![Natalie Au (‘26) portraying Pablo Picasso gives her presentation about Picasso’s life and achievements while Anna Park (‘26) records her as part of the project. Other students performing at the central tables in the library speak as their Spanish-speaking figures as well. “I had the most creative freedom during this project out of all my years [of Spanish] and [got] to bring in my passions from outside of Spanish class,” Natalie said. The project was an intriguing scene for anyone who saw students in their costumes; what happens behind the scenes?](https://webbcanyonchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Duan-spanish-presentations-1200x900.jpg)
On October 29th, the library was buzzing, not from the bees but from the Honors Spanish 3 presentations. Spanish language students in soccer outfits, suits, and artist aprons transformed the library into a lively space of snippets of Spanish culture. It was a scene that Honors Spanish 3 students do not forget: Museo de los Hispanohablantes, or the Museum of the Spanish Speakers project.
Students were asked to choose a famous Spanish-speaking person, write a composition in Spanish about their life and career, and dress up as their careers while giving a presentation as them. Other language classes, this year Spanish 3, Honors Spanish 2, and Chinese 1, attended and asked questions to the presenters. The goal was for students to become more comfortable speaking the language while having fun learning about Spanish culture.
“I loved hearing the amount of [Spanish] spoken,” said Viviana Nicolosi, world languages department faculty. “I always know my [students] can do it, but [they] are like ‘no.’ I just love seeing them come to life.”
Though the project has already been in place for a few years, it is still evolving to better reflect a diverse array of cultures. This year, Ms. Nicolosi has made a change to focus on Puerto Rican figures.
“My identity was not represented [in the project], so I purposely changed the list to reflect Puerto Ricans and what we have done in history,” Ms. Nicolosi said.
Alongside Ms. Nicolosi’s personal connection, the project also fostered student interest as well. Natalie Au (‘26), a student of Honors Studio Art, chose Picasso as her figure.
“I picked Picasso because I have a passion for art and I love that I could have an intersection between the Spanish language and art,” Natalie said.
This project allowed her to both learn more Spanish in the context of art and about art itself, helping her realize the extent of artists and movements such as Cubism and Neoclassism that inspired Picasso’s work.
“It feels more comfortable that I am embodying the identity of someone who inspired me,” Natalie said.
As the project continues, Ms. Nicolosi hopes to further improve it.
After they are done presenting in front of a live crowd, students currently record the presentations; with the advancement of AI, Ms. Nicolosi wishes to use AI to stitch the videos together for a slideshow. Additionally, just as Chinese 1 had visited this year, Ms. Nicolosi aspires for the project to be a bigger community event where more students from all classes can attend.
![Martin Beseth (‘27) angrily educates Ethan Xi (‘27) about over-relying on paper cups as they produce unnecessary waste. Webb started to advocate for the community to decrease the number of paper cups used. “I think [Webb is] taking a huge step towards stopping the deforestation of trees ...and helping the environment,” Martin Beseth (‘27) said. The attention brought to the community prompts new opinions among students on using fewer paper cups.](https://webbcanyonchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Meng-Paper-cup-reductions-1200x900.jpeg)
