Window on the Latin American soul

by Nicole Findlay

Biana Laguardia, an instructor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies believes the best way to learn a language is to immerse ourselves in the culture of the host country.

Familiarity with geography, literature, politics and history all help contextualize the language and allow it to be more easily absorbed. Although this is an ideal approach, it is more challenging when the language is not part of our everyday environment.

So to provide her students with an opportunity to immerse themselves in Spanish culture if only for two hours, she lanuched a series of film festivals.

Over the last year, Laguardia has successfully mounted two film festivals. The first festival showcased four films from Cuba. The films depicted Cuban culture and the Spanish language. The festival, co-sponsored byt eh Embassy of Cuba, coincided with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and Canada.

The success fo the Cuban Cinema Festival provided the impetus for an expanded focus on Latin American films. This past September through to November, the Carleton community was treated to 10 films depicting the texture of life and culture in the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile and Columbia. A film from Spain was also included in the festival. The embassies of each of the countries depicted, selected and introduced their films at the screenings.

While the audience included her own students, the films also attracted students and faculty from a range of other programs, as well as natives of Latin America. Feedback has been so positive she is considering developing a third festival.