With postcards, addressing culture in the L2 classroom follows an "if-these-walls-could-talk" design by telling the story of what "those walls" might say. A postcards approach is shown to enrich our students' cultural understanding. In many cases, it enhances their desire to experience the target culture on their own. Postcards…

This article touches upon the many social, political, and economic issues that negatively and disproportionately impact Afro-Mexicans (Sanders 2020). While reading, students are asked to circle the geographic areas mentioned in the article on a map of Mexico; this not only acquaints them with Mexican geography but also focuses their attention on…

This article explores gaming manifestations of the US-centric Mexican threat narrative in the context of the so-called drug war, by analyzing Manichean representations of characters, settings, and language (English and Spanish). It argues that videogames construct the concept of the Mexican subject in direct opposition to the US subject--in a…

This essay seeks to situate Eugenio Aguirre's novel, "Isabel Moctezuma," in the ongoing intertextual debate over the place of la Malinche in Mexican history and consciousness. As the title of the novel suggests, the protagonist is not Malinche, but rather another indigenous woman, the first-born daughter of the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma…

This study examines the impact that membership in a Spanish language theater and poetry troupe had upon a group of Mexican and Chicano university students in terms of the development of academic identities, feelings of belonging, connections with friends and family, and other factors that correlate with academic perseverance. Also examined was the…

This article examines Octavio Paz's canonical study of Mexican identity, "El laberinto de la soledad", against the backdrop of the current political environment in the United States; it interrogates how we can make Paz's rich, ambitious text meaningful for today's undergraduates. How can we teach "El laberinto de la soledad" in…

In his "Relación de Texcoco," Juan Bautista de Pomar (c. 1535-90) takes a political and moral stance against Spanish colonialism in Texcoco and the entire viceroyalty of New Spain. Responding to the "Instrucción y memoria's" (1577) request for information about the history and cultural practices of local populations, Pomar…

Detailing the integration of Spanish language teaching in an authentic setting, this article contributes to empirical research on the positive value of community-engaged learning in foreign language pedagogy. "Reading to Play, Playing to Read" is an innovative model for community-engaged teaching that combines learning goals from…

This study explores which features of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) pronunciation most impact raters' evaluations. Native Spanish speakers (NSSs) from regions with different pronunciation norms were polled: 147 evaluators from northern Mexico and 99 evaluators from central Argentina. These evaluations were contrasted with ratings from…

Francisco Rojas Gonzalez's 1944 novel "La negra Angustias" is recognized as the only novel of the Mexican Revolution that features a black woman military officer. Critics have observed that, although this semi-biographical novel portrays Angustias as a gender nonconformist who seeks justice for women and the poor, the conclusion ushers…

Following observations and interviews with transnational children that have one or more years of school in the United States and are now in school in Mexico, it was determined that the Mexican public school system has no mechanism in place to offer them the support they need. Therefore, I collaborated with Mexican university students to seek…

Before creating a linguistic map of Mexican dialects, it is necessary to determine the dialect regions of the country. An extensive questionnaire must be written and distributed to collect data from a representative sample of the population for an accurate picture of the language. (CK) (Text in Spanish.)

Examines two Spanish-language short stories that use language as a codifying system for examining false institutions, antiquated prejudices, and iron-cal hierarchies that have been erected in the name of Mexican culture. (12 references) (GLR)

The evolution of the Spanish language is due, in part, to popular culture and radio, television, films and advertising. Many words take on altered meaning when used in casual, intimate or slangy conversation; included is a list of such words with their informal connotations, as used by many Mexicans. (Text is in Spanish.) (CK)