My Humanities Story

Christenson, Allen J. Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya. University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.

• Its a collection of stories from the ancient Maya that shows their beliefs and traditions. 

Holmes, Seth. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States. University of California Press, 2013.

• Seth Holmes goes to work and live with Mexican immigrants to show just how bad the situation is for those people. 

For this class' project we had to make a presentation discussing a theme of our choosing within the book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States.The theme my group chose to cover for this project was "social control". We would use some questions that we came up with to find information within each chapter of the book that could help support our theme. Although our project was spread out over a couple of weeks, my group really only took a few hours to complete it. Whilst doing said project, my favorite part would honestly be the amount of freedom that we had to complete it. We could've chosen any theme we wanted and formatted our presentation however we liked.

When I first joined the class, I walked in with an open mind. As I had never taken any sort of humanity course much less a Latin American one, I didn't know what to expect. As for goals for this class, I had 2: to study hard and to try to learn things from this class that could be used outside of this class. Now that the semester has come to an end I can only say that I didn't meet any of my goals. At first I started to work hard but towards the end of the semester I began to slack off which led to me not accomplishing my goals.

Colossal Head

The most interesting thing I learned about in this class would be the notes about the ancient Aztec and Maya. As for the things I learned in this class, it would be pretty much everything. I never studied about ancient Latin America or the current Latin America. That said, I didn't know much before the class either except for some things like the current treatment of immigrants and the immigration problem, but nothing in depth. 

Kid Senate on immigration

I learned that the issue of immigration has been a lot more difficult than I thought. Many of the senators think that there shouldn't be so much restrictions on immigrations yet a bill or law can never get through. Also the last time that a major discussion was held about immigration was in 2013 when Obama was in presidency.

Crime Rates vs immigrants

I found what the kid's thought in general to be interesting. One thing that I remember clearly was how only violent crimes should be the only thing to stop immigrants. Misdemeanors shouldn't be something that should hold them back. For the kids to think of something that adults thought of was what interested me because they are thinking of something that adults thought and argued about. What I found to dislike was how the commentator made it seem like what the kids have done is something revolutionary and that if the kids could do it then adults should. I didn't like this section because the kids are inexperienced with worldly matters and the commentators are making it seem like it immigration is something easy to resolve.

The Hero Twins

The Hero Twins

The Hero Twins now had many powers of the gods. They could kill things and then make them come back from the dead. The Lords of Death were impressed with the boys' powers so they asked the boys to perform the trick on them. With their best trick of all, they killed the Lords of Death and then didn't bring them back to life. Due to this they had became victorius and had defeated Xibalba. 

Maya Maize God

Now they talked to their dead father and after that they became the Sun and the Moon and revived their father to make him the Maize God. Through their actions, the Hero Twins prepared the way for the planting of corn, for human beings to live on Earth, and the Fourth Creation of Maya. 

Works Cited

“Maya Hero Twins.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Hero_Twins.

“Maya Maize God.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_maize_god.

Lajos Boglár, and Péter Kuczka. Popol Vuh: a Maja-Kicse indiánok Szent könyve. Helikon, 1984.

Olmec's Economy

Farming in Olmec Civilization

The Olmec had a lot of unique characteristics that made them easy to remember such as their giant colossal heads they built. But probably the most interesting thing that I learned about them was their economy. They were situated in an area that was hot and humid and prone to hurricanes and heavy rainfall that led to frequent flooding of rivers (Lost Kingdoms 4:35 -  4:40). Despite all of this they still managed to live by depending on their agriculture which primarily consisted of crops such as maize, squash, and beans.

Trade Routes of Olmec

Trading (although no specific records were shown) was also done by the Olmec. They had developed extensive trade routes throughout a majority of Mesoamerica trading things such as jade, pottery, serpentine etc. (McKillop 83). In fact because of their trading system with nearby civilizations, they essentially became the "mother culture" because of how influential the Olmec were. Their system of trade is what helped other civilizations out by essentially being a model to follow even after the Olmec declined.

The importance of the economy of a civilization especially one as complex as the Olmec is essential to its survival. The production of those three staple crops led to a surplus of food for its people. and the trading system that expanded across Mesoamerica aided with increased influence among nearby tribes. Learning about this from reading and listening, actually surprised me because I never thought that the first Mesoamerican civilization would be this advanced.

FiveDigitCreature. YouTube, YouTube, 29 June 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2263&v=gTuab0SNuPA.

“Population and Settlement.” Mexico, http://durbalejmexico.weebly.com/population-and-settlement.html.

Minster, Christopher. “Ancient Olmec Trade and Economy.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 24 July 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/ancient-olmec-trade-and-economy-2136295.

“Sutori.” Sutori, https://www.sutori.com/story/olmec-farming-and-settlements--jLDHvMrFjBhNRtiVR6VAK72b.