AP Literature first blog :) Migrations

The video, "Migrations," by Dorian Merina was very difficult for me to comprehend at first. I had to look at the summary below in order to really understand what the poem was expressing and describing. After having read the small caption below, I replayed the video so I could watch it with an idea of what I was watching.

In the beginning of the video, the speaker begins to describe the actual migration of people on boats. This could have a relation to Columbus, when he sailed to the americas in search of an eastern route to Asia, or it could relate to any move to another country by boat. The speaker describes different goods being taken to wherever the people are going to, such as: tapestries, silk of many colors, velvets, golds, different types of jewels, and other items they are taking with them to their new home. He uses much sight imagery to give the reader an image of what the ship/move looks like. He tells of home goods such as pots, pans, home decorations, bed ornaments and etc. they carry surpluses of these supplies which can be used to trade or simply so that they last an appropriate amount of time until the people can adjust to the findings of the new homeland.

Towards the middle of the video, he continues to describe the move, the ship, and the goods, but now he adds the variety of language. He begins to use spanish and other languages to name the same object. This shows the different places to which the people are migrating to. The differences in culture which they shall experience.

I, myself, have experienced this change in culture and migration. Last year I moved from my home of 15 years, Fort Lauderdale, to Bogota, Colombia. The change was great and hard to adjust to. I had the advantage that I spoke the language native to the country, but even with this help, it was not easy to switch from my native language of english to spanish all day long. Not only was the language hard to become accustomed to, but the culture itself was also difficult. Since I was young my parents brought me to Colombia to visit family, so I had an idea of how life was lived here but nothing could prepare me for the sudden change in environment.

Like in the video, we had to pack all of our belongings and a surplus of extra necessities which we did not know if we would find there or not. We also had to go through with the traveling. We went by plane as the people in the video went by boat. These were the relations I made to the video itself.