The Americas - A Hemispheric History

After reading chapter one and excerpts from chapter two, The Americas: A Hemispheric History by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto turned out to be an in-depth descriptive history and unique perspective of how the Americas began.  The section named, "The Multiplication of Americas" in chapter one was most unique for me and triggered many questions and ideas.  "The United States is partly, importantly. composed of hyphenated identities; Americans there are no less American for being Italian-American or Irish-American or Polish-American, or, as they say in the English of America, 'whatever.'" (Fernandez-Armesto, 11) This sentence made me think about my own identity and how I consider myself Mexican-American.  Aside from being Mexican I am also half Spaniard, but have always considered myself just Mexican-American because I've heard the term used more often and frequently.  Living in the United States and being American doesn't mean losing your past identity.  I'm happy to read that America is home to the "hyphenated identities" because it demonstrates how individuals from other countries can come to America and live a better life, but never have to lose their roots.  No one is pure American, every individual has their own unique ethnic background and came from somewhere, even if they don't know.

In chapter two, "The Centers of Civilization" selection attracted me most.

 "The fields were sown with the triad of native American staples: maize, beans and squash." (Fernandez-Armesto, 36)

"Surviving examples show that before the conquest, these glyphs, written on deerskins or maguey paper, made of cactus pulp, were used for an impressive range of purposes." (Fernandez-Armesto, 40)

These two sentences were distinctive to me because it made me think about the past before everything was so easy.  The first sentence was about food and made me realize how many different foods there are and the background and countries they come from.  We may pick up a variety of fruits at our local grocery store, but imagine how many different countries they all came from. 

The second sentence reminded me of technology.  Today we are able to blog like I currently am and write papers on a computer and immediately print them out in less than 15 seconds.  Years ago people were so creative and did many impressive things by using their imagination, such as write on deerskin as a form of paper.  I am so dependant on technology that I would have never thought to write on deerskin if I had no paper, little things like this about how much life has changed really amazes and intrigues me.