For the last few weeks, my family and I have been planning a trip to Peru. My mother's side of the family is from Peru, and I have only been to visit them once, but it made a huge impression on me. I have been researching the art and mythology of Peru, and so this course is an interesting comparison. I got a taste of the style and architecture of the Toltec, and it made me think of what makes these cultures so unique and similar at the same time. The structures(especially in Cuzco) are very similar in their construction. The reading of the destruction by Cortes and his men made me think of the brutal destruction of the Incas. Wherever these men went, they brought death and tragedy.
As we are recalling places we have been and places we want to visit, Cuzco and the Amazon have come to mind. In a country that is being destroyed by pollution and poverty(80% unemployed!), it still contains some of the most amazingly exotic and beautiful areas in the world, and it's last strength is what has remained of ancient customs, and what has been preserved of it's natural side. This is the same with Mexico. It contains so much beauty, but so much sadness and desperation. It makes me wonder how these countries would be today had their spirit not been so cruelly crushed by invading forces.It angers me that they have been taken advantage and disregarded in the past, and that this has become a cycle.
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