Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, attends a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on

In this episode, the Common Core Diva Lynne Taylor and Tactical Civics Regional Coordinator Jeff Calhoun join me as we take a look at the multi-pronged plan of TC. This is a real, authentic way that

Zakk Wylde Pays Tribute in New Statement Following Ozzy's DeathFrederick M. Brown, Getty imagesWith the news of Ozzy Osbourne's death today (July 22) striking at the core of the rock and metal world, the singer's longtime solo guitarist Zakk Wylde has now joined in paying tribute with a statement on social media.Throughout the decades, Wylde has been overwhelmingly thankful and appreciative of...

Napoleon Bonaparte is considered one of the greatest military leaders in history. As a result of his operational and tactical prowess, he suffered only ten defeats of the 80 or so battles he fought in his career. The generals who defeated him on the field of battle were accordingly some of the most accomplished military leaders of the age in their own right.1. Archduke Charles of AustriaArchduke Charles of Austria, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1819. Source: Royal Collection TrustA member of the House of Habsburg, Archduke Charles of Austria was the younger brother of Emperor Francis I of Austria and one of the most talented Austrian generals of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In 1796, he scored notable successes against French generals Jourdan and Moreau in the Rhine theater. In early 1797 he was appointed to command the Austrian forces defeated by Bonaparte in Italy and led a skillful withdrawal towards Vienna.During the War of the Third Coalition in 1805, Archduke Charles commanded the main Austrian army in northern Italy. When it became clear that Napoleons main theater of operations was in southern Germany, Charles sought to withdraw his troops over the Alps but was continually harassed by Marshal Massna and did not arrive in time for the fateful encounter at Austerlitz.In 1806, Charles was appointed head of the Hofkriegsrat (Imperial War Council) and introduced reforms to improve the fighting efficiency of the Austrian army. Before these reforms were complete, Austria declared war on Napoleon in February 1809.Archduke Charles and his staff at the Battle of Aspern-Essling, by Johann Peter Krafft, 1820. Source: Wikimedia CommonsAlthough Charles had opposed the war, he commanded the Austrian army and scored some initial successes against Marshal Berthier, whom Napoleon had tasked with organizing the Army of Germany. After Napoleon arrived on the scene in April, he seized the initiative and Charles was forced to withdraw his forces along the Danube towards Vienna.After Napoleon occupied Vienna on May 13, Charles deployed his men on the right-bank of the Danube and prepared to do battle. While the French established bridgeheads at the villages of Aspern and Essling on May 21 and were poised to break through the Austrian line the following morning, Archduke Charles personally rallied his men in a powerful counterattack that led Napoleon to admit defeat and abandon the crossing of the Danube. Charles became the first general to defeat Napoleon in battle since 1799, while the talented Marshal Lannes was mortally wounded.Some six weeks later on July 5, Napoleon and Charles clashed for a second time at the Battle of Wagram. Fought on roughly the same battlefield as Aspern-Essling, the Austrians defended resolutely but Napoleon secured a narrow victory with heavy losses on both sides. Charles was blamed for the failure of the campaign, resigned his military offices, and went into retirement.2. Mikhail KutuzovPortrait of Mikhail Kutuzov, by George Dawe, 1829. Source: State Hermitage Museum, St. PetersburgA protg of Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov spent much of his military career in the late 18th century fighting the Ottoman Turks. In 1805, the 60-year-old Kutuzov commanded the Russian army that supported the Austrians in the War of the Third Coalition. After learning of Austrian general Macks surrender at Ulm in October, he led a fighting retreat down the Danube to preserve his manpower but was stripped of command by Tsar Alexander I on the eve of the Battle of Austerlitz, where the allied Austro-Russian army was comprehensively defeated.Unjustly blamed by Tsar Alexander for the catastrophe at Austerlitz, Kutuzov did not see action until 1811, when he was dispatched to the Balkans with instructions to defeat the enemy and seek an advantageous peace treaty to end the ongoing Russo-Ottoman War. Kutuzov duly defeated the Ottomans at Slobozia and concluded the Treaty of Bucharest on May 28, 1812 before handing over his command to Admiral Pavel Chichagov.Kutuzov was without a command when Napoleon invaded Russia in June 1812, but after General Mikhail Barclay de Tolly faced opposition for his policy of strategic retreat, Kutuzov was appointed supreme commander by Tsar Alexander in late August 1812. Kutuzov made a stand against Napoleon at Borodino on September 7, where both sides sustained heavy casualties after a day of inconclusive fighting. Kutuzov decided he was in no condition to continue the fight and fell back towards Moscow the following morning.After recognizing