Assumption at 0, Emiliano Zapata

By: Joshua Quiroz

Being born from Mexican parents I have been taught not only the history of the United States, but also the history of Mexico. I remember that my parents would argue and debate which state was better, Guadalajara (Mom’s side) or Morelos (Dad’s side). Then I remember that my dad mentioned a man’s name that contributed a lot to the revolution. That man’s name was Emiliano Zapata.

As I went to school I learned about world history and U.S. history, yet when it came to revolutions from countries that name kept coming up but was vaguely mentioned. I’ve known a lot of history of how the United States became a country, that was all I was being taught for most of the time in middle school. Quite frankly I was getting tired of being told that this country was the best for what they did and all that sugar coating they put on things.

It wasn’t until my Sophomore year in high school when I began to question this mans role in the revolution. I was in Spanish and someone had done the history of the Mexican Revolution, and the person kept on going about Pancho Villa and what he did. Eventually everything was covered except for that man that my dad had mentioned in his debates with my mom. So I asked the person if they had anything on Emiliano Zapata, they responded with a no. This got me to wonder even more than ever.

I got home later that day and my dad was hanging pictures and he hanged this portrait of a man in a proud stance with a weapon in his hand, with words on the bottom reading, Tierra y Libertad and I asked my dad who was that and my dad answered, “Mi General” (My General). I wondered why my dad had mentioned him as his general, as far as I know my dad can’t be that old. So I went on and asked why he called him his general and he told me what he had done to deserve such a name. He turned out to be the military leader of the revolution.

Many people when asked about the Mexican Revolution automatically think,Pancho Villa yet many people forget about everyone else and including the other man who actually started the movement of the revolution, Emiliano Zapata. The times I have been told about the revolution, they cover only things that most people know, like Pancho Villa and maybe Francisco Madero. Answers like that to me is not enough, that’s a major event that occurred to a culture that I fall into. There are events and questions that need to be answered. Things like that made me interested in finding out more about him and the event in general.

I want to find out more because there is always more than meets the eye of any person. I know he helped the revolution along with becoming very well known around Mexico. What I do know also is that he was betrayed by his own followers when he was murdered, and he was also known for the saying Tierra y Libertad. To me, knowing more of one of my dad’s biggest role model for what he did for Mexico is not only challenging but also very honorable and accomplishing knowing the full life of one of Mexico’s most influential general during the revolution.

By doing this I can not only research about Zapata, but even answer some questions that I have in my head, like for example how was zapata able to get very well known knowledge to train and have an army against the enemy. Another question I had was if he had any influence to stand up or any influence at all that guided the way he lived. Not only asking questions is what makes me wanting to be interested in learning about him, but also I can see by researching what he saw and put myself into his shoes and see why he made the choices he made, that’s what makes the project even more interesting and why it makes him an even more interesting character in the 20th century.

Lizzie Mooney

1/21/15

Assumption at Zero - Patti Smith

I remember the first time I heard Patti Smith. I was interning for a casting producer in Los Angeles for the month, a little worse for wear given the fact I had never had to buy my own toilet paper before and I hadn't seen very many familiar faces in weeks. I was over the moon that an old family friend was taking me to dinner in Silverlake for a little escape from my internship . We spent the evening mulling around town, poking into little shops of every kind. We stumbled upon her favorite bookstore and in it, her favorite book. Just Kids by Patti Smith “I love Patti!” She exclaimed in a bookstore-whisper, pointing to a little black book with a photograph of a Mick Jagger-faced man and a striking dark haired woman- “Patti,” according to my friend- on the cover. “You’d love her,” she assured me, and offered to play a few of her songs in the car.

She popped Patti Smith’s Horses into the CD player, the soundtrack to our long wait in LA’s rush hour madness. The first song was “Gloria: In Excelsis Deo.” At first she reminded me of a female Jim Morrison or Lou Reed. Her voice was untrained, raspy, but powerful. I could almost feel her spitting at me through the car speakers when she sang the first line “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.” I was hooked. I spent the rest of my time in LA hunting down her music. By the time I had to head back to San Diego, I had accumulated enough of her records and CDs to institute another small suitcase. My train ride home was accompanied by Outside Society, Radio Ethiopia and Wave.

