Fukú Quotes

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina governed the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. He is one of the most formidable dictators of the twentieth centuries, and the crimes committed by him and his comrades were in innumerable and hedonistic, from torture and rape to mass murder of Haitians. His American ties brought him into power and his manipulation of US officials allowed him to survive for much longer than should have been fathomable.

The first instance of colonialism forced upon the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic was the “discovery” by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. Ernesto Sagas and Orlando Inoa presented the interaction in their book The Dominican People: A Documentary History. The confrontation between these two diametrically opposed cultures proved to be “far from equal; the Amerindians’ Stone Age culture was no match for European military technology. The initial encounter took place on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, part of which is now the Dominican Republic” (Inoa pg. 1). This was the first step in a trek through five and a half centuries of Dominican Republic history, and unfortunately much of it was filled with

In the book, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, the four Mirabal sisters were forced to live under the political oppression of the Dominican dictator Trujillo. Despite, the thematic changes that occurred in the book, there are other information about Dominican Republic that one can further understand. The recurring topics in the book were political oppression and traditional religious practice/ beliefs. There is evidence that shows the life of people who are living under the fear of the dictator and how the religious beliefs and traditional views on women scoped the society during that time period.

7), and she misunderstood Dominican Republic customs. In fact, when confronted with strangers she deems dangerous, she found it easier to pretend to be a clueless American than a Dominican—“she has been too frightened to carry out any strategy, but now a road is opening before her” ( p. 20)—despite the fact that she quickly realized that they only wanted to help. In her college days, she even fancied herself “a lapsed Catholic” as she and her sisters “had been pretty well Americanized since” their “arrival in this country a decade before” (

Diaz strategically uses Yunior to narrate a majority of the novel. Though Yunior’s identity as the narrrater was not revealed till almost the very end of the novel, Yunior gave a very descriptive and satirical version of the life of Oscar Wao. Yunior was Oscar’s roommate at Rutgers, the boyfriend of Oscar’s sister, Lola, and the reader

Mark Twain once said, “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” This quote implies that individuals who possess a lot of authority often take advantage of it, which is agreeable and can be supported by Dave Egger’s non-fiction novel Zeitoun. In Zeitoun, the people who were a part of the police force and military that had authority in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina took advantage of their power and wrongfully arrested many people left in the city. On Tuesday September 6th, Zeitoun, Nasser, Ronnie, and Todd were met in the foyer of the Claiborne house by men in mismatched police and military uniforms who all had M-16s and pistols, at least ten guns were visible to Zeitoun and the others.

The beauty and culture of the Dominican Republic has changed and evolved drastically through out the years. Unfortunately, the Dominican Republic also known as the DR or Republica Domicana to its natives, was ruled by an oppressive dictator from 1930 until 1961. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina was his name and manipulation was his game. He ruled by fear and held a tight grip on the civilians of the Dominican Republic. Trujillo ingrained in their homes, schools, and churches that there is only God and Trujillo. Anyone who tried to speak out would be dealt with violently. Trujillo did not stop one driven young lady of the Mirabal family, whose name is Minerva. Minerva Mirabal is the boldest sister out of

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is not a happy book. The Author, Junot Diaz, does a great job fooling the reader into believing the story is about the De Leon family, specifically Oscar who is an over weight nerd trying to find the love of his life, but due to a family “fuku” or curse Oscar is having a lot of trouble doing so. Instead, the story actually portrays the dark history of the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Upon reading the stories of Oscar’s relatives the reader feels a powerful message of fear and oppression due to the actions of the Trujillo regime. Even after the demise of

Imagine being that persona nobody wants to be around ever only your family cares about you. In the brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz their is Oscar the main character a hopeless romantic introvert nobody really cared about outside of his family. Then there is Yunior your typical dominican player jock. The story tells the short life of oscar and the terrible things he went through narrated by Yunior. From heart breaks to suicide attempts to murder it tells it all. In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Yunior and Oscar are polar opposites. Their opposites run deeper than what is just on the surface. Also Diaz set the characters up the way they are to show how different they were.

““Fuku americanus” Diaz explains, is "generally a curse or a doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and the Doom of the New World." It seems especially contagious and deadly in the Dominican Republic, where "it is believed that the arrival of Europeans on Hispaniola unleashed the Fukú on the world.”” (Review: It’s a Wonderful Life 4). Fukú is shown through the many horrific events that are shown throughout. Trujillo is believed to be able to put the curse on whoever he chooses for many generations to follow. In the news article Fukú Americanus, Deresiewicz states,

During this book, the government decides who you are paired with when you turn 17 years old. Cassia, the main character, turned 17 years old and the government chose Xander to be her partner. They were each given micro cards about each other, even though they are best friends. On Cassia’s card it shows a different person, Ky Markham. Is it fate or destiny?

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” (Andre Gide) In the novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, written by Julia Alvarez, four sisters are led through a risk infested journey in which they must overcome hindrances with hollow consequences. This historical fiction novel takes us through a rollercoaster of events, incorporating everything from the partialities towards women, to life below the oppressive administration of the Dominican Republic’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The events painted by the four sisters give us some insight as to the positives and negatives of life in the Dominican Republic. As the novel progresses, we see the diversity in relation to the

The ending of a novel can be evaluated by the reader in several different ways, however to properly analyze the work is to further explore the logic of how everything has come to be. The ability of the author to show the reader that the ending is reasonable from the preceding action and the character’s nature is what should truly be examined. Not only is the ending of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz both happy and unhappy, it is logical in the sense that it follows logically from the climax of the novel all while the character’s have been constant throughout, except Oscar. Oscar, the protagonist experiences a life-changing transformation that leads to his untimely death. However, the ending is convincing because of this

A more terrible scene in history has never presented itself to me, your presidente, than those of the last days I have witnessed in the village of Aguacaliente. Tormented by nameless fears and paranoia, the delirium of tyranny seized him and took him over, drove him to the verge of madness, and he himself taken up by the rumor and gossip found the urge to make pilgrimage to Aguacaliente, even, perhaps, to pay homage to the norteamericano said to having taken refuge in a tree and providing cure for any number of ailments. After he had made attempt at any number of remedies, all proving fruitless for those ailments that had overtaken him and bent him cripple. Feddermann had reigned thirty-seven years, but now his rule was numbered, the hour having

When he began his campaign for President, Donald Trump might have seemed like the possibility of a nightmare you would never experience. But with Ted Cruz withdrawing from the race, and Bernie Sanders( who polls cited as having the greatest chance against Trump in the General Election) far behind Hillary Clinton, we must now seriously accept the fact that Donald Trump may very well have a fighting chance to become the next President of the United States.