In this chapter…
 Arteaga discusses that Ireland does not have
hummingbirds, and this being the reason he could not live
there.
 He expressed “To think that I would live my days with the
absolute impossibility of a chance sighting one is, after all,
a theoretical possibility.” Page 33
 He felt the earth, sun and sky were reflecting his spirit. Dark
and distressed.
 This was after there was a big earthquake in Los Angeles
and there where many after shocks as far south as Mexico.
 He expressed he” felt like shit” at this time a thought
“Mexico could fix him” and it did.
 He ponders how other birds must envy the talent a
humming bird exhibits.
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Hummingbird is a small bird of the Trochilidae family.
The rapid beating of the hummingbirds wings (60 to
80 beats per second) makes the distinctive humming
sound from which they get their name
The hummingbird is the smallest bird and also the
smallest of all animals that have a backbone.
a hummingbird has no sense of smell
Because a hummingbird can rotate its wings in a
circle, they are the only bird that can fly forwards,
backwards, up, down, sideways and hover in midair.
to conserve energy while they sleep or when food is
scarce, they can go into a hibernation-like state
(torpor) where their metabolic rate is slowed to !/15th
of its normal rate.
During migration, some hummingbirds make a nonstop 500 mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.
During courtship dives a hummingbird can reach
speeds up to 60 miles per hour and can average
speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour.
Hummingbirds are the second largest family of birds
with 343 species.
Hummingbirds can beat their wings up to 80 times a
second during normal flight and up to 200 times per
second during a courtship dive.
a hummingbird has a heart rate that can reach up to
1,260 beats per minute.
Percentage wise, the hummingbird has the largest
brain of all birds (4.2% of its total body weight).
Hummingbirds have very weak feet and use them
mainly just for perching.
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In this chapter…
He begins with the setting of him and his middle daughter
Xochitil, nineteen, at a pub in London.
He states he sits proudly while drinking a pint admiring the
fact that his daughter is doing an admirable job at taking
care of her life.
He experiences the “prod father stage” where he begins to
reminisce on the past and become more proud of her as to
how far she has made it in life.
“As her father I marveled at the human irony that this young
teenager who left me in defeat on the other side of the
pyramid and the same little girl who rode her tricycle with
the straightness of postures…” page 37
In the pub they was slight drama the interested, but did not
involve, Arteaga and his daughter. The bartender has a
girlfriend who was taking to another guy across the room.
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The guy, feeling an awkward vibe, walks away and the girlfriend
began to ignore the bartender for the rest of the night.
This drama being extremely interesting to Arteaga and his daughter
they watched the whole time as they found entertainment from it.
As they left the pub and began to walk down Holloway Road they
run into the girlfriend she seems to be excited almost jolly and
somewhat skipping down the street, Arteaga and his daughter
laugh and suppose that she is going to see the “other man”
Suddenly they hear a loud thud, they turn around to witness her
laying in the middle of the street because she had gotten hit by a
car.
Arteaga then sends his daughter back to the pub to call an
ambulance.
The police eventually arrived and made everyone flee the scene, so
they did
Later on that night he returned to the pub to witness the girl sitting at
the bar
He felt she was ignorant because she had a traumatic experience
and she is at a bar while he felt sorry for her for getting hurt.
The bartender being the gentleman he is walked up to them and
gave them a friendly greeting.
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Would you have told the bartender his
love was hit by the car, what Xochitl
decided not to do? Why or why not?
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How would you feel if you were in
Arteaga and his daughter situation
thinking that the girl could have been
hurt but you see her at the bar hours later
after being hit by a car?
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In this chapter…
Arteaga shares a memory of his daughter, when she
was twelve, and one of her African classmates, Tani,
meeting a prince and as Tani attempted to give the
prince a hand shake he refused saying that if he
allows her to touch him everyone will want to.
Arteaga was proud that his daughter found him to
be “such a dork” after those actions were displayed.
He refers touching the price to the previous chapter
of him touching the fallen English woman’s shoulder
as he ponders the importance of touch.
Denying touch is like displaying your royal power.
