Saturday, October 25, 2008

5/4/3/2/1 NOTE #10 J

COMMENTS:

*From the age of 13 on Luis had ended up in cells like San Gabriel jail house, Pomona, Temple City, L.A. Monterey Park, East lake's juvenile detention hall and the L.A. county jail system.

*At the age of 17 Luis faced a felonious charge of attempted murder .

*At jail, even though he has to confront the issue of opposite gangs, he meets "Chente", a member of the "Sangra", and they share verses and conversations.

*"Chente" stays at jail while Luis comes out because he is found innocent of the charges,even though he wasn't.

*Luis starts to write poetry in jail, and he shows it to one of his teachers in the school when he gets out of prison.

QUESTIONS:

*what were the reasons Luis got interested in gans?

*why does he tell us all about him? If he could be put in jail about it.

*what was the comdent for murder by that time?

VOCABULARY:

*poignant: sharply painful to the feelings.

*prelude: a preliminary part.

*stringy: adj. A thin line of fiber, leather used for tying or pulling.

LITERARY TERMS:

*Denouement: "the next weeks were stacked with uncertainty about the case. Meanwhile, the the people at ToHMAS welcomed me back to school.

*Poetry:
"AquĆ­ estoy
En la calle sin jando.
Nadie de mi placa
Y a nadie le importa.

Voy al chante de mi ruca
Pero se queda mirando
Le hablo con mi alma
Pero la puerta se esta cerrando." Page #189

SUMMARY:
In this part of the book, Luis tells the reader about how many tiimes he has been in jail, and how the life in jail changes hi personality, because in jail he does share time with the members of the opposite gang like "Chente", and he starts too join out of all these gang activity.
5/4/3/2/1 NOTES # 9

COMMENTS:

*Rapes bacame a common circunstance in LAS LOMAS valley.

*Luis starts to drink more and snorted heroin and cocaine.

*Payasa and Wilo leave the barrio, and Wilo is found dead a few weeks after, with shot all around his boby and head.

*August 29, 1970: tens thousands of people gathered in East L.A.'s Belvedere Park to protest the Vietnam War.

*Luis and the other gang members wanted to rub a store during the protest.

QUESTIONS:

*was the law being applied to the gangs by that time?

*did Luis' parents know about all the things he was doing as a ganger?

*what was the porpuse of the Vietnam War?

*who started the Vietman War? And in what ways did it affect the country?

VOCABULARY

*clawed: past of claw( a sharp, hooked nail on an animal's or bird'a foot.

*sought: pp. Of seek

*gnawing: to bite away bit by bit; consume.

*brew: to make from malt and hops by boiling and fermenting.

LITERARY TERMS:

*Indirect Characterization: "officers drove my face into the dirt; there was a athobbing in my headd where a black jack had been swung".

~It is showing the bad actions that the police do against no "anglo" people even though the quote doesn't say it directly to the reader.

SUMMARY:

In thi chapter, Luis writes about how the level of criminality is getting even higher than before, because now they are committing crimes such as rapes, murders, and rubs to stores, as he tells us that in the protes against the Vietnam War they rub a store with shotguns in their hands, and after that the pilice finally take action against the gang activity.
5/4/3/2/1 NOTES #8

COMMENTS:

*The gang of the character has an assigment for him (the big guys don't want to do it)

*Luis explotes a molotov cocktails in the back yard of the most important member of the opposite gang.

*The author's sister, Gloria(13 years old) was also involved with "LAS LOMAS Crazy Girls".

*The "Sangra" gang (the rivals of LAS LOMAS locos) shot the narrator's sister(doesn't get hurt) at a Educational Center dance.

*Families are also involved with what is going on with their members in gang. This means if any member of a family is involved with gangs, their family is also in danger.

QUESTIONS:

*how did the Educational Centers worked? Because all the gang members went there and there was no trouble.

*what was the point of attacking the families of the gang members?

*didn't the parents of the gangers care about them?

*were the Educational Centers sponsored by any government institution?

VOCABULARY:

*snitch:to steal; pilfer.

*thee: the objective case of THOU.

*peel: to come off in layers or flakes.

*hovered: to flutter in the air near one place.

