Compare and Contrast Essay

Halloween versus Day of the dead

Which day do you prefer to celebrate? Halloween or Day of the dead. It depends on the traditions that you have, but it is a fact that even when we are Mexicans, Halloween is attracting more people than Day of the dead.

Halloween has its origin as a Celtic celebration, known as Samhain, which means “End of Summer”. Celts said that exactly that day, the spirits were released from their world, so that they were able to visit the human’s one, it did not matter what kind of spirits they were, they visited the humans. It used to be a pagan celebration, but it was Christianized. It arrived to United States in 1840, but it was not born there, as many people think, in fact because of American people it is also known as Witches night. While Day of the dead is a Mexican celebration of prehispanic origins. Ancient Mesoamerican people had their beliefs about the death, for example, for them there was not paradise or hell, they said that depending the death of the person, there was a specific place for them after death. But when Europeans arrived to America they mixed both beliefs, Mesoamerican’s and Catholic’s, into a celebration, since the celebration of ancient Mesoamericans matched with the Catholic’s celebration of “Día de los fieles difuntos y todos los Santos”.

Nowadays, Halloween means celebrating not only in USA, many countries celebrate it too, as a result of globalization. The meaning of the day is based on the belief that in Halloween, the gate that keeps dead people and spirits away from people is opened and they come that night to visit and to scare the people alive, so each family has to put a candle in front of the door, so that they cannot enter the house to scare the people in there. In the other hand we have that Day of the dead means a day that connects people with their dead family members; it is a day to remember them, to visit their graves and to pray for them. It is also a belief that this day is used by the spirits to visit their family, but they are not here to scare them as the spirits of Halloween, Mexicans do not want the spirits of their family away from them, they want them to stay here, to give them a great night; it is a day where people can coexist with spirits of their family again, they can feel their presence.

Talking about the way to celebrate this day, Halloween is celebrated around the world on October 31. In this day, people offer costume parties without a meaning, just to have fun. The costumes are related to monsters and scary creatures. There is a special rite for kids that day, children get dressed costumes for the “trick or treat” rite, where they ask for “trick-or-treat”, if the neighbors give them candies or any other reward, the children accept them, that is what “treat” means, but if someone does not want to give children anything, the children throw eggs to the door, that is what trick means. Day of the dead is celebrated on November 2^nd. This day has a lot of traditions such as when people write some kind of humoristic epitaphs known as “Calaveritas”. Also, there is “Pan de muerto”, a traditional food of that day in Mexico, it is a sweet piece of bread with a round form, and sometimes it is made with the appearance of a skull. There is another special food for that day, it is a candy of sugar with shape of skull. Another tradition of Day of the dead is the Cempaxóchitl flower which is used to decorate the graves and the altar. The altar is a kind of decoration to grace a dead person. It is the most notorious element, and is the one that represent the Day of the dead; it is made of a table, covered with a tablecloth and decorated with Cempaxóchitl flowers, sugared candies, a picture of the person that is being honored with the things he/she liked in life (Food, Drinks, Toys, e.t.c.)

Both celebrations are great, but “Día de Muertos” (Day of the dead) is more interesting and meaningful than Halloween since it is not just about celebrating parties or getting disguised, it is about the reunion of people with their dead family members, it is another way to show that neither death nor other thing could separate families. In other words, Day of the dead is more about the love that people have to the family members that are no longer physically with them, while Halloween is more about monsters, devils, and scary spirits.

It is very sad that because of globalization, Halloween is attracting more and more people here in Mexico, because that means that the tradition of Day of the dead is being mixed with Halloween, and it is losing presence in Mexico.

Movie Review

Title: 1973

Director: Antonio Isordia Llamazares

Prominent stars of the film: Rodolfo Escogido, María Fernanda Ramos Macín, Alejandro Cota Quiroz

Basic setting: Mexico City

Type of film: Documentary

Buried Dreams

“You know you are doing something, and you are unpunished, and you fall into a spiral, where you cannot leave from”

1973 is a documentary about three Mexicans: Rodolfo, María Fernanda and Alejandro Cota. This documentary shows their life, the life of three people born in 1973, full of real experiences, full of stories, full of unfulfilled dreams. At the end of each story, you will realize that Mexico was, is and will be doomed to be a place full of violent, crude and shocking stories, because it is real, because you or someone close to you could be Rodolfo, María Fernanda, or Alejandro Cota.

This is a documentary that lets the viewer know three different stories, that share something special, the unfulfilled dreams of the three people we can see in this film, unfulfilled dreams because of bad decisions, bad relationships and the fact that when living in México, you do not have the chance to make mistakes in your life, there is always someone who wants to take advantage of those mistakes.

It is not like a life lesson, it is just a way to show you how the Mexican society is, based on three cases that may be seen as crude or very disturbing, but it is just a mirror to what we see every day in our society.

