Alzaldua

Summary
Alzaldua explores art and writing by looking at art and her writings as pieces of art. She describers her writings as things that have minds of their own at times and build themselves up. Art is a major part of the writing, looking at the different styles and how these modern styles can relate back to writings. With art, comes expression, which is a major part of not only art but writing as well. With the various cultures discussed, she is aiming to educate the white american about the other cultures that are found in America and how their works educate those who do not know a lot about them.

Synthesis
The first artist I thought of while reading Alzaldua was McCloud because of the stress that is being placed on both art and expression. Another author that came to mind in the article was Smitherman. A big part of Smitherman's article dealt with culture and how these have a major impact on the style of writing. Finally, Elbow is easily relatable to Alzaldua because identity and voice are both major components of the two pieces.

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
I found this quote to really set the mood for the whole article. It made it relatable and added a family outlook on it.	“I preferred the world of the imagination to the death of sleep. My sister, Hilda who slept in the same bed with me, would threaten to tell my mother unless I told her a story.” (220)
I feel like this happens for a lot of writers. The minute that you start putting things together the story begins to write itself.	“The whole thing has had a mind of it’s own, escaping me and insisting on putting together the pieces of its own puzzle with minimal direction from my will.” (220)
Painting is something that has always been a hobby of mine so to see familiar terms that I have studied being used in the text it helped me to connect more. I also find a great interest in learning about other cultures so my interest was kept.	“Modern western painters have ‘borrowed,’ copied, or other-wise extrapolated the art of tribal cultures and called it cubism, surrealism, symbolism.” (221)
Writing can definitely lead to having to look at who you are more carefully which is hard for some people.	“Writing produces anxiety. Looking inside myself and my experience, looking at my conflicts, engenders anxiety in me.” (224)

My Thoughts
I found the article to be easy to read. I loved how she opened the story by starting off with describing how she used to read under the covers with her flashlight. I felt like the piece was easily relatable because most people have family ties that are based in other parts of the world, and I also know how language can be hard especially when in different settings. When I went to Spain, it was very hard to try and speak the language to people who are completely fluent because I did not want to mess up. More people need to be open to learning about different cultures and I do think one of the best ways is to study art because then you can see people expressing themselves, who are in their element.