Annotations for Sounds: Background--natural Sounds--nature

La subida es dura. It's a steep climb, but after a few hours, the walking gets easier. The valleys and peaks of this beautiful, rocky Sierra spread out before you like a solid ocean suspended in time. This is a dry land, almost a desert, yet sometimes I'll find a tiny spring in a niche of a canyon wall. Or I'll happen upon a small shrine in a lonely valley. Almost every day, I'll come across a shepherd tending his flock or I'll hear the sounds of children and discover they are gathering wild herbs like oregano or rosa de castillo. Often, early in the morning, I'll see a woman or a man driving two or three burros loaded with mountain produce heading for a nearby town or city. I make it a point not to camp close to someone's home just out of respect and so as not to use up firewood that doesn't belong to me. Firewood is scarce around here. This day as I crested a hill, I spotted a ranchito, just a little two-room house, adobe walls with a flat roof.

Smoke was rising from the chimney. I was barely 300 yards from the ranchito and it would be dark soon. It was too late to move on. It was going to be a cold night and the only firewood I could find was already cut…tú sabes, for the rancho's wood stove. Ni modo. I used the firewood. I felt guilty, but warm that night. Anyway, I would make it up to them in the morning. After breakfast, as I was packing my things, the campesino from the ranchito showed up, a barrel-chested man with strong hands, a weathered face, and a scraggly beard. "Buenos días." I walked up to him and offered to pay for the wood. He brushed my words aside. "Mira, everything you see all around you is mine. Estás en tu casa. This is your home." To him, I was already his guest and my offer to pay was almost impolite. He reached into his bag and handed me a small bundle. "My wife packed this for you," he said. It was bread, goat cheese, and jamoncillo, a homemade candy made from fresh milk. We talked for a while.

[Background--Sounds--Nature] I'm Emilio San Pedro in Wynwood, a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood just north of downtown Miami, Florida. Here, reaction to President Clinton's performance was mixed.

What I drew my interest more in terms of this use of recipes and cooking and all of this, this presence of it, is really the issue that's been dealt with quite a bit by the feminists, which is female space.

Departing from the female space of a kitchen rather than departing from, say, the great Western adventure stories that were typically kind of the male stories of the traditional novel, and I think that female space is what really drew my attention in my first reading of the novel and my first viewing of the film.

[Background--natural sounds--crickets] La subida es dura. It's a steep climb, but after a few hours, the walking gets easier. The valleys and peaks of this beautiful rocky Sierra spread out before you like a solid ocean suspended in time. This is a dry land, almost a desert, yet sometimes I'll find a tiny spring in a niche of a canyon wall or I'll happen upon a small shrine in a lonely valley. Almost every day, I'll come across a shepherd tending his flock or I'll hear the sounds of children and discover they're gathering wild herbs like oregano or Rosa De Castilla.

[Background--natural sounds--birds chirping] Often, early in the morning, I'll see a woman or a man driving two or three burros loaded with mountain produce, heading for a nearby town or city. [Background--natural sounds--farm animals] I make it a point not to camp close to someone's home, just out of respect and so as not to use a firewood that doesn't belong to me. Firewood is scarce around here. This day, as I crested a hill, I spotted a ranchito, just a little two-room house, adobe walls with a flat roof. Smoke was rising from the chimney. I was barely 300 yards from the ranchito and it would be dark soon. [Background--natural sounds--crickets] It was too late to move on. It was going to be a cold night and the only firewood I could find was already cut, tu sabes. For the rancho's wood stove. Ni modo. I used the firewood. I felt guilty but warm that night. [Background--natural sounds--fire] Anyway, I would make it up to them in the morning. [Background--natural sounds--rooster]