The Big Truck That Went By

I enjoyed reading The Big Truck That Went By by Jonathan Katz. In the beginning Katz touches on the earthquake of 2010 that devastated Haiti. He continues to explain the devastation in Haiti by explaining the collapse of the school building a couple years before the tornado. It really blows my mind that 100 schoolchildren were killed in the collapse caused by poor construction in an effort to save money. I am truly shocked that 100 children were just simply casualties in a much bigger problem.
   It is really interesting reading the events of the earthquake from Katz's point of view. He mentions in the book that outside the earthquake, there was extreme chaos that was expected to be mutual in Haiti. However, Katz explains that there was no sign of panic during the earthquake and people were just trying to move on with their lives.
   The corruption in Haiti was and still is ridiculous. Katz says that shortly after the earthquake, he and Sanon traveled to a different town closer to the center of the earthquake. As they approached the city limits, there were men making weapons in order to defend themselves and property against the looters that decided to take advantage of the earthquake. It was difficult for outsiders to help with the relief effort in Haiti. Katz mentioned that language was a huge barrier that prevented progress in outside help effort. He also acknowledges that outsiders are operating with limited local, language, and cultural comprehension which makes it difficult to cope with such a drastic change. This is directly related back to the first book that we read, Silencing the Past. It is very important to Haiti's history that this story be told. Katz does a great job of detailing his unique experiences and providing his opinions and beliefs about certain sensitive topics.
   I was only 12 years old when this earthquake devastated Haiti. I was old enough to remember the earthquake and relief efforts. My school even had several fund raising events in order to raise money for the relief effort. However, I was too young to really understand the extent of the destruction and how the earthquake simply just added to the corruption and devastation that already existed in Haiti. 
   Katz has provided a completely new insight into Haiti. His personal account is compassionate and provokes many opinions and thoughts on topics that I have never even thought about or considered. (Most of the government stuff is over my head, but it doesn't take a genius to realize how corrupt Haiti is and the serious struggles they are facing). 

Days of Awe

   The protagonist in Days of Awe, Alejandra San Jose, struggles with her identity and her self-belonging. She grew up believing she and her family were Catholic. After revisiting Cuba as an interpreter, she discovered that her family was not Catholic but instead Jewish. Her family was known as "converses" which were Jews that converted to Christianity in order to survive. After learning this, Ale struggled with a bit of an identity crisis. Who was she? She was now faced with the truth of being Cuban and American and Catholic and Jewish.
   I can somewhat relate to this "identity of crisis" in a way because I am adopted. Luckily I was never faced with the "crisis" because I grew up always knowing that I was adopted. My parents read me books ever since I was a baby. There was never a day that went by that I did not know I was adopted and I grew up never thinking anything about it. I thought it was completely normal. I had a friend who did not find out she was adopted until she was 15. She had always known that I was adopted because I was always open about it. I remember one day when she called me and told me that her parents had just told her that she was adopted. I mean talk about identity crisis.
   In the beginning, Ale says that being Cuban was just an accident of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I feel like that could be true for some people, depending on the circumstance but I feel like you are whoever you want to be. No matter what the circumstance or where you are born. However, I do feel that it is important to at least acknowledge where you came from and appreciate the culture for what it is.
   Just like finding out you are adopted after believing that you came from your mom's stomach for your whole life, learning that you are a different faith can be just as rattling and cause you to question everything about yourself.
   I enjoyed this book, I did think it was a little too in detail for me though. I like how I could compare and contract this book with The Farming of Bones. They both had a lot of the same themes such as "self-belonging" and memories. I found it interesting how they both ended with water playing a significant, ironic role.

The End of The Farming of Bones

The ending of the book brings me mixed emotions. I was happy that Amabelle survived and that she found some form of pleasure in sewing and a sense of family with Yves and his mother. I was overjoyed that she wasn't as fragile as Yves. Yves had many hang-ups after the massicer, he hated parsley, couldn't swim, and hated the smell of sugar cane. He began using rum to help him cope. I admire her strength and will to keep on going. I also respect her for revisiting her former boss, Señora Valencia. She was able to reconnect with her past and gained comforting information while there.

There were many things in the ending that saddened me. In the last scene of the book Amabelle is in the River floating and I like the sense of calm and peace that the author gives us here. Up until that point the scenes were harsh at times and filled with sadness. I hated that Sebastian and his sister were killed. I hated even more that we don't know if she evere did find love again. After she didn't find love with Yves and left, we are left without anything further. The author leaves us with only our imigination to finish her fate with love and true happiness.

Over all I enjoyed the book and it's vivid scenes. The struggle and horror of the time was well conveyed. As I reflect on the ending a quote stands out to me from chapter 39, "Famous men never truly die. It is only those nameless and faceless who vanish like smoke into the early morning air." This quote sums up the book for me. Once the characters die they will be as of smoke, just like Sebastian was. Only the famous and world leaders at the time will be the names that we still reflect upon. The thousands of people who lost their lives at the hand of these leaders will forever be nameless.

