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Although I completed my Spanish minor in Argentina, I decided to take a Spanish class this semester just for fun. Spanish 4471: Spanish American Literature. While originally contemplating why I would voluntarily take a 4000 level, three-credit hour, reading course "for fun," the first week and a half has already proven my gut feeling correct.

The literature on the syllabus is all short stories and poems written by Latin American authors, which carry not just new vocabulary- but a lot of meaning and symbolism. Today, we read a story called El Matadero by Esteban Echeverría, a writer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It described what happened during Lent in the early 1800s when a poor neighborhood near Río de la Plata in Argentina flooded, and the city of Buenos Aires had such a huge beef shortage (going on 15 days) that they were killing their own citizens for meat.

Regardless of the crazy plot line (which we read many stories like in Argentina), it was so fulfilling to read this story entirely in Spanish and know that I not only gained this skill by studying abroad, but so much background knowledge along with it. El Matadero had a lot of references to the corrupt government, specific neighborhoods and culture of Argentina, and I understood them perfectly. It was truly a feeling of accomplishment to so easily pick up on the cultural hints and the value of how much traveling and familiarizing yourself with different places and cultures teaches you. Who knew that it would take reading literature in another language to get me to appreciate English literature and the significance of analyzing authors, their whereabouts and more!