Teaching Nuyorican Poetry in Catalonia

I started teaching this week at one of the universities to which I've been assigned. The population is quite a mix, with some international students and a majority consisting of local students.  Although we've only met twice, it's fair to say that almost everyone speaks at least two languages.  Even the students from the U.S., one of whom is a blue-eyed Californian, speaks Spanish with an impressive accent. 

The course is Contemporary American Literature, and I had the freedom to select a theme and a focus, so naturally, I chose Latino literature.  Last week, I learned that students wouldn't have their books for at least two weeks, so I rearranged the schedule so that assigned readings would come from websites.  One of those was Sandra Maria Esteves' poem, "Who is Going to Tell Me?," which is very critical, to say the least, of Spain's history of colonialism in Puerto Rico.  I wish I could say that I scheduled this poem for the second day of class for the sake of intellectual debate, but the fact is, it was just easier to assign, given the textbook situation.  Still, I worried that perhaps I was setting an untended tone for the class.  For all I knew, I could be perceived as a Yankee in Spain's court. I was upfront about this concern when the day came to discuss the poem, and I expected at least some students to have doubts about the selection or the content of the poem, but that wasn't the case.  In fact, the student reaction to the poem was very positive, and that's in part because of what I learned from one of the students after class.

I am not just teaching in Spain--I'm teaching in Barcelona, Catalonia, and this region has had a history of conflict with the government of Spain. A recent example is the country's recent debate over bullfighting, which Madrid considers an art, and Catalonia views as animal cruelty.  Some of this plays out in sports, in the rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid.  Another example is language.  What we call "Spanish" is called "Castellano" in this area.  People here speak Catalan.  E-mails I get from the university are in Catalan, my computer is set in Catalan, menus are in Catalan.  Like the students, the faculty are polylingual, so communicating hasn't been a problem. There is, of course, much more to the history of Catalonia and Catalan. All of this means that the semester promises to be very enlightening.  And with a little luck, students will also learn something too.