Tag: spanish

Explore Latin America Through Film

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By Hilary Broman

Staff Reporter and Photographer

You don’t need to know how to speak Spanish to take the new Latin American Film studies class, said Jean Silesky, class instructor.

The Latin American film class will be offered for the first time in the 2017 spring term and it will fulfill a humanities elective credit, Silesky said.

It is a part of the new Latin American studies associates program, she said, but anybody can take the class.

To register for the class students can find it under LTAM 1111, Silesky said.

The class will be at main campus in Tuesday evenings from 6:00-9:20pm, she said.

The class focuses on themes such as migration, war and conflict, women’s issues, and environmental issues, she said.

Students will watch eight critically acclaimed feature films in class and will also be required to watch films outside of class, she said.

There is not a required textbook for the class, said Silesky.

“The movies are our text,” she said.

The class includes films from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay and more, she said.

The class is about encouraging students to look at the world from a different perspective, Silesky said.

“Foreign films allow us to travel vicariously,” she said, “I just want to open students up to see the world.”

Film in Latin America can be used as a learning tool rather than just entertainment, Silesky said,

And it can be intense and in your face.

“When we go elsewhere we see that there are other ways to live and to be and yet everyone is the same in the sense that everyone wants to be happy and to have a family; these things are a part of the human experience,” she said.

Silesky encourages students to study abroad both through film and in person, she said.

She spent time studying in Costa Rica when she was in school and it was an eye-opening experience, she said.

Students often think that studying abroad is for people with money but there are so many opportunities to be able to go abroad, she said, you just have to seek them out.

Overall, Silesky wants to promote global perspective and outlook, she said.

“It can be scary,” she said “but it can also be very eye opening.”

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Chronicle Interviews Local Author Andrés Armijo on the Significance of Día de los Muertos in Albuquerque.

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Heather Hay interviews Guest Writer of the Chronicle CNM Program Manager at the Stemulus Center and local author Andrés Armijo on Oct 31, 2016

[Chronicle] How long have you been at CNM and why did you decide to perform this talk?

[Andrés]  I’m actually a program manager at CNM, and I began working at CNM in January 2015. My teaching experience in Spanish and Southwest Hispanic Studies started in 1996, at UNM. Last year, Jim Johnson had contacted me to see if I would be interested in giving a presentation on Día de los Muertos for one of his classes. I am not an expert on death, however as an author, I have written about some death circumstances in family history. With a master’s degree in Spanish, and Southwest Hispanic Studies, Día de los Muertos is a big part of our culture in the Southwest, and one of my interests.

[Chronicle] What have you noticed, if anything, a change in the way people in Albuquerque celebrate the Day of the Dead?

[Andrés] In recent years the celebration of Día de los Muertos has become popular, if not commercial. I am a native New Mexican Hispanic (Nuevo Mexicanos) and a gen-x. When I was an undergraduate and graduate student, I started seeing more expressions of Día de los Muertos, although for my parent’s generation and before that Día de los Muertos was not very familiar to them. However, recent immigration from our Mexican primos has caused a greater awareness of this important day, and this is fortunate.  If you were a Nuevo Mexicanos of generations before me, you would have been accustomed to Halloween (October 31) as a wide-spread costume celebration. In New Mexican Catholocisim, and throughout the Southwest, (and the Spanish speaking/Catholic world, for this matter) one would have observed All Hallow’s Eve (October 31) as the igil of All Saints Day – a holy day of obligation on the liturgical calendar. Of course, this leads up to All Saints Day and All Souls Day – November 1, and November 2, respectively. Fortunately for new and recent immigration from Mexico and other Spanish speaking places in Latin America (New Mexico is, indeed, Latin America) we have enjoyed observation and celebration of Día de los Muertos as integrated in Nuevo Mexicano/Southwest Hispano cultures. From the Marigold Parade in the South Valley of Alburquerque to commercial celebrations in and around the city, this “cultural flourishment” is natural, logical, beautiful and rightly in its place.

[Chronicle] What do you think college students would be most surprised to learn about this tradition?

[Andrés]  Likely, all of the above, but mostly that this is not a costume party – its reverence is in its title – day of the dead – that is, respect, reverence, observance and celebration of those lives who have passed on, and whose souls we commemorate.

[Chronicle] Do you think that CNM or colleges in general do enough to promote local cultural events like the Day of the Dead?

[Andrés]  I think groups like the Hispanic Heritage Task Team are doing a great job in organizing, celebrating and observing. When communities within communities observe traditions and celebrations, it causes a fortunate effect on disseminating information about culture to the individual, the immediate community, and communities around it.

[Chronicle]  What is a reason you can think of why it is important for students here in the Southwest to understand this tradition?

[Andrés]  Because the truth is that New Mexico, and the Southwest – is Latin America. Latin America doesn’t stop at the political or geographical borders of Central America, South America, and North America. Latin America is alive and flourishing throughout the Southwest, in its language, peoples, religion, topography, place names and history. Culture in general is fluid and the Mexican cultures flourish in natural habitats such as in New Mexico. This was Mexico – when Mexico won its independence from Spain from being a colony, we were that northern frontier. It’s only because the U.S. invaded New Mexico in 1846 that we became a territory. The Spanish language will always be in the Southwest, as will the observance of Día de los Muertos. Migration and immigration won’t stop because it is in the world’s (people’s) nature to seek, to move, to inquire, to go to places where there are resources. People have been doing this since time immemorial, and will continue to do so. We are not lacking in resources in the Southwest for newly arrived people, and newly arrived people are not lacking in their positive and effective influences and contributions on peoples already here.

