El Sueño de Ser un País Grande, el Sueño Americano

América fue colonizada después que las diabluras del feudalismo se habían terminado. Nosotros empezamos bien. No inquisiciones, no reyes, no nobles…” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial Estados Unidos llega a ser el país industrial dominante y el dólar en la moneda que circula por todo el mundo haciendo que las corporaciones Americanas estén presentes en todos los mercados del planeta. Es así como los Estados Unidos trae al mundo un poder enorme, el poder del mercado logrando que el mundo nunca mas vuelva a ser el mismo por el enorme progreso que trae para la humanidad. El sueño Americano famosa frase acuñado por el historiador James Truslow Adams captura el ideal de una sociedad abierta y dinámica basada en el esfuerzo individual convirtiendo este país en la tierra de las oportunidades donde el trabajo duro tiene su recompensa y ofreciendo a la vez una vida mejor para cada una de las generaciones.
Desde el momento en que Estados Unidos declaro su independencia los padres que la fundaron estaban decididos a hacer de este lugar del continente Americano un país líder que ocupara un lugar preponderante en la historia de la humanidad. Vida, libertad y búsqueda de la felicidad era una de la frases importantes en al declaración de la independencia de los Estados Unidos y este era uno de lo inalienables derechos del hombre Americano. 230 años después de que fueron escritas aun mantienen vigencia y es esta frase una combinación perfecta que sigue siendo el motor que mueve la vida Americana. Que hizo de este país ser la mayor potencia política cultural y económica del mundo? Una posible explicación sea el espíritu Americano intrépido, dinámico y optimista que crea que es la misma gente quien determina su propio destino y que el futuro basado en el esfuerzo y arduo trabajo será siempre mejor que el presente. Solo el sueño de sus soñadores de hacer de este país una potencia industrial fue la clave para ello. Ejemplo de esta fuerza soñadora y visionaria fue Theodore Roosevelt, un hombre con la fuerza de una locomotora fue el presidente que invento la América moderna uso toda esa energía que necesitaba Estados Unidos para florecer a inicios del siglo 20 y cambiar profundamente convirtiéndola en una de la naciones mas ricas del mundo.
Es este país la tierra de las oportunidades, por donde uno dirige la mirada ve gente ocupada moviéndose constantemente de un lugar a otro en busca de la felicidad, son los Americanos las personas que mas trabajan en el mundo de acuerdo a las estadísticas ellos trabajan un promedio anual de 1731 horas comparadas con las 1440 horas en Alemania el país mas poderoso económicamente en Europa. Es tan extraordinaria la movilidad de trabajo y personas en los Estados Unidos que es fascinante contemplar todo el poder de este sistema económico, aproximadamente 40 millones de personas cambian de casa o lugar cada año y están dispuestos a viajar a cualquier lugar de Estados unidos o del mundo si se tratan de convenciones o negocios. Sin embargo algunos críticos tiene diferente opinión de esta laboriosidad tan dinámica.” The Economist” revista económica especializada Inglesa en una de sus ediciones usando un estudio internacional sobre la felicidad sostiene que la personas de los países pobres por ejemplo México o Nigeria son mas felices que los Americanos. Además añade que esa búsqueda incesante de la felicidad lleva dentro de si su destrucción por que cuanto mas persigues esa ilusión de la felicidad mas sacrifican las cosas que verdaderamente tiene valor. Cierto o no acerca de estas aseveraciones, lo real es que en Estados Unidos se tiene la suprema sensación de vivir en un gran país con un enorme futuro.
Sin embargo en estos tiempos el sueño americano experimenta ciertos problemas que es parte de la lucha de todo pueblo por alcanzar sus metas. Existe hoy un pesimismo entre los americanos sobre la estabilidad económica y la crisis originada en el mercado hipotecario que se podrían extender a otras áreas haciendo que la economía Americana termine en recession y con ello el peligro que las economías desarrolladas y en desarrollo terminen igual. La esperanza es que en una economía tan dinámica y fuerte como la de los Estados Unidos haga que el mercado de créditos se bloque por si solo y emerge nuevamente con fuerza recapitalizando a la mayoría de los bancos. Otra fuente que experimenta el sueño Americano es por ejemplo la desigualdad que existe entre el rico y el pobre esa brecha es más grande en Estados Unidos que en cualquier otro país desarrollado. En un reciente reportaje del New York Times informo que un ejecutivo o presidente de una de las 179 corporaciones o trasnacionales de los Estados Unidos gana un promedio de 10 millones de dólares al año mientras tanto el promedio de ingreso de un trabajador en los Estados Unidos al año es de 30 mil dólares esto significa que un ejecutivo gana 250 veces mas que un trabajador. Esta desigualdad se ha ido presentando desde hace tres décadas atrás donde el crecimiento económico debido al crecimiento de la productividad a ido beneficiando a las persona que ocupan la parte mas alta del triangulo y los altos salarios se han ido concentrando hacia ese lugar. Posiblemente debido a la globalización ,el libre comercio y la concertación esta diferencia se logre acortar y podamos ver en armonía la relación que existe entre los salarios y la alta capacitación de los trabajadores que una sociedad como los Estados Unidos necesita,
En conclusión Estados Unidos entre en esta nueva centuria con la misma fuerza de la que tuvo en la 20th centuria, pero ahora con la obligación de ser un país sobre la montaña capaz de transmitir esa fe que trajeron los colonizadores Europeos en búsqueda del sueño Americano y que luego fue transmitida a las siguientes generaciones, esa fe que en esta época de la modernidad es sostenido por muchos en los Estados Unidos de que a través del duro trabajo, coraje , inteligencia y determinación se pueda alcanzar una prosperidad financiera que les permita vivir una vida mejor, que por lo demás es siempre el anhelo que mueve a las generaciones Americanas hacia un mundo mejor.