A very interesting movie,  I recommend it a lot if you like films about criticism of society, and it is for all those people who say “Aquí no pasa nada”.

Argumentative Essay

Argumentative Essay

There are crimes around the world, and there are many different ways to punish all those crimes depending on the country . The humanity has many kind of punishments and one of those ways to make justice is death penalty, the maximum sentence that any criminal could receive, and it is the best option to make justice, it is supported by three main arguments: Justice reason, Right to self-defense and Economic costs, there is also a contradiction in the Justice reason.

First of all is the justice reason. Justice reason is supported by religious foundations, in the Old Testament, as for example the Talion’s law: “A life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Also, the justice reason is based on the Human’s nature liberty and equality therefore, when a person commits a crime, we have to reward the crime to the author with an equivalent penalty to the crime that he/she has committed.

Secondly is the Right to self-defense. This argument is based on the idea that the crime victim could not practice his/her right to the self-defense, so the society has to perform it. So the Death penalty is a way to make justice of a victim’s right, but since the victim is dead, the state is the authority that can make this right valid (word order), and the society takes the role of the victim, and they make self-defense for the dead victim, this idea is based on the statement of Jaques Légaré a French politician.

Now, the third argument is the Economic costs.  Death penalty supporters say that death penalty, in economical terms, is more profitable than the other alternatives of imprisonment, which imply that the prisoner needs to be fed, and sometimes the authority needs to cover other aspects as for example medical attention.  With all this involved we can see that the economical difference between the option of death penalty and the other options of imprisonment are clear, it is cheaper if the state kills the criminal. You can see the following table:

Cost of Life Without Parole: Cases  Equivalent To Death Penalty Cases					Cost of Death Penalty Cases
. $34,200/year for 50 years , at a 2% annual cost increase, plus $75,000 for trial & appeals	= $3.01 million				$60,000/year for 6 years , at a 2% annual cost increase, plus $1.5 million for trial & appeals	= $1.88 million

This table was taken from “Justice for all, USA, 2002”

There is a contradiction in the Justice reason argument, which is that the Old Testament also has ideologies of brotherly love and forgiveness, among others. There are many supporters of the Absolute Theories, as for example Roxin, who says that, the State is doing the same action as the criminal. Another one is Mir Puig, who says that the State has a clear difference between moral, religion, and rights, so the society should not take the role of God, and decide if someone deserves to be killed or not. 

As conclusion, the Death penalty is a reality, and as a reality it happens in many countries of the world (more than 60 countries) being the best punishment for criminals, the society needs to have tranquility that murderers, rapists, kidnapers, and a lot kind of criminals, are being punished, and what a better option than death penalty there are many arguments which support the use of this penalty , they are Justice reason, Right to the self-defense and Economic costs, even though there are many other reasons that support the abolition of this practice, those arguments which appeal for the use of death penalty are more valid than any other comment against this practice, since it is the society who demands this punishment for the worst criminals.

Descriptive Essay

Serial killers are divided into organized and disorganized killers. Richard Trenton Chase was a disorganized slayer. Richard Chase (also known as “Sacramento’s vampire”) matched perfectly in the profile of most of disorganized killers, his facial expression, his behavior, and the ways to kill people have been taken as a pattern which helps authorities to find this kind of killers, since most of them are like Richard.

First of all, I will describe his face expression. The most expressive parts of Richard’s face were his eyes and mouth, as when we talk about a savage beast’s face. His eyes were like the eyes of an animal, when they are alone their look is so innocent, but as a wild beast, he acted by instinct, so when he killed people, that innocent looking turned into the eyes of something so sadistic, full of joy, enjoying each scream, each drop of blood of his victims. His mouth was like a river, always opened and full of mystery, talking misunderstanding things to the shadows who harassed him, but when he tasted the blood of someone or something, his mouth turned into a deep red color, as a field covered of bleeding corpses after battle.

Then we have his behavior. He always was being harassed by voices which come from some place inside his mind, no one else could listen to them, only Richard was constantly disturbed by these whisperings without an owner. He always was shaking in the darkness that his room offered him, listening to the voices saying that he was supposed to suffer a strange sickness which made his blood and organs disappear, the voices advised him to drink blood and eat organs of someone else, which was the only cure. So, with a haggard look and an immense fear to die because of his “sickness”, he obeyed the voices and went out to search for his “medicine”. His paranoia started  to consume him, his thoughts and his acts, and the necessity for blood was increasing. His life was awful, he always lived scared, feeling himself pursued as if he were in a cage, without a place to go, he was obviously prisoner of his own mind. The result of that personality was the emergence of a serial killer, who actually enjoyed the fact of killing someone else.