 

 

Is English your second language? | ESL special

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By Stephanie Stuckey, Staff Reporter

ESL is an acronym for English as a second language said Carol Culver, MA director of Adult Basic Education and the School of Adult & General Education.

The ESL program is under the umbrella of Adult Basic Education and has been at CNM for many years, Culver said.

“The students that go to the ESL program are generally not native speakers of the English language, and often English may be the third or fourth language that they speak,” she said.

The ESL department is located in the CNM Connect area of the SCC and anyone interested in ESL classes at CNM can sign-up for an orientation that is offered every three weeks Culver said.

Along with the orientation, the student will need to complete a placement test for proper class placement because the classes are leveled, she said.

Upon completion of the orientation process students can register for classes that they qualify for, she said.

“There is no tuition for classes offered by the ESL program since it is a federally and stated government funded program,  the books are free and provided by the program as well, but there is however a $10 registration fee,” she said.

The classes are non-credit classes, but the ESL program offers co-enrollment classes where the more advanced students can take non-credit and college credit classes, she said.

These types of classes are for ESL students interested in attending college, but might be worried that their English is not quite good enough to take college credit courses, she said.

CNM’s non-credit/credit class program offers a supplemental ESL non-credit class to accompany the college credit class to help support the student, she said.

IBEST which stands for Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training is another program offered by the ESL program;  the integrated basic education is the ESL part and the skills training part allows students to receive training in a specified skill, Culver said.

There are two participating programs currently, she said.

One in Early Childhood/Multicultural Education partnered with the CHSS department at CNM and the other is Nursing Assistant partnered with the School of Health, Wellness, & Public Safety at CNM, she said.

“These programs seem to be extremely popular with the students and have long wait lists,” she said.

Culver said they are hoping to expand these programs as well as offer programs in other areas in the future.

“Students who are not quite at this level can participate in a program called Life Skills English which is geared toward new immigrants that need more help with the basics of the English language,” she said.

Topics of this program cover things like how to function in the community such as shopping, renting an apartment, signing a lease, etc., she said.

“It gives the students opportunities to practice dialogue in these particular settings in the English language,” she said.

Other resources available to ESL students are specified tutors partnered with ACE, English conversational groups, ESL book club, and U.S. citizenship exam preparation, she said.

The ESL program also has a class available for non-native English speaking CNM custodial staff to help them improve their English for their job as well as to support them in becoming U.S. citizens, Culver said.

“The whole program of Adult Basic Education over 4,000 students walk through their door and about 60% of them are ESL students,” she said.

In Albuquerque the highest group of immigrants are Spanish speakers, but there is also a significant population of Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, and Arabic speakers as well, Culver said.

“I have spent twenty-five years teaching immigrants – thousands of students who said please help me, I want to improve my English,” Culver said.

She said when there is a large group of immigrants there is a great need and desire to learn English.

Passion for language | Instructor Spotlight: Rodney Ulibarri

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By Stephanie Stuckey, Staff Reporter

Rodney Ulibarri, faculty mentor, at CNM grew-up bi-lingual, speaking both English and Spanish at home.

He does translations for many of the academic departments of CNM as well as the CNM website, he said.

He is also an instructor for Spanish 101 and 102 level classes, he said.

“I find the differences and similarities of multiple languages very interesting,” he said.

Prior to accepting the Language Translator position at CNM he was primarily a Spanish instructor, but has also taught math courses at CNM as well, he said.

Ulibarri’s history with CNM also includes working as an achievement coach for a program called La Communidad and being a clerical specialist in the registration office, he said.

He has a bachelor degree in psychology and Spanish from the University of New Mexico as well as a masters in Linguistics, he said.

“I worked on a project of linguistic variance called a linguistic atlas which involved the history of Spanish and its relation to New Mexico,” he said.

Ulibarri said the project started in Mexico City, then went to Spain, and finally New Mexico.  He entered the project in 1991 and interviewed people from all over New Mexico.

He interviewed three different generations both female and male from the ages of 18-35, 35-65, and 65+ he said.

“The love for linguistics became evident to me when I was ten years old due to having a sister who is hearing impaired which gave me an opportunity to  learn sign language so I could communicate with her,” he said.

He began to notice similarities in Spanish and sign language in the way certain words related to each other, he said.

Ulibarri recalls his grandparents being literate in Spanish and taught him how to read in Spanish by reading the Bible and singing Spanish hymns with him, he said.

Originally from northern New Mexico, Ulibarri grew-up in the south valley of Albuquerque, he said.

He recalls as a student at Harrison Middle School, the thought of attending college did not even cross his mind, he said.

“Even though I earned above average grades, and made the honor roll, I did not think of college as an option,” he said.

Ulibarri graduated from Rio Grande High School in 1984 where many of his teachers expected him to go onto college and major in medicine or archaeology, he said.

Rodney Ulibarri working hard for students.
Rodney Ulibarri working hard for students.

Photo by Stephanie Stuckey