FUGACIDAD

LA ALEGRIA AQUEL INSTANTE DE LUZ QUE NOS HIZO FELIZ
QUE TUVO EL PROFUNDO ALIENTO DE HACERNOS VIVIR.
LA TRISTEZA, DEVORANTE NEGRA NOCHE QUE NOS DIO DOLOR
COMO UNA ENORME HERIDA DENTRO DE NOSOTROS.
AHORA QUE EL TIEMPO PASA DONDE ESTAN?
DONDE ESTAN LOS SUEÑOS? DONDE AQUELLO QUE EL ALMA NOS PARTIO?
EL TIEMPO GIRA EN UN ETERNO ESPIRAL
Y LAS HOJAS CAEN EN LAS HOGUERAS DEL OLVIDO.
MALGASTAMOS LOS AÑOS DE NUESTRAS VIDAS
CON NUESTRO PESAR Y DEJAMOS DE VIVIR POR SUFRIR.
PERO LA VIDA SIGUE COMO UN RELOJ,
ALEGRIAS Y PENAS SE DESMORONAN COMO LOS DIAS AL PASAR
POR QUE UNA MANO INVENSIBLE CONVIERTE TODO AQUELLO EN CENIZAS Y POLVO
LLENANDO LA TIERRA DE TODO LO QUE NO NOS HIZO VIVIR,
ASI FUE, ASI ES Y SERA
TODO CON EL TIEMPO MORIRA,
PERO LO QUE HEMOS VIVIDO CON REBELDIA Y AMOR ESO NO SE DESTRUIRA.
VIVE EN LA TIERRA CADA MOMENTO REBELANDOTE Y AMANDO,
VIVE EL DIA DE HOY A PLENITUD EN DONDE ESTES Y LLENALO DE AMOR.

