...McFarland This past weekend a movie was released that focuses on Mexican American students in high school during 1987and that movie is called McFarland USA. Set in the dusty San Joaquin Valley of California, “McFarland, USA” brings to light a world of underdogs and misfits in a racially segregated, predominantly Hispanic town. Jim White, played by a grumpy yet endearing Kevin Costner, shines in his role as a misunderstood teacher and parent who has suffered through failure time and time again. He ends up in McFarland, a poor farming community north of Bakersfield, Calif., where the high school principal reminds him he is running out of options. White takes the job as physical education teacher and assistant football coach. His wife (Maria Bello) and two daughters reluctantly join him in moving into a modest McFarland bungalow whose previous occupant has left a Virgin of Guadalupe mural on an interior wall (Kenneth Turan LA Times). The Whites' neighbor at their new home offers them a housewarming gift—a chicken. White quickly clashes with the head football coach and loses his assistant coaching slot. During a gym class, his students (all Latino, seemingly all of Mexican heritage) are less than motivated. But when White gets them to finally run some laps, he notices that a few of the boys are pretty speedy. California's high school sports governing body has just created the state's first cross-country championship. White thinks McFarland could form a team. All it takes is...
Words: 699 - Pages: 3
...authentic Mexican restaurant located in the small town of Greenwood, population of just under 9,000 people. Opened and owned by Able Gonzales since 1995, it has become a very popular eatery in the town. As with most restaurants, La Fiesta has peak times around lunch and dinner that are much busier than the rest of the day. This causes scheduling challenges for cooks and wait staff. Another challenged faced, although a somewhat positive one, is the lack of parking space during the peak hours. Also, the bottleneck around customers paying out could be eased with some change in procedures or additional equipment. The marketing plan was developed based off a SWOT analysis and focuses on continued growth and customer relations. La Fiesta can gain visibility in the community by being more involved with the school district and expanding into social networking. Another focus of the plan is the efficiency of customer service and ease of congestion inside and outside of the restaurant. Better communication between wait staff and customers is also addressed. Since La Fiesta is a restaurant, it is considered a business-to-customer marketer. II. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS Open since 1995, La Fiesta has made a strong presence in the town of Greenwood. It was established after another authentic Mexican restaurant had already been opened and performing well. It seems Greenwood’s booming population is easily supporting both restaurants as demand for Mexican food...
Words: 4096 - Pages: 17
...to the court house with his followers they went there to free prisoners that were imprisoned for standing up in what they believed in which was the land grant. In doing so a gun battle broke out come to find out that the prisoners weren’t even there and neither was the district attorney, who they were going for initially. Their land had been taken away and given to farmers, ranchers, and other Santana 2 settlers. The government did this to be a sort of buffer against Indian tribes(Corriea). In the end, they were unsuccessful in getting the land back. They may have not have gotten the land back, but they opened many people’s eyes as to what was happening and the movement began to grow. The second part of the movement was farm labor. Mexican American or Mexican’s would be working the fields and would be underplayed tremendously and be treated terrible. They would have to work in hot conditions, no shade, no restrooms, and even no water provided. The worst part about was if somebody said something they would be fired or if the growers didn’t want to pay some would even go to extremes and call immigration. It was no big deal to them because they knew they could replace the workers quick. All this was happening until a group of workers called the United Farm Workers they were founded in 1962. As of 1994 United Farm Workers has signed 10,000 new members and won seven union elections(Times). This group main objective was to higher pay for the workers as well as human rights such...
Words: 1249 - Pages: 5
...played and there are not many Mexicans in general. We had one Tex-Mex restaurant, and it wasn’t even good. It wasn’t until my college writing class took a field trip to a local Mexican food trailer, that I truly experienced the fusion between Mexico and the United States through food. On the other hand, I do not have a lot of experience with Mexican food, so this topic is kind of new to me. I play baseball, so I am immediately attracted to the soccer aspect of both cultures because of the competition and how a sport can bring two nations together. Its interesting how cultural fusion can blend two different countries together as one. Mexican cuisine and soccer fuse the cultures of the United States and Mexico in ways that have made both countries into what they are today because of the increase of cultural fusion. One way cultural fusion is expressed and elaborated on through cuisine is shown in Patricia Sharpe’s article “Let’s Have Mex-Tex.” She communicates the change over the years from Tex-Mex to “Mex-Tex.” This article focuses on how the “Mex-Tex” food is increasing in Texas and allows the reader to be informed of good restaurants with such origins. On the official Texas Monthly website she states that Mexican food from the heart of Mexico is the start of “the new culinary era.” Sharpe believes this phenomenon is the better route for Mexican food and it brings back the original Mexican culture. The article outlines the top five real Mexican restaurants, including Fonda San...
