In this course, the class focused on strengthening our grammar skills in Spanish, as well as developing our writing skills after reading stories by prolific Hispanic authors and novelists. Personally, I felt that I was able to expand my knowledge and proficiency as a writer in Spanish, as well as my understanding of the language in general. Writing stories can be hard, especially so when its in another language, but I enjoyed myself while doing so.
I enhanced this course to count as an honors class, and I’m glad I did so. I was able to write a short story in Spanish that expanded off of La siesta del martes (Tuesday Siesta) written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the father of what is known as magic realism. A couple of his most notable works include Cien años de soledad (100 Years of Solitude) and El amor en el tiempos del cólera (Love in the Time of Cholera).
In La siesta del martes, a young girl and her mother travel to another town to visit the grave of her older brother, who was shot by a woman after she saw him robbing her home. The girl was unable to understand what was going on completely, but knew that her mother was devastated. My story picks up years after the original story’s events: the girl is now a woman who makes the journey back to the town where her brother is buried to find the actual reason for his death, with a little help from a familiar ghost.
In addition to writing the story, I was able to illustrate it, have a few copies printed off (thanks to my professor, Dra. Goetz), and present it with a poster at the 2019 Fall Showcase.
