My motivation for choosing to major in Spanish stemmed from how much I enjoyed my Spanish classes in high school.  Although the grammar and vocabulary lessons never quite thrilled me, I loved learning about the history and culture of the Spanish-speaking world and still do.  I felt that I took to the language well, so might as well major in it.  

In this class, however, I’ve learned that the Spanish major means more than a perfect knowledge of Spanish vocabulary, more than mastering the rough terrain of subjunctives, more than sporting the best Spanish accent, more than memorizing the pasts of Spain and South America.  This class taught me that to truly understand the language, one must understand its people.  

Learning a second language necessitates the responsibility of understanding the contemporary situation of those speaking that language.  It’s one thing to learn the language, but a greater showing of respect lies in understanding the current situation of its people.  Coming from a white background, I realized I especially needed to push myself to better appreciate the U.S. latino experience.  For this reason, I found Holyoke Bound vital to our class.  Holyoke Bound exposed struggles specific to the Latino community that has resulted in a lack of upward social mobility of the population in the area.  The program also opened my eyes to see how meaningful cultural understanding can be when they spoke of having a joint Christmas and Three Kings Day celebration to welcome Puerto Ricans arriving from the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.  

The reading about the “culture of poverty” too showed me the importance of looking beyond stereotypes.  The article disproved so many common assumptions about impoverished people, demonstrating that such toxic narratives hold no truth.  

To think a student could float through the Spanish major without any real knowledge or experience with the Spanish-speaking community troubles me because this person would only have popularized stereotypes of the community to base his/her opinions off of.  Assuming this person will interact with the community with his/her Spanish degree, these interactions would fail in creating a true connection because of the lack a genuine understanding between the two. 

The understanding and appreciation of a population proves more complicated than the cut-and-dry rules of a language, but true cultural fluency, the overall goal of the Spanish major in my eyes, requires both.