This episode of reading around the world brings me to Mexico and Pedro Paramo. It’s a country that I’ve spent a lot of time in, as a tourist and a Fulbrighter, and I love it so much. This book is a classic of magical realist literature in a new translation that shows why it has… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Mexico
To the People of San Esteban Mártir
Are we strangers? I think we are, in large part due to our huge language barrier, although social class came into play. Mexican society is hierarchical, and I’m an upper-middle class white lady. I started visiting your parish while teaching at the Universidad de Guadalajara through the Fulbright program in the winter of 2019. My… [Read More]
The Truth of Cinco de Mayo
a gringa who usually lives in the Wrigley Field Night Game Parking Zone, so Cinco de Mayo is real to me. And yet, the reason for the season has been a mystery to me. It’s not a statutory public holiday in Mexico, unlike March 21 (Benito Juarez’s birthday) or Labor Day (May 1). Marketers are… [Read More]
Foreign Language Final Exam
(Note: as I struggle with learning a foreign language, I wrote this little piece. It’s supposed to be humorous – or is it?) This semester we have learned how to ask for directions to the library, analyzed passages by the greatest of the foreign language’s authors,and parsed details about the proper uses of the subjunctive… [Read More]
México: Adventures of a language learner
My Spanish skills are not bad. I studied for a while before arriving in México, and I continue to work with a grammar workbook, read books in Spanish, watch Spanish-language television shows, and practice in daily life. I walk along the shore of Spanish, taking it in, but occasionally taking a step and finding myself… [Read More]
