Defining Differences Between Castillo, Hernandez and Delgado
You will need:
NESTOR CASTILLO
PITBULL
Ana Castillo's "Give It To Me"
Daisy Hernandez's "A Cup of Water Under My Bed" and
the copy of "Tracing the Horse" by Diana Marie Delgado
Please answer the following questions in the comment thread of this post.
How would you define the differences between these three Latina authors? How or what do they write that sets them apart from each other? Think about style, tone and voice. You can talk about other things as well. Please use one or two quotes from the texts.
NESTOR CASTILLO
PITBULL
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAlthough each author experiences Latinidad, each one writes about it distinctly differently. Daisy Hernandez for examples, writes with care. Each sentence is carefully crafted. You can tell in the tone that regardless of if the memory is "good" or "bad' she recalls it with fondness. She also highlights the struggle that many Latinx people face. In addition, her imagery is used to make the reader feel attached to a moment, with it they're able to understand the intent that's behind each sentence. Even something as simple as, "their voices puncture the air like threaded needles" (pg. 22), helps the reader understands how severe the silence was.
ReplyDeleteAna Castillo's book demonstrates the sensuality that Latinas are often encouraged to hide. She perfectly displays the hypocrisy within the Latino household. She doesn't hold back, and writes exactly what Palma feels. So often we're told to be the ideal daughters so not to offend the man of the house, but she disregards it. This can be seen in the line, "Abuela... still cutting meat for him at the table, useless piece of shit that he was..." (pg. 4) In contrast to Hernandez's care, Castillo's writing is very, "I'm going to say what I want, and I don't care who hears it."
Diana Marie Delgado writes with such raw emotion that it incites something different than the other two authors. Delgado often writes in a tone that is melancholy. It recalls events that may or may not have happened due to the speaker being the one telling the story rather than Delgado. After reading one of Delgado's poems you feel tired and empathetic towards the speaker, something that doesn't necessarily occur in Hernandez or Castillo's writing, or if it does, it doesn't occur as often. Delgado's writing is also a bit more "universal" in that it does not explicitly talk about Latinidad. In short, Hernandez relates to others through shared experiences, Castillo emits empowerment and living life without regrets, and Delgado's work is more sharing the affects of moments of regret.
Great. I really like the distinctions you made here. What's most interesting to me is how absolutely different the voices of Latinidad can be. How so many different people can embody different concepts.
Delete
ReplyDeleteEach of these authors have a unique style of writing. Castillo has a casual style of writing with an emotional/intimate tone. Hernandez has a formal diction but also an emotional/serious tone. Delgado has a writing style that is symmetrical when she writes poetry. Her poems consist of couplets or block text with single lines through out the poem. As for voice Castillo has an open/blunt/edgy voice. Hernandez's voice is more conservative and safe. Castillo's writing include venereal language where as Hernandez doesn't include venereal language. Delgado has a casual diction with a serious/emotional tone.
Here's an example of writing from Hernandez from "A Cup of Water Under My Bed", "In the kitchen, the light of the early evening flickers through the partially opened curtains, and my mother does not have a story for us today, but I have one for her." In this example you see that Hernandez has a formal diction. She says "does not" instead of "doesn't". Castillo is different in her writing because the language she uses is more blunt and casual. For example in this quote from her novel "Give It To Me" Castillo writes, "THEN AGAIN, her lame uncle Jim-bo (or Jim-Boy or Jimmy or Yimmy, depending on who was talking about him or to him) had started making stops at the bedroom doorway with no door late at night when he'd come home smelling like a tavern urinal." In this quote Castillo uses casual diction when she writes, "he'd instead of (he did). And she uses blunt language like, "smelling like a tavern urinal" to describe the characters smell. You can really see the different styles that Hernandez and Castillo use in there writing. The main differences between the styles is that Hernandez's writing is a memoir, Castillo's is a Novel, and Delgado's writings are poems.
I forgot to add my name for this above submission. The submission at 7:47PM (Vanessa Aguilar)
Delete(Angel Martinez)
ReplyDeleteDaisy Hernandez in the book A Cup of Water Under My Bed, is very descriptive providing the reader with sensory imagery. Hernandez talks about a time where her mother is telling her and her sister a story. Hernandez describes the environment of the room, “The windows are shut, the curtains drawn, and the edges of the dresser has vanished in the dark” (21). Hernandez mentions the little things in the room like the “edges of the dresser” almost vanishing due to the windows and curtains being closed.
