Culture and Community
The Other Side of the Wall: Americanization of Mexico, January term 2020
Final project
As a culmination of my 16 days in Mexico over January term, I wrote a paper which details the socio-cultural implications of American advertising in Mexico. This paper connects my two majors together in an interesting way, primarily focusing on the role of American corporations as global and local actor in Mexico and the ways American advertising pushes cultural ideals onto other countries.
This paper shows how I can apply my cultural skills in my future career, but it also shows the impact the experiences in Mexico had on me. In this paper, I speak about the dichotomy of urban and rural life which impacts the perception of American brands. This is something that I saw first hand. On my first day in Guadalajara, I noted just how different the areas we drove through from the airport to out hotel were. This learning continued as we went beyond the "tourist" view of the city and experienced both traditional and commercialized markets. In those moments, the lifestyle differences between people and the social class system became very apparent. This trip truly immersed me in the culture of Guadalajara, which had a significant impact on this writing.
The Other Side of the Wall: Americanization of Mexico, January term 2020
Reflection on visit to La Casa del Migrante
On the same trip to Guadalajara, I had the opportunity to visit Casa del Migrante, a church- run center for providing meals, housing, and supplies to migrants moving toward the U.S. This experience was life changing for me. It is one thing to read about or see the way migrants are portrayed in the U.S. media, but it is a completely different experience to have lunch with a 10 year old girl who is making the journey to the U.S. with her parents. I felt the culture of Latin America in this experience- the generosity of a priest doing what he can to help others, people who started a journey not knowing one another connecting over shared experiences and hopes, the overarching theme, family and community. This was a day packed with social, cultural, and political significance which I feel is important to include as I reflect on what I have learned in terms off culture through my Spanish coursework.
My J-term class at Casa del Migrante
Latin American Legends, Fall 2019
Legends project
This paper is the result of a conversation with a woman from Guatemala about legends that she learned as a child. In this course, I learned the significance of the legend and oral tradition in Latin American culture. Legends are more than stories, they are shared knowledge passed from one generation to another, and they form part of a shared understanding between people in the culture. I enjoyed this process of learning about legends from someone who grew up with them, as well as exploring the ways that parents used legends to control their children. I included this artifact as an example of a way that I have learned about culture in my Spanish coursework. The class also helped to continue to spread awareness of this culture in the Des Moines area through a partnership with a Drake University art class. This work has a greater significance when considering how we were able to use the information to inform a larger population about Latin American culture through art created as a result of these conversations. A big part of learning about culture to me is being able to understand it and explain it to others, which this project helped me to do.
