week 7

“An orchestra is a community where the essential and exclusive feature is that it is the only community that comes together with the fundamental objective of agreeing with itself”

-José Antonio Abreu, “Tocar y Luchar”

The 2007 documentary film Tocar y Luchar illustrates the effect of the Children’s choirs and orchestras in Venezuela. As a result of playing in the orchestra, many Venezuelan children learn how to participate in a community—they work collectively to achieve a common goal. The orchestra has many other positive effects on the lives of the children whichare illustrated by the film. They include: confidence, perseverance and dedication among others. Although Venezuela is a poor nation, the music of these Children’s groups seems to bring richness to the country. Music helps the children overcome poverty, despair, and discouragement.

This concept demonstrated by Tocar and Luchar reminded me of the scene in the movie Harry Potter and the Scorer’s Stone where Harry, Ron and Hermione lull Fluffy to sleep by playing the music of a harp. The three friends discovered that Fluffy was guarding trap door which was the only possible way to access the stone. Fluffy is a vicious, mutant three-headed dog, and Harry and his friends can not seem to find a way to tame him enough to reach the trap door safely. However, they ultimately discover a way to put Fluffy to sleep. The sound of a harp playing lulls him enough for the three adventurers to sneak past him and enter through the trap door.

         In both Tocar and Luchar and Harry Potter music seems to have a powerful effect over dangerous, and gives people the ability to accomplish tasks that they never would have been able to. Music is empowering. It provides people with confidence and skills that translate into many other aspects of their lives. The directors of both of these movies chose to highlight music as a way of overcoming adversity. These films show their audiences that music has the power to give people hope. It enables them to overcome trials. Music is a universal part of the human experience. It is evident in virtually ever nation and culture around the world. Perhaps these films offer an explanation as to why--they argue that it is because music gives people the hope necessary to overcome adversity.  

Week 6

"He did not give  a  hang about the miscarriage.Not all  babies have the luck to be born!" Those were the words his heart beat out to him."(Machado de Asís, "Father verses Mother", pg. 96)

In his short story “Father verses Mother” Machado de Asís conveys the horrors of slavery through an ironic tone. He describes the grotesque treatment of slaves by their masters as well as the inhumane slave catchers. The end of the story shows the tragedy of slavery as a label. Candido Neves treats Arminda merely as a slave and fails to show compassion for a person who feels and desires the same exact thing he does. He does not care at all about her miscarriage because he does not see her as a person.

a mask similar to the one described by Machado de Asís in his story

Similarly in her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe shows that slaves feel the same way other human beings do. The protagonist of the novel, Tom, is a compassionate man who loves others, cares for them, and shows devotion to his Christian faith. His selflessness is displayed when he speaks to his master, “Mas’r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give ’em freely, as the Lord gave his for me. Oh, Mas’r! don’t bring this great sin on your soul! It will hurt you more than’t will me! Do the worst you can, my troubles’ll be over soon; but, if ye don’t repent, yours won’t never end!” Tom sees his master, the man who has been nothing but cruel to him, as a human being and does not want him to suffer in the endless torment of hell, but Legree cannot manage to show any understanding for Tom and sentences him to death.

Stowe's inspiring novel

Simon Legree, like Candido Neves sees slaves merely as objects to be acted upon and fails to realize their human cares and emotions. Trough their writings Stow and Machado  teach that when we fail to recognize that all humans experience the same basic emotions and ignore our capacity to understand and empathize with one another we are in peril of treating each other like slaves. 

Week 6

Velasco, Jose Maria- El Citlaltépetl (1879)

Jose Maria Velasco was a Mexican painter who painted landscapes. To me, what is most impressive about his work is that he painted the same valley over and over again, but each time he was able to see it differently. Everyday he painted something new. Although he looked at the same valley each day, each day it was changed. Each of his paintings is slightly different.

Velasco, Jose Maria- The Valley of Mexico (1875)

Ariel, the protagonist in the Disney movie the Little Mermaid sees her world in the opposite way that Velasco does. She fails to see the beauty of the sea around her and desires to escape to the land above, “the land where they walk, the land where they run, they land where they play all day in the sun”.

 I think that each of these people, Velasco and Disney’s fictional Ariel, represent a different part of Levinas’s totality vs. infinity theory. Ariel represents totality. Although the ocean is vast and beautiful, she is sick of it. She feels she has seen it all. In Levinas’s theory totality is the idea that once we experience part of something we have experienced it all. When we know something about someone or something we know everything. That is how Ariel feels about the sea. She has explored some of it, seen some of it, and wants to be done seeing it. She wants to move on to something new. She needs adventure, excitement, and change.

Velasco, Jose Maria- Bridge at Metlac (1881)

In contrast, Velasco and his artwork embody the infinity concept of Levinas’s theory. According to Levinas, to see things with an infinity perspective one must recognize that no matter how much you know about someone or something there will always be more. This is how Velasco is able to paint the same valley over and over again. Each time he paints it he is able to paint something different. He is never tired of its beauty. 

week 5

Obregón, José María-*The Inspiration of Christopher Columbus(1856)

José María Obregón’s painting The Inspiration of Columbus shows Columbus looking out off of the coastline at the New World. He likely contemplating his incredible discovery and the effect it will have on his old world. In the painting Lehi and His People Arrive in the Promised Land Lehi’s face shows a similar expression as he approaches the New World with his family. Although these two explorers arrived on the American continent many years apart from one another they have many things in common.

Lehi and His People Arrive in the Promised Land (Gospel Art Book [2009], no. 71)

            They were both led to the new land by the hand of God. Both the Book of Mormon and Columbus’ letters teach us that he was led to the promised land through inspiration. 2 Nephi 1:6 states, “there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord, and in his letter to the king and queen of Spain Columbus wrote: “The eternal God our Lord gives to all those who walk in his path victory over things that seem impossible”. Similarly, the Book of Mormon teaches us that Lehi was led to the promised land by the hand of God through the Liahona. Nephi wrote, “we should be led with one accord into the land of promise” (1Nephi 10:13).

            In each of the paintings the artist appears to acknowledge the subject’s respect for God. Lehi looks heavenward as if to praise God and thank Him for providing a way for his family to arrive safely in the land of promise. Columbus appears to be gazing into the distance in thoughtful meditation. His facial expression suggests that he too is considering the hand which brought him to the new world. In both paintings light also appears to radiate from the clouds, further implying that God has prepared the land for the arrival of each of these groups. Ultimately, it is because of the Lord that each person who has come to the promised land has made it safely there.