American and World Culture
East-Side Perspective / Un punto de vista distinto
Today, I learned about Ignacio Gomez and was able to see his art prints at the Chicano Resource Center inside the East Los Angeles County Library. Ignacio was born and raised in this multicultural and unique city. He has painted over forty portraits of some of the most well-known and important Latinos in the United States.
His images are powerful, pridefully reflect the history and culture of Mexican-Americans, and burst with life and color. Most of all, Ignacio's images portray a positive and inspiring view of Latinos; a perception very much needed today.*
Hoy, aprendí sobre Ignacio Gómez y su arte mientras visitaba el Centro de Recursos Chicano dentro de la Biblioteca del condado en el Este de Los Ángeles. Ignacio nació en esta ciudad única y multicultural. Ha pintado más de cuarenta retratos de las personalidades latinas más importantes en los Estados Unidos.
Sus creaciones son ponderosas, reflejan orgullosamente la historia y cultura del méxico-americano, y rebosan de vida y color. Sobre todo, las imágenes de Ignacio reflejan un aspecto positivo y motivante del latino; una percepción muy necesitada hoy en día.^
*Visit Ignacio Gomez' website to learn more about the artist and his creations: http://www.ignaciogomez.com/
^Visite la página Ignacio Gómez para aprender más sobre el artista y sus obras: http://www.ignaciogomez.com/
The Seventh Seal: Apocalypse and Redemption
The Seventh Seal , 1957 The Seventh Seal is a film by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman released in 1957. The story takes place during The Black Death, which devastated Europe during the fourteenth century and killed between twenty-five to fifty million people; the movie captures a portrait of death and it's looming presence in the lives of Europeans of all ages, classes and religious beliefs. Ingmar Berman's film is shot in black and white, though it might have been due to the slow emergence of technicolor in motion pictures during the period, the high cost or technique required to process color in films, The Seventh Seal is better told through the visual duality of shades. The film begins with a knight, Antonius Block playing a game of chess with the personification of Death. At the end of every game of chess there will be a clear winner and a loser. Death will definitely win one day, for nobody escapes it; the question, therefore, is When will death
Arrival (& Circles)
One of the ideas that most captivated me from Plato's Timaeus is that which denotes that the demiurge designed the universe as a sensible representation of eternity; the fact that the planets are round and that they travel perpetually in spheres represents this notion of the eternal. Plato writes, "And the creation of the universe conformed to the model of eternity, so as to be as similar to it as possible." Coincidentally, the day that we discussed this idea in class I saw the film, Arrival . The story follows Louise Banks, a Professor of Linguistics who is hired to communicate with extraterrestrials whose craft is stationed over the Montana plains. The aliens speak through circular symbols made of palindrome phrases. There is no beginning or end to each phrase, they represent ideas that are not constraint to earthly time. The aliens have come to earth to offer the gift of "eternal language" to humanity. Throughout the film, we see flashbacks of Dr. Bank's daughter Hanna
A Deathless Society
We live in a society that doesn't like to talk about suffering or death. On social media, everyone seems to be having a great time, traveling to the most exotic destinations, and celebrating endless achievements; couples are perpetually in love, the sun always seems to be shining, skin is free of blemishes, and every smile gleams like it was on display on a Colgate commercial. We love to post life's greatest hits but hate to share the moments that never even made it to the popular charts. In Los Angeles, Hollywood has fostered a "forever young" culture. Actors are always wearing the hippest wardrobe, driving the newest cars, and participating in the hottest trends. Old is boring, last month is so, like, five minutes ago . Millennials and Gen Z's are trapped in Peter-Pan syndrome; they play video games well into their adult years, jump from one job to another because they hate the way the boss looked at them, and they get married, uh, well into their