Alberto Garcia-Figueroa

Prof. M. Marca

Eng. 113B

19 April 2012

Preface: Project Web

 
    A little over fifty years ago a small community of Hispanics, were forced from their homes because according to the government it was in the public’s best interest. The community was located in the heart of Los Angeles, a hill named Chavez Ravine. They were evicted and removed from their homes in order to make room for a baseball complex known as Dodger Stadium. This was the cause of eminent domain. Eminent domain means taking privately owned and using it for public use because it is in the public’s best interest. This event was a tragic act in Los Angeles history. My group and I made a website that informs and makes a visual of what happened to those many families that lost their small piece of Los Angeles. The people of Los Angeles, the fans of the beloved Dodgers, and the descendants of the Chavez Ravine residents will benefit from the website my group and I have put together in order to inform the people of greater Los Angeles. Our website uses the appeals of the rhetorical devices of logos, pathos, and ethos. This gives the people the facts, appeals to their emotions, and shows the credibility we have and that our links display.

    When you first open the website you can see in the creative title which I thought fit the website very well. You can also see an emotional video of descendants of Chavez Ravine talking about what they remember and felt about what happened. In the first page we have an immediate call to action about what we want to accomplish with the creation of this website. We chose to put the video right in the middle so people can see visuals first and be drawn into the issue. We also put in an easy to use overhead links tab, that leave the audience one click away from information.

    In our website entitled “Stealing Home”, we illustrate pathos through our visuals and background colors. The pictures we used were actual photograph of events that took place back then. All the pictures are in black and white, because it really brings out how serious and emotional the event was. The complete web page is black in order to show that it is a serious and informative web page. However I think the biggest illustration of pathos would be in our blog spot. On this page we each have written down our thoughts and beliefs of eminent domain on Chavez Ravine. I believe we can capture emotion in the citizens of Los Angeles through showing our emotion in the blogs and our visuals of what happened.

    Logos in our essay is the most essential part in getting our point across. It consists of facts about what actually happened. We have prepared a history page that lets the audience know all the important details in which the act of eminent domain took place. We also have a couple videos that we found where actual people that lived in Chavez Ravine talk about what they had and what they went through in order to construct Dodger Stadium. All these facts make our website interesting and will inform the Dodger fans and the citizens of Los Angeles. We wanted to include as many facts as possible so we can inform people. We want to maintain a website that gives off a serious and informative vibe.

    The credibility or ethos that we have in our web page is based on the sources we have linked from reporters and others authors that have written about Chavez Ravine. At the top of the first page we have a tab for all the links that we thought were best to get our point across. Furthermore, we have added a contact us page in order to allow people to reach us in case they have question which I think is convenient and helpful. We also as authors of the webpage we display our credibility as students of California State University of Northridge. At the end I think the web page itself can create its own credibility for others to use as a useful source.

    Our website has come together to inform our audience about what happened more than fifty years ago in Chavez Ravine. Through the use of rhetorical devices I feel we have sold our point to the descendants of the Chavez Ravine and the citizens of Los Angeles. It can open the eyes of Dodger fans to what the real cost was to bring the Dodgers to L.A. This cost was too big a price to pay.
http://stealinghome113b.blogspot.com/

Blog Post #2: Project Web

Alberto Garcia-Figueroa

Prof. M. Marca

Eng. 113B

23 April 2012

            We had a pretty big setback besides scrapping the whole direction of the web page. One of group mates had an emergency to tend to and could not get in contact with her for a couple of hours. At that point I was certain that we were not going to be able to finish the project. However, Cristina would then call us, and explain what happened and let us know that she was still up to date with everything that we had to finish before presenting which was a huge relief. Looking for the pictures and videos that best suited the website in terms of the message that we wanted to portray took a while. I had to look around at many different options before I came to my ultimate decision. Once we finished the webpage, we were not satisfied with what it looked like completely. So then, we began to tweek it and sort of smooth it out until we got what we wanted. Finally, we got it completely done and we were all satisfied with the end result was. I was personally very satisfied with it, because it looks like a website that I would actually site and visit for information. Everything from the information to the background color of the website was better than I could have imagined. I especially liked how Cristina was able to put a comment bow that can actually post comments straight to the web page, which quite difficult to do. I can say with confidence that we did well on this project especially with all the problems that we ran into.

