Discrimination and Immigrants Rights

It scares me to death to think about the possibility of Trump with the power that being the US president would give him, and what he would do with it. After reading the news about two “white” men with extensive criminal records beating up a homeless guy and declaring that “it was OK because he was Latin” I started thinking about what this whole campaign circus is causing to our society. I don’t live in the US, in fact, I’m from Uruguay, a small country in Latin America. Even though, due to our strong Spanish and Italian heritage, we look more like European than Latin, we are part or Latin America and so I feel bother by this whole topic.

First I want to start by saying that we don’t need people encouraging crazy people. We have enough of those already. The last thing our international society needs is powerful people prompting more hate and discrimination. We need our leaders to set examples of tolerance and respect, we need to show people that we can’t develop as a society if any kind of discrimination is still happening everyday. And I know it’s a long process but c’mon people, this is the twenty-first century. We know we are all the same, we have the same rights and obligations and nobody should have the power to tell someone  they are inferior. Trust me I also live full of pre conceived concepts and clichés, but a few years back I realized how poisonous that is and started to change my way of viewing the world.

I hate the fact that people think that because we are from Latin America we are somehow inferior in any way. It’s true, our countries don’t have the same means, and we have a lot of problems with security and economy but we do the exact same things. We have internet access, we go to school and work, we have scientist, we have doctors, we develop lots of things everyone in the world use today, we have fast food chains, and malls and airports. We don’t live on the middle of the jungle, or the dessert, or between the dirt. I can’t count the amount of times someone from a developed country asked me if we watch tv here, or if we use Tumblr or go to college. THE FREAKING ANSWER IS YES! We do all the same stuff, we even have similar laws and religions and politics, we just don’t have everything developed yet, and probably won’t have for a couple hundred years more.

When I read what Trump had said about Mexican people, and what I believe is a generalized view on all Latin immigrants, I was sad and pissed. I was sad because it felt like a huge step backwards in the mutual understanding of our international society. I was sad because I know there is a lot of people, in the US particularly, that think like him. That they believe they are better than anyone else just because they happen to have been born there.I was sad because they are ignorant, they clearly don’t care to find out the facts and just go with what makes them more money. And I’m pissed because this is affecting us in more ways than we are able to see today. This crime I read about, opened my eyes to the notion that people are taking his words as a truth and are going to scary extremes.

As I read in another article, the illegal immigrants are about 4% of the working population in the US and they mostly concentrate in some areas or services. Imagine a pyramid and at the bottom of it are the "illegal" immigrants, you take them all out and the jobs nobody wants to do but are necessary to the functioning of a country are left without doing and you have a huge void impossible to fill. Besides the fact that it is virtually impossible to make disappear a whole 11 million people, but who’s counting.

My point is, every person who went to the US illegally risked their lives and are most certainly  trying really hard to survive, and make their dreams a reality. Something that sadly people take for granted, in other parts of the world is hard to envision. They are fighting for a better future, they don't want to take your jobs, or rob your house, or kill, they just want a better life. Don’t we all? The US would not be what it is today without the immigrants. One of the things that make the US big is the cultural diversity, the different languages being spoken, foods, jobs , and its people. As someone watching everything from outside, I honestly believe that if tolerance and respect were the norm and not the exception, the US and generally the whole international society would be a million times better.

I have so much more to say but it would require a lot of room and time. But this is basically  why I think we have to fight Trump and this whole train of thought. We have to make the world listen, and be loud. I know we can do it, after all we, the younger generation, are the future of this world, and we have to fight to make t better for everyone. 

L.D

"Life keeps getting in the waaaaay..." ♪

Hello internet! I'm just here for a quick update, I'm pretty busy with college and work but I decided that I want to make this blog kind of a priority. 

So, my idea is work out a schedule, maybe start with one or two days a week, and see how it goes from there. I was thinking maybe one day write about some life problem that is going through my mind or whatever and the other do a book or movie review, something that I enjoy. Let's see how everything turns out.

A little bit about what I've been doing, basically when I came back from visiting the US and Canada, I started college (International Relations) and went right back to work. As you can imagine working 6+ hours a day and taking 5 classes this semester was a bit hectic to say the least, but I made it through. Last friday I took my last exam of the semester so let's hope I ace them all. Anyway this is kind of why I'm not writing a lot lately, but I promisse to try harder..

So goodnight everyone and hope to find more people around here soon ♥

Travelling

Finally I was able to acomplish it. All my life I've wanted to travel and see the world for myself. never thought I could but right now I'm writing this on a train heading to Toronto, Canada. It's amazing the feeling of knowing that you are doing something you wanted to do all your life. 

