At first Theseus and his fiancee Hippolyta discussed their wedding, Theseus was very impatient to marry Hippolyta. And it is very nice for Theseus to get his love. But it contrasts with Hermia’s subsequent pursuit of her own love. When Egeus brought his daughter Hermia to seek the help of Theseus. Egeus promised to marry Hermia to Demetrius, and Demetrius also loved Hermia’s. But Hermia only liked Lysander and refused to obey her father. So Egeus demanded punishment for Hermia. As we read “Like water for chocolate” before, Hermia’s path to love was blocked by her parents. Parents should not be an obstacle for their children to find their own way of love, on the contrary, they should help their children in the right way. But only help, the real decision should be in their own hands.

Theseus told Hermia that if she did not obey her father, Hermia would be executed. Knowing that Demetrius’ love was fickle, but Theseus also made Hermia decide whether to obey his father’s arrangement or die. Theseus, who was about to marry and be happy, did not help Hermia to be happy. Why is that? Is it because Theseus’s emotional path is so smooth? Either way, Hermia and Lysander did not want to give up on each other, so they decided to elope. Hermia’s friend Helena was ready to tell Demetrius about their plans, hoping to redeem Demetrius’ love in this extreme way. Whether Hermia or Helena, their path of true love is not smooth, but they all strive to pursue their own happiness in their own way. Only Helena’s pursuit of her own happiness is not the right way. Her way will sacrifice the happiness of others, which is not good.

After that, the story the workers decided to stage was a little similar to Hermia’s love story. In this story, two people are in love but their love is prevented by their parents. Then they also eloped, but on the way to elope, because of some misunderstanding, let the two people end their own lives. So in overall, the road of love is never smooth, in the road of love should not be hindered by those unfair things. Of course, some opinions can be accepted, after all, sometimes others will build their own happiness on the pain of others. In addition, the story of the pyramid tells us that the road of love will not be smooth, love will make people pay the price of life, so to think calmly, with the right way to pursue their own love, parents can not force their children too tight, otherwise, the consequences will make them regret.

Right off the bat we are introduced to to Theseus and Hippolyta, names already widely known to many owing to their place in Greek mythology . The reader is immediately told of Theseus’ excitement towards marrying Hippolyta. It seems a safe bet to say that this marriage is not only something Theseus is looking forward to, but something he actually sought out. Yet this stands in stark contrast with what Theseus expects of Hermia. Hermia is clearly in love with Lysander, yet Theseus expresses the fact that she must instead marry Demetrius. Not only that, but Lysander actually wishes to marry Hermia, so it is not as if Hermia would not have a spouse if she did not marry Demetrius. The justification for this decision is that it is the law. That a daughter must obey her father’s wishes or she can be killed. Yet this still does not explain how Theseus can make Hermia go through with what she clearly does not want to go through with. How could Theseus, a character clearly in love and about to get married, be so blind to the love of another? Is he really so blind to the hypocritical nature of his decision? Marrying someone he obviously wants to marry, yet denying that very thing to another? Either that is in fact the case and he is very unaware of what seems to be playing out before him. Or he is deliberately making the decision that he has made, despite his knowledge of Hermia’s feelings. The incredulity of the situation is increased when Theseus gives Hermia an ultimatum. He allows her until his own wedding day to make the decision. Either marry Demetrius or be put to death. On the day of his Theseus’ own wedding! This does not leave much room for the possibility of Theseus being an individual ignorant of his surroundings and the particulars of Hermia and her feelings. He has not just given Hermia time to make the decision in an attempt to appease her in some way. He has decided to do so in the most painful way possible for Hermia. Here is Hermia being told not only that she will be denied her true love. But that if she does not marry Demetrius, someone she does not have feelings for, she will be put to death. And to make it all worse, Hermia has until Theseus’ wedding to make the decision. A wedding Theseus himself is clearly willing and exciting for!

Theseus tells Hippolyta that he can’t wait the 4 days until their wedding because it’s too long and tells Philostarates to get all of the Athenian youth excited and happy for the wedding. You’d think a guy like this would be the biggest supporter of love. The second Egeus asks him to punish his daughter Hermia for wanting to marry the man she loves, Theseus agrees with Egeus and tells her to marry Demetrius (the man she doesn’t love). He even tells her that she has until his wedding day to choose between death, being a nun, or marrying Demetrius. Theseus is a hypocrite! Even on a day that’s a celebration of love he’s keeping Hermia away from it. To make it ironic, in act II the workmen talk about putting on a play at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. The play they decide to do is the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. In this story, two people are in love but their love is banned by their parents. That is exactly what is happening here. Hermia’s love to Lysander is banned by her father. In the end of the story Pyramus and Thisbe, they both end up killing themselves out of love for the other. If their parents hadn’t banned them from being together from the start, no one would have died. The irony is that at Theseus’s wedding, which is the day he’s making Hermia choose which way she’d be denied love, they’re performing a play about a tragedy that happened because of banned love.

It’s also possible that Theseus isn’t a supporter of love at all. The only information we have so far is that he’s banning two lovers, and he’s getting married himself. The fact that he’s getting married doesn’t prove that he’s a supporter of love. It’s possible Hyppolyta doesn’t love Theseus at all. We know she doesn’t think 4 days is so long to wait for the wedding, that could be because she doesn’t love Theseus. We also know they first met in battle and it’s possible the only reason she’s marrying him is because she’s forced to as an outcome on that battle. It’s true he claims he won her love when she was injured, but it could be in truth she was forced into it and he only truly cares about himself.