In Ana Castillo’s book Give It to Me, the author is also descriptive like Hernandez, but Castillo is more intimate. Castillo focuses more on creating an image of the characters in her book and flushing out those interactions between the characters. She wants her reader to almost feel the interactions of those characters through her diction. This is seen when Castillo says, “She walked out high on art and made her way back down Michigan Avenue where she saw Pepito waiting. He had an ankle monitor, which allowed him out for a few hours a day to look for employment” (227). Here Castillo mentions the character was “high on art” asserting that she had an excitement due to all the art she saw at the institute. Castillo also mentions key descriptions about Pepito making reader feel for Pepito’s struggles in looking for a job.
Diana Marie Delgado book Tracing the Horse, Delgado’s voice is more real and person like, compared to Hernandez and Castillo’s pieces. Delgado’s poems are short yet provide the reader with enough description to get the sense Delgado is trying to portray.
Ok good. I wouldn't necessarily use "intimate" with Castillo --- I think the word "intimate" means that we have a closeness and that closeness is somewhat tender. I wouldn't agree that Castillo is tender. She's quite harsh, which was your very good point re: the "high on art" comment. I love that. That's one of my most favorite lines.
DeleteA Cup of Water Under My Bed by Daisy Hernandez
ReplyDeleteThe author has a softer tone that draws in readers to really listen closely and picture themselves in what she says. The details and word choice helps the reader imagine and see what she sees, almost as if to bring the reader into the story alongside her. This just adds onto the feel of the atmosphere she wants to set and how her words should be read. For example, her tone in the quote “ In her queen size bed, I am lying on one side of her and my young sister on the other… My father is at the factory and the bedroom is silent…. She signs now in bed and begins telling the story she told me the night before.”, paints the picture of where she is and with who. The quote also describes the atmosphere as calm and a time of connection/bonding with her mother and younger sister.
GIVE IT TO ME BY ANA CASTILLO
The tone of the author is more laid back, and is almost as though a conversation is going on between friends. The theme and structure of the story is quite different from the other two authors discussed today, as Castillo writes more so about “adult topics” and in a semi-sort of blunt manner. Her use of slang and everyday vocabulary is retable and demonstrates a more realistic way in which someone would tell a story in real life. As she is going back and forth between narrating the story and being the character, Castillo keeps the readers' readings with the flow and topic of the story section. For example, as she says “ He had an ankle monitor, which allowed him out for a few hours a day …. He was wearing a tight, plaid shirt and sweating from the humidity. They made eye contact as if he thought only she could see him…”, the sentences are quick and short, but really help the story follow at a pace in which the reader wants to continue reading and follow along.
Tracing the Horse by Diana Marie Delgado
Delgado’s way of writing is difficult and harder to understand/ keep up with as it flows quite quickly and almost bounces everywhere. With every poem that is read, I find myself going in several directions, trying to understand and interpret what she is trying to say. But with that said, I do like the challenge and repetition that goes into reading and understanding her material. And the tone of her poems are more so of personal stories and express vulnerable moments.
Forgot to add my name onto my post, sorry. (Samantha Leon)
DeleteJose Luis Lopez
ReplyDeleteAlthough Daisy Hernandez, Ana Castillo, and Diana Marie Delgado are all Latina writers and experienced all experienced Latino cultures, all of them have different styles of writing. Ana Castillo has a casual tone of writing, and her style is very slang-like. Castillo often spoke about adult topics as well. An example of her casual tone and her style of slang in her writing would be in her book, Give It To Me, “Jim-Bo wanted to fuck his niece since puberty, and when he opened the door his gaze feigning indifference was nothing more than a cover-up of the fact” (Castillo 170).
Furthermore, Daisy Hernandez has a descriptive style of writing, and the tone of her writing is more emotional. An example of her descriptive style of writing in her book, A Cup of Water Under My Bed is, “She is happy for me, and I am experiencing the same. This Job, after all, isn’t just a job...This job is the reason Rosa Parks sat down and Dolores Huerta stood up and why my parents migrated here (Hernandez 18). Hernandez has a very raw voice in her writing and frequently uses anecdotes in her writing as well to further emphasize her claims.
Lastly, Diana Marie Delgado has a descriptive style of writing, as she does use imagery a lot. Also, her tone is very candid. An example of this would be in her poem, Tracing the Horse, “The devil grabs my feet to cover them in pollen. I should stop talking to him. He turned me into a crow, put music in me, told me why our plum tree was called Purple Heart (Delgado). Another example would be, "She told me to study the moon. Take a picture and tell the world what it means, only I wasn't sure what the moon would say, especially to me; I couldn't look out the window (Delgado). Delgado’s voice is very raw. Her imagery is quite descriptive and allows readers to analyze her stanzas, her words, and also the meaning behind them.
