Hazardous Cargo

Throughout the story Gonzalez reveals hidden secrets that are considered a danger to those around them.  So hidden that the secret can go right by you without you blinking an eye it’s a secret hazardous to the environment and everything around it.  This secret is marker.  Marked by two simple letters.  Letters that stand for something much more than anyone would imagine.  The secret is a ticking time bomb inside thousands of trucks waiting.  Each truck traveling on the same marked highway.  A highway that is marked with signs only to be understood by the drivers of the unmarked trucks.  He proposes a problem and tries to not only get the reader to better understand it but himself as well.

This secret, this ticking time bomb, this hazardous cargo, is toxic hazardous waste being shipped in unmarked trucks to Mexico.  Gonzalez explains how he sat on a public road watching these unmarked mystery trucks when he was told he could not be there by an officer.  Why was he not allowed to be there? Most likely because there was something illegal going on.  He explains that someone marked the “transportation” highway with sign with the letters HC.  HC stands for hazardous cargo and that is exactly what it is, hazardous.  He tells about it in such detail and in such a mysterious way that it makes you want to keep reading to find out more.  This has gone on for years without anyone knowing or stopping it.  Gonzalez tells about highway I-25 and the HC that travels it every day.  He tells about the mystery that has snuck by thousands of people for years.

Gonzalez brings up something that no one knew about.  And lets everyone in on the secret.  It’s interesting to think that things like this could and probably do happen every day.  Things that people are completely unaware of yet could cost them their lives.  It’s also interesting to think how many other things like this go on every day every year.  Secret things that go unspoken undetected and have people completely unaware of what is going on.  I think this somewhat relates to the theme of progress that we see in Melissa Holbrook Pierceson’s book, The Place I love is Gone.  It takes that word progress and kind of twists it in a way.  It shows the negative side of progress.  It shows how progress can be turned into creating a dump area and putting HC inside to watch it steam into the atmosphere.  Throughout the years it tells about the creation of a highway which is progress and the creation of new laws about the dumping of hazardous cargo which is also progress.  Although when you hear the word progress you don’t think of the dumping of toxic materials and the possible harm of the environment and its people.  It puts a spin on what people usually think of the meaning of progress and makes you wonder about what all those big trucks are really carrying.

Becoming Metis

   Throughout Becoming Métis, Melissa demonstrates the struggles of getting to know one’s self and recovering her heritage.  “To learn who I am today, on this land I live on, I’ve had to recover that heritage and realize a multicultural self.”  I think what Melissa Nelson is trying to say here is that she needs to know and understand where she came from and the people that helped make her to better know herself.   Sometimes if you try to get to know someone the best way to is to ask them about their family and where their family came from.  Even to help yourself better know who you are you should ask your own family to give you some background information and ask questions.  The beginning of the reading took you through a journey of her taking for granted cultures and those cultural traditions.  She also struggles with the fact that her parents were more or less forced to forget their heritage, language, and culture to become Americans.  I believe this is why she feels so strong about rediscovering her heritage and where she really came from and who her family really is.  I think this piece relates to my own experiences because I know very little about my heritage only that I am a “mutt” of different things.  I would like to better understand where I came from and the types of cultures I have within myself.  I think the author’s purpose is to get other people much like her to become curious about where they come from.  I think she wants everyone to know more about themselves and discover something they didn’t know before.  “Today I am concerned with learning how to honor all parts of myself” (page 147).  I really like this quote because it shows that she is not just looking for who she really is just to tuck it away in the back of her head.  She wants to find out so that she can honor and represent her true heritage and culture.  She is looking for pieces of her to share with others and show that she is proud to be who she is.

In History

   According to Kincaid, history is all about names, dates, and who was around when those events happened.  Throughout "In History" Kincaid questions what the real meaning of history is.  She compares history to an open wound that with each breath she takes in it allows the wound to heal then as she releases each breath it reopens the wound.  I agree with this because with every discovered piece of history or new history you have to "open" up history and put something new in to cover the wound or "healing" the wound.  To be in history you would have to be there when the event took place and make sure that your name remains tied to that specific piece of history.  She talks a lot about the people who looked like her which I assume she means are her family or ancestors.  Once she is not living in the place where her ancestors were then she can explain the history.  Kind of like how she explains other people’s history.  I think according to Kincaid it does matter who is telling the story because it has to do with names, events, dates and what those people's experiences were.  History has to do with what the people of that time recorded.  Whatever was not recorded at that time did not make history.  The people’s experiences are what made the history books.  People cannot simply guess history, there has to be some definable evidence.   The ideas of landscape, history, and naming are all connected.  Every landscape has a history and every landscape has a name.  Every history has a landscape and every part of history has a name.  It is all connected because you need a piece of land to have history about it whether it is a small island or a whole continent. 

Creative Challenge

   When I first started to learn about the world at large I was around ten years old.  I, like many kids, were taught that Christopher Columbus discovered the world in 1492.  I learned that the world was round and that the Indians were very generous to the new comers of the land, Columbus and his men.  They were so generous that they gave them a feast of which they couldn’t refuse.  At that age I created a map.  It might have not been the best looking map or looked exactly like all the continents but it was relatively accurate.  I place all the geographical figures that I believe were correct with United States at the center of my world.  I can only associate these places in the world from stories that I am told from people that have been to those places.