Blackness in Spanish Culture: Multimodal Texts for Language Learners

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 2:30 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Youths' Lived Experiences, Geopolitical Contexts, and Anti-Colonial Literacies (Table 3)

Abstract

How do we expand students' experiences of global blackness and reclaim the black epistemologies that inform Spanish culture at all levels of the language curriculum? Our pedagogical intervention positions the experiences, knowledges, and talents of Afrodescendant Spaniards to better understand how blackness is integral to Spain's intellectual, creative, and socio-economic institutions despite its erasure from the textbooks. Through an antiracist multiliteracies approach, we examine visual and literary texts that encourage our students to dismantle the anti-black Spanish instructional materials and learning experiences that make the classroom inhospitable for black students. Our paper provides ideas for teaching documentaries examining the legacy of slavery and the contributions of AfroSpaniards in Early Modern Spain, and the works of contemporary black creative artists.

Authors

• Gonzalo Baptista, Morgan State University

• Lennie Amores, Albright College