that there was no suitable position to fight another defensive battle before Moscow, Kutuzov abandoned the old Russian capital and eventually set up camp at Tarutino. Napoleon spent six weeks in Moscow forlornly awaiting word from Tsar Alexander about peace negotiations before abandoning the city in mid-October.The Battle of Krasny on 5 (17) November 1812, by Peter von Hess, 1859. Source: State Hermitage Museum, RussiaAs Napoleon turned south seeking to resupply his dwindling army in southern Russia, Kutuzovs Russians intercepted him at Maloyaroslavets. With both Napoleon and Kutuzov sending reinforcements to Maloyaroslavets, control of the town passed between the French and the Russians on several occasions on October 24. While the Russian commander withdrew from Maloyaroslavets at the end of the day, he deployed his army in a formidable position to the south of the town, forcing Napoleon to abandon his southern march and turn west towards Smolensk.Napoleon arrived at Smolensk on November 9 but quickly abandoned his intention of using it as a winter base to resume his campaign in 1813. After spending a few days resupplying his men, Napoleon left Smolensk on November 14. In the meantime, Kutuzov marched his army along a parallel route to the south and set up an ambush at Krasny on November 15.While General Adam Ozharovskys small Russian vanguard was defeated, Russian general Mikhail Miloradovich led successful attacks against Viceroy Eugene de Beauharnais IV Corps on the 16th, and Marshal Davouts I Corps on the 17th, during which Davouts marshals baton was captured. Marshal Ney steadfastly refused to surrender to Miloradovich on November 18. Despite heavy losses, he found an alternative route and rejoined Napoleon at Orsha a few days later with a few hundred men.At the Battle of Berezina on November 29-30, Napoleon escaped across the river with 30,000 men and evaded three Russian armies converging on the crossing point. Although some 30,000 stragglers fell into Russian captivity, Kutuzov was criticized for letting Napoleon get away. He continued to lead the Russian army in 1813 but fell ill and died at Bunzlau (now Bolesawiec, Poland) on April 28, 1813.3. Karl Philipp von SchwarzenbergEquestrian Monument to Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg in Vienna, photograph by Dguendel, 2016. Source: Wikimedia CommonsA member of a prominent German and Bohemian aristocratic family, Karl Philipp von Schwarzenberg rose up the ranks of the Imperial army during the French Revolutionary Wars and served as a cavalry commander in the 1805 and 1809 campaigns against Napoleon. During Napoleons invasion of Russia in 1812, Schwarzenberg commanded a 30,000-strong contingent of Austrians in Belarus but avoided heavy action.After Napoleons defeat, Russia and Prussia signed an alliance in February 1813 to liberate northern Germany from Napoleonic rule. After the Russo-Prussian army was defeated by Napoleon in May at Ltzen and Bautzen in Saxony, both sides agreed to an armistice and accepted an offer of Austrian mediation. While Austrian foreign minister Klemens von Metternich negotiated with Napoleon, Schwarzenberg held talks with the allies.After the armistice expired in August 1813 without a peace deal, the Austrians joined Russia, Prussia, and Sweden in the Sixth Coalition. Schwarzenberg was named supreme commander of the allied forces and directly commanded the Army of Bohemia, consisting of some 220,000 Austrians, Russians, and Prussians.While Schwarzenberg was defeated by Napoleon at the Battle of Dresden on August 26-27, allied armies on other fronts were more successful in defeating Napoleons marshals. In October 1813, Schwarzenberg faced Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig. Although Napoleon came close to breaking Schwarzenbergs line to the south of Leipzig on the first day of battle, November 15, the arrival of Blchers Army of Silesia and Bernadottes Army of the North helped to defeat Napoleon. On November 18, Napoleon withdrew from Leipzig and abandoned his interests in Germany.At the Battlefield near Leipzig, by Johann Peter Krafft, 1839, (Schwarzenberg is shown on horseback reporting to the allied sovereigns). Source: German Historical Museum, BerlinSchwarzenberg continued to command the allied armies in the winter campaign of 1814. Two allied armies marched on Paris, with Blchers column in the north and Schwarzenberg further south. When the aggressive Prussian general allowed himself to be mauled by Napoleon in early February, Schwarzenberg fell back and became more cautious.At the urging of Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick William III of Prussia, Schwarzenberg renewed his offensive and defeated Napoleon at Bar-sur Aube near Troyes on February 27. Schwarzenberg defeated Napoleon again at nearby Arcis-sur-Aube on March 21, opening the road to Paris. Rather than retreating west towards Paris, Napoleon headed eastwards to bait Schwarzenberg into following him.Schwarzenberg sent a cavalry screen to follow Napoleon but marched on the lightly defended French capital with his army, defeating marshals Marmont and Mortier at Fre-Champenoise on March 25 and capturing Paris on March 31. The allied occupation of Paris led to Napoleons first abdication and exile to Elba.4. Gebhard Leberecht von