Frases, refranes, dichos y diretes!

De tal palo, tal astilla

Nuestra clase de literatura

As we head into the final week of our literature class, I've been thinking about the work we've looked at.

We started with Máscaras Mexicanas, an essay in El laberinto de la soledad by the brilliant Mexican writer, Octavio Paz. My suggestion. Uh oh. Bad choice. Was the essay out of date? Were we in over our heads? Ni modo, time to move on...

Next we read the short story, Después del almuerzo, by Julio Cortázar of Argentina. Better for us, I think. We were intrigued by the nonspecific 'lo' the narrator speaks of in the story -- did it refer to a person, an object, a pet? Interesting treatment of shame, responsibility, adolescence. This is a writer I want to know more about.

Mario Benedetti of Uruguay was next on the list. His story, La noche de los feos, is a tale of two young people who think of themselves as outcasts because of their appearance but find solace in one another.

El árbol de oro, by the Spanish author Ana María Matute, is written, very convincingly, in the voice of a child; we were shocked by its ghostly conclusion.

Then we chose two stories by the great Colombian, Gabriel García Márquez. The first, Ladrón de sábado, was a sly and clever, although slight tale of two people who find themselves attracted to one another under the most unlikely circumstances.

The second, Sólo vine a hablar por teléfono, tells the story of a young Mexicana, María, living in Spain during Franco's regime. Her car breaks down, she is stranded in the rain, and is grateful when a rundown bus stops to give her a lift. But in this rather macabre and disturbing account, nothing is what it seems... We disagreed about whether Maria's sufferings were the result of deliberate malice; we did agree that prejudice and false assumptions led to enormous misery in this story and that the story itself may be read as a political allegory.

Thanks, Enrique, for teaching this class. And thank you Lauren and Lynne for hanging out with me in the classroom and sharing your awesome Spanish ability. It's been a pleasure!

Online Learning

Spanish Classes at edufire

Check the Spanish Classes at edufire http://edufire.com/classes/spanish

La sonrisa es la distancia más corta entre dos personas :)

Qué sea un año lleno de amor, paz, salud, & prosperidad! Feliz Año Nuevo a Todos!

Frases Filosoficas