Luis J. Rodriguez

feet falling down toward the belly of the bull, the rider sits both feet at the bull 's neck in a position called the tablilla. Many riders have lost their lives because the way most of them fall is toward the bulls horns. The last style is the San Luis Potosi style. This style is just like the Charro style, the only difference is that these bulls are fully…

Within the delicate brushstrokes of the artist lies an image of vitality and beauty, comprising the portrait of one young and misguided individual. Driven by his desire to fulfill his lustful temptations, he evolves, the man in the frame, into an individual so vile one cannot stand near without inhaling his moral corruption. Physically, the man of the portrait, Dorian Gray, as having sold his soul to retain his current health and beauty, remains ageless and pristine as he continues in the…

lost but countless lives were lost. The Battle of Brunanburh is one of the bloodiest battles in Anglo-Saxon history and it is the topic of both the Anglo-Saxon epic translated by Burton Raffel, “The Battle of Brunanburh,” and the modern lyric by Jorge Luis Borges, “Brunanburh A.D., 937.” Both poems describe the bloody battle scene but despite being about the same event, the two poems have differences. Though both poems are describing the same historical event, they have differing points of…

Mark Wallace writes that the stories that Borges writes “are based on genuine dread of the endless time and space and a wise skepticism, but for the most part that dread happens on the level of ideas and not in the narrative itself as such… the dread comes from contemplating the philosophical puzzle the stories present.” Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius makes the reader contemplate mankind’s need to make connections and see order in a seemingly orderless world. The narrator states that “any symmetry,…

The ability to memorize everything is an ability that many people would do anything for. In Jorge Borges's short story, “Funes the Memorious”, there is a character named Ireneo Funes who gains this ability after getting crippled from falling off a horse. Funes, after the incident, was able to specify everything in his world. He refused to generalize or group anything. Also, he became incapable to communicate well because of the specificity of his language. Lastly, he also became unable to…

My research centers on Jorge Luis Borges and constructs a web of influences on him and his literary oeuvre through examining his many interviews. Throughout his life, Borges consented to hundreds of interviews. Rather than undertaking exhaustive research, I gathered data from nine of Borges’ most widely available interviews, largely conducted in English and issued in prominent, English-language publications. Some interviewers transcribed the interview content in the moment or from tape…

Within Jorge Luis Borges’s short story collection “The Garden of Forking Paths” are the stories Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius and The Garden of Forking Paths. Within Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Borges introduces the question of metaphysical time and reality by recounting the events surrounding the mysterious land of Uqbar and its lore surrounding Tlon- the third orb. On the other hand, The Garden of Forking Paths questions the knowledge of the universe and linear time as current scientific…

Is Great Too Vague? You know that moment when you are doing so well and everything is going great? Then, you turn around and someone asks you, "What are you going to do next?" I'm kind of right there. I'm sure its been many of us, but I couldn't just fix my mouth to say "Hey, that sure is a good question, but I don't know. I just want to be great!" What does 'great' really mean? Does it mean that whatever I do next will fix the water conditions in Flint, Michigan? Does it mean that I will be…

Poetry has typically defied the confines of the period it was written in and ushers in a new era in terms of ideas, politics, art, music, and everyday life. In the Victorian Period, many poets would write about ideas, the current attitudes toward women, and the resisting temptation, from a new viewpoint, which lead to changing thoughts and morals among the masses (Khanna and Landow). Although the word ‘Victorian’ brings to mind conformity, the Victorian Era of poetry is anything but typical…

In a world where technological and scientific advances are realized daily, communication with people around the world is a common occurrence, and knowledge is becoming increasingly accessible, a wider window has opened for the individual to explore, discover, and/or create their ideal self. We see ourselves passing the times of idle wonder and theory of our past philosophers and intellects. The consequence, however, is that knowing yourself, as well as projecting and thereby sharing this self…