NORMAN MAILER WAS BIGGER THAN LIFE

Our acts in life make us different, we do many things to accomplish our goal until the end of our lives. If we weight our actions and if it weights too much is because our actions are great, we are bigger than life.. Norman Mailer an American rabble-rouser writer was bigger than life, who always wants to say some thing in his American Society. He was and represented the universal voice of postwar period, which was in the vanguard of the complaint and critic. A grand provocateur, Norman Mailer, who has lived and written in the same way as his life brought to The American Literature his exaggerated, irreverent and contentious spirit, he invented a new form to relate the American life from 1948 to 2007. His work reflected the most salient events and the life and death of contemporary personalities that gave Mailer the opportunity to explore violence, sex cruelty, transgression and disorder in American Society.
In Norman Mailer lived forever the spirit of exaggeration. In everything that he did was beyond of the possibilities of normal people. His life was full in excess, fights, debates controversies and adventures in fact, he was a leading role of his own life. Also, he was a great thinker, a great drinker and grand provocateur, this means that he was extreme in his critics, in his acts, and in his affection. Mailer said “There are two kinds of brave men: those who are brave by the grace of nature, and those who are brave by an act of will.” Perhaps those words define him as a brave man by an act of the nature and will.
Norman Mailer was always irreverent during his life; he assumed that “In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent.” He seemed to be a distressing observer of the mentality of the power and an implacable critic of the American Dream. Mailer never forget his blasphemies against the American Society, he said “Because there is very little honor in American life, there is a certain built in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.” This irreverence was a shout of freedom into his spirit of nonconformity that made him an unpredictable writer, who resisted to being old until the last instant of his death. In addition, his irreverent spirit made Mailer ventured into radical journalism and he was an obstinate spoken photographer who exposed in an irreverent form how events happened in America.
Nobody like Norman Mailer a contentious man, who took intricate subjects of American life had total conscience of the heroic paper of witness and critic that play in his society. Mailer constructed and refined an image of contentious writer who lived in richness, he said “I hate everything which is not in myself.” Consequently, his ego and writer personality left the scream of American letters with giant footprints.
In conclusion, Norman Mailer the voice of a true writer who lived in the humanity, the writer of “The Naked and the dead” who always defined itself as “ant system” arrived America to be consecrated as one of the great American Authors.

