3rd Post- "Three wishes" by Ricardo E. Alegria

In the critical text, Three wishes, by Ricardo E. Alegria, the origin of Puerto Rican folktales remain the same but have become more kid friendly. In the Foreword section, Alegria explains how Puerto Rican's have Taino, Spaniard, and African descendants. "...by the Spanish Conquistadores who soon subdued the native..." (Algeria, 1) I never realized that Puerto Rican's have a major similarity with Dominicans, we both come from the same background. My mother and father were both born and raised in the Dominican Republic. Up until moving to the United States, they only knew their country. When questioned if they're Puerto Rican both become offended very quickly. I've noticed this "issue" in both ethnicities. In my opinion, this shouldn't be argued because it is quiet clear that we are of the same people, we just reside on different ground. Another similarity between the Puerto Rican and Dominicans are the folktales. I've heard different interpretations of several folktales mentioned in the text, but they all relate to real life scenarios.
In the folktale, Juan Bobo, the Sow, and the Chicks, the moral of the story was a bit confusing. From my understanding Juan Bobo was an awkward child, who took everything literal, and due to his actions had to pay the consequences. I understand everyone may interpret the moral differently, and there is no right or wrong answer, but was the moral of the story to not take everything literal? Questions like these make me question my life. Why must I take a music class that is required by the university, but not my major? Why must I write a certain way that bores me? Certain things just can't be answered because there is no definite answer and this is one of the many reasons as to how folktales relate to real life experiences.

1st Post- Aesop's Fables

            My educational experience lightly touched the topic of fables. Before reading, Aesop’s Fables, I assumed the morals were going to be obvious. After reading the fourteen mini-stories I realized the relevance these stories had to real life experiences. Morals have the possibility of having multiple significances.

            The fable that caught my attention the most is, The Wolf in Sheep’s clothing. While reading this mini-story I understood the origin of this lesson because of my older brother. Several years ago my brother got the image, a wolf in sheep’s skin, tattooed on his arm. It was done for a cheap price, so it resulted in looking like I drew it for him. After laughing at him, he proceeded in telling me the reason behind wanting to get the tattoo. The moral behind the fable is, looks can be deceiving. In other words, don’t judge a book by its cover. In my opinion, this is an international lesson because any individual can create assumptions about others.

            The second reading, Aesop, Aristotle, and Animals: The Role of Fables in Human Life, by Edward Clayton, was completely different than the previous reading. This article was longer, contained footnotes, a bibliography, and focused on the origin of fables. A question I have about this article is are fables still used to argue about politics? “Aristotle... rhetorical strategy in politics.” (Clayton, 186). According to Clayton, Greek philosopher Aristotle used fables as a strategy for relevance to real life experiences. As stated before, I am not very familiar with fables therefore I am not sure if this is the structure for writing a fable. Another question I have is do the animals in fables always represent the poor and/or weak?