music clip

Traditional Persian Music: Andak Andak (Little by Little) 

Lyrics: Sufi poem from Molana (Sufi poet) whom uses vague and indirect language to talk about purifying your soul and how to connect with God

Vocalist: Shahram Nazeri

 Translation:

 Bit-by-bit, bit-by-bit, the drunk masses arrive
Little-by-little, the wine-worshipers wine arrive

They are gently on their way
Like Zaran flowers from the garden

Little by little, from this world of dead and undead
The dead have gone and the living will be here soon

They come with hands full of gold and empty
They arrive both poor and hungry

The gaunt, exhausted from the trials of love
Arrive strong and healthy

Like the rays of the sun, the lives of the pure
They arrive from heights to valleys

The green and fresh garden of the pure
Arrive from drunken stupor

Their essence is grace
As the garden receives them

Respond paper to "From Zoot Suites To Hip Hop"

Respond paper to “From Zoot Suits to Hip Hop”

I found the research paper “From Zoot Suits To Hip Hop” difficult to follow and comprehend because there were so many words referring to different cultural background, language and music which threw me off the track of the main point.

Luis Alvarez continuously refers to Chicana/o and Latina/o. For example, Alvarez writes “This article traces cultural exchanges between Chicana/o and Latina/o…” (1).The distinguished between Chicana and Latina is a challenge for me. I have asked people from Mexico about the differences and their respond was they are the same whom are from Mexico and speak Spanish. I personally researched more about them and I realized that Chicana refers to people from Mexico and Latina refers to people from South America. The other factor made understanding the “From Zoot Suits To Hip Hop” difficult was references to the variety of cultural background. Alvarez states “Among the most available strategies for thousands of…” (5). Alvarez repeatedly used the Mexican- American, African- American and Asian- American through out his research paper. Alvarez also mentions the Japanese- American and Filipino- American. When I came across these cultural backgrounds, the only word I realized reading or remembering was the American. So I needed to reread it few more times. I am familiar with these cultures; however, reading them in an advanced written research paper and as a second language speaker, is challenging to follow the passage. Alvarez also talks about different kinds of music for instance, Jazz, Hip Hop and Zoot Suits. I personally don’t listen to these kinds of music and don’t understand their concepts. As Alvarez explains how the music played in different cultures at different times, it didn’t obtain my attention and interest to grasp the history Alvarez was explaining. There is no doubt that the research Alvarez done is extraordinary, but I have my own challenge to encounter while I was reading it. I believe the language barrier has the most impact and also being not completely familiar with the history of language, culture and music.