Name: Mariana Dollahan
Dob: 22nd April, 1979
Position: Educator
Address: Chicago, Illinois
Education: Bachelor of Education (History Major)
Nickname:"Rosie the Riveter" - "Rosita la Remachadora"
E-mail: webmaster@ushistoria.org

[ Favorite TV Show]:
A-Team (1984) - Who can forget Mario Baracus..?& "Tour of Duty" - Unforgettable the curtain soundtrack. Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones.

[ Favorite Quote]:
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it". [Voltaire, French Philosopher, letter to his friend Étienne-Noel Damilaville, 1767]

[ Favorite Toys]:
* My telescope ~ My dad became passionate about Astronomy during the space race, and he transmitted his enthusiasm to his kids. When I was 13, somehow, I convinced my dad that I absolutely needed my own telescope (since my brothers and I were not allowed to play with his), and after a long four month wait with lots of begging, dad finally got me a small second hand 60mm Tasco refractor for my birthday. Even though it was decidedly shabby, I could see the cloud bands and rings on Jupiter -my favorite planet-, the rings of Saturn, and beyond Neptune. I've been dancing with Astronomy ever since! The sky is full of intrigue and wonderment to be ignored…
* The C64 ~ My first computer was a Commodore 64 (C64). The commodore 64 was ahead of it's time, a very combative toy ~ that computer was the BOMB!!!

[ Favorite Passage from a Book]:
"I have asked my mother if she regrets her marriage, her choices and she has told me it was pointless to regret. That she did what she could do. What more can we ask of ourselves? I wanted to tell her, but did not, that we must ask for so much more, for everything, for love and tenderness and decency and courage. That we must be better than we think we can be, so if in some foreign tongue we are confronted with those childhood questions - "Qui êtes-vous?" "Qui suis-je?" - we will not be afraid to answer..." ["Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by E.J. Levy, in "The Best American Essays ~2005", Editor Susan Orlean]

“Levy remembers his mother by way of the romantic Julia Child meals she prepared while he was growing up…”, reads the review......ufa!!!

[In my words]
But this gastronomic meditation is so much more than simply food philosophy, he challenges the old American way, a generation of merry housewives and comfortable husbands, the America's passion for good food and a bourgeois style of life. He resolves the myth in just one passage, while he talks to his mother in small silences he is, at the same time, questioning a generation, revealing that an unchallenging life does not promise happiness.

[Teaching and Research Topics]
- Contemporary Social History
- Economic History
- Graphic Design & 3D Softwares
- Astronomy & Anything in the sky
- Stellar Evolution & theories of origin of Universe
- Language and Literature

[ Favorite Music]:
"Across the Universe" ~The Beatles
"Somebody" ~ Depeche Mode
"A Kiss To Build A Dream On" Louis Armstrong
"Wild Horses" The Rolling Stones
"Changes" ~ David Bowie
"Hunter" Dido
"Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll" ~ The Killers
"Against The Wind" ~ Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
"Boston" ~ Augustana
"Fly baby right now" ~ The sketches
"Cats In The Cradle" ~ Sandy & Harry Chapin
"Six days" DJ Shadow
"Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan
"I am like a bird" ~ Nelly Furtado

I read his essay in Christmas of 2005, the book was a gift from a fateful friend. The reading was pleasant, and then I read the thrilling passage, as a revelation. This passage made such an impact on my own childhood memories and stayed with me. My mother’s inconsolable frustration – she traded her promising college teaching for three pregnancies, one miscarriage and an eccentric lawyer for husband – for what she could have achieved in happiness if she would have been truthful to her vocation. Never went a day by without her constant reminder, knowledge should never be traded for love. So now I have to make up for it, for me and for her, for them, the women in my family who silenced their wishes with a gasp of resignation while tying their spotless aprons.

The motto changes with each generation, overcoming the fear of failure, a conformist upbringing, exceeding the precincts of the mind. It takes time, and sometimes you just have to say " Capitulation...? My socks! ” and do the untried. Facing up to the reactions of the "petties" and the imperturbable Status quo. But not anyone can transcend. It takes heart. Overcoming conventionality can be frightening. But sometimes, you have to choose and be a lonely pionneer and against all odds trans-form -supposedly, but just in speech- the unchangable. The motto has been perfected. My motto is love & knowledge. A bright, shiny promise for a trans-cultural world.