About Me:
(Photo by Archbishop McCarthy High School/ CC BY 4.0)
Adriana Herrera is an Honors college student at Florida International University double majoring in Criminal Justice and Psychology. She is Cuban, and she is passionate about creating change. As an aspiring attorney she plans on attending law school upon graduation from Florida International University.
Adriana Herrera: Encounter as Text – January 27, 2023
Vizcaya Museum & Gardens (Photo by Adriana Herrera/CC BY 4.0)
Hi everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their first official day of class. Above I inserted a photo me at Vizcaya! It was so beautiful and I enjoyed seeing all of the artwork and the different rooms. I joined this class because I have not really traveled much in my life and I have always wanted to visit Italia. Throughout my college career I have always heard students mentioning Study Abroad and saying that it is a great experience and opportunity and because of that I became interested in taking part in Study Abroad. Now that I am a senior here at Florida International University I thought it was the perfect time and opportunity for me to join Italia Study Abroad when I heard of it so I went to the info session and here I’m am. I am very excited to be here yet very nervous about traveling to Italia because I have never been there before. I have never taken a flight that was longer than four hours so it will definitely be something new for me but that makes it very exciting! I am Catholic and I do not know much about Italia besides the fact that Catholicism is huge in Italia so I am eager to learn more about Italia while we are there.
When I think of Italia I think of Catholicism and amazing artwork. My expectations of this program are to learn much more about Italia and to really learn more about myself. I believe that this trip will really push me out of my comfort zone and I am looking forward to seeing my growth when the program is over. I live at home so I am usually not far from my mom and dad so it will definitely be hard for them as well to have me gone for so long. However I believe that leaving home to go on a trip like this is one of the best things you can do to grow and to truly learn more about yourself. Often times we have so much going on in our day to day lives that we do not stop for a minute to appreciate everything around us and its beauty. This trip is going to be a great time for us to live in the present. I believe that a sense of community is very important to have and I know that during this trip our class will become its own little community and I am really looking forward to that.
I am definitely looking forward to visiting Rome. The sites I am most looking forward to visiting when we are in Italia are the Vatican, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, and the Roman Forum. I am also beyond excited to try gelato in Italia. These are places that I have really only seen on TV or heard of but seeing them and experiencing them in person is going to be fascinating. I am also really looking forward to staying in Cinque Terre because it looks absolutely stunning.
Adriana Herrera: Ancient Rome as Text – February 12, 2023
Photo by Pixnio Free to use CC0 Italy, Rome, architecture, theater, amphitheater, stadium, colosseum, structure
As we discussed in class, there are many aspects of the United States such as our government and our structures that were influenced by Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome has had a huge impact on our government, our structures, our art, our food, our religion, our law, and so much more. The oval stadiums that we have today where football and sports games take place came from an idea that Romans back in the day developed. Our oval stadiums today are shaped identically to the way the Colosseum in Rome is shaped. The structure of many of our buildings today such as the White House were influenced by the structures of the buildings in Ancient Rome. One of our most popular foods, pasta, was a food that originally came from Rome and influenced the United States. Many Roman ideas such as the separation of powers came from Ancient Romans and influenced the United States of America and then those ideas were placed into our constitution, the United States Constitution. Our government, similar to the Roman government, has a tripartite system. Our government has checks and balances the same way that the Romans had the veto to make sure that one branch of government does not hold too much power. So many things that we have today were influenced by Ancient Romans.
Symbols such as the eagle and the fasces also made their way to America and they can be seen all around in places such as the US capitol. The fasces and the eagle are originally Roman symbols. When Americans began to use the eagle symbol they named it “the American bald eagle”. These symbols originally came from Ancient Rome and then Americans began to use them and placed them everywhere. When discussing religion, Romans were and still are very religious and as we know Catholicism is huge in Rome. I am Catholic and I am excited to see all of the churches and the Vatican when we travel to Rome. In my opinion Romans are more religious than Americans are because religion is so huge in Rome. To touch on art, the art of Ancient Rome displayed a lot of nudity and in America our art does not. Many people believe that this is because we are more shameful when it comes to displaying nudity whereas in Ancient Rome it was admired. Romans had standards of beauty, they admired a pale complexion and they appreciated natural beauty whereas in America today many people do not appreciate natural beauty.
I feel that Ancient Rome contributed a lot to the United States. Romans came up with many great ideas that Americans now use today. I did not prefer the ways of life from Ancient Rome because I do not like the fact that they owned slaves and the way they treated women. When our class watched the show Rome on HBO, there were many parts of the show where women were belittled and they served in the traditional role of a wife whereas I feel that nowadays in our world women do not have to serve in traditional roles instead they can be the ones earning the money. In the show we saw how the Romans lived surrounded by servants and slaves. I would not want to live that way.
