The Spanish AP and Spanish literature class, taught by Cora Acebron Tolosa, recently went on a very unique field trip. Students had the option to pick between what location they wanted to go to, and the two classes ended up agreeing to go to the Mexican Cultural Institute. The Mexican Cultural Institute, located in Washington D.C., is a building filled with paintings, venues, cool interior designs and overall is a mesmerizing location and building.
The trip took place on March 11. Students left a little after first block and ended up coming back late in the afternoon. Sophomore Alondra Gonzalez talked about what she learned from attending this trip, saying, “I learned that [The Institute’s] goal is to try to spread Mexican culture and that they want to preserve their culture.” Gonzales explained why she thinks it was a convenient location to visit, saying, “It’s a place that was not too far from us and it was a very good option since most people like to learn about other cultures.” Gonzales also shared what her overall thoughts about the trip were. “I’m very glad Mrs. Tolosa found a way to teach us about Mexican culture in a fun way by taking us there,” said Gonzales.
Sophomore Cynthia Salazar was another one of the students that attended the field trip. She shared how that class has not had any recent field trips and what they decided to do. Salazar said “We haven’t really taken any field trips in Mrs. Tolosa’s class for a couple years and our curriculum in general had a lot of authors that originated from Mexico, so we c hose [the Mexican Cultural Institute].” Salazar shared why it was a fun trip for her, “I would say it was a fun trip because I’m Mexican and it was nice to see the culture, but I would say my favorite part was the murals because there were a lot of nice paintings…I learned about lots of cool stories that resembled the paintings there, and also learnt a lot about people that I knew about, but never knew how important their importance was.”
Senior Jake Miller provided an explanation on why his Spanish literature class decided to go to the Mexican Cultural Institute. “We decided to go because we wanted to get a more in depth view of Mexican culture, which we are reading about right now. The museum also has Aztec culture too and we are actually reading the letters of Hernan Cortez In our Spanish literature class,” said Miller. Miller said his favorite memory was “being able to understand everything they [the instructors] were saying. “Which I guess means the work has been paying off,” Miller added. It seems that this trip not only was just for the students to visit but to help them learn about Mexican culture better. It shows that being able to physically see these paintings, statues and culture teaches them a lot.