 

Blog Post #1: Project Web

            Getting started on a website in order to inform the people of Los Angeles, the Dodger fans, and descendants of Chavez Ravine about what truly happened is going to be a challenge. Once me and my group got together and chose the topic that we were going to focus on there was already controversy about which way to go with it. We were disagreeing on so many levels that I thought we were never going to reach a compromise. Though we began simply on how we wanted the front page to look. We wanted to go with dark colors in order to portray the seriousness of the event we are informing the citizens of Los Angeles of. We also, decided to meet two days in order to first get the project started roughly and the second day to wrap it up with our finishing touches. In our first meeting we headed over to one of my colleagues house in order to get started. We got together and thought of reenacting the pictures, but we then decided to scrap the whole idea, because we believed that it was better to stick to hard information and appealing to emotion. Though about halfway through the project we decided to go a different way and we dropped some of our crucial and big parts of our website. At this time I thought we never going to be able to get it done. Hopefully we can figure out a way that we can all agree on completely and actually get started on the website. All the information and visuals that we have to find should have meaning and purpose and we intend to find the best of all. It is going to be a challenge now that we change our whole direction of the website project.

Alberto Garcia-Figueroa

Prof. M. Marca

Eng. 113B

20 March 2012

Ethnography

            My classmates and I visited Dodger Stadium one weekend in hopes of finding an issue we believe can be faced in today’s society. Is Dodger Stadium really the heart and soul of L.A? Can it be the source of an issue we as Angeleno’s face in our everyday life. We went to try and shed some light on all these questions. We received a tour around the stadium learning many facts about how great it was that the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. Though, that was the question in the back of our heads as we took the grand tour of Dodger stadium. How great was it that they moved here? Was it good or bad? Also, we learned quite things about how and why they moved here and what success they have had since they debuted here in the heart of Los Angeles. The view from the stadium was beautiful and breathe-taking. If you look one way you see the Hollywood Sign, turn and you can see Los Angeles, and then the mountains. It truly does look like it is at the center of Los Angeles. Not to mention how much the stadium is worth and how many people it houses. It is said to be one of the most expensive baseball stadiums today. Though, many issues we found existed with the team and stadium of L.A.

            There are many issues I believe can be brought up when talking about the Dodgers. From them moving here to the way the stadium has been built to the way the seats are colored. We have many interpretations and thoughts on what we could in order to find a social problem that would work. Although, it was hard to come with an issue that could be disputed from both sides that are for and against it, but I believe I have found one. I thought of the idea of disputing whether eminent domain of Chavez Ravine was for the good of the community or not. Was ridding people of their private in order to build Dodger Stadium? I will be discussing how it Chavez Ravine being given to the Dodger franchise was good, because it brought our society closer, gave us a sense of pride, etc. I chose this question, because I believe it can be disputed from both sides of the pole. One side saying it was good, because of all of what the Dodgers have given to the city in the sense of pride. Also why it was bad, because families were deprived of their homes and taken from their sacred place without a say. I believe I can provide a well structure argument for one side of the dispute in what Dodger Stadium could be faced with.

              As a group we have found a question and issue that could be disputed as a social problem in today’s community at large. I am eager to look for information that can support what I am trying to argue. Dodger Stadium has much more to it than what you see on the surface. It is much more than a team playing baseball every spring. My group and found out a lot about what the Dodgers did in order to move here and what happened to the many families that had to be thrown from their homes to make room for the multi-million dollar stadium. Chavez Ravine was a significant community that died as Dodger stadium was born and I will be examining why it was good or bad and if it was worth it or not.