LITERARY TERMS:

*Foreshadowing: when the author talks about how the families of the gang members are also "marked" to be part of the criminality, we abviously know that his family will be involved in something, and it happens later,in the reading we read about how his sister is wanted to be killed when the other gang (Sangra) know that she is Luis' sister.

*Dialect: the characters in the book now use a different vocabulary, which is completely different from spanish or mexican words, those are words that only gang members use.

SUMMARY:

In this part of the book, the author just tells us that being a gang member didn't only mean that you hang out with your friends and had parties, but you also had to do assigments that old members gave you, for instance he had to burn the other gang's most important member house. Besides he tells us that the gang activity also affected his family because the rivals wouldn't only look for him, but his family too as it happened to n his sister when members of the other gang saw her in a dance, they decided to shot her, but luckly she could go away with no damage.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Daniel Sanchez

5/4/3/2/1 NOTES #7

COMMENTS:

*The narrator’s nickname was Louie (all his family called him like that /friends didn’t)

*Louie fights against Topo who was an old guy that had been in prison/jail.

*The author joins another gang called “Las Lomas locos”, because his old gang/club was gone.

*Louie plunged a screwdriver into the stomach of a driver who the gang had injured before.

*The narrator and his gang were committing many crimes, which were published in the newspapers (crimes such as shootings, rubbing, murders, and many more)

QUESTIONS:

*what were the reasons the police never stopped the criminality in Las LOmas and its surroundings.


*only Mexicans were into gangs, or were other races involved with it too?


*how many years did the gang activity didn’t stop increasing in South San Gabriel?

*what characteristics did the members of gangs had?

VOCABULARY:

*rife: widespread.

*moth: a four- winged, chiefly night-flying insect, similar to the butterfly: the larvae of one kind feed on wool, etc.


LITARARY TERMS:

*Personification: “do it! Were the last words I recalled before I plunged the screwdriver into flesh and bone, and the sky screamed”.

~the narrator gives life to the sky when he says the sky screamed/he attributes action to the sky that has no life.

SUMMARY:

This time, the author tells us that he joins a new gang, and explains with details and examples how the ganging works. For instance he gets into a club, and what he has to do to be respected (he had to plunge a screwdriver on a person/doesn’t tell if that person dies or not) by the other members of the gang. He also tells us that he and his gang become criminals, and he kind of liked it, even though he had to suffer many things such as being hit by all the members of the gang, and also fight against Topo to join the club.
Daniel Sanchez

5/4/3/2/1 NOTES #6

COMMENTS:

*The character tries to commit suicide at 3:00 in the morning while everybody was sleep and he was drunk.

*His plan was to cut one of his arteries, and put his arm in a pail that he used to pee in because he didn’t want any blood in the floor.

*When Luis leaves his house, he sleeps at friends’ houses, fields, theaters, abandoned cars, and railroad tracks.

*Now the author attends to Mark Keppel High School were “anglo” and Asian are called the “A” classes separated from blue-collar students, the “C” classes, whom were pushed into industrial arts.

*The narrator learns to play the saxophone by listening to Jose Palmas who was a very distinguished musician from Las Palmas.

QUESTIONS:

*did his mom kick him out of the house or he decided to leave?

*how did he eat while he wasn’t at home or at a friend’s house?

*were the schools actually segregated for people who had bad grades or issues at home?

*how was the relationship between the character and his father after he joined the gangs?

VOCABYLARY:

*brass: a yellowish metal, on alloy of copper and zinc.

*sultry: oppressively hot and moist.

*nostrils: either of the external openings of the nose.

*dreaded: intense fear.

LITERARY TERMS:

*Personification: “these magical fingers that could play anything from Wes Montgomery to Jeff Beck”. Page #85(the author gives the fingers a desire/ a life that only a person could do)

*Foreshadowing: when the narrator talks about all problems he is having in the streets after he left his house, we actually know that he is going to come back to home, and he does after a little time, forced by issues that he cannot deal with in the streets.

