Distinciones (A1): Zayna and Mary Alice

MARY ALICE

Having already looked at some poetry from the Spanish-speaking world for past projects, I decided I wanted to delve deeper into this area and look at some poems by Antonio Machado, whom I had heard of outside of class. Machado was a Spanish poet who lived from 1875-1939 and was part of the Generación del 98 literary movement. His poetry uses vivid imagery, and often uses nature and natural landscapes to contrast with, and as metaphors for, complex emotions. 

For my Distinctions project, I wanted to analyze 5 poems and choose a different project for each one. I made a translation and analysis of poetic structure for one poem, a diorama for another, an adaptation of the words of the poem to am original melody, a drawing to represent the imagery in a poem, and an instrumental song inspired by the “vibe” of my 5th and final poem. I also wrote short artist statements for each mini-project, and compiled a page that contains the work I did for all 5 poems. This project was very challenging, but I really enjoyed the open-endedness and many options I had, as it was all planned out by me. It was an interesting experience and my final result is something I’m very proud of.

Take a look at my project by clicking the button below and exploring my website!

ZAYNA

During the second trimester, we learned about Argentina, focusing on the Dirty War. So, for my distinctions project, I wanted to continue my learning about Argentina with a focus on a recent achievement in their history: the legalization of abortion. After reading several sources about abortion in Argentina, I wrote an essay that I broke into four sections: the details of the law, why the law passed this time and not in 2018 when the same law was proposed, Argentinians against abortion (focusing on the influence of the Catholic church), and if the new law will lead to other Latin American countries passing a similar law. After writing the essay, I had the opportunity to interview Gaby Rossetti who lives in Argentina. It was really interesting to hear the thoughts and feelings of someone so close to what I had spent months learning about. After the interview, I created a podcast with clips of our conversation. Although it was intense at times learning about this, I enjoyed continuing my learning from the last trimester. I hope you enjoy my project!

Zayna interviews Gaby!