CEL: Immigration and the Construction of Memory

(4 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This is an advanced-intermediate fifth-semester culture-based Spanish course designed for students who want to improve their communication skills in Spanish and broaden their understanding of the Hispanic world. Students will work with selected Latino families to preserve and document their histories, creating a lasting record that they can proudly pass down to future generations. By being involved in this important project, students will not only enhance their language skills, but also their cultural awareness, of and sensitivity to, this growing demographic group, as well as further develop their civic engagement. Through literature, film, current events, and guest speakers, students will develop knowledge about migration issues, family immigration histories, and problems facing our Latino communities in general, and particularly in South Bend. Students through ethical engagements will work on a collaborative creation and preservation of memory (memory of an experience that shapes everyday life and the future). Using storytelling techniques, students will work with families to create a collaborative book detailing their life and path to our community. The dispositions that the students will further develop through this class are a better understanding of the Latino culture and appreciation for our customs, an awareness of the diversity of Latino culture, an intercultural competence as well as a reflective sensibility.