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How important to you is the human touch? Well, studies
show that it is very important. Believe it or not, it helps
boost one's immune system and is also a major aid in the
healing process.
When under distress, just a loving hand can calm that
person down. When ill, that person will recover or if the
illness is terminal, the quality of life will be better for them
because you showed them love and support. Who knows,
you may extend their length of days. If anyone needs the
human touch, it's one who is ill or vulnerable
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http://keepthemhome.blogspot.com/2007/03/humantouch-so-important.html
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Is the power of touch really important?
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Do you think touching is a great part of
letting someone know you care, love,
respect, or appreciate them? Why or
why not?
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How did you feel about this chapter?
Did you learn anything significant?
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How would you feel if you were lost in
translation? Would you ask for help?
In this chapter…
 Arteaga mentions how he took a trip in
which he went to London to Paris to
Barcelona then back to Paris and
London.
 He talks about being lost in translation.
 Not only because of language barriers
can have someone lost in translation so
can poetry and jokes.
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Arteaga explains how he avoided dead bodies all though
out his teenage years and felt communicating with them
was virtually impossible.
To avoid being sent to the Vietnam War he went to college
and to pay for college he worked his sophomore year at
the LA County Coroner’s Office.
He took care of paper work
He witnessed a lot of dead bodies daily walking between
his office and the storage room.
He confessed his fear to fellow student worker Chas T.
Chas T. led him to a dead body of a tall woman Arteaga
explains to be “the color of Caucasian flesh transformed to
a purple mahogany thing.”
Arteaga expresses that he was upset with his fellow
classmate and it was a sound beginning for a friendship.
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If you confided in a friend and tell them
you’re afraid of something, then shortly
after show you the thing you told them
you’re afraid of would you consider that
to be “a sound beginning for a
friendship”?
In this chapter…
 Arteaga believed talking with dead bodies was
impossible the only thing possible was touching them.
 He mentions “… My struggles to remain on the level
with life in the house of the dead had been marked,
over and again, by signs of the dead”
 He refers this to the sign X like X marks the spot.
 He explains that his friend Chass did not take interest
in hippie chicks but Lewis a Jewish artist from Berkley
did, so they began to hang out with three “white
hippie chicks”, Lewis more than Arteaga
 He liked them until they decided to carve X’s in there
forehead which was when Arteaga lost interest and
Lewis fell in love.
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Arteaga then talks about how even after an autopsy at
the Coroner’s office they still take care of small remains in
jars and words of what happened to the body on paper.
By the end of the summer, he explained, he had seen so
many signs of the dead “which had, for no clear reason,
entwined words with bits of flesh.
At the end of this chapter Arteaga talked about Oscar
Zeta Acosta, the author of The revolt of the Cockroach
People, and how he witnessed the death of Ruben Salazar
and had to run the autopsy report on him. He said he
witness the death because they were both Journalist.
At the time Arteaga said he was down the street being
chased by the police as they were shooting tear gas
canisters.
Arteaga recorded the death by saying “Projectile wound
of the left temple area causing massive injury to the brain.
In this chapter…
 the chapter opens up with Arteaga pulling up to his
drive way as Junior, half Chicano boy who lived next
door with his deaf parents, told him the police had his
daughter at gun point down the street.
 He explains that it was because of articles printed
about Chicanos interactions with the police, though
none of them were written by him.
 He stated because he lost faith so long ago with
fighting the police with battles he was sure he was
going to loss anyway, if he would not have lost faith
he would of lost his daughter.
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If you seen a loved one at gun point
what would be your immediate
reaction?
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Chapter 16 faith was about the author facing
violence. It was very short but the highlight
event was when Arteaga fights back and hits a
girl. It is admirable that he had the courage to
hit a girl. The reason is that not everyone will
actually attempt what he did. The chapter
ending made me laugh and reminded me that
sometimes violence is the only answer to some
situations. Deep inside I felt that sometimes
certain people need to be beaten up or hit so
that they can stop there unwanted behavior. I
actually enjoyed reading this chapter and the
book is getting easier to fallow threw.