Joseph Gonzalez 10-20-12 1A

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Tamales The Best Tasting Food Have you ever eaten or tried a homemade tamale? If you havent then you will love this essay. Tamales are one of the best foods in the Mexican cuisine. The tamales are made up of corn tusks that wraps the dough and meat together. Corn tusks are leaves that are wrapped around the fresh corn in the fields. The corn tusks are sold in packages at any grocery store. Tamales are mostly and usually made for special occasions like weddings and also different holidays. A homemade tamale is usually 99% better then than tamales you purchase at a Mexican store. The reason for that is because the tamales are already made so theyre usually sitting there and when you go in and buy one the just keep them in those toaster microwaves. Homemade tamales will always be better then the tamales that are sold in the stores. Homemade tamales usually take very long to make, thats why they are mostly made for special occasions. If it is your first time making the tamales it will be very frustrating because it still frustrates people that have been making homemade tamales. The corn husk wraps are the most difficult part in making the tamales. They are difficult because before you even start to make the tamales you have to let the corn husks sit and soak and wash them. The difficult in that is making sure they don;t rip because when they are soaked and washed they are very fragile and will rip very easily. A lot of people think theat they dont have to be careful when the corn husks are done drying off, but they are wrong because thats when the corn husks are even more fragile because they are dry and they will break and rip. When the corn husks are finished drying off you can now start spreading the dough very carefully on them. When you finished spreading the dough all over the corn husks you can start filling it with the meat of your choice. After you do

Gonzalez-2 all of that then you put them in a pot and steam them. There are also tamales that are made out of fruits and raisins. Tamales are one of the most popular Mexican cuisines and are known for how good they taste. Some people say that they can satisfy your taste buds and I agree with them. Tamales taste like a big thick homemade tortilla stuffed with your favorite meat. Tamales are so delicious I can eat them all day if I wanted to. This delicious dish originated in Mexico. The fact that they are homemade makes them even better because they are made fresh and made by people you know and no ones cooking is better then homemade cooking. When you bite into the tamale it feels like your eating the best food you have ever tasted in the world. The dough really goes good with the meat which gives off a sensational taste and satisfies your taste buds. At first I never really liked to eat tamales, until my mom took me to my grandmas house for Christmas and my grandma had just made her homemade tamales. I had told my mom that I wasnt hungry so I didnt have to eat a tamale, but then my mom had forced me to eat one. So I ate one and I did not want to stop biting and eating that tamale it was so delicious. That Christmas night I ate seven tamales in a row. I kept going back for more but my mom told me I had enough because if I would have kept eating them, my stomache would hurt. After experiencing for myself a homemade tamale and a tamale from the store the homemade tamale is way better. They are very delicious and are one of the best Mexican cuisines.

Gonzalez -3 Dia De los Muertos vs. Halloween Do you think that El Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated the same way as Halloween? These two holidays are similar but are not celebrated the same way as Halloween. El Dia De Los Muertos, a traditional Mexican holiday, is kind of like Halloween but not quite. Halloween is celebrated by dressing up in scary costumes and going out to get candy. El Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated by Mexican families going to go visit their dead ancestors, family, and friends. Although on El Dia De Los Muertos people give out candy, this holiday is more serious then Halloween. Which do you prefer El Dia De Los Muertos or Halloween? Halloween is celebrated almost all Americans in the United States. The day of Halloween is celebrated on the last day of October. Halloween originated from the Irish Gaelic meaning (summers end). Halloween started by the Irish people storing food and supplies for later because of the cold and harsh winters. The reason it is celebrated is to welcome the new season of Winter. The reason why people dress up in scary costumes is because the Irish Gaelic wore scary masks to scare off the harmful and scary spirits. People get pumpkins for Halloween because they like to carve faces into them and call them jack-o-lanterns. The jack-o-lanterns are the most common symbol for Halloween. A lot of people think that Halloween has to do with magic, evil things, and monsters because it all started off by people wearing scary masks to scare off the harmful and scary spirits. El Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated by all people in Mexico. The people of Mexico celebrate this holiday to go honor and charish their memories of their dead ancestors, family, and friends. The day that el Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated is September 1st and 2nd. This Mexican tradition started off with the Aztecs creating a festival dedicated to honor and charish

Gonzalez -4 their goddess Mictecacihautl( The Lady Of The Dead). The people also celebrate this because they are so happy and say they are lucky to have life, but on the same day remember their ancestors, family, and friends that have passed on. The tradition of El Dia De Los Muertos actually wants the spirits of the people that died to celebrate their memories of life. On El Dia De Los Muertos people dress up as skeletons because the symbol of the dead is a calavera (skull) or eskeleto (skeleton). Some of the similarities that these to holidays have are that they are both recognizing the dead. During these holidays they both give out free candy. They also dress up to show their spirit for the holiday. Both of these celebrations are made to be fun, but serious at the same time. They need to be serious because if people did not believe that spirits can do harmful things then there would be no holiday to celebrate and have a holiday all day dedicated to the spirits of the dead. Both of these holidays are dealing with the spirits of the dead and celebrating in their honor by dressing up. Although these two holidays are celebrated differently they both coincide with each other and my culture. These two holidays have similarites and differences just like a lot of other things.