BlcherMarschall Vorwrts by Emil Hnten, 1863. Source: Wikimedia CommonsBorn in 1742, General Blcher was among the oldest Prussian generals in active service at the turn of the 19th century. Despite his advanced age, Blcher proved a talented and aggressive cavalry general during the French Revolutionary Wars.During the 1806 campaign against Napoleon, Blcher commanded the cavalry contingent in the Duke of Brunswicks main army. Despite outnumbering Marshal Davouts III Corps at the Battle of Auerstedt on October 14, Brunswick failed to break Davouts position. The Prussian commander was mortally wounded during the battle and Blcher charged against the enemy to win time for his comrades to organize a retreat.In the days and weeks following Auerstedt, Blcher linked up with Brunswicks chief of staff Gerhard von Scharnhorst and gathered a force of 20,000 men who were pursued to Lbeck and forced to surrender near the Danish border on November 7. After the calamity of the 1806 campaign, Blcher supported Scharnhorsts project to reform the army but did not play an active role in the reforms.Blcher objected to the participation of 30,000 Prussians in Napoleons invasion of Russia in 1812. Following Napoleons defeat, he took command of the Prussian army in early 1813 and liberated northern Germany alongside the Russians. Although the allies were defeated at Ltzen and Bautzen, the Prussians performed much better in battle and the determined Prussian attacks earned Blcher the nickname Marschall Vorwrts. Scharnhorst served as Blchers chief of staff in the early part of the campaign but was mortally wounded at Ltzen and replaced by August von Gneisenau.Wellington and Blcher after the Battle of Waterloo (central section), print by Charles William Sharpe after painting by Daniel Maclise in the Palace of Westminster, 1879. Source: Army and Navy ClubFollowing the summer armistice, Blcher was assigned to command the Army of Silesia, which he led to victory over Marshal Macdonald in a bitter fight at the River Katzbach on August 26. The men under his command played a major role in Napoleons defeat at Leipzig in November.During the invasion of France in 1814, Blcher commanded the allied force that defeated Napoleon at the Battle of La Rothire on February 1, 1814. Blcher was encouraged by the victory to march on Paris, leaving his army vulnerable and strung-out in the process. This enabled Napoleon to launch his Six Days Campaign, an operational masterstroke that saw him defeat Blcher on four occasions between February 10 and February 15, forcing Blcher to retreat.Despite these serious setbacks, Blchers army remained intact and continued to be a dangerous thorn in Napoleons side. After receiving reinforcements to bring his army to 100,000 men, Blcher successfully defended his position against Napoleons attacks at Laon on March 9-10. Napoleon abandoned his attack and turned to face Schwarzenberg, enabling Blcher to continue his march on Paris.During Napoleons Hundred Days, the 72-year-old Blcher fought one last campaign against Napoleon. On June 16, the Prussians were heavily defeated at the Battle of Ligny and the veteran Prussian commander spent several hours on the field trapped under his dead horse.After returning to headquarters, Blcher was determined to maintain contact with the Duke of Wellingtons army and promised to link up with him on the 18th. This gave Wellington the confidence to make his stand at Waterloo. While Blcher arrived on the field later than anticipated, the Prussians sealed Napoleons defeat and ensured a famous victory that would lead to Napoleons second abdication and exile on Saint Helena.5. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of WellingtonThe Duke of Wellington, by Thomas Lawrence, 1815-6. Source: English HeritageThe Napoleonic Wars was the final stage in a lengthy struggle for global hegemony between France and Great Britain during the long 18th century. As an island nation, Britains main weapon against Napoleonic France was the Royal Navy. While British armies did carry out amphibious operations in Europe during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, most of these were embarrassing failures.The major exception was British intervention in the Peninsular War, where between 1808 and 1814 General Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, commanded British, Portuguese, and Spanish troops to resist King Joseph, Napoleons elder brother who had been installed on the Spanish throne in July 1808. After liberating Portugal from French control in 1808 and 1809, Wellington successfully defended Portugal from French invasion in 1810 and 1811, and liberated Spain from Josephs rule in 1812 and 1813. In November 1813 Wellington crossed the Pyrenees and invaded southwestern France.Although Wellington had defeated several of Napoleons marshals during the Peninsular War, he never faced Napoleon himself in battle in Spain. His opportunity came in 1815 after Napoleon escaped from his exile in Elba and was restored as emperor in Paris. In response, Britain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia each pledged to field armies of 150,000 men to defeat and overthrow Napoleon a second time.The Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, by Robert Alexander Hillingford. Source: Wikimedia CommonsIn