Julio Urbina History 1 Instructor: Kim Geary Due Date May 14, 2012 My Immigrating Experience! My father is from Nicaragua and he moved to Cuba to study medicine with a military scholarship due to a purple heart (a medal when the soldier gets injured while rescuing other comrades) because of the civil war that was going on back then. On the other hand, my mother had always dorm in school due to a lot of scholarships she used to get based on her high grades. Eventually my parents met in Cuba and decided to leave their fiancés at the time because it was love at first sight; they got married, and moved to Nicaragua after their studies. I was born in a humble, independent, and loving environment. Although I grew up in a family oriented environment, they also taught me individualism, and to express myself creatively. Few years later I started school in a Catholic school name “Colegio Centro America”. Unlike the United States, Nicaraguans (name of people living in Nicaragua) have to pay for every year of school. I was fortunate enough to have parents who had enough wealth to send their kids to school. This school was really tough. I had 9 classes a week and I was in the soccer and Muay Thai team, for I had little time to do other stuff that weren’t related with school. My family decided to move back to Cuba when crime began to be a concern since a lot of people kept getting rob and no long could go out at night safely. Going to Cuba was a big adventure for me since it turned my world upside down. I had to leave everything and everyone I knew in Nicaragua. I was no longer living only with my nuclear family, but also my aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Usually the grandparents took me with my cousins to school and enrolled us in after school activities. The Cuban culture is different from Nicaraguan culture since its government its base on communism and mediocrity. Meritocracy is a system that recognizes the individual based on pure self-achievements, and communism is a government system in which it supposed to treat all the civilians as equal with the minimum discrimination. The community had a more supportive attitude when it came to help group of people, unlike the Nicaraguan who lost the attitude to help others and protect each other. I remember a little girl who hold my hand during first grade and lead me to my class because I did not know where my class was at. We became close friends with her, and later on I found out she was my neighbor. Her family introduced me to animal farm, how to take care of pets, and love animals. They gave me a chicken and I named it Chachi. After that first pet, all my female pets were called Chachis. Unfortunately time had come for me to move once more back to Nicaragua because my parents finished their higher education and got high paying jobs in Nicaragua. I was depressed since I had to leave the home and friends I made over time again. My parents tried to cheer me up by reminding me of the childhood friends I made. A week after I arrive I was completely fine with the new change once more. I found out a different environment from the one I was born into because of new political policies and social structures. That week met my first best friend john who was a popular kid knows in the new school I went Juan Pablo Segundo. All Nicaraguan school required the students to wear uniform to create character and discipline; furthermore, the jobs are usually like the military. The worker would follow orders. Also there are other school in which teach their students how to be creative and become leaders, but most of this school if not all are private schools. In Juan Pablo Segundo school I was known for my academics achievements and skills in the sport teams; never the less, people knew me most for getting excellent grades in all my classes but English because I refused to learn it and found that class useless since I thought I would be staying in a Spanish speaking country. Few years passed and I was ready for high school, but my family got the last request from the United States embassy of moving there and becoming their citizens. So my dad accepted it because he wanted a better future for us because things were getting harder in Nicaragua. Jobs wages decreased, crimes became more common and the violence more crude and an expensive schooling was the only way to only give someone a rare opportunity to escape poverty. Once more we move to another country leaving everything behind. Of course it’s tough to restart again and again, but if there is room for improvement and happiness then my family will always go with that option. We had family members who moved to California 20 to 40 years ago and they help us out. My uncle offers his house for us to live in for a while until we found a place to stay. Although we had a supportive family, my parents do not like to be dependent of anyone so they found jobs as soon as possible to rent and apartment. Stability came within 5 month of living in the United States due to the experience we had of starting over. The only barrier stopping us from moving forward faster was a new language. I had a tough time in high school because of my bad decision of not learning English back in Nicaragua. I struggled to pass my classes with C and B and put a lot of time finishing my homework and projects compared with any other teen. However, the challenge of preforming as good as I did before was there and pushed me to learn English within two years. I learned to speak, read, and write on a high school level on two years. This was a personal accomplishment since I went from been an A student on my first speaking language country, to a C or B student. I did not only have to adapt to a different school system, but to the culture of this new radical country and its pop culture. For example back in the other countries television was more political and educational, unlike the American shows as Jersey Shore where unacceptable public behavior is embraced and glorified. Peers and social groups are different too because here people focus too much on themselves and forget about the community. People will exclude others from activities and avoid helping because of social class. Only the rich and upper middle class are accepted. Everyone else is look down on and blamed for every problem the society goes through. The irony is that the rich and upper middle class are only a few compared with the rest of the population. I had made friends from different social classes and become involved in my community, for giving me experience on what is expected from me in this society. I began my college education after the recession. It affected the choices and opportunities of where to go for my higher education. I am in a community college because of the low paying classes compared with any UC or SCU in California. I am thankful that I had such a wonderful life and been able to learn from three different cultures, and the luck of progressing on my education to achieve my goals. If I had to help any immigrant with a suggestion it will be; learn to network with a vast amount of people to have more resources.