Historic Miami – February 26, 2023
(Photo by Adriana Herrera/CC BY 4.0)
When our class visited the Government center, it was intriguing to see all that surrounded us. The food, the art, the people, it was all so Miami. We could see the chickens and drink our cafecitos and smell the food and everything truly represented Miami culture. Being someone that was born in Miami and has lived here their whole life, I had never been to the Government center until our class went and I was truly surprised at how much of Miami I had not seen. It was deeply saddening to see how many people are living on the streets of Miami. It was definitely eye opening seeing how many people are struggling, we don’t see people struggling living on the streets often due to the areas we live in but it is important that we acknowledge how lucky we are that we have a place to come home to and that we are heathy. Seeing all of the art and history around me it felt as if I was in a new city that I had never been to before. My favorite parts were seeing the dropped bowl with scattered slices and peels artwork, seeing the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, taking the metro for the first time, and learning about the William Wagner’s family home. The dropped bowl artwork really caught my eye because it really does exemplify Miami. Miami is a city that is constantly changing and evolving and coming together and breaking apart all at once. Miami has modernized so much and through all this change we can see the disorder of Miami and this is exactly what the art portrays. I also loved the color of the art and the orange. I truly enjoyed visiting and seeing the Miami-Dade County Courthouse as well because it is so significant in the history of Miami and one of my biggest aspirations has always been to become an attorney in the future and seeing the courthouse for the first time in person was a surreal feeling. The courthouse’s architecture really stands out as we don’t see many buildings built this way.
Miami Dade County Courthouse (Photo by Adriana Herrera/CC BY 4.0)
I saw so many places and things on our class trip to the Government Center that I had never seen before in my life and it was a truly great experience. Learning about William Wagner’s family’s home was also very interesting. It was sad to learn that William Wagner and his wife Eveline Aimar’s children faced discrimination due to being of mixed race. Sadly in many schools this is still happening today even though it has been hundreds and hundreds of years, interracial couples and their children are still facing discrimination. It is incredible to learn about their resilience and their persistence to stay in Miami and form their home here. Now their home is the oldest home in all of Miami-Dade which is incredible. I also learned something else that I did not know before, that the Dade in Miami-Dade came from Major Dade, it still doesn’t make sense to me as to why Miami-Dade would be named after a major that led his troops into a trap but I guess that’s a question for another day…
Italia America as Text – March 12, 2023
Beauty –
When we talk about Rome and its beauty, it’s important to mention what Romans found beautiful. They admired pale skin and considered it beautiful. They considered pale skin to be the most beautiful feature of a woman. Many of the wealthy Roman women wore makeup and had the help of slaves to make themselves look beautiful. If a Roman woman had pale skin, not only did the people see her as beautiful but they also considered her to be of a higher social status because that meant that she was able to stay home and had slaves to take care of her work. Whereas a woman that did not have that pale skin was not seen as beautiful. Wealthy Roman women truly cared about their appearance and how others saw them, they liked to appear slim with a small waist, have small breasts, nice lips, and rosy cheeks. Rome has greatly influenced the way Americans look at beauty because many American women feel that they must live up to this standard of beauty that the Romans came up with. Many women in America feel the need to be slim but robust. Romans created this ideal of beauty that Americans felt the need to be as well.
We are like a herd of lost sheep that looks to see what everyone else is doing to follow in their footsteps, when we see that others consider something as simple as a body type beautiful we feel it must be our idea of beauty as well. This is why a lot of women face issues in our country such as body dysmorphia meaning they don’t feel beautiful in the body that they have/were born with and this has led to many other problems such as eating disorders and mental health issues. It has become a worldwide problem. Many women spend their whole lives wishing they looked slimmer, healthier, younger, etc. When the truth is that there is always going to be someone that looks slimmer, healthier, and younger than you. Romans considered certain features/aspects of a woman to be beautiful but that does not mean that we must have those features to be beautiful. Roman women also had their hairstyles that they used to express themselves and to demonstrate their role in society. They used their hair and their hairstyles to show how wealthy they were. They had the help of slaves and as I mentioned earlier they took their time getting ready as they really cared about their appearance because they used their appearance to show others how powerful and wealthy they were. We tend to do this today too, wealthy people will often dress wearing designer clothes to show off their wealth. We see this happening all of the time, when wealthy people in our society will buy a basic designer shirt just to show off to others that they are wearing a name brand. This shows us how we are just like the Romans were, we care what people think of us and how we appear to others.