the spring of 1815, Wellingtons army in the Low Countries numbered around 100,000 men, of whom more than half were Belgians, Dutch, and Germans. Although Wellington complained that his multinational army was of lower quality than his Peninsular veterans, they stood up to the test after Napoleon launched his campaign into Belgium on June 14. On June 16, Wellington prevented Marshal Ney from seizing the crucial crossroads of Quatre Bras. After hearing of Blchers defeat at Ligny, Wellington retreated to Waterloo to maintain contact with his Prussian ally.At Waterloo, Wellington employed the reverse slope tactic that he had used to good effect in Spain by deploying most of his men behind the ridge line at Mont-Saint-Jean, thus sheltering his forces from enemy artillery fire. Over several hours of intense fighting, Wellingtons men held on to their positions on the ridge. The British commander rode all over the battlefield rallying the men and coordinating his defenses against renewed French attacks. The arrival of Blchers Prussians in the late afternoon gave Wellington much-needed respite. After successfully forcing the Imperial Guard to withdraw, Wellington gave the signal for a general advance and the Allies emerged victorious.After the battle, Wellington described Waterloo as the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. Waterloo was the last battle Wellington fought in his career, though he entered politics later in life and served as Tory prime minister between 1828 and 1830.

In a particularly striking scene from Gabriel Garca Mrquezs Nobel prize-winning novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, a trickle of blood takes on a life of its own, flowing from room to room, going around the carpets, crossing terraces, and climbing over curbs as it makes its way across town, unnoticed by all. Notably, this supernatural event is told in a most matter-of-fact language, blurring the line between the real and the magical. This seamless blending of the supernatural into ordinary settings is known as magical realism, and it has been adopted in Latin American literature to defy Eurocentric notions and give marginalized voices a platform. Here are four ways magical realist authors accomplish this.1. Writing Subalternized Voices Back into HistoryLa jungla (The Jungle), by Wilfredo Lam, 1943. Source: Museum of Modern Art, New YorkMagical realism became a potent political instrument for rewriting history from the lens of colonized communities throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Alejo Carpentier, a Cuban writer who introduced the concept of the marvelous real, a counterpart to magical realism, famously asked: After all, what is the entire history of America if not a chronicle of the marvelous real? For Carpentier and his contemporaries, the intricate realities of Latin America were impossible to depict with conventional forms of literary realism.Bwa Kayiman Haiti 1791, by Nicole Jean-Louis, 2011. Source: Fine Art AmericaCarpentier introduced his theory of the marvelous real as a prologue to his 1949 novel, The Kingdom of This World. Set against the tumultuous backdrop of the Haitian Revolution, the novel offers a subjective perspective on history from a slaves viewpoint. Carpentier portrays the struggles of enslaved populations of Haiti through the eyes of Ti Noel, the protagonist whose life spans the turbulent events before, during, and after the Haitian Revolution.Within this narrative, Makandal, an enslaved Black person embodying the Afro-Caribbean hybrid identity, gains recognition for his supernatural powers, becoming a symbol of resistance against colonization. Carpentiers idea of the marvelous real comes to life through this character who has the power to shape-shift into different animals, miraculously evade colonial authorities, and defeat them with potent mountain herbs. By blending historical events with magical occurrences, Carpentier invites the Afro-Caribbean perspective and identity into the retelling of the history of Haiti and its struggle for freedom.2. Defying Conventional Notions of TimeThe Aftermath of Macondo, by Michael Young, 2016. Source: Michael Young Fine ArtIn his most famous novel, entitled Hopscotch, Argentine author Julio Cortzar allows his readers to hopscotch around the text and read it in multiple chronologies. It is written in the style of stream of consciousness, and the reader has two or three different suggested orders to read the chapters. This provides multiple endings for the book, within a never-ending story of unanswerable questions. For many authors representing Latin Americas literary boom era, such non-linear narratives were a brilliant way to play with Eurocentric and conventional notions of time and history.With origins in Europe, magical realism gained resonance in Latin America in the 1960s as both an effort to subvert European literary norms and craft narratives that could revise the colonial past. Literary critic Steven Stern notes that the unresolved colonial legacy in Latin America unsettles unilinear notions of the march of historical time (1996). The following line from Mrquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude perfectly encapsulates this endeavor: Melquades had not put events in the order of mans conventional time, but had