Hello! My name is Julia and I am a second-year student planning to major in International Relations and Economics. I am originally from Madrid, Spain, where I have lived most of my life, and I moved to Vancouver in 2021 to study at UBC. I also lived near London for almost a year as a kid and one year in the US during high school.

I am very excited about this class. Firstly, I find very original the class format of “choose your own adventure”. I think it’s a very good idea to keep students engaged while learning about the topics and authors that interest them the most. I already took a class with Professor Beasley-Murray about colonialism in Latin America and Latin American literature, which I found very interesting. I think that the content that I acquired in that class will work as a background of knowledge for many of the books that I will read in this course,. Therefore, I am very excited about further exploring Latin American culture and literature.

I expect to expand my knowledge of Latin American authors by understanding and analyzing their work and their backgrounds. My perceptions and knowledge on Latin American literature aren’t very broad. Since I studied in Spain, many of the Spanish-written novels or books that I have read so far were from Spanish authors, which is the main reason why I am excited about reading books from Latin American authors. I want to learn more about several authors I am familiar with and with their writing styles and mindsets, especially García Márquez, Borges, and Neruda. These are the authors that I am more excited to read but I look forward to exploring the literary work of many other writers that I am discovering thanks to this class.

Who’s literary work are you looking forward to reading the most in this course? Why?