Photo by Pixabay Image by Bob Bello from Pixabay
Vizcaya as Text – March 19, 2023
This was the second time that I went to Vizcaya. Vizcaya is one of those hidden gems that not many people know about. The beauty in each room and the story behind each piece of art is fascinating. The first time I went to Vizcaya I went with my best friend and we loved how beautiful everything was although we had no idea of the history behind any of it. This time was different, as a class we got to learn about the meaning and history behind every part of Vizcaya and it was definitely interesting. My favorite room of the house was the library, it was fun and intriguing. It was so funny to me that the bookshelves were actually a secret door and did not have actual books. I think this room really caught my eye because of everything that was going on. First was the large painting of the children when James Deering did not have any children. I also liked the fact that the library was kind of hidden. The room felt quite cramped and chaotic and that made it stand out to me compared to the rest of the house that was very bright and calm.
This room demonstrated that appearance isn’t everything, what looked like a bookshelf was actually a secret door. Not everything is as it seems, I feel like this connects with our world a lot especially with the social media use in our society nowadays. Back then they did not use social media but yet the appearance of things was seen as more important than the reality of things, we see the same thing happening today except that now social media is everywhere. On social media many people post the greatest parts of their lives and others seeing it begin to believe that others are living better lives than they are and this leads to depression, comparison, and a whole ton of other issues. Yet, the reality is that the people that post the best parts of their lives also go through hard times but do not post those things. Hence, life may look better on the other side but is it actually?
The truth is that people don’t like to show the rough parts of their lives, instead they like to keep it hidden, kind of like the secret door. People don’t like to be perceived as “weak” or “fragile” and they believe that if they share their hard times with others then people will perceive them as such. When in reality we all go through hard times and if we would all acknowledge that then maybe we would build a stronger community. As we saw in Vizcaya, appearance is everything. Every room was set up with different things standing out. For example, we have the reception room with the ceiling from Venice. We have the living room with the Admiral carpet and the Hercules Tapestry with the lion. We have the court/patio with all of the palm trees, and so much more of the home that I have not mentioned. This home’s appearance cannot be compared with anything we’ve ever seen.
Photo of Adriana Herrera at Vizcaya in 2021 (CC BY 4.0)
The Reception Room at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens (Photo by Adriana Herrera/CC BY 4.0)
Deering as Text – March 29, 2023
When we walked around the Deering Estate it was intriguing and beautiful to see all of the artwork and structure that surrounded us. The Stone House was absolutely beautiful. Every inch of the room had detail. I found it interesting that Charles Deering had the cooking done in the Richmond Cottage because he didn’t want fire anywhere near the artwork in the Stone House. One of my favorite spots at the Deering Estate was the hidden wine cellar. I found it very intriguing that all of the bottles in the cellar were hidden there during the Prohibition Era and the fact that after all of these years these vintage bottles are still there. Below I included a picture I took of the many bottles that were inside of the wine cellar.
It was sad to learn that many of the workers, African Americans and Afro-Bahamians, built the Deering Estate under terrible working conditions where they were injured or killed. We can see their handwork all over the Deering Estate however there is not one part of the Deering Estate that credits them for their work or gives them recognition for their help. Their handwork was interesting and different than anything I’ve ever seen. As pictured below one of the columns has a drawing of what looks like a snake engraved in it. Truthfully it is shocking to see how much about Miami that we do not learn about in our schooling system. I had no idea that the Deering Estate was even a place here in Miami and there is so much history behind the Deering Estate. There are so many historical landmarks and places that we do not learn about in school growing up that we should. Sadly most of us were born here in Miami but do not know much about the real Miami because our schools do not teach us about it. The Deering Estate is definitely a hidden gem, it is a great piece of history. The Deering Estate was the home of Charles Deering from 1922 to 1927, it is now considered a historical landmark and people pay to visit it every day. After doing more research on the Deering Estate myself I found that they actually do tours and host many events such as kayaking at the Deering Estate, it even serves as a wedding venue!
I was fascinated by the Deering Estate and all of the history behind it. It was super interesting seeing the shells from the Tequesta on our tour and seeing the sinkhole at the Charles Deering Estate Park. It was also fascinating learning that the Richmond Cottage served as a hotel back in the day. Not only was the estate huge but the land wow! There was so much land! There was so much to see and learn about. I also thoroughly enjoyed being able to see the manatees at the boat basin on Biscayne Bay. I hope to continue to learn about more historical landmarks in Miami in our future meetings to come because it is amazing getting to know the history of Miami.