Complete

“Mexican-American Border Region–Pictorial works” – It should be unsurprising that the U.S. saw the Mexican Revolution as a threat, especially with the U.S. Civil War only two generations past. Additionally, U.S. companies had significant investment in Mexico that was directly threatened by Mexican revolutionaries who saw these companies as in league with wealthy land owners to mistreat the common folks. Raids by warring military bands threatened civilians on both sides of the border and also created refugees. This collection of black-and-white photographs and some colored prints shows a strong, favorable bias towards the U.S.

Collection Highlights

“General staff of the Mexican Army in the council room of Huerta” – The European influence on the Mexican upper-class is apparent in the uniforms and fashions of the Federal army. Remember also that Diaz was quite old when he left office, and the age of these officials echoes the Diaz regime.

“Mexican Federal Army officers in uniform taken just before the U.S. took Vera Cruz” – The U.S. military briefly occupied the Mexican city of Veracruz in 1914 over a diplomatic dispute. The occupation was deeply embarrassing to the Mexico and fueled popular sentiment that the Mexican government was in the pocket of U.S. businesses. In this photo, more European-style uniforms can be seen along with the civilian clothes worn by the wealthy at the time. Tita’s family is likely in this circle of society.

“Naco, Sonora, federal soldiers at rest stacked arms” – Picture of Mexican Army soldiers.

“Naco, Sonora. Fed. soldiers with soldadera in trench” – The Mexican military was poorly funded, however, and this photo shows that not all soldiers had everything they needed. This photo also shows a soldadera, usually a wife of a soldier who traveled with the army and supported the camp, sometimes even fighting on the front lines. Soldaderas more famously fought alongside rebels, as Gertrudis does.

“Rebel soldiers, Matamoros, Mex” – In contrast, the rebel groups are often made up of poorer people.

“Pancho Villa” – Francisco Villa is one of the most well-known rebel leader in Northern Mexico. Chencha tells tall-tales about Villa’s men eating the hearts out of their victims, echoing both anti-rebel propaganda and indigenous Aztec imagery. Villa was like many rebel leaders who often used the image of the peasant underclass as a symbol for their movement and so would famously don peasant dress for propaganda. This image is from the Library of Congress.

“Carranza Commander in Chief of the rebel Mexican Army / Villa Major General of the Rebel Mexican Army.” – While rebel leaders tried to show they were men of the people by dressing like the poor, they also had to prove that they were responsible future statesmen. In this photograph, Villa and another rebel leader wear European-style uniforms to emphasize their legitimacy.

“Gen. Francisco Villa, shot those canon balls holes. . .” – War produces casualties. When everyone is happy about the turkey mole, Tita remarks that it is a happy moment amidst the death, famine, and destruction the war brings. In this photo, small girls point to the canon ball holes in a local building.

“Refugees at the border awaiting admission to the U.S.” –
A “picture postcard” was a popular souvenir at the time. This shocking post card shows the U.S. military facing down refugees attempting to legally cross into the United States. Chencha is described as crossing this border under the watchful eye of both nations’ armies when she comes home from visiting Tita at Dr. Brown’s. Pedro is detained at this border when Rosaura is giving birth. You might also imagine Pedro and Rosaura as refugee (if you give less credence to the Pedro/Tita relationship and imagine that perhaps Mama Elena just wanted the new family out of harm’s way).

“Electrically-charged wire fence around refugee camp Ft. Bliss, Tex” – Cattle country was beginning to get electrified fences, now common on farms. In this shocking colorized picture postcard, the text draws attention to the use of electrified fence around the refugee camp at Fort Bliss, Texas. The image is strongly resonant with current claims about the treatment of asylum seekers on the U.S. Mexico border and the concentration/internment camps of World War II.

“Detained at the refugee camp” – A shocking photo of children in the refugee camp at Fort Bliss, Texas.

What we know for sure in this book is that Tita has been under her mother’s control ever since she was born. Her sisters and her were told to cook, clean and pray during their youth in the ranch. Everything in the ranch was under Mama Elina’s control. It’s even harder for Tita as the youngest because even her love life is controlled by her mother. However, after her mother sent her away with John Brown because she thought Tita was not sane, Tita finally enjoys life away from the ranch and wishes never to return. It is in this chapter that we assume Tita has finally escaped her mother’s tormenting. She enjoys her life with John who shows her a recipe to making matches. Tita and John begin to form a great bond with each other.

However, when Tita returns to the ranch to announce her marriage with John, a group of bandits have raged the ranch and raped Chencha and abused Mama Elina. Tita is forced to stay at the ranch to take care of her mother and Chencha. Mama Elina had rejected Tita’s offer and it seems that even her injured mother had control over her. At Mama Elina’s funeral, Tita mourned about her mother’s death but it didn’t stop her from wanting to get married to John while still having feelings for Pedro. The person who controlled her whole life was finally gone. Deep down, Tita was probably relieved. However, Pedro’s attempts to pursued Tita into not marrying John and Rosura’s announcement of not allowing the youngest daughter get married caused Tita to rage. After Pedro takes Tita’s virginity, Tita sees Mama Elina’s ghost who curses the unborn baby and Pedro. Even when Mama Elina was not there, her ghost has still more power over Tita than herself. This makes me wonder if Tita will ever be able to free herself from the ranch and the presence of her mother. Tita has started to rebel from her mother but her mother’s words and actions still have impacts on Tita who is now a grown young lady already. She has not escaped from Pedro, Rosura and the ranch. This makes me wonder if Tita will ever have a “happy ever after”.