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.
Courses I have completed: SPAN 306, SPAN 304 Literature and history are two essential components in the study of a language, as they help to understand the historical events that have influenced the way of thinking, living, and the culture of a society. This knowledge is necessary to have a deeper understanding of language and to utilize it in culturally appropriate ways. In humanities studies there is great focus on teaching history, not only in a narrative way but also through art, poems, songs, stories, paintings, films, photographs, and books. In my history classes where I worked towards the fulfillment of this MLO, I learned about the civilization and culture of Latin America and Spain. One class that was particularly significant in the completion of this learning objective was SPAN 306 (Culture/ Civilization of Spain Latin America). This class presented a historical and cultural overview of Hispanic Latin America from its pre-Columbian origins to the present, through works of literature, art, music, and videos. This class allowed me to learn important concepts and ideologies of the social, political, and economic factors that shaped the history of Spanish Latin America. Throughout the course I was also able to compare and contrast the development of these societies, since most of them share historical periods such as the time of the indigenous civilizations, the conquest, colonialism, independence, revolutions and are influenced by shared modern-day occurrences. For this course, I completed a final group project, consisting of an oral presentation in which we focused on Mexico. During this presentation, we talked about the time of the revolution and onwards, highlighting the most important issues that took place during this period. Another significant course was SPAN 304 (Introduction to Hispanic Literature). This class allowed me to understand that many novels, stories, short stories, poems and songs are the simple reflection of concepts and ideologies that show some social, political and economic factors that marked the history of Hispanics. For example, I wrote an essay, “God,” which analyzes mysticism in the poems of St. Teresa of Avila, in which the main themes are faith and the consecration of the soul to God.It is relevant to mention that in my classes I learned to analyze, criticize, compare and relate the most outstanding literary pieces of Latin American literature with critical thinking that I developed through the assignments, films and presentations of the courses.