Mercado: MLO5
MLO 5: Cultural Praxis (Cultural Internalization and Language Immersion)
Meeting this MLO was very easy since I am native to the Mexican culture, which is considered a Hispanic culture. However, I also satisfied this MLO with my participation in the study-abroad program for the academic year of 2011-2012. While I was abroad I became actively involved in the community, specifically in a soup kitchen, where I volunteered over 50 hours of my free time. In this center I was able to participate in the distribution of foods and supplies. I had the opportunity to communicate with several different people of ages 20 and above about the socioeconomic situation that Spain was facing at the time. Working with them helped me understand their cultural identities and I realized that it wasn’t too different from the Mexican one; the Mexican people have a lot of Spanish cultural and historical decent since they colonized them.
Living for an entire academic year in another country opened my eyes completely to a whole new culture. I learned a lot of the cultural beliefs that the Spanish people have and how religion has played a big role in their lives since the beginning of their history in Spain. Religious traditions were some cultural activities that I experienced while I was in Granada. One of the biggest traditions there was the day of Saint Cecilio. In this traditions hundreds of civilians came out for a pilgrimage and walked all around the streets of Granada. Such tradition reminded me a whole lot of the pilgrimages in Mexico and how I used to be part of them. An event that was somewhat big was the anti-Columbus day protest or also called indigenous people’s day. During this event there were many people surrounding a big statute of the head of Columbus and were giving information to the Spanish people on why they shouldn’t celebrate that holiday. I was very surprised by this protest because I do not agree of that holiday either, and to see Spaniards protesting against this event it gave me an entire different perspective of them. I also went to many flamenco shows and theater shows. I saw Boda de Sangre for the first time and also heard flamenco for the first time.
I also accomplished this MLO by talking to everyday people. For instance, I made a friend that was from Moroccan decent and she was a lot different than the Spanish girls. She was very fun and outgoing and she knew a lot of history from both of her cultures. I was very pleased to hear and learn about her cultural traditions as well as how she felt regarding certain issues with those traditions, like wearing a handkerchief around her hair every day. As a foreigner I didn’t understand the reasons she gave me, but I did learn that women have to conform to society standards, just how she might have done unconsciously.
Meeting this MLO was very easy since I am native to the Mexican culture, which is considered a Hispanic culture. However, I also satisfied this MLO with my participation in the study-abroad program for the academic year of 2011-2012. While I was abroad I became actively involved in the community, specifically in a soup kitchen, where I volunteered over 50 hours of my free time. In this center I was able to participate in the distribution of foods and supplies. I had the opportunity to communicate with several different people of ages 20 and above about the socioeconomic situation that Spain was facing at the time. Working with them helped me understand their cultural identities and I realized that it wasn’t too different from the Mexican one; the Mexican people have a lot of Spanish cultural and historical decent since they colonized them.
Living for an entire academic year in another country opened my eyes completely to a whole new culture. I learned a lot of the cultural beliefs that the Spanish people have and how religion has played a big role in their lives since the beginning of their history in Spain. Religious traditions were some cultural activities that I experienced while I was in Granada. One of the biggest traditions there was the day of Saint Cecilio. In this traditions hundreds of civilians came out for a pilgrimage and walked all around the streets of Granada. Such tradition reminded me a whole lot of the pilgrimages in Mexico and how I used to be part of them. An event that was somewhat big was the anti-Columbus day protest or also called indigenous people’s day. During this event there were many people surrounding a big statute of the head of Columbus and were giving information to the Spanish people on why they shouldn’t celebrate that holiday. I was very surprised by this protest because I do not agree of that holiday either, and to see Spaniards protesting against this event it gave me an entire different perspective of them. I also went to many flamenco shows and theater shows. I saw Boda de Sangre for the first time and also heard flamenco for the first time.
I also accomplished this MLO by talking to everyday people. For instance, I made a friend that was from Moroccan decent and she was a lot different than the Spanish girls. She was very fun and outgoing and she knew a lot of history from both of her cultures. I was very pleased to hear and learn about her cultural traditions as well as how she felt regarding certain issues with those traditions, like wearing a handkerchief around her hair every day. As a foreigner I didn’t understand the reasons she gave me, but I did learn that women have to conform to society standards, just how she might have done unconsciously.
