When Silvia Pedraza first came in, I thought it was going to be another boring history lecture, but I quickly realized that she was actually an interesting lecturer, and she was presenting some fascinating information about Cuba that I had never heard before. I found that she was funny, and a good story teller, and unlike some lecturers, she had my attention for the entire time. I was really intrigued by her personal involvement in the first wave, and how she was in that national magazine. I thought it was really easy to retain information from her lecture as well, because although her slides did not have all the information on them, they had the main points so I was easily able to follow along and take good notes from her lecture.
One thing I really liked from her lecture was some of the things she said about Fidel Castro and communism. I agree with her political stances against communsim, and really appreciated her vigorous assault of it, but one thing I found interesting was what she said about Fidel. I never knew the backstory of Fidel, so I found it interesting that he was a charismatic soldier who gained support from the people by fighting their former dictator. She also said that even after he announced that he was communist the people still loved him because he was charismatic and a good speaker and leader. She said that throughout history men have been able to lead people with these character qualities and abilities, even though they could be a communist or a dictator. She drew reference to Hitler and the way he captivated the German people to do his will. I think she makes a good point on this, and I believe people are to easily influenced by charisma and good speeches, and we should try to trust our own beliefs instead of being influenced by the influential.
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I thought the same thing at first, but she really got into the subject. I remember her lecture, because the points were not all over the place, and I was able to take good notes from her. I found her 6 slides more effective than the other lecturers that had graphs and statistics throughout the entire presentation.
Just like in the recent election, it seemed like people were leaning towards one candidate because their friends were supporters or because they didn't like the appearance of a candidate. I felt like they weren't looking past all that and just simply comparing beliefs.
I think that the personal stories provided by Professor Pedraza added a lot to the effectiveness of her presentation. I felt that these types of personal anecdotes were really lacking with some of the other guest lecturers in the course because it was harder to become engaged in the material. The lecture didn't seem like a history lesson, but more like a group of stories that were tied together by a common theme. There seemed to be a lot of interrelations between the different waves of the Cuban Exodus', yet each wave was categorized by its own set of people. These people all shared the common goal of escaping the political persecution of Fidel and the communist government, but they each all had their own individual reasons for leaving. I felt that the lecture style of Professor Predraza really captured the personal side of each wave and the true emotions and feelings felt by each type of immigrant involved.
This was one of the most memorable lectures from this semester for me. Through her incorporation of personal experience, there was an emotional appeal about her presentation. The class was able to fully understand the struggles of Cuban immigrants.It was very impressive to see that her Cuban experiences were noted in nationally known newspapers. I thought, overall, this was a very interesting topic to hold a lecture about. Pedraza's article was also very intriguing and easy to understand. The way in which she organized both her article and her lecture were very effective. I liked how she divided both into different waves. It was astonishing to learn that the social status of Cubans coming to America went from the wealthy class to the working individuals. I also liked how Pedraza referred to different public views of Fidel Castro and his rise to power.
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