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| photos courtesy of Greg Hamann |
LBCC President Greg Hamann recently returned from Puebla, Mexico from a six-week learning adventure. Accompanied by his wife Rita for a cultural emersion program via the Spanish Institute of Puebla, they studied the language and culture for six hours a day and took "field trips" to historic sites.
They lived with a host family, a retired couple with a large extended family, in what is the fourth largest city in Mexico. The metro area of Puebla is home to 2.7 million people. In comparison, the Portland metro area has 2.3 million people.
"Our host family didn't speak any English. It was very interesting but we still found ways to communicate," said Hamann.
After the 2010 census, data showed that over the next decade LBCC will need to prepare for an increase of students in the region of Hispanic decent. In preparation for this, Hamann decided to pursue the emersion program to better understand their roots, and in return, better serve them as students.
"We have all kinds of false ideas of what Mexico is about based on the media or the 100 miles along the border. We think of it as this lawless place and that's not true."
Puebla is a designated historic city and is the site of the battle Cinco de Mayo. Built by the Spanish in the 1500s, it has a Roman Catholic influence. There are century-old stone buildings towering among modern skyscrapers.
"You don't run into things that are very old in the U.S. but there are buildings, churches, that are hundreds of years old."
Puebla is now home to large industrial and manufacturing entities such as Volkswagon, making all the Beetles of the world there.
"People everywhere are suffering from growing pains, there's construction there everywhere."
The city draws most tourists from other parts of Mexico or Europe but is not frequented by many Northern Americans. For this reason Hamann recalled meeting only a few people from the States, most of which visited Puebla and never left.
His time there revealed differences in the way that people relate to each other in comparison to people in the U.S. For example, he saw very little homelessness. His interpretation of this is because families have a cultural setting, putting their members above all else, giving a deeper fabric of connection and sharing all they have with each other.
He saw a culture of trust that is beyond anything he has seen in the States. Namely, the way street food is purchased. The sidewalks are lined with food choices. When getting a meal, you are not expected to pay for it until you are done eating. It's considered impolite to ask for money ahead of time.
"People take their food, wander around, and then come back and pay for it. I saw it many times."
Just like in the U.S., there are people that don't have a lot, but by his account it didn't seem to matter.
"They did seem to be happier with less than we have. They just seem to be happy with each other."
They lived with a host family, a retired couple with a large extended family, in what is the fourth largest city in Mexico. The metro area of Puebla is home to 2.7 million people. In comparison, the Portland metro area has 2.3 million people.
"Our host family didn't speak any English. It was very interesting but we still found ways to communicate," said Hamann.
After the 2010 census, data showed that over the next decade LBCC will need to prepare for an increase of students in the region of Hispanic decent. In preparation for this, Hamann decided to pursue the emersion program to better understand their roots, and in return, better serve them as students.
"We have all kinds of false ideas of what Mexico is about based on the media or the 100 miles along the border. We think of it as this lawless place and that's not true."
Puebla is a designated historic city and is the site of the battle Cinco de Mayo. Built by the Spanish in the 1500s, it has a Roman Catholic influence. There are century-old stone buildings towering among modern skyscrapers.
"You don't run into things that are very old in the U.S. but there are buildings, churches, that are hundreds of years old."
Puebla is now home to large industrial and manufacturing entities such as Volkswagon, making all the Beetles of the world there.
"People everywhere are suffering from growing pains, there's construction there everywhere."
The city draws most tourists from other parts of Mexico or Europe but is not frequented by many Northern Americans. For this reason Hamann recalled meeting only a few people from the States, most of which visited Puebla and never left.
His time there revealed differences in the way that people relate to each other in comparison to people in the U.S. For example, he saw very little homelessness. His interpretation of this is because families have a cultural setting, putting their members above all else, giving a deeper fabric of connection and sharing all they have with each other.
He saw a culture of trust that is beyond anything he has seen in the States. Namely, the way street food is purchased. The sidewalks are lined with food choices. When getting a meal, you are not expected to pay for it until you are done eating. It's considered impolite to ask for money ahead of time.
"People take their food, wander around, and then come back and pay for it. I saw it many times."
Just like in the U.S., there are people that don't have a lot, but by his account it didn't seem to matter.
"They did seem to be happier with less than we have. They just seem to be happy with each other."
The sense of community was integrated into neighborhoods. Social gatherings and street parties with tents and activites took over the streets daily. Everyone was invited and many brought food to share.
"I ran every morning, and every morning somebody was celebrating something."
Hamann enjoyed exploring the food Mexico had to offer. He tried native eats such as cactus and fried crickets. He rarely ate bread but had plentiful tortillas. He ate a lot of eggs, chicken, fresh fruit and juices, and sauces on everything.
"A sauce which we call molé is from Puebla. The real and original molé is made of chocolate and I can't tell you how many times I ate it!"
On their first weekend, he recalled an afternoon they attended a family lunch with their host family.
"I didn't know that meant we were going to eat, talk, and drink for the next seven hours. It was fantastic. They just like being together."
But some things remain the same. As in the case of interaction between the host family and their granddaughter who visited them every Thursday and who is shopping for colleges.
"It's the same conversation we have here - they argue about where they will go to school."
One afternoon Hamann and Rita rode the bus for 40 cents from one end to another. They decided to walk much of the way back seeing the city as the locals see it, discovering cafes serving coffee locally grown and stopping into sports bars with avid futball fans.
"Sometimes I think you can really learn about a place by intentionally getting lost."
Their emersion classes were with a diverse group of students from Ireland, Slovakia, London, Canada, and the Netherlands. One of the trips the class took was to the pyramids of Teotihuacan just outside of Puebla in Cholula. The pyramids date back to 100 B.C.E.
"You walk amongst these pyramids and these houses, or what is left of them, and it's amazing. We just don't have things like that here."
"We in the United States are so aware [of our differences] but I didn't get the sense that's what they fixated on."
His emersion taught him to read Spanish and he can now grammatically organize a sentence. He admits he is still a little lost when speaking and hearing the language but can get the general idea.
"You really can't understand the language if you don't understand the culture because it's all a matter of context. So you have to learn culture at the same time you learn language. That's the beauty of an emersion school. We felt really positive about our experience."
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