   I really enjoyed reading the last half of Farming of the Bones. I got a lot more into detail and really tried to focus on some key points and themes of the book. Throughout the last chapters of the book we see themes like memory, death, silencing of voices.
   we talked about the pattern we saw throughout the book dealing with these silencing of voices. First, we see it when Amabelle describes her vivid dream of  the sugar woman. "dressed in a long, whit gown, wearing a shiny silver mussel around her face. collar with clasped black around her." I believe this theme is to give readers examples of how haitians were dehumanized to dominicans during this "anti haitian racism" movement. another example, is when the parsley is shoved down the throats of the travelers in order to depict who was haitian or dominican. This is such a harsh example and we see just how harsh it is once Joel dies from it... Another we see toward the end of the book when Amabelle's way of copping is to not speak. Because what she had gone through was so awful.
  Another big theme we see through the book was memory. Most of the book is told from memories and Amabelle going back and telling stories of her past. A wonderful example is how frequently she talks about her parents and childhood. These memories mean so much to her because her parents are now dead. One of my favorite memories Amabelle tells us is about the lantern and asking her dad to make one that looks like him so shell never forget what he looks like. this makes me so sad because, I bet after everything that happened she wishes she had one to hold onto.
  Death plays a huge role in this book as well. The whole background of the book is based on the massacre of 1937. It was says that almost 25,000 people were murder in only 3 days. Only because of the hatred and racism going on toward the Haitian during tis time. Also, the death of the baby, joel, and her parents plays a huge role. because all these deaths lead up to some memory or tragedy that happens in the book. I really enjoyed the book and just like Freedom papers, this story really makes me think how lucky i am to be free.

Ending of Farming of Bones

Towards the end of the novel, several important themes become evident. The theme if memory is an ongoing theme throughout the book. We also see the theme of masks in several of the chapters. In chapter 21, Amabelle reminisces on a moment she shard with her father. He said, "A fanal, a lantern, is like a kite. A kite that glows but does not fly." She asks her dad to make her a lantern of his face so that she can carry him with her but he declines, saying that it would be too vein. In chapter 25, Amabelle has a dream about her parents, and they are taken away by the storm. She wakes up reaching in front of her, trying to reach out for her parents. It is apparent in this chapter that she is dealing with an inner struggle with the loss of her parents.  I think the theme of memory and masks are very important in this chapter because it is trying to explain that sometimes memories are not always pleasant. Some of them are harsh, and some of them transform over time. My favorite chapter to read was chapter 23. We see the theme of masks play a big role in this chapter when Amabelle has a dream about the Sugar Woman. Amabelle describes the Sugar Woman as a woman dressed in a long, three-teired ruffled gown, with a collar around her neck. She wears a shiny silver muzzle around her face so that she would not eat the sugarcane. This chapter is very interesting to me because I could not seem to wrap my mind around this "Sugar Woman".  Although she is just a figment of Amabelle's imagination, she represents something that Amabelle is afraid of-herself. I believe that Amabelle sees the Sugar Woman as herself in the events she is faced with in her life, or she sees her as a representation of a past lover of Sebastian. Either way, they are both unsettling representations that Amabelle has conjured up in her dreams. I have enjoyed this book, I think it has been a lot easier and more enjoyable than the other books we have read so far.

farming of bones/birthright crisis

Farming of Bones and Birthright Crisis go hand in hand when talking about the Dominican Republic's deportation of the Haitians. The only difference is that in the Farming of Bones, the deportation took place in 1937, and Birthright took place in 2005.

In the Birthright Crisis, it didn't matter if you had papers that allowed you to live in the Dominican Republic or even if you were born in the Dominican Republic and had never even been to Haiti. It was easy for the Dominican military to do this because he Haitians had darker skin. The Dominican Republic's press also lied to everyone, saying the Haitians were armed with guns, when they actually had nothing.

This 18 year old Haitian student that was born in the Dominican Republic and had never even been to Haiti was deported because she was Haitian. She was very worried about missing her exams and schoolwork. She had no idea what she was going to do next. There were many other people in the same situation.

The Jean and Bosico Dominican Republic supreme court case ruled that children of migrants aren't eligible for citizenship in 2005. One has to prove their bloodline connects to the Dominican Republic now. In Farming of Bones, the government is forcing the Haitians to leave in order to "cleanse the country." That was in 1937. It is so shocking that the Dominican Republic is still so adamant of keeping the Haitians out just because they are of different nationalities/race.

The Farming of Bones

The first portion of the book is indeed intriguing. I am in love with the way Amabelle describes her love story with Sebastien. The love they share seems as if it is a pure one, one that natural and unforced. I was also intrigued by how Señora Valencia was so quick to judge the color of her child's skin. She just finished such a beautiful moment of giving birth and the shock of having twins; for her to so quickly comment on the child's color disgusts me. The comment she made, "They might mistake her for one of your people" also disgusted me. The farther even "shuts up" the doctor from commenting on the child's color. Children change drastically from their time of birth to even the age if one. I think that color should not have been a factor so early on. They were babies and I think that parents and everyone else should just enjoy them being babies.