In this section, I demonstrate my cultural competence by showcasing a presentation and lesson plan on Spain cultural practices and a cultural product analysis on a renowned cubist painting by a Spanish artist.
I selected the cultural practice pieces because music, dance, and food are essential elements to a culture. These elements open opportunities to understand peoples of the particular culture, and the pieces show my progression towards understanding them. I created the first piece in this section before studying abroad in Spain. At the time, I wanted to study the cultural importance of Flamenco, an Andalucian music and dance style, for its heavy influence in Paso Doble, a type of International Ballroom Dance that I dance. I learned through compiling the information that Spanish people used to sing Flamenco to express their feelings, and it developed into an artform with vocals, guitarists, and dancers through generations. After taking the Iberian Civilization course and visiting religious sites in Andalucia where Jewish, Christian, and Arabic had all left their mark, I was able to visualize how those cultures had all contributed to the development of Flamenco art form. The second piece I selected for this section is a lesson plan for teaching a Spanish dish, the tapas. I included this because it reflected my learning from living in Spain that tapas, aside from satisfying people's appetite, have served as means of uniting people to a central hub in a community, from bars in small towns to clubs in metropolitan areas, and connecting people not only physically but also emotionally. When I first arrived in Spain, I was amazed by the variety of tapas each city offers. As time went on, I began to recognize the regional availabilities in ingredients and how that affect the options of tapas served. In addition, presentations on foods can usually capture language learners' attention while acting as a gateway to a deeper understanding of language and cultural concepts.
The cultural product piece that I selected was due to my expansion of knowledge on Spain's contemporary culture and my ability to connect Spain's cultural products to those from other cultures in different eras. For example, I have known that Picasso was an icon in Cubism since elementary school. My art teacher even led us to create artwork similar to Guernica's style. However, from Dr. John R. Rosenberg's lecture at Reina Sofia, the museum that displays Guernica, I learned that scholars argue that the painting resembles neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David's Les Sabines. Both shared the triangular compositional element, the objects they portrayed, and the purpose of visualizing the cruelty of wars. Thanks to the Contemporary Cultures in Spain course that I took during my study abroad, I learned so much more about the context of Guernica under the Spanish Civil War, the conflict between the Basque Country and the rest of Spain, and the rise of fascism in Spain during Franco's regime. Moreover, I have taken an art, music, and literature history class that helped me connect my learnings from Spain's contemporary culture and art to music and literature from other periods. Though different in historical, political, and social contexts, the artworks expressed a universal theme of death and suffering to the audience. My analysis of the selected cultural product allowed me to explore and draw deeper connections between Spanish cultures and other cultures.
While I have learned a great deal in my classes, I have not yet seen past the tip of the iceberg of Spanish culture. Therefore, I plan to continue learning about Spanish-speaking cultures by visiting more Spanish-speaking countries. Even though they speak the same language, the cultures and language usage vary drastically between each country. I also want to expand my readings in scholarly papers on Spanish-speaking cultures and Spanish literary works and frequent museums in those countries to enlarge my understanding of the cultures in historical and literary contexts. In addition, I would like to stay up to date on news, movies, and music to continue developing my understanding of contemporary Spanish cultures.