Words: 1581 - Pages: 7
...Hooliganism among Sport Spectators The term hooliganism is not new to anyone who has been keeping in touch with world news, especially concerning sports. The behavior of hooliganism is one that has been existent for a long time, and is very prevalent in the contemporary world. Football matches for instance have always been marred by such developments where the spectators have turned against rival spectators. In this case, the rival spectators are identified as those supporting a rival team. The violence against different team supporters have usually led to the destruction of property, injuries and in some unfortunate events, it has resulted to the loss of lives. These are issues that the world is currently facing. The entire universe has in one way or another experienced such developments especially among the sport spectators. The emergence of football as one of the most watched and supported sport has put it at the very center of hooligan activities. Many hooliganism cases reported today are from soccer matches, where fans find it hard to accept defeat. The fact that so many people today closely follow the sport has made it prominent, with an almost cult-like fan following. The football fans have grown enthusiastic of the sport in such a way that the loss of a match touches a very sensitive nerve among these fans, an aspect that results to anger. The embarrassment caused is usually almost personal among these spectators; hence the slightest trigger to violence leads...
Words: 4586 - Pages: 19
...This Person in Sports: Casey Wasserman Casey Wasserman, grandson to Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman, grew up with an entrepreneurial spirit and a knack for business like his grandfather. After graduating from UCLA with a Political Science degree, Wasserman got into the world of investment banking and realized it was not for him. At age 25, he became the youngest person to ever own a professional sports team when he purchased the LA Avengers of the Arena Football League. Helping to negotiate the AFL’s national TV partnership with NBC, as well as playing an integral part in the collective bargaining agreement with the players, Wasserman was later elected chairman of the league. His love of football, despite the termination of the LA Avengers in 2009, has not faded. Wasserman is currently working with LA Live and the Staples Center to build a $1 billion dollar stadium, which he hopes will be the new home of an NFL franchise in Los Angeles. Alongside his work with the AFL, Wasserman simultaneously founded Wasserman Media Group (WMG), which encompasses athlete management, corporate consulting, media rights and partnerships; he remains Chairman and CEO. Competing with some of the world’s largest talent management agencies, WMG has an extensive clientele (over 1,200 clients and close to $3 Billion in sponsorships) in all of the major sports, action sports, and the Olympic games. Big deals done by WMG include the naming rights agreement on the recently built Met Life Stadium in New...
Words: 335 - Pages: 2
...picture) is a place where diversity can exist, and nobody questions it. Individuals come to meet friends, family, even strangers to become one fan base for their favorite team. No matter what differences these people have, they still manage to bond because of this one similarity. Everyone cheers for the same team, unless you’re in the wrong section of seats. This group, and any other large group of fans, represents a melting pot of people with different ethnicities, sexes, cultures, and/or religions. This picture of Duke fans gave me an appreciation for my hometown and the fact that so many of my friends and I love sports. It reminded me of the connection people feel when they are together, as one, cheering. Going to the baseball stadium, football dome, or ice rink, with my friends helped me grow closer to them. Through the excitement of everyone in the picture, the unity of school colors on each individual, and the diversity of sex and race, it can be determined that Duke's basketball team serves as some kind of social captivator for Duke fans, who are together watching the game. This picture shows the excitement of some people cheering on their school's basketball team. Everyone seems happy and excited. The body paint is an interesting concept. The color of someone’s skin tends to disconnect people sometimes. I think the younger generations are better at not being prejudice towards other races, but it still exists. This prejudice might...
Words: 1144 - Pages: 5
...HISTORY OF FOOTBALL. We all know many kinds of sports. Some people were taught how to play different type of sports during their early age. One of the sports is football. It is a very well-known sport. Football is also known as ‘soccer’ in the United States of America. Nearly all the males in the world play the game of football and if not, they just have a huge interest in football but do they actually know the history of the game of football and how it was first established? It is widely accepted that both the Romans and the Greeks started the sport of football which tells us that its origins are believed to lie in ancient times. During the Roman Empire, football wasn’t involved in the ancient Olympic due to the fact that football that time was just a test of bravery to the Roman Army as actions such as punching, hacking and generally assaulting the opponent were highly accepted as part of the game. Football during that time appears to have resembled rugby. Football was also mentioned in a compiled documents found in China which was from the 1st century BC. It describes a practice called cuju which means “kicking ball” in Chinese. Cuju was originally involved kicking a leather ball into a mini hole hung 9 meters above ground with the help of bamboo sticks. Rules were established then on the 2nd century BC and eventually, the game of of cuju spread to Japan as well as to Korea and the name of the sport has changed to Kemari respectively. However the sport appears to have...
Words: 546 - Pages: 3
...Blake Feldmann Orlet English 101-OL01D 16 June 2010 Types of Sports Fans Professional sports has become one of the most popular industries in the world today. The media spends billions of dollars on advertisements and teams spend millions of dollars on professional athletes all for one reason, the fans. The fans ticket sales and merchandise purchases are what keeps all the sport teams around and prevents professional athletes from losing their jobs. There are three types of fans in the sports world, average fans, fanatics, and fair-weather fans. Fans that are fanatics are the ones who are diehard and will put their favorite team before almost all other priorities. Their lives revolve around their favorite team and they will do anything for their team. Fans who are like this go to every sporting event possible that their favorite team is in and many are season ticket holders. Fanatics are usually not much fun to sit by at games because they get easily irritated or believe they know more about the game than everyone else. If they are not at the game, you can usually find them watching the game somewhere else on TV. People who are fanatics also spend much of their free time researching their team and will know almost every aspect of every player on their team as well as their opponents so they know how they match up with the other teams. No matter how bad the season is going for their favorite team, fanatics will always stick with them and will continue to go to the games...