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Christianity v.s Buddhism Have you ever thought that different religions have similarities? The christian faith has some similarities as the Buddhist faith but they also have differences just like any other religions compared to each other. A difference that Buddhist faith has is that they do not believe in most of the core of historical Christianity. A similarity that they do have in their faith is that they do not believe in "hurting another in a way that you would think would be hurtful to you." Although these religions are different they always have to have something in common. The Christian faith ties into my culture more then the Buddhist faith does. The reason for this is because Buddhist faith is more popular in the Mid-Eastern hemisphere. The Christian faith is more tied into my culture because it is a world wide known faith/religion. There are a lot of the Mexican ethnicity that are Catholic or Christian because the Buddhist faith is more for people that are from the Mid-Eastern hemisphere. A lot of the people that are from the Mid-Eastern hemisphere practice the study the religion of Buddhism. In the United States there are not that many people that study or practice the Buddhist faith. People are more comfortable with the well-known religion because they might feel insecure about what they're doing and do not know what they're doing in that religion. These two religions have a lot of differences, but I'm only going to talk about a few of the differences between the two religions. In the Buddhist faith they do not talk about or learn about the Garden Of Eden. In the Christian faith we learn Garden Of Eden because they say we are the descendents of Adam and Eve. The Buddhist faith also doesn't teach that god was not born a virgin or executed and ressurected to go to heaven. Christians believe that god was the savior of the world and died for our sins. They also believe that a persons soul is unchanged after they die

Gonzalez-6 for all of their life. The Buddhist do not believe in this they think that this is surreal. The Christians believe that god will cone down to earth again sometime in the future, but the Buddhist do not believe that this will happen. Christianity and Buddhism are very seperate religions although they still share some beliefs. A belief that these two religions have is they both believe that they can come back to life after they are dead. They have different names, for their faith but they both mean that you come back to life after you die. In Christian faith it is called a ressurection and in Buddhism it is called a cycle of life. They also believe that you should not harm anyone in a way that you would not want to be harmed or that you would think is harmful if it was done to you. This quote is just like.the Golden rule in Christianity. These two religions do not believe in war they believe in love and justice for all. These two different religions have similarities but they also have differences. They may not be exactly the same but they are not supposed to or else they would be combined into one religion.

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The Celebration of Cinco De Mayo and The Celebration of 4th of July Do you know why Mexicans celebrate Cinco De Mayo and why Americans celebrate The 4th of July? If you dont then this essay would be great for you. The reason why these two events are called celebration is because these dates are when America got their independence and Mexico won The Battle of the Puebla. For America to get their independence they had a committee to right a document that explains that America wants their independence. Mexico was not trying to get independence they were just trying to keep their land. Cinco De Mayo is similar but also different than the fourth of July. Some differences between the two events is that the Cinco De Mayo event isn't really important in Mexico. People in America make this event a big deal for the chicanos that are in the United States and for peoples entertainment. The Americans made a Cinco De Mayo in the United States to celebrate both cultures and to be fun for the chicanos that live in the United States. In the festival they have for Cinco De Mayo they stereotype a lot of the chicano race. On the day of 4th of July chicanos and Americans celebrate it but Mexicans celebrate it by drinking and having barbeques and Americans celebrate it by having a show of fireworks. These two events are to celebrate what their countries did for Independence and to own their land. These events have to do with the movement in their country and what it did to have an impact on their society. They are both celebrated to honor their countries and be happy about their victories. To get these right they had to have a battle for independence and had a battle to save and own their land without anyone else ruling. The Americans did not want Britain to tax them and tell them what to do anymore so they made a committee in Philadelphia,PA. The

committee that formed in Philadelphia overthrew Britain and made rules saying that Americans Gonzalez -8 can have freedom. Cinco De Mayo is celebrated here, but in Mexico it is really not celebrated that much. The event Cinco De Mayo is usually celebrated by the Pueblan people for the fact that, thats what the battle was for. The Battle that ended on Cinco De Mayo was the Puebla Battle. This battle was between Mexico and France. The French wanted to take over that little piece of Mexico. For the Fourth of July it was Americans getting their Independence. They celebrated it in honor of the Declaration of Independence that was passed on July 4, 1776. This is a holiday that is celebrated by every American that lives in The United States. These two holiday events are similar in some ways and are connected in a way. They also have differences for the fact that they are two different topics and events for different countries.