Major Learning Outcome 5: Community Pathway
Major Learning Outcome 5 involves the immersion into an authentic Hispanic cultural and linguistic environment. This means we will need to have successfully internalized cultural and linguistic experiences and have achieved a level of personal understanding of this environment. One option to complete this course was to engage into a study abroad experience. I chose to take part in the second pathway: through the Community Project. What this project entails is the analysis of two pieces of material (be they art, poetry, novels, or films) that involve any. topics that we may have worked with through our Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures courses. These topics could typically be immigration, gender roles, education, etc. I chose two books from one of my favorite authors, Reyna Grande. I selected A Través de Cien Montañas and La Distancia Entre Nosotros, the first being a novel and the second the start of Grande's memoir books. Then we were to include the responses received from conducting two interviews from members of the community who had a substantial experience with the same topic. The topic I chose to navigate for this essay was on the assimilation experienced by people leaving Mexico and coming to the United States. The two books presented fantastic perspectives on this, along with the fact that one was a novel and one was the author's memoir, it would then serve as a great contrast between the books to allow for another perspective. All four of the experiences analyzed were of women who left Mexico and came to the United States in search for a better life.
The main topics that I chose to cover in this short paper were the education, family, expectations, and the level of assimilation that had been achieved so far in their life. This was made possible because all four of these figures had made their migration over ten years ago and have settled into their lives in the United States.
Having previously read Reyna. Grande's two works I knew that there were plenty of aspects within the books that I was able to relate to, being raised by immigrant parents in the United States. By conducting the interviews I was able to see some aspects of struggle that I had never been so closely exposed to, given that my mother never much liked to recount her earlier experiences in immigrating. By analyzing these four pathways in life, I was able to find aspects that emphasized the power education can hold to alter an individual's life. Another very crucial aspect that stood out, was the effect family can hold on people's strengths. I found that family could be the greatest asset or greatest weakness to these four individuals, their support along with their expectations was what really brought about life altering decisions. I am thankful for this particular project, that although it was not a part of a course, it allowed me to create a short reflection with a new lense on some of my favorite books, two hardworking community members, but also into the culture that I belong to.
Major Learning Outcome 5 involves the immersion into an authentic Hispanic cultural and linguistic environment. This means we will need to have successfully internalized cultural and linguistic experiences and have achieved a level of personal understanding of this environment. One option to complete this course was to engage into a study abroad experience. I chose to take part in the second pathway: through the Community Project. What this project entails is the analysis of two pieces of material (be they art, poetry, novels, or films) that involve any. topics that we may have worked with through our Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures courses. These topics could typically be immigration, gender roles, education, etc. I chose two books from one of my favorite authors, Reyna Grande. I selected A Través de Cien Montañas and La Distancia Entre Nosotros, the first being a novel and the second the start of Grande's memoir books. Then we were to include the responses received from conducting two interviews from members of the community who had a substantial experience with the same topic. The topic I chose to navigate for this essay was on the assimilation experienced by people leaving Mexico and coming to the United States. The two books presented fantastic perspectives on this, along with the fact that one was a novel and one was the author's memoir, it would then serve as a great contrast between the books to allow for another perspective. All four of the experiences analyzed were of women who left Mexico and came to the United States in search for a better life.
The main topics that I chose to cover in this short paper were the education, family, expectations, and the level of assimilation that had been achieved so far in their life. This was made possible because all four of these figures had made their migration over ten years ago and have settled into their lives in the United States.
Having previously read Reyna. Grande's two works I knew that there were plenty of aspects within the books that I was able to relate to, being raised by immigrant parents in the United States. By conducting the interviews I was able to see some aspects of struggle that I had never been so closely exposed to, given that my mother never much liked to recount her earlier experiences in immigrating. By analyzing these four pathways in life, I was able to find aspects that emphasized the power education can hold to alter an individual's life. Another very crucial aspect that stood out, was the effect family can hold on people's strengths. I found that family could be the greatest asset or greatest weakness to these four individuals, their support along with their expectations was what really brought about life altering decisions. I am thankful for this particular project, that although it was not a part of a course, it allowed me to create a short reflection with a new lense on some of my favorite books, two hardworking community members, but also into the culture that I belong to.
mlo5__community_project.pdf |