concentrated a century of daily episodes in such a way that they coexisted in one instant.Illustrations for the 50th anniversary edition of Mrquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Luisa Rivera, 2017. Source: Luisa RiveraLike many other authors from this epoch, Mrquez challenges chronology and historical time to suggest that there is no single way of perceiving time. The Colombian author takes the reader from past to present in a non-linear manner over multiple generations of the Buenda family. The novel opens with Colonel Buendas execution as he faces the firing squad, as though looking at his past unfold right in front of him while he waits for the reader to catch up to that present moment. It is as if the hundred years in Mrquezs fictional town of Macondo coexisted in that single instant.This endeavor of unsettling notions of time is far from arbitrary; it grounds itself in the beliefs of many indigenous cultures of Latin America. For the Aymara people of the Andes, for instance, the past lies ahead of us while the future resides behind us. In this stark departure from European frameworks of time, the future remains concealed from view, and one must gesture towards their back to refer to it. The past, however, is visible, lying right before our eyes.Above all, One Hundred Years of Solitude comments on the cyclical nature of history in the postcolonial experience. The narrative moves back and forth between the past, present, and future. Yet, nothing ever seems to happen in Macondo. There is only solitude.Gabriel Garca Mrquez, by Carlos Duque, 2018. Source: Saatchi ArtMarquezs other famous work of magical realism is Love in the Time of Cholera(1985). The novel tells the story of Florentino Arizas spurned love for Fermina Daza, who rejects him to marry Dr. Juvenal Urbino. Stricken with love, Florentino is sent by his mother to the doctor, who diagnoses him with cholera. This is just one instance of the non-realistic depiction of love as adiseasecolliding with the real world of medicine. Over the span of 51 years, nine months, and four days, Florentino has continued to love none but Fermina when, in a characteristically absurd twist of fate, Dr. Urbino dies while trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree and Florentino seizes his chance. While the supernatural themes are not overt, the novel offers a way of seeing the world where the extraordinary is made commonplace.3. Offering Postcolonial Critique Through Local CosmogeniesBanana workers carrying bananas during the early 20th century, Colombia. Source: Collecteurs, the Museum of Private CollectionsAlongside challenging notions of time, magical realist authors created a space for European and indigenous cosmogenies to intermingle and provide a widened perspective of time, history, and what is considered real. Numerous texts from the Latin American Boom era set out to re-imagine pre-Columbian civilizations and re-articulate postcolonial realities in Latin America. This effort implied weaving pre-Columbian cosmovisions into literary fiction and providing fictional renderings of historical episodes.In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Mrquez provides an account of the tragic event known as the Banana Massacre. The event took place in Cinaga, Colombia, in 1928, following a labor strike by banana plantation workers, who were demanding improved working conditions. Mrquezs portrayal of the tragic event, in which plantation workers were killed by the Colombian military forces at the behest of the United Fruit Company, challenges the official historical narrative and provides an alternative account. Magical realism, then, as Homi Bhabba puts it, becomes the literary language of the emergent postcolonial world (Bhabha, 1990).The Aztec Stone of the Sun (also referred to as the Calendar Stone). Source: American Museum of Natural History, New YorkThe inclusion of pre-Columbian perspectives and cosmogenies further contributed to the creation of this distinctive literary language. This intention is brilliantly exemplified in Julio Cortzars The Night Face Up, a short story that blurs the line between dream and reality, past and present. Following a motorcycle accident, the storys protagonist finds himself drifting between two realms. In one, he is lying on a hospital bed in modern-day Mexico, receiving medical treatment. In the other, he is a captive warrior about to be sacrificed to the gods of a fictional Mesoamerican civilization called Motecas, a witty wordplay between Spanish motocicleta (motorcycle) and Aztecas (Aztecs).As the protagonist travels from one world to another, unable to tell which one is real, so does the reader. The ending of the story is nothing short of unexpected. Implicitly, the story seems to suggest that the real world experienced by the protagonist is not the hospital bed in present-day Mexico but rather the ancient world of the Motecas. The protagonists accident and his subsequent treatment in the hospital is, in fact, the hallucination or the dream. With this reversion of historical time, Cortazar poignantly re-inserts a pre-Colombian perspective back into history to disturb Eurocentric perceptions of time. This comes as a subtle wink to the implied reader, playfully teasing their expectations.4. Reclaiming Female Stories