Hi everyone!

I really can’t believe we have come to the end of this class already. This semester has gone by so fast…almost too quick at times I think. Come to think of it, full honesty, I’m glad this semester is coming to a close. But, that’s not to say there weren’t good memories, too!–Thankfully, this class was one of them:) I won’t lie, the past few weeks have been pretty chaotic and unforgiving these past 3 weeks, with lots coming up out of my control, but this class is a nice constant.

This semester I really challenged myself with this class. I haven’t taken a literature-based class since 2016-2017 when I took AP Lit in high school, and I am a terribly slow reader (trust me, my friends comment on this all the time when we split up our readings for our history classes lol). I also have little to no background in Latin American literature but knew that that was okay. I was initially nervous going into this class, especially because I joined a bit late too–I think second week? But, upon entering class for the first time, I realized that this would be a class that I enjoy for multiple reasons: a smaller class size, small discussion groups, and being able to tell right away that I will have a prof and TA who truly values learning and growth over harsh assessments or status-quo assignments–this goes into one of the very small handful of classes that I have felt this way. I quickly felt comfortable and any nerves I had dissipated with time. I REALLY enjoyed this class. I’ve been at UBC for a while now, taken a couple gap years, gone out and worked in the non-profit sector for a bit, travelled, came back, and I can honestly say I’ve never taken a class like this at UBC–it was so refreshing:)

I want to bring it back to my point on small-group discussions: I really loved this part of the course. Typically, I am very extroverted and love connecting with others, but at times, I get really nervous about participating in class due to being anxious that my thoughts will never carry over well. But, I am so thankful to Jon and Daniel for encouraging us to just say our thoughts and share them with the class/our small group because it really did contribute to my learning and pushed me to engage with the course content in a more meaningful way. I also think that reading a book each week pushed me to look for patterns or things that I might not have originally jumped to in our first week reading Mama Blanca. Toward the end of the semester, whenever I approached a book, it’s almost like I had a system–watch/read the lecture, get some background, do some external research, then delve into the book. From that point, I’d then look for words repeated throughout the book. I was no longer just trying to get to the next page, but I was thinking more deeply about the overall themes and connections throughout the book, or I would try to think about what messages the author is trying to convey, or I would try to consider the setting/history of the time of when that book was written. Having these things in mind each week really equipped me to allow myself to conduct more meaningful work and really take in what Jon was trying to teach each week–this made it all the more worthwhile. For example, in Jon’s concluding lecture, he mentions the central theme of time and temporality of many of the books we read. We see history shaped and warped in different ways, and as Jon mentions, even catches up with people in different ways, too (e.g. Cartucho). This is a central theme that I began to look for in every book, every week.

Overall, I was able to take away a great amount for this course, and full honesty, although my initial intentions were taking it as my literature requirement only, I would love to take another literature course before I graduate! Thanks so much to Jon and Daniel for everything, and thanks to my classmates for the many great and insightful conversations! It’s been a blast, for real:)

My question for you: Did you have a favourite central theme that repeated itself through many of the books we read this semester? How did that central theme often play out or represent itself throughout the novels?

See y’all around:)