The Sins of the People

"I thought about telling everyone in town to stop their sinning, or drown and die. But they would not believe me. How could I preach to the whole town, I was only a boy. They would not listen." (Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me Ultima, 124)

In Bless Me Ultima, Tony is worried because of the golden carp's warning that the city will be flooded if the people continue to sin. Tony desires to tell the people that they should stop sinning, but feels as if they would not listen if he were to warn them because of his young age. Tony goes to seek comfort from Ultima in regards to the carp's warning, but is told that he must decide on his own if the story of the carp's warning is actually true or not. Tony's desire to tell everyone to stop sinning reminds me of Lehi in The Book of Mormon and how he warned the people of Jerusalem that it would be destroyed as a result of the peoples' iniquities.

In The Book of Mormon, Lehi has a vision that the city of Jerusalem shall be destroyed because of the people and their abominations. The people mock Lehi and they become angry with him because of his words that the city will be destroyed because of their sins. In Bless Me Ultima, Tony believes that according to the golden carp, if the people continue in sin, the city shall be destroyed. Knowing that Tony didn't warn anybody in the town to stop sinning made me think of Lehi and what would have happened if he didn't heed unto the Lord's counsel to leave Jerusalem. If Lehi and his family didn't leave Jerusalem, they probably would have been killed or taken captive to Babylon. I believe that his decision to stay would have greatly altered history for the worse. It probably would have taken many years for someone else to get the plates of brass from Laban and The Book of Mormon would definitely have different people in it other than Nephi and Lehi.

I am very grateful for Lehi's decision to leave Jerusalem as a result of the Lord telling him to leave. We have The Book of Mormon in big part because of him and Nephi. I am not sure how Tony's decision not to warn the city of their possible destruction will play out, but I really hope that he and his family will be safe in the end.

Receiving Spirits

"She received the spirit." (Black Orpheus)

In the movie, Black Orpheus, there are some instances that lead you to believe that the devil does indeed have power to imitate miracles. Towards the end of the movie, Orpheus is frantically looking for his love, Eurydice, who he unknowingly killed. While looking for her, he runs into a group of people dancing in a circle. All of a sudden, one of the ladies starts going crazy and flailing her arms around. A man who was watching the dance with Orpheus said that the woman received the spirit. Watching this scene reminded me of my experiences in Brazil and how I heard many stories of people speaking in tongues and going crazy as a result of receiving the spirit.

In Matthew 7:16 it reads, "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles"? With every miracle, we can know if it was a miracle from God or from the devil by the way it makes us feel. Miracles that are done in the name of God bring peace to our hearts and clarity to our minds. True miracles bring the spirit, and some of the fruits of the spirit are, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith." (Galatians 5:22) In Black Orpheus, I do believe that the woman that went crazy was overcome with something, but it was not the Holy Spirit. I believe that she was overcome by a demon that took over her body and made her do all sorts of crazy things. I believe that because when I saw that scene, I did not feel any fruits of the spirit as I mentioned before. Some of the feelings that I had were fear, uneasiness, and contention. These are not feelings that come from the spirit. During my time in Brazil, I saw and heard of instances that occurred in this movie of people receiving spirits, and I could always discern if the spirit came from God or from some other power by the way the instance made me feel. Watching this scene and thinking of my experiences also made me want to always strive to stand in holy places and do righteous activities so that the devil and his followers will have less influence over me and my body.

The devil does have power and it is important for people to use their discernment so they will not be tricked by instances when people supposedly receive "the spirit." This world can be very dangerous and we must be very careful.

Extermination of Races

"M. Blancheland was in favor of the complete, absolute extermination of the slaves, as well as of the free Negroes and mulattoes. Anyone with African blood in his veins, quadroon, octoroon, sacatra, griffe––whatever the degree––should be put to death." (Alejo Carpentier, The Kingdom of This World, 72)

Over the years, there have been people that believe that certain races are inferior to others or cause some type of threat to society. As a result, many people from these races have been brutally murdered. In the book, The Kingdom of This World, M. Blancheland was in favor of exterminating the slaves or anyone with African blood in them. He felt this way because of an uprising of the slaves and because he thought that their voodoo and secret religion posed a threat. After reading about how M. Blancheland wanted to exterminate anyone with African blood, it immediately made me think of Adolf Hitler and how he wanted to obliterate the Jewish race.

Adolf Hitler's ideology of the Aryan race was one of the things that led him to believe that the Jewish people, as well as other groups of people, needed to be eliminated. These people needed to be exterminated in order for Lebensraum (living space) to be provided for the Aryan race. In Hitler's opinion, the Jewish people were the great enemy of the German people. In comparison, in The Kingdom of This World, M. Blancheland believed that the slaves, as well as anyone with African blood, needed to be eliminated in order for peace to be restored. It is so sickening to imagine a person who thinks that the only way to have peace for their people is through the extermination of another people. Both Adolf Hitler and M. Blancheland had very radical ideas of what was needed to restore order in their respective communities. I also believe that these men had such crazy ideas because they had too much power. It seems that when a person is given too much power, more often than not, they become corrupt and end up doing unthinkable things. These two men were responsible for horrific things as a result of their crazy ideas.

I think it is extremely unfortunate that people such as Hitler and Blancheland thought of exterminating a  group of people. It is so selfish to think that the only way to make yourself and your group of people happy is through the killing of others. People have done unthinkable things throughout history as a result of the desire for what they think is the perfect world.

The Decisions of Others

 (Emilio Fernández, Maria Candelaria)

In life, it is very easy to be affected by other people and their bad decisions that they make. Many people say that if another person does something bad, you should not let that affect you, but that is easier said then done. In the movie, Maria Candelaria, Maria is looked down upon in her community because of her mother who was a prostitute. As a result of her mother, people thought of Maria as a whore and did not like her for that. Unfortunately for Maria, even though she was a really good person, she was not liked because of the bad reputation of her mother. This aspect of the movie reminds me of Adam and Eve and how we are all affected by their decision to eat the forbidden fruit.

As a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve, physical and spiritual death entered the world. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they talked face to face with God. After the Fall, they were no longer in His presence. Physical death entered the world, meaning because of Adam and Eve, we will all die one day. Though we inherited the effects of the Fall, we are still responsible for our own actions and sins that we commit and not for the transgression of Adam. In the movie, Maria Candelaria, she was also affected by the actions of her mother. Though she was affected by these actions, she still made a choice to be a good person and try to do what was right. Unfortunately for Maria, she was involved in a big painting fiasco that ended up making her seem like she was a risqué woman. As result of the misunderstanding, the townspeople stoned Maria to death because of what they thought she had done. Sometimes in our lives, no matter how good we try to be, we could still be affected by the past actions of someone else.

The story of Maria Candelaria really makes me want to be a good person that makes wise decisions so that my descendants will not have to be affected by the things that I have done. As Dr. Seuss once said, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not." In order to be a transitional character in your generational line, you have to make a conscious effort to be the change in your family. Doing so will reduce the risk of tragedies such as Maria Candelaria's.