SUMMARY:

At this point, the author/character tells us about problems he is having at home, and how he even wanted to commit suicide and after that he goes away from his house, and stays at friends’ houses, abandoned cars, railroad tracks, etc. Moreover when he finally comes back to home, he learns to play the saxophone, and after that he fights with his brother Joe. In conclusion this chapter is basically telling us the issues the author is confronting at home, and also in school were the “C” classes are separated from the “A” classes.



5/4/3/2/1 NOTES #5

COMMENTS:

*Clavo, Chicharron, Wilo, and the narrator were “camaradas” (best friends) in the gang/club.

*Everyone calls the author “chin” because of his protruding jawbone. (All the members of his gang call him like that)

*The author’s gang is attacked by another gang called “la sangra”, they shot the narrator’s friends.

*The character suffers a surgery because he has a pain in his stomach, and the doctor says he needs a surgery, even though the pain wasn’t going to kill him.

*Clavo, one of the author’s friends who had been shot, lost his eye, however he looks very well after that.

QUESTIONS:

*how did the gangs get the guns without any problem with the police?

*what was the main reason gangs fought against each other?

*how did the author’s family afford the surgery of Luis, if they were poor?

*were the police officers entirely doing their work by that time?

VOCABULARY:

*haze: to force to do ridiculous or painful things, as in initiation.

*craze: to make or become insane.

*stoked: to stir up and feel fuel to.

*creases: a line made by folding and pressing.

LITERARY TERMS:

*Onomatopeia: “then the truck’s transmission gears growled as it continued up the slope.” Page#55

*Simile: “Fernie began jumping up and down like he had been jolted with lightning, letting out gritos”. Page #58

SUMMARY:

In this chapter, the author is wasting time with his friends, Clavo, Chicharron, and Wilo in a place they called “the fields”, when a Mercury Sedan comes and shot them, however only Clavo and Wilo get injured, and Clavo loses one of his eyes. After all that, the story is about how and why the author suffers a surgery, besides it talks about how they treat their girlfriends, and how those girls are always a trouble for them, and also how they love those girls.

Monday, October 20, 2008

DANIEL SANCHEZ.

5/4/3/2/1 notes # 4

COMMENTS:

*The mexicans who lived in the San Gabriel Valley were thw ones who worked in fields, railroads, or even enchroaching industry.

*When asians from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan also moved into the area, and this areas became known as Little Japans, and Chinatowns.

*Many barrios(neighborhoods) cuch as Las Lomas started to created gangs.

*Las Lomas was one of the country's most devasting increases in gang activity.

*Miguel became the leader/president of the narrator's club/gang.

QUESTIONS:

*why didn't the government help to prevent all those gang's problems ?, and like that also prevent the problems that are going on right now in thhe society.

*if the United States was going to treat immigrats like the way they do, then why did they bring them to work here?

*for what reasons were teachers were scared of those guys in clubs/gangs?

*what were the resons why people started to join gangs?

VOCABULARY:

*pivoted: a person or thing on which something depends.

*cyanide: a highly poisonous, white, crystaline compound.

*wisdom: teh equality of being wise: good judgement.

LITERARY TERMS:

*Similies: "whispers of morning, whispers of night, children without faces tormenting with a word, decending like a torrent of leaves, like a blaze of dawn." The author writes in page #39.

*Direct Characterization: the author uses direct characterization when he talks about his first love, Elena, to who the author describes as: "Elena, who came to Garvey all prendida. She didn't just know how to kiss, but how to take my hand through sections of her body and teach a pre-teen something of his own budding sexuality."page #44.

SUMMARY:

In this part of the book, the author is again describing situations of his life as a teenage, however now he describes it more detailedly, because this time he talks about all his friends and girlfriends he had when he was involved in gangs, and how he got into gangs, besides he explains how he and his brother are getting separated, because they're taking different roads in life, and how Rano came from being a loser to be a very reconized and diciplined person.
DANIEL SANCHEZ

5/4/3/2/1 NOTES # 3

COMMENTS:

*South San Gabriel, Los Angeles. The setting has changed several times, because the narrator/author's family isn't stablished in a house, they are always moving from place to place.

*Tino and the narrator ran away from the police, because they were in a basketball field where they couln't be after 4:00pm.

*Tino fells from the school's roof, and his misshapen body was in the floor, sprnikled over with sharps of glass.

