House with the Blue Bed

1. House with the Blue Bed By Alfred Arteaga Pages 33-60

2. 9 flight 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.

3. 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 non-stop 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. Facts about Hummingbirds

4. 10 Fall • 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.

5. 10 Fall Continued • 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.

6. Discussion questions: • Would you have told the bartender his love was hit by the car, what Xochitl decided not to do? Why or why not? • 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?

7. 11 prince • 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.

8. About the “power of touch” • 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 • http://keepthemhome.blogspot.com/2007/03/human-touch-so-important.html

9. Discussion questions • Is the power of touch really important? • Do you think touching is a great part of letting someone know you care, love, respect, or appreciate them? Why or why not?

10. Discussion questions •  How did you feel about this chapter? Did you learn anything significant? • How would you feel if you were lost in translation? Would you ask for help?

11. 12 Carta • 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.

12. 13 the dead • 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.

13. Discussion Question • 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”?

14. 14 signs 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.

15. 14 signs continued • 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.

16. 15 Gun 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.

17. Discussion question • If you seen a loved one at gun point what would be your immediate reaction?

18. Chapter 16 • 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.