Skating at Central Park, New York City

Travelling is so incredible. It opens your mind, it helps you understand, it gives you independence and freedom. I can truly say I love it. Of course, there is a downside of travelling, the long hours, the budget, airport security (ugh), missing friends and family and wishing they were there, but at the end it's all worth the experiences. 

View from the Empire State Building

I never want this to end, but sadly in a little less than two weeks I have to get back to work and college. Don't even wanna think about it though, just enjoying my time and the posibility that I was given. 

Flying over Miami

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Reading

Hello! Happy 2015.

Today I wanted to write some thought on the habit of reading. I was reminded of this because I had a talk today at work with one of my co-workers about how much I read, and why it was. 

I told her that, the way I saw it, my love for books come from a very young age. I remember that since I was six or seven my parents took me every year to this book fair that is held in my country and they let me choose one or two books that I wanted to read, with the only condition that I had to finish them eventually. It was like magic to me, I felt so grown up at the time being able to select what I wanted to get. I tried multiple kind of books: poetry, romance, adventure, etc, until I find what kind of books I enjoyed the most. Ever since then, I really believe that finding the kind of books that get your attention and keep you engaged is the key to enjoy reading. Had I stick with one kind of book, I don't think I'd be the avid reader I am today.

It also helped the fact that pretty much everyone in my family loves to read, so I basically grow up around books (not a deciding factor in my opinion because my brother was brought up in the same house and family and he doesn't read much) but I'm positive that it made my wish to read stronger.

Around the time I was eight or nine, my godmother gave me the first Harry Potter book as a gift. At this point I had read big girl books (as I refered to books without pictures or illustrations) but Harry Potter was like the top of it all. Here's the thing a lot of people don't get, Harry Potter (as have done so many other books after it) helped me through so much I can't even explain it. I remember my mom reading them right along with me, and after she passed when I was ten, I felt like I needed to finish the story for her too, and it really helped me cope. She was reading book four when she died, and ten years later that copy still helds a very meaningful place in my heart. 

Thing is, these are things you can't really explain, you have to experience to understand. The fact that a book can move me, make me laugh, cry, get angry and want to trash everything is amazing. To this day, when I find a book that touches me is like a whole new world opens up in front of me to experience. The fact that you can experience life through somebody else and you can escape, at least for a bit, your own life, problems and stress is something magical.


I truly believe there is a book for everyone, and it makes me so sad when someone says that they hate reading, or that it's boring to them, because I'm positive it is because they never found the right book. And all the same it makes me so happy tht new generations are reading so much more than my generation and are comenting and spreding the word about books,

If you know how and what to, reading can be one of your biggest companions through life.    

Friday holiday, Goodreads and other fun stuff

As the title says, in my country it's a holiday today which means no work, no class I have all day to read and be lazy. Cheers to that!

Anyway It's 5 pm and I've just finished reading "The coincidence of Callie and Kayden". Amazing book if you ask me and I'm starting the sequel right now. I'll leave a link with my Goodreads review for you to check it out if you want.

Another thing I wanted to write about is Goodreads. I'm kinda addicted to it. I love the fact that you can share preferences, review books, comment other reviews, share thougths, quotes, passages of different books. You can add book you read in your childhood and find other people that also read them and maybe it means a lot to them too. You can join groups. I don't know, it's basically heaven. So here it's my Goodreads profile, if you want to befriend me go ahead, I accept everyone :)

Now I'll probably go clean my room a bit because it is a fucking mess. I don't have space to put all my trash so I'll have to do some magic tricks (?)

Hope you have a fun Friday!   

Fast Book Reviews: We were Liars by E. Lockhart

This is going to be a little different for one reason. If I tell you anything about this book I’m going to spoil it to you and the best thing you can do is read it without knowing what you are getting yourself into. Instead I’m going to share something that was on one of the first pages of the version of the book I’ve read and I seriously think it captured this need to not be spoiled perfectly. 

ENJOY:

Dear Colleagues,

It’s not often that I write a letter asking a reader to do this, but please trust me. I won’t tell you the plot of this book. It is better for you to just read it. Between the covers you will find:

the beautiful Sinclair family on a windswept private island,

four friends who are unconditionally loyal to one another,

a lot of witty banter,

and desperate true love.

Also …

family secrets,

a terrifying accident,

and many golden retrievers.

We Were Liars is a dazzler. It’s suspenseful, literary, and romantic. It’s a modern, mazelike suspense story from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. You don’t need to know more. More would spoil it.

Read it.

