11:52 AM
After watching The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, I started thinking about the focus of this class. The reason we are reading all these books and poems is so that we can be exposed to the different types of heroes. So I thought, if all these people we read about are heroes there must be a common definition. However, all these people are different in so many ways. After many hours of trying to figure out what can be the common demoninator, I realized that all these heroes overcome a certain obstacle; whether it be the country, another human being, or even oneself. Whatever the obstacle may be, these heroes struggle and eventually conquer their fears and enemies. Then again, with that definition, ANYONE can be hero. I can overcome my laziness and be a hero. Realizing that this definition is so broad, I tried to refine what I believe constitutes a hero. So my new definition is: a hero is one who can overcome an obstacle that involves the rest of the society. For example, in China Men, I believe the hero is not the characters in the story but the author of the book. Maxine King Hongston writes about the struggle of Chinese Immigrants and that of Chinese Americans having to incorporate both cultures into their lives. By doing so, she helps the society to understand the difference among many Americans besides the skin color and language. She overcomes the obstacle of racism. This goes for all the other authors too. Silko and Native Americans. Jose Rizal, Gregorio Cortez, Clyde W. Ford, Frederick Turner, and all the others we have read is all about saving the country and it's people. In order to "save" the country, the heroes must overcome their own fears and obstacles for the greater good. So the difference between me and a hero is that I have to overcome my own fears for me, whereas, heroes must overcome their personal fears for the country and the people.
So how does this relate to the movie? Well, this movie is what made me think about all this. Like I mentioned in class, the movie is a great example of what I said before. The general conflict of the movie was the cultural difference between the Texans and the Mexicans. Because there was a translation mishap, the following events occured which led to the war between Texas Rangers and Gregorio Cortez. However, this feud involved all the Mexicans as well as the Texans. Many innocent people died, on both sides, because of that one incident between two mexicans and two texans. I believe Cortez is a hero, in the sense that he defended himself. Although I personally do not believe killing the Texan Ranger was the right thing to do, I do believe that it was heroic deed. Killing the Texan Ranger led the Texans to believe that Mexicans are no joke; that they will not be stomped upon. Many Americans believe they have authority over all other nations beacuse United States is such a powerful country. Hence, Texans automatically think they can just come and kill Mexicans without any decent reasons. By Cortez killing the Texan, it is somewhat of a wake up call to the Texans. In that sense, Cortez was a hero. He has to overcome the fear of surviving the wild and being alone, but by doing so, he is representing his country as a strong unrelenting country to those who attack with no legitimate reasons.
