This has been a great week in IHUM260! We had the best homework ever- watch a movie by a Latin American director and listen to music. My two favorite things, movie and music! On Monday I watched the film Rio, which I really enjoyed. I definitely felt the “save the endangered species and be kind to the rainforest” underlying themes in the movie. Then as I listened to the songs listed, the Maná’s song “Dónde jugarán los niños" I got that same sense of urgency to save mother earth before she’s destroyed. Ok so yeah there are people that love these topics, but something that stuck out to me is the passion in their voices and lyrics. Its as if you can feel the words; you can feel the sadness of our children not having a place to play and you feel a sense of despair thinking of Blue (in Rio)’s species dying off as other animals being illegally captured and taken out of their natural homes. I’ve never been the “tree hugger” or “Go green” type of person, but I sure was for the hour and a half it took me to watch the movie and in the few minutes while I listen to this Maná song. I have seen other material that deals with this same topic, but it never really “moved” me the way Rio and “¿Dónde jugarán los niños?” did. Maybe its because Latin people seem to be way more passionate human beings than others… Ok, don’t freak out! I’m not saying that people of other ethnicities are heartless- obviously this isn’t the case! I mean, in Latin America, the harm that are being done to endangered species and the environment is happening at the hands of other Latin Americans… but there’s just something different about the way Maná and the director of Rio portrayed their ideas and opinions (Maybe that's why I, a Salvadoran, got so worked up in this song and movie! haha Maybe..) For example, Michael Jackson has a save the rainforests song and I don’t think its nearly as good as other things out there.
But hey, that’s just me! But these two things really did make me think about what I can do better to maybe help our mother earth that God gave us a little bit more. But I’m just one person… can I really make a difference? Perhaps… Maná and Carlos Saldanha have. But I’m not a film director or in a popular band where millions hear my songs. But something that I’ve learned so far in this class is that there’s always more than you may see on the surface. So there might not seem like there’s a whole lot I can do, but I’ve gotta dig deeper to find solutions so that mis niños DO have someplace to play one day and will still know what an orangutan is!
