. The idea of El Pachuco, a storyteller in a sense, worked really well for me. I love that when Henry was alone, especially when he was in solitary, he was able to talk to El Pachuco and see what El Pachuco showed to him. I thought the idea that El Pachuco was in control of the story, or could at least decide what the audience should see or not, was a really interesting choice.
It’s clear that Valdez had a really clear idea of what he wanted because he could even dictate specific sets with how the lighting should work. There were times when it was written that the lights would dictate the bars of the cells, and other times when newspapers would mark the edges. As a writer it’s sometimes difficult to write the dialogue as well as picture how it would look on stage, but I think Valdez does a really good job with this and works with the theme of the press’ influence over the lives of those involved.
There was really a lot of Spanish throughout the lines, and while I’m not sure if there was too much or too little, it really showed me how smoothly the two languages can be combined. There were times that I felt like, as an audience member, I might get frustrated by the amount of Spanish in the lines. But as I sat back and thought about it, I figured that what would happen on stage is that the lines would be conveyed through expressions and actions done by the actors. So, while I think there is a point where there is too much Spanish or too little Spanish, I don’t think the line is as specific as I thought. I think I can really learn to play with it, throw more Spanish in and if I figure there’s too much, then I can always pull some out.
I thought the ending of the play, however powerful, was a little too mushy for me. It felt a little too much like Valdez was trying to specify a point to the play or a moral. The dialogue in the ending felt a lot more cheesy than the dialogue throughout the rest of the play. I think as authors we can sometimes have a difficult time ending a play because we want to make sure that the audience understands what it is we are trying to say. The ending of my play is probably going to be one of the more complicated parts for me to write because there is so much I want to say and so much I want the audience to understand, that I’m going to have to work really hard to make my ending convey everything without being too over the top.
I also really like the idea of how much of a role the press can have in influencing people’s opinions. If what someone reads in the paper everyday is that the country is at war, eventually people are going to believe that the country is at war. So I think that I want to play some with this in my play and throw headlines in and news reports in because I think it might help my play. It might turn out that the press idea doesn’t work as well with my play, or can’t play a very big role, but I think I’d like to experiment with it and see where it takes me.
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