Column at the Deering Estate (Photo by Adriana Herrera/CC BY 4.0)
Wine Cellar at the Deering Estate (Photo by Adriana Herrera/CC BY 4.0)
Renaissance as Text – April 7, 2023
The Renaissance was a great period in art history. It changed the way we think and changed so much about the world around us. The Renaissance led to many new discoveries, some of which were in travel, science, and other areas. The Renaissance has influenced our society greatly because our way of thinking was changed drastically by the Renaissance. The Renaissance changed the way we look at art and education as well. We still admire many of the artists from the Renaissance today such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, and Brunelleschi. These artists and brilliant minds have had a tremendous influence on our culture. Below I attached an image of the Mona Lisa, one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci. Literature was also very important during the Renaissance period. The Renaissance is one of the most fascinating periods of history. My life has been influenced by the Renaissance because without the Renaissance period many of the things in my life/our society would not be the same. The new discoveries in travel, science, art, education and the new ideas that were a result of the Renaissance have influenced modern society greatly therefore they have influenced me and my life as well. As a Psychology major, my major was greatly influenced by the Renaissance as well because “The Renaissance revived interest in individual personality, setting the stage for the emergence of psychology in the seventeenth century. Then psychology became socially important in the eighteenth century and in the nineteenth century became a science” (Psychology during Renaissance and Enlightenment).
The parts of the Renaissance that I like include but are not limited to the fact that there were many inventions made during the Renaissance so it made the lives of people easier. I like how there were so many great minds and artists that came to light during the Renaissance that really made an influence on our culture. I like how art was such a big thing during the Renaissance and how it shaped our culture. I find the Renaissance period very fascinating and those were the parts of the Renaissance that I liked. The parts of the Renaissance that I did not like/reject were the fact that there were foreign attacks during the Renaissance such as the attacks from the pirates of North Africa. I also did not like the fact that people that were considered poor could not get an education because they could not afford it. I did not like the fact that slavery started up again during the Renaissance after it had finally been coming to an end. During the Renaissance women did not have the rights they do now, in fact women at the time of the Renaissance were under the power of men, I reject that part of the Renaissance. Lastly, I did not like the violence and war that occurred during the Renaissance, for example the violence and massacres caused by the Ottomans. Those were the parts of the Renaissance that I did not like/I reject.
Image by Pixabay – Free to Use CC0
Departure as Text
After going back and reading my Italia Spring Encounter as Text and asking myself the same questions, I came to the realization that some things have changed for me since then but some things have stayed the same. I am still nervous to go to Italia but extremely excited as growing up I did not travel much. My parents were never big fans of planes, so this will be the longest I am traveling for and the longest I will be away from home. I now know much more about Italia since the beginning of this class, however I know that there is still so much more for me to learn when we are in Italia. Throughout this class I have been able to learn about the art in Italia, the structures, and the literature. The books that we have read for class such as The Prince, Dante’s Inferno, etc. I had never heard of before taking this class and I would have most likely never read these important literary works if it was not for this class. Throughout this class I have also learned so much about the culture of Ancient Romans, especially when we watched the HBO show “Rome”. Watching this show for this class really gave me an idea of what the lifestyle of Ancient Romans was like, how they dressed, what they ate, who they respected, how they treated each other, and much more. I also really enjoyed the opportunity we had to learn about places here in Miami as well. Most of the places we visited such as the Rubell Museum and the Deering Estate I had never heard of before. I am glad we had the opportunity to visit them.
When I think of Italia the image that pops up in my mind is all of the beautiful art and places to visit such as the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Amalfi Coast, and the Pantheon. All of these places that we will soon visit! These places hold so much history that I cannot wait to learn about. Once we are in Rome I feel like we will really be able to take it all in. Because this is my first time traveling to Italia and Europe in general, I am beyond excited for everything I am going to see and experience, one of them being eating gelato of course! I cannot wait for this experience because I know it will be one to truly remember. As the Spring semester is coming to an end, I am thankful for all that I have learned in this class and I am ready to take on this next adventure, Italia! Since the beginning of this Spring semester my expectations of the program have not changed. I am most looking forward to visiting the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Amalfi Coast, Venice, the Pantheon, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Cinque Terre, and so much more. I am most looking forward to visiting these places because they already look so beautiful in pictures. I cannot imagine what it is going to be like to see them in person! I am ready to take it all in.
Photo by Pixabay Free to use CC0 https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/03/03/16/12/village-279013_1280.jpg
Miami in Miami 