I believe you’ll want to talk about this book with someone else who has read it. So read this ARC and give the duplicate to a friend, and let the conversation begin! Whatever you do, don’t spoil it for the people who haven’t read it yet.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

All my best,

Beverly Horowitz

Vice President and Publisher

Delacorte Press

Read this book. Please.

I'm leaving a link with my GoodReads full of spoilers review in case you want to read it. HERE it is!

Favorite Book Quote: “They know that tragedy is not glamorous. They know it doesn't play out in life as it does on a stage or between the pages of a book. It is neither a punishment meted out nor a lesson conferred. Its horrors are not attributable to one single person. Tragedy is ugly and tangled, stupid and confusing.” ― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

Why I love PRETTY LITTLE LIARS

I was planning to do a Fast Book Review today but earlier I was thinking about this and I thought why not writing it down. So here are my reasons for being madly obsessed with this TV show.

First of all, a bit about how I learned about PLL. A friend of mine told me probably a hundred times I should watch it, so one day I was alone at home and with nothing to do (good old days) so I decided I would give it a try. At that time there was only a season complete and it was probably airing episode 3 or 4 of the second season. And that was it. I swear I watched the first episode and it was like I needed to learn everything about it. So, in probably three or four days I finished up season one and started watching episodes as they aired.

I’m diving right into the reasons why I love the show. The first one and I think this not only applies for this show but mostly for every show I watch and every book I read. I want to be entertained and forget about my life, about my problems. I don’t want to watch a show that resembles my life, because I have enough of it already, and sometimes life can be overwhelming and you need to chill for a bit and forget about everything. So I love a good show that can take my mind off of things, a show that can make me forget for at least an hour a day. And Pretty Little Liars does that. Its twists and turns keep my mind busy trying to work things out, and mystery makes me hungry for more. The romance on the show makes me wish I could experience some of that myself (on the dark side it also makes me have high expectation on boys ouch!).

The second thing I love is the opportunity to communicate directly with the writers and producers of the show. As a lot of you know, PLL is the most tweeted show on tv, among other things, and almost, if not every writer and producer of the show has a personal twitter account and answers fan questions (although sometimes they answer to the same people over and over again) . I love the possibility that we, as fans of the show, have to talk directly to the people in charge of creating this world, and the fact that we can discuss everything about it, every clue, every revelation, in real time makes it all the more exciting.

And of course, number three are the actors. Maybe you don’t love them all, but you have to agree with me that this is probably the hottest cast on TV. Like really, how is it even possible to hire so many good looking people? The girls are all stunning, and I swear I would be happy having like 2% of their beautifulness. The boys are like too much to handle. And the thing I love the most is that there is one for every girl. You like the kinda hipster guy, you have Tyler. You like the sweet, caring guy who loves animals, you have Ian. And so on. 

Like really?! They are all so perfect it hurts.

I’m not going to comment on acting capacity just because I believe that that is something totally subjective. But what I will admit, and I would love to have you admit too, is that even if they are not the greatest actor/actress of all times, they are there, meaning that someone chose them to portray that particular role, and that, like it or not, means something.

The style of the show, not only the clothing which is amazing btw, but the style of the buildings and the design of the sets. You can tell that everything is thought about carefully. One thing though, how are they even allowed to go to school dressed like that? I know that I live in a different country, and at my school we had to wear uniforms, but how is that even possible? I mean really stylish, but not so much school-ish…

Yeah, they go to school this well dressed...

On a more serious note, another thing I not only love, but admire about the show is the good use they give to the massive impact on teenagers and young adults everywhere. I love how they deal with topics such as homosexuality, loss and addiction. Knowing that they matter to a lot of us, and that probably everyone that is watching has suffer or know someone who has suffer at least one of them. The show feels real to us, and we can relate to it in a positive way. The fact that ABC Family is letting, not only this show, but others on the network too, address some of these topics that were for so long considered “taboo” makes me really happy. Good for them and for us as a society.

And finally I wanted to talk about the storyline. I’ve read a lot of people commenting that they are getting tired of not knowing who is A and honestly I love where they are taking the story. Yes, it’s true that it’s a bit tiring that every time we discover someone is -A, then we found out that they are not. But the whole point of the show is creating mystery and resolving it or half resolving it and leaving open doors to then potentially open them wider or close them as necessary. The whole Alison twist that happened on season 4 was amazing, and you can’t deny that. Ok, I guess you could, but you should not.

So that is all for today. There are probably a hundred more reasons why I love PLL but it’s going to take forever. So if you are interested in knowing more and in case you didn’t realize it already, I would highly recommend you to watch Pretty Little Liars if you want to be entertained, amused and shocked all in the same second. You have until June 10th to catch up, that's the date set for season five to premiere on ABC Family.