Through Magical RealismIllustrations for the 50th anniversary edition of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Luisa Rivera, 2017. Source: Luisa RiveraWhile male voices dominated magical realism in Latin America throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a feminist approach did not take too long to emerge, the most vivid example being Isabel Allendes bestselling 1982 novel The House of the Spirits. Released 15 years after the original publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude, the novel has often been interpreted as the feminist counterpart to the quintessential Latin American magical realist novel.Originally written as a letter to her dying grandfather during her time in exile in Venezuela, Allendes novel interlaces magic and the female experience to address the countrys complex socio-political realities. In an interview, Allende mentions that she wanted to write a letter to her grandfather so she would not forget her familys history. As the niece of the former Chilean President Salvador Allende, who tragically ended his life during the coup orchestrated by General Augusto Pinochet, the writer experienced firsthand the effects of the subsequent military dictatorship and exile.Military coup, Santiago de Chile, September 11, 1973, by Koen Wessing. Source: The GuardianAs a magical realist text that weaves a multi-generational story, comparisons were inevitably drawn between The House of Spirits and One Hundred Years of Solitude. Markedly centered around women, however, Allendes text goes beyond mere imitation. The Chilean writer creates a stellar parody of Mrquezs text while putting female characters and their magical abilities at the core of her narrative. The unmistakable magical realist cues interwoven in the novel serve as a witty nod to the Mrquezian world but masterfully transcend it by drawing upon a distinctively female perspective.The House of Spirits, which propelled Allende to international bestseller status, remains one of the most prominent magical realist novels that intends to write female voices back into history and the genre. Amid the backdrop of political events and social injustices, Allende weaves in magical occurrences, clairvoyance, and spirituality, masterfully writing women as a site of history (Foreman, 1992).Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, by Frida Kahlo, 1940, Source: Philadelphia Museum of ArtFrida Kahlo was an example of a female artist who was a leading figure in the magical realism art movement in Mexico. Another notable work that took the magical realist route to delve into feminist perspectives is Like Water for Chocolate (1992) by Mexican Laura Esquivel. Set in Mexico, it follows Tita de la Garza and her passionate relationship with Pedro Muzquiz. The two are prevented from marrying due to a Mexican tradition that the youngest daughter must remain unmarried and look after her mother until her death. Pedro, therefore, marries Tias eldest sister, Rosaura, to remain close to Tita. Meanwhile, Tita, who was mostly raised by the family cook Nacha, expresses her pent-up emotions through food, and each of the 12 chapters of the novel includes a Mexican recipe that is related to Titas life. In the second chapter, she makes a wedding cake for Rosaura and Pedros wedding, crying into the batter. This causes everyone, except for Tita, to become violently ill. The lovers are kept separate for over two decades, but when they are finally united, their love story has a magical end.While pioneered by Latin American writers, magical realism has expanded beyond its origins to become a mainstay in world literature. This expansion coincided with growing interest in multiculturalism and postcolonial studies as writers recognized the genres ability to explore complex identities, histories, and realities. Works like Salman Rushdies Midnights Children and Toni Morrisons Beloved demonstrate how magical realism can address the universal themes of identity, memory, and trauma.References:Bhabha, K. H. (1990). Nation and narration. Routledge.Foreman, G. (1992). Past-on stories: History and the magically real, Morrison and Allende on call. Feminist Studies 18(2), 36988.Stern, J. S. (1996). The tricks of time: Colonial legacies and historical sensibilities in Latin America. The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 57(3), 37192.

From dust pneumonia to "black blizzards," Kansas suffered greatly during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and it took years for the state to recover.The post The Sun Disappeared: 27 Photos That Capture The Tragedy Of The Kansas Dust Bowl appeared first on All That's Interesting.

The prop, which appeared in the final two films of the original Star Wars trilogy, is heading to auction in September.The post Darth Vaders Iconic Lightsaber Could Be Yours For $3 Million appeared first on All That's Interesting.

For over a thousand chapters, One Piece kept the true rulers of the world hidden behind shadowy silhouettes and vague dialogue. Known as the Gorosei, or the Five Elders, these men have long operated in the background, manipulating world affairs under the flag of the World Government. For years, fans debated their roles, powers, and even their mortality. But after Chapter 1085, the veil began to lift.