Seeing a group of 30-40 people nestled into one of the many classrooms found on BYU’s 736-acre campus might not seem like a noteworthy sight.
But for those who attended one or all of the three Spanish-language sessions held as part of BYU’s Education Week, this sight was of “immense value.”
“People can be more receptive to the Spirit in their own language,” said Minerva Henderson, a native Spanish-speaker who flew in from Hawaii specifically for Education Week. Henderson explained each person holds a kind of “spiritual connection” to their native tongue, and so it is helpful to have content available in their diverse languages.
Rex P. Nielson, director of BYU’s Humanities Center, explained that the university’s Education Week has held a handful of Spanish-language sessions for the past three years, and that each of the ones held this year were sponsored by the humanities center.
“We have a huge population in Utah of Spanish speakers that’s often invisible,” Nielson said, “and I wanted to give more visibility to this population and make sure we have content to serve those people.”
Nielson further explained the center’s decision to sponsor the three Spanish-language sessions, as well as 23 others at Education Week, was an “outgrowth” of their mission to promote humanities in building faith, inspiring discipleship and contributing to the education of others.
And the three Spanish-language sessions the center sponsored did just that, covering topics such as the value of diverse cultures, the evolution of Latin American art depicting Christ and the methodology of the gospel in humanities.
Of the second Spanish-language session, Henderson said she loved learning how different cultures and indigenous groups both perceived and represented deity throughout history.
She added that her increased understanding helped her learn “human beings have always had that need and desire to know and understand what exists, what exists in the kingdom of heaven, and above all, what Jesus Christ was like when he was here on earth.”
Reflecting on the first session, two sisters — Claudia and Karina Mendez — said the speaker’s counsel to seek learning, understanding and appreciating other cultures left them inspired to be more open and “curious” about others.
“I hope to be more open to ask, to be more curious and not just stick to the stereotypes we have of other people,” Karina Mendez said.
Similarly, Claudia Mendez explained she plans to take more initiative in going beyond what’s on the surface and sincerely trying to connect with others. She also shared that, as a first time attendee visiting from Mexico, she hopes the Spanish-language content available at Education Week will continue to grow “so many more people can learn and take advantage” in a language that is accessible to them.
Yet, native Spanish-speakers such as Claudia Mendez were not the only ones to express hope for this kind of content to grow.
Attendee Carrie Sandholtz, who learned Spanish after spending a summer in Mexico and two years in Spain, said she hopes both the content and people’s awareness of it continues to expand because the presenters “just have so much to teach us.”
“I just love listening to these really well read and thoughtful presenters,” Sandholtz said, also pointing to what she learned in the first session about valuing other cultures and perspectives.
“It’s so important for us,” she said, “for everybody in any culture to be able to just really see, understand … and then appreciate the value of each culture. And that’s how I feel about these classes, that we get to really learn from these members of a different culture and really appreciate them.”
