SPAN 495 - Special Topics
Course Description: Through the completion of a community project, students will demonstrate that they have actively immersed themselves in authentic Hispanic cultural and linguistic environments and have internalized the language and cultural experience, from which they have developed personal understanding and new perspectives of Hispanic communities.
Fulfills: MLO 5
Fulfills: MLO 5
Course Reflective Narratives
I took SPAN 495: Special Topics with Dr. Fernández in the Spring of 2023. In this course, I was able to complete the MLO 5 requirement for a community project. Through taking this course, we demonstrated our understanding and how we have immersed ourselves far more in the Spanish language and culture. I would like to emphasize the completion of the community project and how much work was put into it. In order to satisfy this requirement I needed to analyze two books on a topic I was interested in. Using those books I had to conduct two interviews from people in my community in order to make connections between the interviews and the books analyzed. I decided to conduct my research on the topic of homosexuality with Mexican men, using the books Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by author Benjamin Alire Sáenz and El vampiro de la colonia Roma by author Luis Zapata. I also had the opportunity to interview a gentleman who identifies as a gay Mexican-American, who lives in California, United States. The second gentleman identifies himself as a gay Mexican, who lives in the state of Michoacán, México. The interviews were held through ZOOM and had a duration of approximately 28 minutes to and hour, where I asked questions regarding their experience with their homosexual identity, coming out, experiences with Mexican culture and values, as well as queer culture and values. The purpose of the assignment was to compare and contrast the values of the participants interviewed with Aristotle and Adonis, main characters from their respected books. After conducting the interviews and analyzing their personal experiences, I was able to learn so much about them and observe the comparisons within both individuals. I was able to learn a lot about the homosexual identity and life from this experience and what I found most interesting was l was learning about the different perspectives from two homosexual identifying Mexican men, demonstrating that all gay men are NOT alike or a stereotype. I enjoyed the course and class project, since I was able to interact with others and learn about their story. The course taught me how to prepare for a project by preparing questions before an interview and asking new questions as the interview went on. The interview and literature readings allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of Hispanic cultural perspectives and experience.