PRESSURE ON COLLEGE STUDENTES

The college years are a time of significant growth and change in the life of students. However, college is not an easy way in students’ lives because they have to deal with a lot of pressure during their period of study. College pressure is something that happens in school every day. It comes from different sources like parents, friends, teachers, boyfriends, girlfriends and finally from students themselves. For instance, Cheryl wanted to fit in and she was 19 old, a junior in college, Maggie her classmate had invited her to a party at her house. When Maggie opened the door, the party was already under way Cheryl blushed when Bill, a center on the basketball team smiled at her. He had a can of beer in his hand, “Hi,” he said, “would you like a beer?” No, she thought, she wouldn’t like a beer. However, she desperately wanted Bill, Maggie, and everybody at this wonderful party to like her. College pressure can be as simple as that a mild suggestion from somebody you want to like you. In fact, college pressures are present in students lives and without a doubt, parental pressure and peer pressures are the most common of these.
Parental pressure is always present on college students. Since most students are having their college tuition by their parents, they feel the pressure to “please” mom and dad often relinquishing their own goals in the process. In “College Pressure”, Zinsser (1970) observes, “Along with economic pressures goes parental pressure. Inevitably the two are deeply intertwined.” As an American educator he knows very well how economic pressure and parental pressure are related. Zinsser (2004) points out that the two kinds of pressure are deeply intertwined because parents put their money to support their children. As a result, students are not allowed to choose their professions. I follow his arguments in the way that since the parents are the principal economic supporter to the students they feel obligated to carry out their parents expectations because they do not want to lose parents’ support. The author address much deeper the issue related to parental pressure and uses a beautiful observation. He says “ I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless tenacity. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist.”(Zinsser, 1970) As educator he gives the scenario that tells us how sad and miserable the students feel because they cannot choose what they want to be since their parents do. Also, he argues that their son and daughters want to choose different major than their parents want. He says, “Poor students, poor parents.”(Zinsser, 1970). His arguments are valid because the pressure that comes from parents can be almost unbearable to a college student and this makes people who act in this issue affected by social pressure
Do parents of college students put too much pressure on their children? The students probably say yes, and the parents would probably say no. Most of the time, parents argue that they just want the best for their children, but though this “good cause” sometimes leads into disaster when parents take it too far. When the parents concentrate on grade alone, they become like a dictator and not a friend. Consequently, they do not care about anything else such as social problems and sports (BBCnews, 1999} this cause to young people feel under too much pressure because they think that the only way they can get the affection and respect of their parents is to bring home good grades. At this point, anything that does not deal with grades or academics is worthless to the college students, and furthermore the student does not care (BBCnew, 1999). The authors view is completely accurate they argues the meaning that shows parental pressure at college, and how this excessive pressure on their children to perform well at college could be putting them at greater risk of attempting failure. They also say that boys are more at risk than girls because they are less likely to admit their fears and worries since they are seeing it as a sign of weakness. (BBCnew, 1999).
Parents can also place pressure on their children even when praising their good grades and efforts. For instance, when a student does extremely well in one subject, the parents become happy and praises the student. However if the student is doing poorly on another subject but he/she is just afraid to tell his/her parents because it might make them upset. (Rubin pg. 143). Parent’s pressure can also be deadly. According, to a Penn State study female university students with mothers who are expecting excellence and fathers who support the mother are more likely to contemplate suicide than peers from less pressured families. In the recent study survey of 421 college students, 227 female, and 194 male revealed that 4 percent of females attempted suicide, compared to 1.1 percent for males. This finding indicated that college women are most vulnerable to suicidal because parent’s expectations are placed at particular risk when they are expecting perfection in their children. (Pennsylvania State University, 2003).
Peer pressure is the persuasion exerted by our friends, classmates, neighbors and those of our own age or social circles, and is blamed for nearly every social pressure of our day. (Myers, 1995). We have all experienced peer pressure, and students today at college feel pressure in countless ways, the intensity of peer pressure varies from situation to situation. The author’s main point is that “Peer pressure and self induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin almost at the beginning of freshman years.” (Zinsser, 1970). He argues that peer pressure and self-induced pressure are connected and can lead one to have anxiety, and negative self- images. He also supports his main point with vivid lesson. Specifically, the author tells us “I had a freshman student I will call Linda, one dean told me, who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because their roommate Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I couldn’t tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda.”(Zinsser, 1970). The story given by Zinsser teaches us a frequent situation that happens at college. It’s symbolic of how every student pushes their limit of their performance or assignment higher than before since they think every student is working hard and they produce additional work than they are required. The author also mentions, “Part of the problem is that they do more than they are expected to do.” And “Teacher gets more and more effort from his class,” (Zinsser, 1970). He supports this argument when he says student decide to do something not because they want to do it but because of their peers. Also, he argues that the teachers make worse this situation because they accept more extra work from their students, and the students who do usual work can be seen as not doing well.
On the others hand, peer pressure is held responsible for the raise of sexually transmitted disease among college students. “A 1988 study of sexually active college students found that 46.3% of the women and 62.7% of the men reported having had unwanted intercourse. Peer pressure, coercion, intimidationall led students into situations they later regretted.” (Time Magazine, 1991). Also, peer pressure is blamed for the increase of alcohol abuse among America college students. According to a recent study at George Mason University, alcohol is a major factor in 41% of all academic problems and 28% of all college dropouts. (Padfield, 1994). I think peer pressure is a process of empowerment and we need to learn how we deal with it. For college students, peer pressure can be good, but in some cases it can also be bad. An example, of positive peer pressure is the good grades that influence to students and their friends. However, if a group thinks that it is “cool” to smoke marijuana and students smoke to fit in the group. That is a negative effect of peer pressure.
In short, in today’s American society, a lot of pressure is being put on young adults when they attend college and their inexhaustible pressures to succeed overwhelm them. The pressure is even more intense when it comes from parents and peer that make students feel sad and miserable.

