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Success

Araceli Allala
Book Critique- Tattoos of the Heart
Instructor: Luis Giraldo
April 13, 2016

What is success? What is failure? What is good? What is bad? Once you really think
about it, it is a little more complicated to answer these questions. Really what is success and
what is failure? What is good or bad? Who gave a definition to these words? To me it all depends
on who you ask.
Is success really about achieving wealth, respect or fame? This is how the Webster
dictionary describes success. Is it about having a lot of money and still not being happy or is it
about being able to accomplish something and finding happiness with the people we care about,
and living life with a purpose.
Success cannot really be defined because it all depends who you ask. To me it all depends
on each individual, what success means to you, might not necessarily mean the same to me. I
believe it all depends on our own personal life, our mistakes and experiences; what our goals are
in life, where are we come from and where we are heading. We all have many short and long
term goals in life, so do you need to complete all of your goals in order to consider yourself
successful or are short term goals short steps towards living a successful life. Success is to me is
to know what you want, to live by our own expectations, not what others expect of you.
Failure is not being able to achieve or accomplish a personal goal and giving up and
instead never appreciating the satisfaction one gets from working towards the goal.
Good is a positive thought or action and bad is a negative thought and action. Making a
good or bad decision can affect you or others in either a positive or negative manner.

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Success

I believe this chapter connects too many of the topics that we have covered during the
semester. For example the freedom riders: They were successful even after all the suffering they
went thru and they managed to open the door to bring change to the world. Another example
would be the womans act. Was this success or failure? All they went thru they worked so hard
and were humiliated and laughed at but at the end woman were allowed to vote. So maybe when
things did not go as planned they felt it was failure, but all the suffering they went thru, helped to
get to the main goal they had in mind. On these last two examples we can see how they worked
hard to change how the world viewed Negros and to allow woman to be part of society and have
a voice and at the end they were successful.
Then we saw Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chaves activists for all the field workers. Were they
successful? All they went thru to fight for the filed workers rights maybe when they were
attacked by the news people or hateful whites it didnt seem so, but in the long run they brought
a big change for immigrant field workers.
We see also Reuben Salazar a strong supporter of the Chicano movement. Yet he was
murdered. So was it really an accident or a homicide. Is he considered a success story? I believe
he is. He helped the Chicano movement because he started writing about how the Los Angeles
government treated the East LA Chicanos the abuses and struggles they went thru because they
did not have a voice.
So in the end of all these historical events; who saw failure? Was it the Indians because
they lost loved ones, and even though they won some battles at the end they still lost everything
they had their family, loved ones, land, and traditions and even their own identity; yet they tried
and worked very hard and they continue to do so. Who was successful? Was it the white men
because they took over the country and they became the new owners of the land?

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Success

Success is to live your life with your own values, to set your own expectations and live
your life to what you believe in. Success should be measured by how hard you work and
knowing that you are making a difference in other peoples lives.

As a teacher of young children I believe that they should learn at young age what it
means to be successful, we are there to help and encourage them to make their own decisions and
support who they are. We are not there to judge the families or their backgrounds. We as teachers
are there to support children and families, so we need to be confident, compassionate and
understanding. We should be prepared to work with culturally diverse students, get to know
them, be open to learn from the knowledge they bring into the classroom.