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O W L S
THE 21ST CULTURAL FAIR N O W Y O U D O N ' T N E E D E X P E R I E N C E F O R E I G N
T O T R A V E L C U L T U R E S !
F A R
T O
CONTENTS 05
EDITOR'S LETTER 12
06
08
WHO CULTURAL STOLE THE FAIR? SHOW? 14
16
CHINESE GRIMM LASS UNS DRAGON! BROTHERS SPIELEN! WHO?
10
WHAT A SNACK! 17
LA GASTRONOMIE FRANÇAISE
EDITOR'S LETTER FERNANDA ARVIZU
Welcome to the first edition of 11 Owls, this magazine was made for those who love to know about many different cultures, for those who are interested in cultural events in the city and for those who want to get a little taste of the world we live in. This is for people who want to see beyond their own realities and for people who want to experience the valuable aspects of the hundreds of cultures our world has to offer. The cultural fair is an event to celebrate the richness of cultures around the globe, their value and their meaning. This is why every year it is celebrated at the Foreign Languages Department of UNISON, where thousands of students study languages such as French, Arabic, Italian, English, Chinese, Russian, and more! This fair offers an opportunity to take a look inside each culture and country, their people, their food and traditions. So we aim to show you what it is like to visit the cultural fair, how it feels like, and the experiences the visitors leave with. We want you to see and feel through the eyes of the students and organizers the excitement, happiness and rush of feelings an event like this creates. I hope you enjoy this issue and that we convince you to visit the cultural fair next year, knowing that the words “fun” and “dazzle” will be part of your vocabulary when describing your experience.
Fernanda Soltero
CULTURAL FAIR But...
what
is
a
Cultural
Fair?
Written by Paola Romero
For this article we interviewed Mrs. Carla Gastelum, the current head of the foreign languages department. She started as a novice teacher and she has been part of UNISON for 24 years. The idea of the Cultural Fair was teacher’s Exeli Kreckler, she was head of department (she already passed away). She may have thought that it will be a good idea to celebrate the United Nations Day (October 24). German, French, English, Italian and Russian was taught, no Chinese or Japanese. It was not a celebration like nowadays, it was a classroom setting with teachers and students and it evolved to a cultural fest.
Carla Gastelum Head of Foreign Languages Department
In the last two years, some one of the academic coordinator sent teachers a message, telling them that they are getting ready for Feria Cultural, they ask them if they want to participate and how they will be participating. Teachers define their needs and then they start organizing. They ask their students what they would like to do, once they agree, teachers sends their requirements and then the administrative part comes; they set up the show depending on the logistics. The University provides a certain amount of money for the arrangement of the stands: such as decoration, outfits, food, etc; students are in charge. It has been conformed by students of around 10 languages.
Over the last few years, Luis Calcino has been the host of the cultural fest. He is very good at owning the microphone onstage, he is a good improviser and he has experience being a radio show host in “Globalidades� with Nolvia Cortez (which is also a teacher from the department). Lilia Gonzalez has also been a host for the program with Francisco Lopez.
A couple of years ago, the show used to be held in Thursdays, 2 or 3 years ago they decided to move it to Friday, because when it was on Thursday, by Friday students felt really tired. That caused many absences in classes. They should not have done it in Thursdays. By the way, this year was the first time that the event was broadcasted live in the University Channel. What they are expecting in the upcoming years is for more people to come, to have a bigger space that meets the demand and another setting for the Cultural Fair. What is a fact is that every year the attendance of people increases. The changes will not be made quickly, but hopefully in the next years they will happen.
WHO STOLE THE SHOW? By Carolina Miranda Many students of the different languages offered in UNISON worked really hard to get everything perfectly done for this amazing event. The discipline of the students who practiced for the performances and also the students who worked hard on assembling the stands amazed numerous people that attended the fair this year. What was the thing you liked the most about this year´s Cultural Fair? Well, many of the people in the audience thought that the following were the ones that grabbed the attention the most:
“My favorite part of the Cultural Fair was when the Chinese Dragon appeared!” The audience was truly fascinated with the Chinese Dragon and some of the people watching were actually considering to join the Chinese classes next semester. They could have never considered that before attending the fair.
“My favorite stand was the German's! It had a very nice theme and the food was great too”. The German stand was one of the big sensations that the Cultural Fair had. The students that worked on the stand were able to come up with an original idea about the German culture. Also, all of the materials used were presented with a lot of creativity and since the students based their stand in the Grimm´s Fairy Tales, some of them actually dressed up as different characters of these tales!
In this year´s Cultural Fair all of the performances and stands were really amazing. The Japanese stand had one of the most beautiful decorations based on the cherry blossoms. Also, the Russian performance was one of the most impressive, since the students that danced started to prepare weeks ago with something that they were not familiar.
The idea of sharing many different aspects about different cultures was truly accomplished and all because of the organization, discipline and love that each student has for a specific culture, that of course could not have had been possible without the support of a teacher. Having the opportunity to witness all of these events is a chance to know many things about other cultures without the necessity of traveling there. Come and visit us, we promise you will not regret it!