Patti changed the way I thought about music. As the daughter of a guitar player, I’ve been taught to choose my music carefully, to always keep an eye out for innovation and theory. Although Patti might not use many dynamic progressions or melodies, she’s innovative in different ways. Not only did I feel extremely connected to her music, I was deeply affected by the poetry in her songs. I had always been a huge fan of poetry, but her innovative style of fusing rock and roll and spoken word was unlike anything I had ever heard. In the few interviews I’ve seen with her, she speaks almost lyrically. She is a poet to the core.

A few months ago, I saw that Patti had announced her upcoming tour dates. To my pleasant surprise, San Diego’s Balboa Theater was on the list! I held my breath and dropped the eighty bucks on tickets. There was no way I could pass up a chance to see her. My anticipation for this concert got me thinking; sure, I’m a huge fan of Patti Smith’s music, but how much do I really know about her? What are her influences? Her story? The show is only a couple weeks away now and I’m determined to learn more about her so that I can get the most out of seeing her live. Patti is hugely influential in music, poetry and culture. Now she’s 68 years old and still touring! What makes an artist like that tick?

I have always been musically inclined. Ever since I was a young child, music was something that made me happy. Growing up my parent influenced my music style, playing   artist such as NWA, Snoop Dogg, 2pac, and Biggie Smalls. I never listened to spanish music as a child. The only spanish songs I listened to were  “Suavemente”, “La Bamba" or the spanish lullaby “A la nanita nana”. I can’t really say that I listened or enjoyed spanish music either.  I didn't have any link to spanish music. Selena was an artist that I felt a connection to. I remember watching her movie but not really paying attention to her songs. When I got into middle school I fell in love with  Selena as an artist.

The first songs of Selena’s that I remember listening to are “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom”, “Como La Flor” and “Dreaming of You”. I had no idea what she was singing about but it didn’t matter. I just remember me dancing to her songs and wanting to sing along even though I couldn’t. Her voice made you listen to her music. Her voice was just so captivating that I wouldn’t be able to describe how her voice sounded when I first heard her.  I had felt a connection towards Selena and wanted to know her better.

I want to know more about Selena as an artist. I know a lot about her already. I’ve listened to her music, I’ve watched the movie and multiple interviews but I want to know more. I want to strip away everything I do know about her and see her for everything she was. I want to learn about her dreams and aspirations, why she became a singer and what were her motivations? I want to know how she felt when she first debuted as “Selena” and how she felt about singing songs in spanish. Was it harder for her to make her debut singing in spanish? I want to delve more into Selena not only as an artist but as a person. Selena is such an interesting person because she was literally at the peak of her career when she was murdered. She was the person who bridged the gap between Latin music and English music. Before she was murdered, Selena was becoming such a big star, more and more people were starting to listen to her music. They didn’t care about the fact the they couldn’t understand what she was saying.

I often imagine how big Selena would be as a singer if she wasn’t killed at such a young age because she died before the world could see her as a musician. I believe that she would’ve been one of the biggest artist out there. I don’t think the world got to see her brilliance. I want to delve more into Selena not only as an artist but as a person. With this project I want to show who she was. I am excited to do this project to learn more about Selena and to allow others to know more about her as well.

I have come to realize that lots of movie stars can be put into one of two categories: Some are black holes, sucking up all the energy in the room, and some are supernovas, radiating it back outwards like a great, big atomic blast. Some inspire people to empathize through their emotions and others are just pretty faces on the big screen. Robin Williams was a man who could do both. He tackled huge roles, the animated genie in Disney’s “Aladdin” comes to mind. A couple of my favorite movies with him, “Good Morning Vietnam”, “Hook”, and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” were the signs of a true supernova. Other times he burrowed so deep into the soul of a character, you could almost assume it was his actual life as he did in “Good Will Hunting” or “World’s Greatest Dad”.

My first visual impression of Robin Williams is he reminded me of grandpa. Specifically, that funny, down to earth grandpa kids say they wish they had. (My grandpa rocks so I’m not saying I want a different one). However, you could see yourself sitting down and having a real and lively conversation with him. I feel like you would never run out of ideas to talk about. I remember him pretending to play a woman in the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire. What initially drew me to him was his versatility, and due to his diverse personality, he has reminded me of many things.

For example, He reminds me of this really adorable puppy I saw the other day at the beach. My boss had just gotten this new puppy and he was so cute that you wanted to be around it at all times. I was drawn to this puppy. Everyone was. Like this puppy, Robin Williams infectious smile also drew people to him. Everyone wanted to see him on television and in movies. People were excited to see him just as I was to see this puppy.