What is it that defines us as people in society, as individuals? The surroundings of our society itself is what pieces our life together to form the people we are today. An individual I am convinced is formed by the environment they are from or put into. That is how there are so many different people and personalities in the world of today. As we discussed in the reading of “Interesting Times” from the book Another City, from the reading of “The Mall” in the book convergences, and from my own analysis of how my life is figured in living in the city of Los Angeles. I believe this was most significant in our class discussion during this part of the semester.

The way our surroundings shape the way we carry ourselves can come from many different distinct parts of our society. In the reading of “Interesting Times” by Judith Lewis, she illustrates the way Los Angeles shaped her life as a walking cliché living in the City of Angels. Lewis never believed in the beginning that she would even be found dead in Los Angeles. However, her environment no matter how rough or dangerous would make her part of the society in Los Angeles. Apart from being car jacked numerous times, fear of ending up in the wrong neighborhood, and hearing countless gunshots; she would not rather live or be anywhere else.  This is how Lewis establishes how her life in Los Angeles pieced her personality as a walking, breathing, cliché.

Another way I believe the significance of being shaped by your surroundings is illustrated by the reading of “The Mall” in the book Convergences. It shows how a man goes into the Mall of America in Minnesota and is supposed to be in the mall for a week from opening to closing time. By the end of his adventure he is a changed man. He is very antsy and aggressive. This goes to show how the environment that you are put in alters your character for good or for worse. This is another example of how your society is what shapes your personality.

Finally, in this part of the semester we discussed how society shapes your being as a person and pieces your character. My own analysis of my life in L.A. is figured by the society where I grew up and the difficulties I have faced. Being a full-time student and a full-time worker is not the easiest lifestyle someone can ask for. I have become a more independent and responsible human being for the struggles that I am dealt. This is how I am shaped by the community around me that I am a part of.

So is it really true that our community and surroundings are what shape our existence in society? I say, yes. I can relate in how we illustrated in class with the readings of “Interesting Times” and “native to the Place”. Society has a huge impact on the people that are living in it, that is how we have so many distinct personalities in the world and many different people.

Alberto Garcia-Figueroa

Prof. Marca

Eng. 113B

7 February 2012

Reflection

            What is it that really sparks your brain to think? In class we have various discussions and activities based on what we read the day before or what we have been working on recently. It is these discussions that allow me to dig deeper into what I read. You can catch something that a fellow class could not, build off each other’s ideas, and gain more interest in the task at hand. All this can be observed when we have our in class discussions, where everyone is inputting their own thoughts. It goes to show how communication alone can further the train of thought of an individual.

            One of the more important reasons why our in class discussions work and are helpful, is because when you everyone is inputting their response the outlooks are usually different. A fellow classmate might look at something in a different way and it may cause you` to look at it differently. For example, when we were asked to describe Los Angeles in one word, everyone had a distinct word picked out and none were the same. However, they were all very logical and made sense. Every person has a distinct way of viewing something and it helps when shared that way as a group discussion we can enlighten one another more on the text that was read. We can dig deeper into the text. This is a helpful technique of really understanding what you read before by everyone discussing what they understood.

            Another reason why our discussions can be so helpful is, because you can then build off what someone has said that you probably did not get the first time around. For example, in class one of peers came up with an idea about one the texts that I did not think of. As soon as I heard it, all these thought began to pop into my head and I entered the discussion with my input about the text. The discussion may bring other ideas to the table that you may later like to use for your essay or exercise. These are the useful ways in which class discussions can be of use to us as students.

            Finally, when engaging in a group discussion it makes the text much more interesting and understandable. A couple texts that we have read over the two semesters have been typically boring. It is hard to focus on all the reading that we do and catch every single detail. However, when we have the class discussions everyone has their input and makes it more interesting. As we discuss the different points and theories, it makes it fun and more informational to view in deeper detail what the text means. This is how our group discussions in class are helpful and informational for our benefits.

            The group discussions in class form a much more deep thought for me. it allows me to catch a lot more in a story than I would on just my own reading. The discussions allow me to add more to my analysis later for my personal gain.