Usually viewpoints are negative personal testimonies about services provided by the university or a lack thereof. I wanted to take the opportunity to point out a positive aspect that the university has implemented in the Spanish program. There is a small, dedicated core of twelve students who move carefully and cautiously through the upper-level Spanish courses. These students, myself included, move as a unit, repeatedly interacting and becoming more of a family than as just a group of individuals.
Generally, these classes only focus on the literature and culture of a particular group of countries; however, this semester we were surprised by the introduction of a new class, Hispanic American Film. This class, taught by Dr. Alfred A. Fernandez, examines the culture as represented by the films of that particular country. We examine the cinematic techniques that these films contain, such as tone, light, movement, and composition, and present our ideas on how these techniques help to either enhance or detract from the overall message of the film in the form of written works or through discussion.
The films cover a variety of topics that concern not only Hispanic life and culture, but that may also pertain to other cultures as well. Films such as Viridiana and Belle Epoque focus on the mixture of love and war, while another, El Milagro en Roma, examines the power and control of religion in the lives of individuals.
In addition to these three films, we also examine gay and lesbian themes and the Latin American attitude toward such things like the Castro regime in the Cuban film Fresa y Chocolate. These topics all create a different perspective from each student in the class and initiate the thought process on how these films represent the culture of a country.
The opinions are varied, but all have a common thread. Being in a class like this allows one to gain a greater appreciation of the Hispanic American culture, in Spain and in Latin America. For instance, Adriana Alvarado, a senior Spanish major, believes that she has “the opportunity to get to know more about films from other Latin American countries,” something she has not had the opportunity to do with her other Spanish classes.
While Perla Salazar, a junior Spanish major, thinks that by being in this class, she is able to learn about “different cultures, the language, and the styles of writers in each Latin American country.”
These opinions, echoed by the other members of the class, show the extent to which this class has on the life of the individuals who take it. It has a dual role and purpose, one of which is to educate its students about the cinematic techniques and elements that are commonly used in Hispanic American films, and the other being to impact the life of the individuals in the class by helping to erase stereotypes and misconceptions that are held about the Hispanic American population.