Words: 760 - Pages: 4
...Should college Athletes be able to leave after their first season? AG: Many of us in this room, including myself either watch college sports or have a college that the cheer for, but what if that star player never came to that school because they weren’t required to? ID: Today I want to talk about the pros and the cons of athletes being able to leave after their first season. Ethos: Doing research about this topic has lead me to the conclusion that there are a lot of pros but also very many cons of leaving early. Preview: Today I will be telling you the pros and the cons of leaving early and if I think they should leave early. I would like to talk about the pros about leaving college first. It allows great athletes the ability to earn a living faster and provide for their families. They could but a lot of that money in the bank and start to save money for when they retire. The second pro is that it prevents an injury to occur in college, many college athletes feel that if they stay in college they could get injured and put their professional career at risk. If they decided to leave early, they will get paid great money and benefits. Lastly they would be able to save money and go and get a degree if they wanted because they have the money now. Now looking at the cons of leaving college early. If the student athlete doesn’t stay in college they won’t secure their future. For those fortunate enough to be an elite in their sport, receiving a degree is a good way to insure...
Words: 504 - Pages: 3
... The NCAA makes six billion dollars annually and the players who risk getting hurt every second of playing time don’t see a dime of this amount. For example, Louisville's, Kevin Ware suffered from a broken leg, and yet he will still want to compete even though he is not being payed for his time. Many players play for the competition and to strive to complete their dreams of going pro. But, what some don't understand is that they risk their physical health every second they’re on that court/field. If you think that college players should be paid then you’re not alone because the amount of money the NCAA is making they should have enough to give a fair share to each college athlete. After all, these athletes bring in all the money, plus the crowd that surrounds the teams while competing. Even though some think it's a waste of money and time to debate, I believe that since they’re prepping to go pro they should get paid a small sum to get them ready for the workload and money that they will both receive and put into their career. What I’m trying to say is that I think they should be paid a little so they know to handle the money and what to invest it in, this could be used in an educational means in the terms of a practical situation from a financial class standpoint allowing them to be more financially prepared for the pro world. After all, the average retail worker will be scheduled to work during the week and sometimes the weekend 8-5. Overall, they work 40 hours, so does the...
Words: 470 - Pages: 2
...Sports Another way of seeing it is to consider sports teams. In any set of categories, there will be teams that rate highly at some things and poorly at others. Chances are, the teams that lead in the standings will not show such disparity but will perform well in most categories. The lower the standard deviation of their ratings in each category, the more balanced and consistent they will tend to be. Teams with a higher standard deviation, however, will be more unpredictable. For example, a team that is consistently bad in most categories will have a low standard deviation. A team that is consistently good in most categories will also have a low standard deviation. However, a team with a high standard deviation might be the type of team that...
Words: 254 - Pages: 2
...Pro athletes play games all the time from football to basketball but many athletes have a problem with how much they should get paid. In my opinion, I believe that they should get paid a good bit of money. I believe this because, they work hard there whole life at that one thing to have success in life. They are almost the same as actors, and they try hard to get there. So lets give them credit for what they do and who they are. Pro athletes work hard their whole life to become famous and accomplish there dreams. That means they play sports their whole life to be super successful and likely work hard in school too. So basically they try hard and meet their goal through doing things that they like to such as school work and long days of practice, but if they want to be a pro they have to try very hard to get there. All them goals, achievements, and successful things they do should afford them a desired salary. In my research, the players get paid based on the sport they play and what I mean by that is they get paid a different amount of money for each sport which shows some work harder than others but they all work hard in my opinion. So basically, they all work hard during all parts of life to make it there. These...
Words: 665 - Pages: 3
...In my hometown there are a lot of people that are well known around town for various reasons. We have people that are just locally famous because of their wild personality or strong family ties within the town. Then there are those who are known for their athletic accomplishments. Jadeveon Clowney and my older cousin are those two types of people. No matter where you go in the town someone will know one of the two. Jadeveon Clowney and my cousin both have similar traits and backgrounds. They are both well known around the town for their personalities and the part of town that they both grew up in. Both also have very well known family ties within their community and all around town. It would be very hard to go somewhere and someone...
Words: 426 - Pages: 2
...Should Student Athletes Be Paid? Student Athletes spend countless hours perfecting their craft. In the article “Should Athletes Be Paid,” both Joe Nocera and Bob Williams have very different opinions. Even though athletes work very hard, student athletes should not be paid because they could draw themselves away from school, and they receive scholarships to pay for their education. Student Athletes spend hours of time and effort to become good at what they do. Countless hours, days, even weeks build up to make them as good as they are. The better the athlete the more money they bring into the school. It is known in many male sports that, “Men’s basketball and football are their to bring for the school,” (Nocera 22). The better the athlete is, the more support, money, and curiosity it will...
Words: 505 - Pages: 3