It’s safe to say the Spanish Department at UMass Amherst wasn’t what I was expecting. I partly chose this major when I applied because this was my strong suit in High School, but I also chose it because I was inspired by my community. Growing up in the Northampton Public school system just down the road from UMass, I witnessed many levels of racism and classism beginning in elementary school: our classrooms were segregated, with myself and all my other white friends from educated families in one class, and our peers that were black, hispanic, poor, misbehaved, and any combination of these in the other class usually with the older, harsher teacher. In high school, the Spanish speaking students who had recently immigrated from Latin America were taught in one classroom removed from the rest of the student body, and I didn’t know these students’ names for quite some time. I had the honor of befriending these students when we started an after school club for Spanish learners and English learners to converse and practice together. This brought so much joy to both parties and I realized that as long as I was to be a part of a community where there were people learning “my” language, it was my duty to learn theirs. 

As a Spanish major at UMass I learned far more than just the mechanics of the language. A large part of my studies were devoted to Latinx and cultural studies. As a Spanish major I had the opportunity to take a wide range of courses outside of the department that turned out to be highly supplemental. As I learned about critical race theory in my Legal Studies and Honors College courses, I was able to apply this in my Spanish classes where we discussed immigration policy and health disparities in the U.S. I began reading work by Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherrie Moraga in my Gender Studies courses and was overjoyed when I was able to translate the excerpts that were in Spanish and gain an additional understanding of their words. My Latinx Studies and Gender Studies classes continued to overlap and I am now graduating UMass with a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Latinx person in the United States, what my own identity as a white woman in the U.S. means, how the politics of race, gender, and language intersect, and I find myself with an even greater passion for community work that uplifts those who are marginalized; whose identities are seen as strange and unimportant. The Spanish major at UMass provided me with an alternate and vital perspective with which to view my other academic areas as well as the world, because knowing in more than one language only enhances and adds depth to this knowledge.

Take classes with Luis Marentes, Stephanie Fetta, Carla Suárez-Vega, Meghan Armstrong… I’m sure there are many more I didn’t have the privilege of studying with… & seek for classes outside of the department that excite you :)

I’ll end with words from Gloria Anzaldúa that encompass what countless others have spoken, or not spoken. 

Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate. I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue – my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.