Costa Rica – Fake Flamenco

Afro-Latinos, Spanish Culture and Language, The Americas, travel

Throwback Thursday: San José, Costa Rica

A year after my life changing trip to Spain, I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica with a group from the University of Minnesota. We were traveling to San José to support a student center for a cadre of university students who grew up in Puerto Limón on the Eastern Coast. These students […]

history, Spanish Culture and Language, The Americas

8th American Country with Marriage Equality

Happy Pride Month! Want some good news? LBGTQ rights are expanding in this hemisphere. May 26, 2020, Costa Rica became the eighth country in the continent of the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage. The Ticos, as they call themselves, are the first in Central America to provide marriage equality. The change has been in the […]

history, Spanish Culture and Language

Where in Latin America is Voting Mandatory?

I thought this was an easy question I could find the answer to in an hour, or no more than an afternoon. A week later, I am humbled. I was confused with the range of answers. There were 14, 12, 13, 11 or 8 countries in Central and South America where citizens are required to […]

Life as a Woman, Spanish Culture and Language, The Americas

Could A Woman Be President?

Women have been democratic heads of state in 70 countries as of 2017. To balance that, in 77 countries no woman has held the highest elected office in the land. What political opportunities are there for women in North America and Latin America? We could guess that North America might be a leader in gender […]