Major Learning Outcomes for the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures Major
Students develop a reasonable understanding of the ways of thinking (ideas, beliefs, attitudes, values, philosophies), the behavioral practices (patterns of social interactions), and the cultural products - both tangible and intangible (for example, art, history, literature, music) - of Hispanic societies.
Reflective Narrative
Literature serves as an important medium to register the different social practices of a group of people in a given historical-social context. For this major learning outcome, students have the opportunity to analyze pieces of literature, art and music relevant to certain places in the world and time periods, critically making connections of the content to contemporary society. Completing this MLO broadened my horizons in terms of finding the relationships between artistic productions and the social behaviors that surround them, either from an internal point of view, such as the creation of said works, or from an external point of view, such as the effect they have on us, the observers.
One of the classes that challenged my way of analyzing literary content was SPAN 425: La Literatura Mexicana. Before taking this course, I had never read a book written by a Mexican author. Although since I was little, I considered myself a book lover, I had always kept my distance from Mexican novels. This attitude changed thanks to Dr. Carolyn González. This course opened my eyes to a word of literary richness I was ignoring. Through poems, short stories and novels, in addition to the exchange of ideas and impressions, I was able to build an essay focused on the novel Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, where I wrote about an escape from discrimination against women and the LGBTQ+ collective through the secularization of Mexican society. In the same way, in SPAN 321: Masterpieces of Hispanic Literature, Dr. David Vila Dieguez taught me that many literary classics are relevant because, within their content, Spanish art productions talk about problems that still exist in contemporary society. In this course, I understood that literature can express disagreement with the political and cultural aspects of a nation, Spain in this case, with the intention of opening conversations about important social issues. With the critical thinking skills I gained in this class, I wrote an essay analyzing two theater plays, comparing the family dynamics of El Sí de las Niñas and La Casa de Bernarda Alba, to demonstrate the importance of free thinking for the proper development of adolescents.
Completing this MLO has helped me change my attitude towards these works of art. Like me, there are many people who do not give novels written by Hispanic/Latinx authors a chance. So as a future educator, I would like to produce the same change in my students as my professors did with me, by exposing them to this fascinating world of literature.
One of the classes that challenged my way of analyzing literary content was SPAN 425: La Literatura Mexicana. Before taking this course, I had never read a book written by a Mexican author. Although since I was little, I considered myself a book lover, I had always kept my distance from Mexican novels. This attitude changed thanks to Dr. Carolyn González. This course opened my eyes to a word of literary richness I was ignoring. Through poems, short stories and novels, in addition to the exchange of ideas and impressions, I was able to build an essay focused on the novel Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, where I wrote about an escape from discrimination against women and the LGBTQ+ collective through the secularization of Mexican society. In the same way, in SPAN 321: Masterpieces of Hispanic Literature, Dr. David Vila Dieguez taught me that many literary classics are relevant because, within their content, Spanish art productions talk about problems that still exist in contemporary society. In this course, I understood that literature can express disagreement with the political and cultural aspects of a nation, Spain in this case, with the intention of opening conversations about important social issues. With the critical thinking skills I gained in this class, I wrote an essay analyzing two theater plays, comparing the family dynamics of El Sí de las Niñas and La Casa de Bernarda Alba, to demonstrate the importance of free thinking for the proper development of adolescents.
Completing this MLO has helped me change my attitude towards these works of art. Like me, there are many people who do not give novels written by Hispanic/Latinx authors a chance. So as a future educator, I would like to produce the same change in my students as my professors did with me, by exposing them to this fascinating world of literature.