Comprehension

So I've come to the realization that I need:

1) a more comprehensive plan to approach this project, and 
2) better overall Spanish-language comprehension.

I have several books and movies to explore but I haven't really figured out my plan of attack to get through them.  I may have started with the hardest resource first, which slowed me down.  After embarking on a frustrated google search after some teasing from a co-worker, I indadvertedly discovered a blog in memory of all those who died during the Nicaraguan Revolution at Hill 110.  This includes my aunt.  I suddenly had before me more specifics surrounding her death than I ever had before and became increasingly interested in learning more.  This led to several follow-up questions to my mother and other relatives.  The blog is not updated that often but I would peruse its pages searching for any mention of my aunt.  The name Nordia only appears among lists of the dead.  One day I noticed the blog referred to a book that was published that chronicles the final days of those involved in the battle on this hill.  It became my mission to find a copy for myself.

It turns out the book is not available for online ordering and isn't for sale anywhere within the United States.  There is no digital copy I can access.  Using the World Catalog I was able to locate libraries that held a copy, which were mostly universities.  The closest thing to me was Stanford or Berkeley. I applied for a library card at the Burbank Public Library and requested an inter-library loan to get this book.  Stanford said they couldn't find it but Berkeley was going to send it.  Weeks passed.  I waited for over a month or two.  Finally Burbank gave up and went to the Library of Congress.  Eventually the book came my way and I made sure to photocopy each of its 104 pages to keep it with me always.

Since this book deals precisely with the victims of Hill 110 and not just the overall revolution, I put it at the top of my priorities.  However, the challenge is that it is written entirely in Spanish and I haven't really exercised serious reading-comprehension skills since my junior year at South Hills High School in 2000.  I figured with my basic Spanish and a little help from Google Translate, I should get by somewhat okay.

I was dismantled by the first sentence.

La Dirección de Patrimonio Histórico de la Alcaldía de Managua, se complace en presentar la primera edición del libro "Colina 110 Insurrección Los Laureles y Masacre GN", del autor Arnulfo Agüero Aguilar.

The word that stumped me was "alcaldía" so I looked it up.  Google Translate defined it as "mayoralty." I didn't expect to be confused by the English word as well.  I had to look up the English meaning. How could I not understand the English?!  Apparently they both just mean office of the mayor.  Why did it have to be that complicated? I pretty much surrendered after that first sentence and lost my momentum.  This was not a good way to start.

I've decided I really need to work on my Spanish skills more seriously than before as well as develop a program to keep myself in line to push through all the material I have.  I thought starting a blog would keep me publicly accountable, but apparently I'm not much of a blogger after all.