Then I will describe the way he killed. The bloodthirsty beast had enough animal gore and intestines; he chose a house, with his gun on hands he just had to wait for the right moment to attack, as the cat that spies the mouse. Once he shot his victims, he dragged his moribund dam into the house, anxious to start the slaughter. While he dragged his victim into the house, he looked in other rooms for more victims to join the carnage, it means more blood, more fun. He started his bloody rite by opening the victim’s body, so that he could appreciate how the blood and guts bloomed from the corpse as a flower showing its petals to the sky. When the blood stained his face with each stab he made, this just increased his madness. After the corpse was split, Richard took a great feast of human flesh and guts, the body seemed to be a big can full of many delicious fruits to choose. Richard’s ecstasy of being eating and drinking human gore and organs forced him to stab the cadaver a lot of times, until deformation. After he left the victim’s house, the place looked as if some beasts were having gore party, stains of blood everywhere, pieces of brain splattered over the floor.

As conclusion, I can say that disorganized killers are the most aggressive assassins in the world, and Richard Chase is the perfect example, because of that, nowadays his case is used to solve similar crimes, his facial expression, his behavior and his way to kill people are often the same that many of disorganized slayers present.

Electronic Literacy

Technologies are a great support for humans; they help us making our lives easier in any term. For me the technologies are mainly useful in educational aspects. I can remember how I started in the use of these technologies, as I can say how I am using them nowadays, and how I think that they will help me in the future.

First I am going to place myself the first time I used a computer. I was 8 years old, and my mother bought me and my sister a computer, I remember that I was the only guy in my classroom who had a computer. I remember that I did not dare to turn it on if my sister was not with me, because I felt that maybe I could do something that may break down the computer, so it took me a lot of time to learn how to use it. I learned how to use “Microsoft Word” when I get in the Junior High School, because only one teacher asked us to present the homework printed.

Next point is the way I use technology nowadays. In the present I use the computer not only to do homework, I also use it to chat with friends using the “Windows Live Messenger”, to listen music while I am looking for something in the net, doing my homework or playing videogames. I think that I use the Internet and my computer more to have fun and entertainment than for educative purposes, but I think that the main importance of the internet is to make easy the way to obtain information, which helps me a lot when I have investigation homework.

Last point is about the future with technology. I see myself in the future more dependent of technology, I think that I will not be able to live in this world without a computer with internet access, I mean, if nowadays I get bored when I am without internet, what can I expect in the future when it will become more than just a way to spend time?, actually the future is on the technology. Life is 50% real life, 50% virtual life, I think that in the future it will become 20% real life, and 80% virtual life, I really hope that, at least, my life would not turn in that way.

As conclusion, I can say that technology is very helpful for me, and it is a way to get entertained and to spend time, but I can see that since I met technology, it has evolved in a very fast way, and not only that, nowadays it has become a necessity, as in the past years the necessity of humans to socialize, the technology has become that important for many people, and in the future it will become a very essential part of any human life.

First Essay

Who am I? I am a 20 years old guy I study the B.A. in English Language Teaching at the UAA. I have had a lot of experiences in my life, as for example the friends I make in my childhood, or the friends I met in my youth while I was in high school. Also, there are a lot of things I like as the music I listen to and the TV shows I saw, which have a lot of influence on my behavior.


First of all, I am going to talk about my childhood, a stage in my life where I could meet some friends at school, and out of school. I spent the early years of my childhood playing with my neighbors, we used to go to the street and play soccer for a while. It did not matter if you were a boy or a girl, you were able to play with us. After playing soccer we use to go for some drinks to the store, place where we used to talk about the things we did in school, or about cartoons, mainly about Dragon Ball Z. Suddenly, I changed my neighbors friendship for my classmates, we all did it, and we did the same things, the same games, but now with other friends

Next is my Youth. It started when I turned 13 years old, I met new friends at junior high school, but since they lived far away from my home, I went out with just one friend, we used to go to play videogames. There I met some new friends, and I started to like music, mainly the Industrial and Thrash metal. My new friends fans of videogames were kind of weird, and more even when we got into High School we used to go to some metal bands concerts, where we always got into fights because of alcohol.

The last point is about the Music and TV shows I like. I like a lot of bands of many different genres, but I love mainly Grind Metal, with bands such as, Napalm Death, C.B.T., Last Days of Humanity and Torture Killer. I like them because they are brutal music, reason why they do not share place with the mainstream bands that only make music to make money. TV shows I like are mainly cartoons. My favorite one is The Ren & Stimpy Show, that cartoon inspired me to make drawings with the same sense of humor that the show had, based in the grotesque things. Other shows that like me are: Hey Arnold!, it reminds me to my friends of childhood, Invader Zim reminds me to the friends of my Youth, and Malcolm in the Middle reminds me to some people of my family. I can say that I base my favorite things on those shows that make me remember the stages I have lived, I am a wistful person.

As conclusion, I can say that I am a normal person, with a normal Childhood, a normal Youth, and a normal life, that sometimes bases his likes as music and TV shows on what can make him remember all his life.