In A Cup of Water Under My Bed by Daisy Hernandez, I find her writing to be a little safe. She uses heavy imagery in her writing. Daisy uses her experiences as a Latina to connect with the reader on an emotional level. Her writing is very descriptive in the idea that she tells the reader everything she is seeing to make the reader feel as if they are present. An example of this can be found when she talks about the edges of the dresser disappearing, "The windows are shut, the curtains drawn, and the edges of the dresser has vanished in the dark” (21). Overall, I think that her writing is very traditional. In Give It to Me by Ana Castillo, her writing isn't the traditional "Latina experience". She isn't afraid to write about some of the things we feel but are oftentimes too afraid to say. She writes about topics that some are not comfortable with. An example of this can be found when she tells the reader about Pepito and Palma "making up for lost time" when he was just 14 and she was 24 years old. In Tracing the Horse by Diana Marie Delgado, her writing can be more understandable to some. She writes the way she would speak with a friend. I was a little drained reading because it was so sad.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add my name^ (marisela).
Delete(Michelle Alcantara)
ReplyDeleteFirst, the style of Daisy Hernandez in her book A Cup of Water Under My Bed is very formal. Her tone of voice is emotional, conservative and relatable. She writes about experiences a lot of Latinx readers can relate to because we have gone through similar things. Her writing in this section is giving off a dark feeling of color. For example, she begins to explain the room where her mother is telling her the same story along with her sister. She states "... the bedroom is silent, the windows are shut, the curtain are drawn..."
Now, Ana Castillo in her book Give It To Me has more of a casual style. But, even though her writing is causal, her tone is very emotional and intimate. Her style makes it feel more as if you are speaking to a friend because her voice in this book is very open and blunt. For example, in the fourth paragraph where she writes "He knew she was with a woman so the intent was to show her he could do with his tongue what-ever s female could do. She came so hard they may have heard her elephant mating calls in the next room."
Lastly, Diana Marie Delgado in her poems from Tracing the Horse has a casual but also formal style. Her style is sort of the in-between of both Daisy Hernandez and Ana Castillo. Her tone of voice is sentimental, especially in the lines from her poem "The Sea Is Farther Than Thought" where she writes, "To be honest, I called because there was snow in my glove, not because I missed you." This is a very powerful quote because I feel a lot of people can relate with wanting to be independent and strong but sometime we fall.
(Francisco Gallardo)
ReplyDeleteAll of these three writers have distinctive styles from each other, for example, Daisy Hernandez in my eyes is a very detailed writer that projects detailed writing creating imagery for the reader. An example of her detailed writing that caught my attention was when she said in the reading, ”she rubs our back and whispers stories into our dark hair” this quote shows a tone of affection in her writing which it's easy for the reader to imagine what she’s saying in her writing. Also, her writing has a very emotional tone too because she sounds really passionate when she tells her story from her book,” A Cup of Water Under My Bed”. Overall she’s really good at writing detailed information in her writing because when I was reading her book I almost got the sense like if I was seeing it in real life.
Ana Castillo's writing is very upfront to the point because she doesn't sugar coat her writing. In contrast, Daisy Hernandez's writing is not as smooth as her writing because when you read her writing it's more real to the point on some topics that people don't like talking about. I get the sense that her tone of writing is much more emotional than other writers, which makes her special in a way to catch the reader's attention. For example, a quote that I picked from her was, “I look at the white woman’s cards and listen to her Bold English words”, I feel like this quote shows how she is prideful of who she is as a person and she is not trying to be like anybody else, for example, some people say that Chicanos are whitewashed but Ana Castillo is not an example of someone being whitewashed. Also, her writing really relates to Latinos because she uses many Spanish words in her writing making her writing more emotional because a lot of Latinos could relate to what she says in her writing.
Lastly, Diana Delgado has a much more formal type of writing in contrast to Ana Castillo's writing because she doesn't use any bad words in her writing as much as Castillo’s. I also get the sense that her tone of writing is more affectionate like Daisy Hernandez's writing. For example, one quote that I took of her reading is, “ I pretend to lie in the sand, be part ocean dust from a candy cigarette” this quote shows how her writing has a lot of deep meaning. I get the sense that Diana Delgado writing is difficult to read in a way because she uses a lot of deep meaning, but in a way that's what makes her special as a writer to make the reader think twice of what she’s saying to comprehend her message