Julio Urbina 5/13/12 W 3:00-6:10pm Music 13 Instructor: Dustin Barr Jazz band concert! This Jazz concert was the first type of concert I have attended in my whole live and it was not what I was expecting it to be. Although I thought there were going to be a few musician playing different instruments, I was wrong since there were at least 20 people playing similar or completely different instruments. I was surprise by the amount of musician playing different instruments. If I’m not mistaken there were saxophones, trombones, trumpets, a bass, guitar, piano, drum set, and the conductor. The conductor Jeff Elwood is the director of instrumental Jazz Studies at Mt. San Antonio College and Jazz Saxophone professor at CSU Fullerton. He has a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music degree from Cal State Fullerton. He is an expert on his material with an excellent background and has great skills with the Saxophone. The band was composed of students and faculties members who appeared to won at the musical fair at Mt. San Antonio College. The genre of music varies from classical to jazz, soloist and ensembles, and vocal and instrumental. I was not expecting a conductor for a Jazz concert. The other peers I attended the concert comment to me that Jazz concert do not require having a conductor. I argue that yes the conductor might not be necessary based on their comments, but by having a conductor it creates more order, gives it a more professional appearance, and it forces the orchestra to play in a higher standard. I entered this music class with no previous background on music; even though most people tell me this class is simple and an easy A I think the opposite. English is my second language, and I had never learned music terminology or had a music teacher before in myself. The peers that attended the Jazz concert were surprised to find this about me since I can free style on the ukulele and bass. My respond was that you do not need to know the correct term, as long as you know the meaning behind it. This is my life struggle with music. Since I began to learn different terms, historical personas that were responsible for our modern music, how music has developed, and much more. Sincerely, I still struggle finding things I had learned in class in the music I listen to because I simply do not have the skill that are required, but I do have the ear to pick up different instruments and notes on the background. I thought it was interesting how I was able to tell the how the songs mood was going to develop thanks to me learning about Sonata Form in class. They started with a soft bass on the intro, but immediately moved to the exposition which describe both of the moods A and B. The musicians did followed the Sonata Form, but with some differences in it. One of the changes was that in the exposition the repetition of the theme had different notes; however, I was able to tell it was the same theme. The development was very simple; it was a conversation between the drums, bass, and pion, with the saxophones, trombones, and trumpets. After this Jazz concert I’m excited to go to my next concert at Mt.Sac because I’ll experience a complete different music still. I do not know what to expect and it certainly will be fun to watch.

CHILD 1

Julio Urbina

CHLD 1

 MW 4-6:50PM

Article #1

Are Any Lies Good For Children?

SUMMARY

            The article Lies We Tell Our Children by Rhiana Maldenberg is about a wife who is a mom that tells her children white lies. White lies are known to society as innocent lies to protect or avoid the truth for two reasons. The first reason is to protect the individual in most cases kids from information they are not ready to know, and the second reason is the person wants to avoid searching the truth because it makes him or her uncomfortable. She believes lying to her kids is for their own benefit, and bending the truth is not lying. Although that is what lying is.

            Rhiana has six main reasons for lying to her kids; which are, to save time, because she does not know the answer for something, she believes it is easier than telling the truth, to be nice, to keep the innocence of her children, and to protect herself. Rhiana knows lying to her children is wrong and does it anyways for her own convenience, but she does not advocate dishonest parenting.

REACTION

            I strongly disagree with Rhiana because children learn habits from their family. If she keeps lying to them, then her children will think is okay to lie. This is an unacceptable behavior will get her kids in trouble at school and the future. Kids should always know the truth, only in a different way determined by their ages. The older the child, the more capable he or she is able to control the emotions after a big news. For example; good parents would tell a five year old his or her grandmother went to heaven and she is having a good time, and a ten year old that his or her grandmother passed away and she is no longer with them.

            Coming for a family with strong values; such as, following the rules will help you stay away from trouble, love is the main ingredient for a person’s happiness, there is no reason to be dishonest, and family should always be there to help you through tough times, has helped me build solid characters, preparing me for adulthood. As a young adult, I know lies are dishonest and will only benefit me at the moment but not long term. I know this thank to my parents and their honesty.  

ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM

            The ecological system the article Lies We Tell Our Children falls in according to, Child, Family, School, Community, by Roberta Berns is microsystem in the setting of a family. Microsystem means the activities and relationships with significant others experienced by developing person in a particular small setting such as family, school peer group, or community. The family is the primary socializer of the child on that is has the most significant impact on the child’s development.

            Kids will pick up parents behaviors and repeat them outside the house. Rhiana’s lesson as a mom to her kids is lies are good when they get you out of something you do not want to deal with. This could create a negative chain reaction for her kids; for example, her daughter goes to school and lies to the teacher that she didn’t do her homework because her mom was abusive. Obviously this will get the mother in huge problems with the school and police officers, but the daughter did it because she learned it from her mother. The purpose to be a good role model which Rhiana is not, is so kids would grow up to be honest people who have good morals and ready to help others.

FAMILY

            My opinion in the short term is her mom will solve things at the moment but not in the long run. It is true Rhiana is would avoid a question her kids would ask her with a “white lie”. She thinks by holding back and keeping her kids from important information will keep them innocent and pure. I am not going against the idea that any parent would not want to keep their kids pure and innocent, but I’m going against the idea of lies because it would not prepare the child to go out to the real world.

            After a long time of this habit of white lies, the kids will start to lie to their parents. This is dangerous because if they lie and get in trouble or injure themselves, their parents won’t be able to help them because they would not know where their children are. All this will be because the mom did not trust her kids would be mature enough to handle information. Rhiana should never lie to her kids, instead tell them a little of the true depending on their age. For example, if a little girl asks her mom where do kids come from, the mother should answer “kids come from when grownups love each other and decide to have love to make a kid.”, but if a teenager would ask the same question, the mother could answer “babies come from two responsible adults who decide to have intercourse, so they could start a family.”