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Essay Instructions: Octavio Paz wrote the following in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech on December 8, 1990:

Languages are vast realities that transcend those political and historical entities we call nations. The European languages we speak in the Americas illustrate this. The special position of our literatures when compared to those of England, Spain, Portugal and France depends precisely on this fundamental fact: they are literatures written in transplanted tongues. Languages are born and grow from the native soil, nourished by a common history. The European languages were rooted out from their native soil and their own tradition, and then planted in an unknown and unnamed world: they took root in the new lands and, as they grew within the societies of America, they were transformed. They are the same plant yet also a different plant. Our literatures did not passively accept the changing fortunes of the transplanted languages: they participated in the process and even accelerated it. They very soon ceased to be mere transatlantic reflections: at times they have been the negation of the literatures of Europe; more often, they have been a reply.

In this essay, I would like you to analyze the relevance of this quotation to the Latin America and the Caribbean literature. That is, this essay will deal ONLY with the literature Latin America and the Caribbean.

Step 1
Re-read this quote from Paz; indeed, read the entire speech at http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1990/paz-lecture.html
Now, answer these questions:

?What does Paz mean when he writes that ?languages are vast realities??
?What does Paz mean by the phrase ?transplanted tongues??
?Why is the metaphor of planting especially relevant to the passage? (Hint: recall the agricultural base of commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean.)
?Paz writes, ?Our literatures did not passively accept the changing fortunes of the transplanted languages: they participated in the process and even accelerated it.? What does he mean by this? (Hint: think about the use of surrealism by these authors?a technique of European origin?and its application to topics from that could only arise in Latin America as a result of colonialism

Step 2
From the Literature of Latin American and the Caribbean, we have Derek Walcott, Pablo Neruda, Isabel Allende, Jamaica Kincaid, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julio Luis Borges, and Julio Cortazar.

Choose various authors from the above list and answer the following question:
--How do these authors reflect the truth of Paz?s statement?

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Example essay:
In this essay, I will analyze Derek Walcott?s use of the calypso tradition to substantiate the truth of Paz?s claim that Latin American (and, by extension, Caribbean literature) did not passively accept European traditions but rather transformed them. I will also analyze Gabriel Garcia Marquez?s use of magical realism in ?Big Mama?s Funeral,? and I will analyze surrealism in Julio Cortizar?s ?House Taken Over? and Octavio Paz?s ?Obsidian Butterfly.?

Essay Instructions: Please write the essay about poetry- Octavio Paz " Motion " .
In the words and ideas you're creating, write in third person.
First paragraph should br clear about the title of the poem, the author of the poem, and something brief, clear and accurate about its surface content. Conclude first paragraph with the thesis, the central idea of the essay that it's possible to argue for or against. The thesis is what you think the poem implies about life. If the thesis seems like something readers can either agree or disagree with then it's a good, genuinely academic thesis. All middle paragraphs should defend the thesis. Intoduce evidence, present evidence and move on. In final paragraph make one final point about your arguments. The conclusion is why you think the thesis matters.

Essay Instructions: MLA Format
The topic of the Research Paper pertains to the use of the figure, "The Malinche" within the context of the Conquest of the Aztecs in Mexico. The "Malinche" has had various positive and negative connotations according to the Mexican people and their history since the conquest. Various authors like Bernal Diaz del Castillo and Octavio Paz have written about the "Malinche." Their interpretations seem to drive the overall community perspective, and how the Mexican people view themselves and their country''s history. The paper should identify at least 4 authors'' accounts of the "Malinche" coinciding with the community perspective at that time period. However, a concentration on Octavio Paz''s interpretation of her within his book, "The Labyrinth of Solitude" should be done. Overall, at the heart of the paper, the idea of progression and the metamorphosis of the Mexican mentality of themselves and their country''s history must be emphasized.

(If it can be written in Spanish, that is much more preferable. Otherwise, the topic written in English should be the second option.)

Essay Instructions: Read: The Labyrinth of Solitude, by Octavio Paz. ?Sons of Malinche? and ?Mexican Masks.?

Read: Camille Townsend, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/108.3/townsend.html

Write a paper on your interpretation of the Post Conquest and Colonialism.