{"id":48639,"date":"2020-01-16T13:00:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T21:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/?p=48639"},"modified":"2020-01-16T09:34:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T17:34:31","slug":"bilingual-commentary-the-latino-philosopher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/bilingual-commentary-the-latino-philosopher\/","title":{"rendered":"Bilingual commentary: The Latino Philosopher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0<\/strong>Amigos805 welcomes local guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.<\/em><\/p>\n

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David Magallanes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By David Magallanes \u2022 Guest contributor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, one of my sisters sent me an email that included a quote oozing with wisdom.\u00a0 It was attributed to a person with the name \u201cSeneca.\u201d\u00a0 I knew I\u2019d seen the name before, but I couldn\u2019t quite place it.\u00a0 Maybe it was the name of a Native American, I thought.\u00a0 Native American leaders had perspectives very different from that of white American settlers. Their sophisticated understanding of nature and humankind, forged in eons of astute observations, has reverberated through the centuries.<\/p>\n

But as it turns out, Seneca was not a Native American.\u00a0 He was an orator and philosopher who lived during the \u201cPax Romana,\u201d a period marked by relative stability and prosperity in the Roman Empire. \u00a0I\u2019m going to call him one of the original Latino philosophers.\u00a0 I dub him \u201cLatino\u201d because, after all, he wrote in Latin.\u00a0 Also, just like many of the ancestors of modern Mexican Americans, he was born in what is now Spain, though at the time it was known as Hispania, a Roman territory, which we now recognize as the Iberian Peninsula.\u00a0 Subsequently, he was raised in Rome during the time that Jesus Christ was alive, sowing the seeds of the modern Christian era in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Seneca\u2019s connection with Christianity, however, is tangential and unfortunate.\u00a0 He was a tutor and advisor for the infamous Roman emperor Nero, who took to persecuting Christians and Jews in the latter part of his reign, though not because of any influence from Seneca.<\/p>\n

Seneca\u2019s philosophy was based on the teachings of Stoicism, which could be summarized as the belief that everything is rooted in nature.\u00a0 The quote attributed to Seneca that my sister sent me was, \u201cFate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s think about this. \u00a0What was Seneca, this Latino philosopher, trying to teach us with these words?\u00a0 I\u2019m going to speculate that the message for us here is that fate \u201cleads\u201d us by presenting unexpected opportunities and granting us a unique blend of gifts.\u00a0 If we ignore those opportunities and make no use of our gifts, then life is going to be difficult.<\/p>\n

\u2014 David Magallanes is a retired college math educator.<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong>\u00a0Amigos805 welcomes comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to\u00a0frank@amigos805.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

El Fil\u00f3sofo Latino<\/h2>\n

Por David Magallanes \u2022 Columnista invitado<\/strong><\/p>\n

La semana pasada, una de mis hermanas me envi\u00f3 un correo electr\u00f3nico que inclu\u00eda una cita rebosante de sabidur\u00eda. Fue atribuida a una persona conocido como \u201cS\u00e9neca\u201d.\u00a0 Yo sab\u00eda que hab\u00eda visto el nombre antes, pero no pude ubicarlo. Tal vez era el nombre de un nativo americano, pens\u00e9. Los l\u00edderes nativos americanos ten\u00edan perspectivas muy diferentes a las de los colonos estadounidenses blancos. Su sofisticada comprensi\u00f3n de la naturaleza y la humanidad, forjada en siglos de astutas observaciones, ha reverberado a trav\u00e9s de los siglos.<\/p>\n

Pero resulta que S\u00e9neca no era un nativo americano. Fue un orador y fil\u00f3sofo que vivi\u00f3 durante la \u201cPax Romana\u201d, un per\u00edodo marcado por la relativa estabilidad y prosperidad en el Imperio Romano. Voy a denominarlo uno de los fil\u00f3sofos latinos originales. Lo llamo \u201clatino\u201d porque, al fin y al cabo, escribi\u00f3 en el idioma lat\u00edn. Adem\u00e1s, al igual que muchos de los antepasados ??de los mexicoamericanos modernos, naci\u00f3 en lo que ahora es Espa\u00f1a, aunque en ese momento era conocido como Hispania, un territorio romano, que ahora reconocemos como la Pen\u00ednsula Ib\u00e9rica. Posteriormente, fue criado en Roma durante el tiempo en que Jesucristo estaba vivo, sembrando las semillas de la era cristiana moderna en el Medio Oriente.<\/p>\n

Sin embargo, la conexi\u00f3n entre S\u00e9neca y el cristianismo es tangencial y desafortunada. Fue tutor y asesor del infame emperador romano Ner\u00f3n, quien se dedic\u00f3 a perseguir a cristianos y jud\u00edos en la \u00faltima parte de su reinado, aunque no debido a ninguna influencia de S\u00e9neca.<\/p>\n

La filosof\u00eda de S\u00e9neca se bas\u00f3 en las ense\u00f1anzas del estoicismo, que podr\u00eda resumirse como la creencia de que todo est\u00e1 arraigado en la naturaleza. La cita atribuida a S\u00e9neca que me envi\u00f3 mi hermana fue: \u201cEl destino conduce a los dispuestos y arrastra a los reacios\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meditemos sobre esto. \u00bfQu\u00e9 intentaba ense\u00f1arnos S\u00e9neca, este fil\u00f3sofo latino, con estas palabras? Voy a especular que el mensaje para nosotros es que el destino nos \u201cconduce\u201d al presentar oportunidades inesperadas y otorg\u00e1ndonos una combinaci\u00f3n \u00fanica de regalos. Si ignoramos esas oportunidades y si no nos aprovechamos de nuestros dones, entonces la vida ser\u00e1 dif\u00edcil.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013\u00a0<\/em>David Magallanes es un profesor de matem\u00e1ticas jubilado.<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong>\u00a0Amigos805 welcomes comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to\u00a0frank@amigos805.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0Amigos805 welcomes local guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. David Magallanes By David…<\/p>\n

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