*Only mexicans an poor "anglo" lived in La Presa Street, South San Gabriel which was a suburban neighborhood next to rich neighborhoods, and this show us how much discrimination and segregation was and still is in the United States.

*In La Presa Street la "Bruja"(the witch) is captured by the police, because suppossedly she had thrown two children in a trash-can.

QUESTIONS:

*why was the basketball field closed in a determinated time?

*did immigrants have to go to diffarent bathrooms as colored people did during the segregation time?

*why were schools openned by 4:00pm?

*what were the situations going on in the suburbs by that time?

VOCABULARY:

*thud: to hit with a dull sound.

*planky: adjective for plank(to broil and serve on a board).

*irate: angry; wrathful; insenced.

*deputy: a person appointed to act for another.



LITERARY TERMS

*Indirect Characterization: in the book, the narrator talks about how only mexicans and poor "anglo" live in his neighborhood, which shows the big issue of discrimination, and segregation people from the a low society level suffered.

*Dialect: in many parts of the book the narrator uses words that are from sapanish, not even spanish, these are mexican words(Las Lomas, bruja, vato, jardin, and many more).

SUMMARY:

This time, the narrator talks about different issuues/situations that he has gone through in "Las Lomas", such as ha and Tino being followed by the police by the police through the school, and all the issues of immigration and suffering of discrimination that he and his family have suffered. Another fact is that as we know he lived in a poor barrio(neighborhood), so he also says, explains siituations that have happenned in his neighbor(good and bad things).

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

5/4/3/2/1 #2

Daniel Sanchez

5/4/3/2/1 NOTES #2 "RUNNUING AWAY" BY LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ.

5-COMMENTS

*The narrator's dad had sons and daughters from another women , which made his family even bigger.

*One of his half-sisters had died of eating chicharrones accidentally when she was an infant.

*There was racism against immigrants:
"hey get out of there that's our seat" pg.#19
"you don't belong here this is not your country" pg.#19

*SETTING: 105th street, McKenley Avenue.

*It shows how don't speaking english in this country affects the people's devolopment and fairly treatment.

4-QUESTIONS

*Why did people act like that in those times?

*Didn't people who could not understand english have the same education as others?

*Why couldn't these people have the same education as others?

*Was capitalism in this country by that time?

3-VOCABULARY

*greasers: any thick, oily substance or lubricant.

*dared: to have enough courage for.

*pews: any of the benches with a back that are fixed in rows in a church.

2-LITERARY TERMS:

*Indirect Characterization: "the wet of tears covers her face. Mama then says she can't go. She will stay with him".

5/4/3/2/1 #1

Daniel Sanchez

5/4/3/2/1 NOTES. "RUNNING AWAY" BY LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ

5-COMMENTS

*SETTING: November 1950, Watts, Los Angeles.

*It was a 6 members family(Alfonso: father, Maria Estela: mother, Jose Rene: older brother, Ana Virginia and Gloria Estela: younger sisters, and the narrator.

*This family was an immmigrant family that left Ciudad Juarez, Mexico when the narrator when he was two years old and came to Los Angeles.

*The narrator is mostly describing his family roots and members of his family, and telling how they got to where they are.

*It shows how situations in other countries force many people to seek the American dream.

4- QUESTIONS

*Did people become legal in this country when a son or daughter was born in this country?

*Were there gangs in the United States by 1950.

*What year did immigrants from Latin America started to come to this country?

*Were there schools for people who did not speak the language?

3-VOCABULARY:

*sepia-colored: dark raddish-brown.

*phlegm: thick mocus discharged from the throat, as during a cold.

*whimper: to cry or utter with low, whinnig, broken sounds.

2-LITERARY TERMS:

*Conflict: most of the first chapter is description of places and characters.

*Similies: "this laughing like a raven's wail, a harsh wind's shriek, a laugh that I would hear countless beatings theresfter".

1- In this chapter, the narrator describes his family, and his roots. He also describes some of his adventures as a boy , besides he talks about how and why they come to the United States, Los Angeles more spacifically, and all the situations his family has had to confront throuhgaot their lives which are mostly bad situations.