REFERENCES

1. BBC News. (1999, July 14). Education: Pupils under enormous pressure over exams.
2. Meyers, A. (1995). Drugs And Peer Pressure. New York, The Rosen Publishing Group, INC.
3. Padfield, D. (1994). Peer Pressure. New York: Times Books.
4. Pennsylvania State University. (2003, February). Parental Pressure a Major Factor For
Female College Students Considering Suicide. Retrieved April 15, 2005, from
http://web6.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/8/592/65280950w6/purl=rc1_EAIM_0_
5. Shute, R. E. (1991, June3). The impact of peer pressure among college students. Time
Magazine.
6. Zinsser W. (1979). College Pressures. Blair and Ketchum’s Country Journal

SHALLAPA, EL APU DE LA CULTURA CHAVIN

En el mundo andino la vida es un todo, en esta concepción florecen las ideas de integración, unidad y compartimiento. Por ejemplo yo le doy vida a la tierra y la tierra me devuelve su vida, para ellos dar es recibir existe un sentido de reciprocidad e igualdad imposible de ser sentido fuera de este mundo. En los Andes y en la gente andina todo tiene vida, todo lo que nos rodea son pupilas sedientas que se miran unos a otros y todos ellos como entes vivos dispuestos a participar de la fiesta de la vida. Para el mundo andino todo es sagrado la tierra, el cielo, los ríos, el clima, los cerros es decir toda la vida misma manifestada en cada pequeño detalle del universo, y cada uno de estos elementos se aman entre si formando una totalidad que las sociedades occidentales avasallados por la modernidad desconocen. En este universo ubico a mi Shallapa el Achachila o Apu guardián de mi cultura, de mi pueblo erguido como un accidente geográfico diría yo como un accidente hermoso de los andes Peruanos. Shallpa estuvo ahí desde los tiempos eternos de la edad, compartiendo la vida con la primeras castas bravías que poblaron estas misteriosas tierras. Según la creencia Andina, los espíritus de los muertos se van a habitar a las montañas especialmente a aquel como el Shallapa que es un cerro tutelar luego con el transcurso del tiempo esos espíritus se vuelven en espíritu de la montaña y así habitan por un tiempo hasta convertirse en la montaña misma.
Shallapa el cerro dominante, el Achachila, esta es una palabra que proviene del Aymara lenguaje antiguo del las civilizaciones del Altiplano cuyo significado es ABUELO, represento para la cultura Chavin el padre mayor el encargado de dar los concejos, de los fogonazos de vida y luces para preñar esta tierra con el amor sagrado que se tenían y que sembraron en todo lo que tocaron como un recuerdo para la eternidad. Pero es bueno soslayar que en el mundo andino el presente es eterno, que ellos no tienen una concepción lineal del tiempo como en Occidente pasado, presente y futuro. Su concepción del tiempo esta dado por los ciclos cósmicos y telúricos, y el tiempo en vez de ser lineal o circular es cíclica, no nos olvidemos que lo andino es una cultura viva y vivificante es decir que todo se sumerge en la embriaguez de la vida. Por ello Shallapa siempre será el mismo por que su presente tal como en la cultura andina no depende del reloj de occidente sino que por estar vivo, se vivifica se renueva constantemente anhelando la eternidad que es el ayer y el mañana en el hoy para siempre.

SHALLAPA

Shallapa Mountain, is a memorial apu, who take care Chavin de Huantar a wellspring of Andean Culture. Chavin is an isolated valley, far away from any kind of occidental civilization. Shallapa is the guardian mountain and below that was developed a sacred archaeological site called Chavin. It has the charm and the magic mystery of the ancient people who came there to bring love to the stones. I was born there my first cry was between these ruins.
When you are there the charm of this site invite you to rethinking about your life and the place that you have in the universe. In my childhood I was running like fish into the water between these ruins. Also, every morning I was greetings to the Shallapa like it was my father. When I was child I believed that the spirit-world of ancient Chavinos came every day to the valley when the sunlight touch the mountain, and that inspires my soul to see the world in different way than another people.
At one glance is clear that Shallapa dominated in perpetual magical mystery of the shadows this valley. Sahallapa, gave to these ancient people the divine power of the mystery that now hides among these magical stones of Chavin.
In short, Shallapa is my mountain that watched my childhood this apu(mountain in Quechua language) create en my soul a big love for you that is melted in charm and magic mystery from my siteborn.