by Natalie Penry (Feb. 25, 2019)
In my family, Oscar Night is a sacred holiday. My mom and I gather around the TV, we have “glamorous” snacks (think Girl Scout cookies and sparkling cider), and we spend three and a half hours critiquing movies, outfits and speeches. We’ve lived through all the various scandals surrounding the Oscars, including #OscarsSoWhite, the “La La Land/Moonlight” Fiasco and The Walking Disaster (Seth MacFarlane trying to host). However, this year, there was something different. Something we’ve never seen before.
For starters, this was the first time I could remember that a Foreign Language Film was also nominated for Best Picture. But more than that, it was the first time anyone in my family could remember such an overwhelming acceptance of culture.
While “Roma” lost out on Best Picture to “Green Book,” you could feel the culture seeping in from every aspect, specifically from the Spanish language. Multiple winners gave their acceptance speeches in more than one language, and it definitely felt like a more unified Academy. It was a reminder that the entertainment industry doesn’t have to limit itself to stories told by “basic white teenagers” and that we, as a society, appreciate a diverse culture. That being said, we could all go a lot further, myself included. It’s one thing to sit on your couch and applaud people for branching out -- it’s another to actually go out and merge two different cultures on one platform. So, here I am, trying to follow my own advice. To the native Spanish speakers, I’m sorry in advance for my bad grammar/vocab/overall Spanish.
Cuando yo llegué a WHS en 2016, mi hermana hablaba espanol mucho. Ella vivió en España por 6 semanas durante el verano de 2016 con el programa de IUHPFL. Mi maestra (Señora Scheidler) tuvo un proyecto para la clase de Español I, y los estudiantes necesitaban hablar con un hispanohablante. Yo hablé con mi hermana. Yo supe como tres frases, pero estuve emocionada porque mi hermana y yo podíamos hablar sin que mis padres entendieran. Ahora, mi hermana es una estudiante de IU para la educación de espanol, y yo estoy en la clase de Español 3 con HacheT. Yo sé un ~poco~ más que tres frases, y yo viviré y estudiaré en Chile este verano para IUHPFL también.
Básicamente, no somos perfectos. Y es más fácil para mí hablar en inglés, pero la idea es que nosotros estamos intentando. Cada dia, yo camino a la clase de Hachet y yo aprendo sobre culturas diferentes y yo pruebo cosas nuevas. Este editorial es diferente porque no hay una injusticia social aquí, sólo un problema que nosotros podemos resolver. Aprendan sobre culturas diferentes. Intenten aunque no sea perfecto. Compartan el amor y sean amigos. Esto es todo, y adios :)