My boss told me they had a new puppy because the dog they previously had passed away. I had been so distracted by his adorable new puppy, I had not realized that his other dog was missing. I feel like this is the same for Robin Williams! Sorta. I think that just like the puppy, there is more to Robin Williams then what people see or care about. He was battling alcoholism and depression. People did not immediately take note of the fact that Robin was struggling as I did not initially take note of the missing dog. I think this is because all we see is what is right in front of us and forget to look deeper. I didn’t look deeper when I was the puppy, I was too excited. Sometimes, it is hard for people to look past what we first see.

Robin reminds me of the sad clowns back during Europe's romantic periods. I was reading about them and back then, the clowns costume was suppose to romantically masks inner turmoil. The joy and humor from Robin Williams likely masked the daily torment he faced in his on-again-off-again struggle with depression.

There is a lot of speculation about the death of Robin Williams. I feel like he just never got the proper help he seemed to need. Now don’t get me wrong, none of us know for sure what went wrong or what led up to his death. However, he was married with three grown children, I guess I just assumed he was fairly happy. He must have been able to access the best doctors or seek any possible care. If he couldn’t, wouldn’t, or just didn’t even though he could have, how many other people are like him? Speaking of which, mental illness is a big deal that seems to be put on the back burner to all the other stupid stuff that goes on in this world. If he worked with St Jude’s, did he he work with a mental illness group?

Robin Williams was brilliant, and he brought joy to so many others. Yet it seems that inner peace escaped him.

You never really know what goes on inside someone's head. We all wear a mask.

Assumption at Zero: Aleister Crowley

by Gavin Partida

I remember reading interesting books at my grandma’s house when I was about 7 or 8 that went into detail about fantasy creatures and beings like dragons and gnomes. She had probably ten to fifteen of these books, all fantasies and bound in vibrant colors. There were 3 books that stood out because of their dark black covers. These books were about darker and more evil beings in the fantasy world. Vampires, demons, ghosts, monsters, and everything else in between. I barely slept the night after I read these books, however my interest in the dark and macabre remained, in fact, it only made it stronger. When I watched movies and television or played video games, I was obsessed with the “bad guys” in the stories, especially the ones with supernatural powers. This interest in dark and sacrilegious material may have stemmed from my Catholic upbringing.

I went to a Catholic school until I was in fourth grade and lived in a Catholic household until I was about ten. I remember being more interested in the stories of the Bible, rather than following actual religious customs. As I grew older, my family and I grew out of Catholicism and I learned about different types of religions. From Hinduism, Buddhism, and Greek Mythology, I loved learning about the different philosophies and cosmologies of these religions. Then one day, I was watching a documentary about the Heaven’s Gate cult. I was dumbfounded. ¨This guy is crazy!¨ I thought. ¨Why would anyone listen to him?” This documentary peaked my curiosity on the subject of cults.

    As I began to research the topic I saw more documentaries and articles about different cults and cult leaders that all seemed equally weird and crazy. I was intrigued by

Charles Manson and his family who murdered whomever he told them to, and Jim Jones who convinced hundreds of his followers to drink cyanide laced kool-aid. What seemed even crazier to me were the normal people that belonged to these cults. Why would any of these people kill themselves or others because some loony told them to?     

Most cults throughout history have been horrible and insane, I was shocked to discover there was one that doesn’t involve ending lives. This cult is known as Thelema. Thelema was first brought to my attention by my good friend, Sebastian. We both listen to a band called Death Grips. The lead vocalist, MC Ride, has a number of very interesting tattoos. The most striking of his tattoos however, is an odd geometric shape on his chest. After conducting further research, Sebastian was able to conclude that this tattoo was a rendition of a Unicursal Hexagram. The  Unicursal Hexagram is one of the main symbols for a religious movement called Thelema.

The main idea of Thelema is to follow one’s true will, or make one’s own path in life and do what they actually want to do, instead of doing things for monetary or social reasons. Although the belief of Thelema is extremely interesting, what really stuck out to me was the founder. His name is Aleister Crowley.

    Crowley formed thelema after him and his wife were spoken to by some sort of god when they were in Egypt. He was also a black magician who performed various rituals and ceremonies. I loved the mystery behind all of it. Also, Harry Potter was always one of my favorite movie series and Crowley reminds me a lot of Voldemort. When I started learning about Aleister Crowley, not only was I brought back to my days of reading about ghosts and wizards, but I realized that he actually was one of these characters. From that point, I knew I needed to learn more about him.