What a snack! by Sofía Esquer and Michelle León
What better way of getting to know about a culture than actually being able to taste some traditional snacks and dishes? In the Cultural Fair we were able to observe a lot of interesting things, such as cultural performances, tematic stands and even incredible food... All types of food! From traditional Chinese food, New York styled hot dogs, to delicious French Gourmet, Portuguese sweet bread, Russian salmon, Arabic desserts, and an attention grabbing drink from Germany called the Radler.
WE WERE ABLE TO WITNESS ALL THE AMAZING DISHES THAT WERE SERVED ON THIS YEAR’S CULTURAL FAIR, BUT SOME OF THEM WERE OUR FAVORITES, SO WE ARE GOING TO TELL YOU A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THEM.
SO, THE GERMAN STAND SERVED A DELICIOUS DRINK CALLED “RADLER”, WHICH WAS MADE BY MIXING 60% OF BEER AND 40% MINERAL LEMONADE, DESPITE IT BEING SPRITE™, IT WAS AMAZING!
OUR OTHER FAVORITE DISH WAS DEFINITELY THE COLOMBIA’S “STUFFED WITH CHEESE AREPAS”, A TRADITIONAL COLOMBIAN DISH, THAT EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE A LITTLE BIT COLD, IT DID NOT STOP THEM FROM BEING EXQUISITE, MAKING THEM OUR FAVORITES, BUT WE HAVE TO MENTION THAT ALL THE FOOD WE TASTED WAS GOOD! JAPAN’S ONIGIRIS, FRANCE’S DESSERTS, CHINA’S RICE AND VEGETABLE ROLLS, ITALIA’S CANNOLI… ALL WAS DEFINITELY APPROVED!
BY DANIEL ORTEGA
Grimm Brothers who? DIANA ARELLANO This is the common reaction when mentioning the origin of tales such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, among others. That same reaction fuelled the German committee to choose Grimm Brothers’ Tales as the theme for their stand for the 21st Cultural Fair. They want people to know how easy you can find bits of Germany in Mexico! H O N E S T L Y C O U L D
T H E
H A V E
B E S T
M A D E !
D E C I S I O N I T
W A S
The stand, reviewed for 11 Owls by Diana Arellano, injected huge excitement into the fair. Being the first stand you encountered when accessing the site, it made fair-goers stop in their tracks as soon as they arrived. The large crowd gathered around the Germans made everyone wonder: What is going on there? We should take a look!
A
T H E Y H I T !
As if you were in the woods The overall design of the stand is supposed to be 100% inspired by the tales. Germany is known for its forests and castles, so a lot of these tales have to have been taken place there. As a plus, professor Erna Wruck had the students dressed as characters from the tales and the public had photos of them posing with the characters taken by the staff. The coolest photos were taken at the throne, with the Prince Charming trying to fit the glass slipper on the ladies and even a few gentlemen. Everyone wanted to be photographed with Prince Charming!
Yummy! The food offered at their stand was mainly desserts. Following the theme, they got inspiration from the Witch's house from Hansel & Gretel: The Gingerbread House. The favorites were the Bienenstich, the Lebkuchen and the Apfelstrudel. But wait, what are those? The Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake) is a cake-type of dessert with cream and a layer of honey with almonds. Lebkuchens are also known as gingerbread cookies, those adorable tiny gingerbread men! Lastly, the Apfelstrudel or apple Strudel, is a pastry filled with sourish domestic apples, buttered breadcrumbs, and raisins soaked in rum. The combination of finely crispy pastry and juicy filling is a dream!
Lass uns spielen!
Let's play! Or like Germans would say...
By Diana Arellano
The German stand had some activities for the public.. but why? Well, they want you to know that a long time ago the Grimm Brothers were the ones who compiled a series of tales which had never been written before. Those tales were only told from person to person, generation after generation, but one day the brothers decided to compile all of the stories in a book. The tales have various origins but they are mainly from Germany and areas that are now considered France and Denmark. Mexican parents nowadays still tell these stories to their kids but they aren' t aware of where those come from, they usually associate them to Disney. The German course found this interesting to share with the attendees because they want them to know that there is a close relationship between Mexico and Germany.
Pie face! OR
Raffle! These activities were planned so that the public could learn while having fun! People find no fun in just reading information given to them, right? So... What if they won a prize after reading that information? They will be motivated! The first activity available consisted of a simple game of questions. Easy! But you might be hit in the face with a cake if you answered wrong! The second activity was a raffle, but you had to earn your chance to participate in it! How? By answering a series of questions given in a piece of paper, all of them had to be answered correctly to get in the raffle.
The key to answer in either of the activities is that you needed to have been reading all of the information about the Grimm Brothers and their tales, which you could find all over the stand.
What a way to learn!
La gastronomie franรงaise. BY ANDREA YOCUPICIO
The theme for this year's French stand was The francaise cousine, which you could immediately notice by the amazing smell in their area. People say love is born at first sight and I strongly believe this is the case for that. The stand was full of colors! The first thing to notice was the map of France where you could distinguish every region of France with their respective representative dish or pastry. Find your individual look with our bomber jackets, lace skirts, denim The frenchand team hadattheir amazing dresses, more the best prices!
desserts baked by Paris Brest, the bakery specialized in French pattisserie which is located in Hermosillo. The owners of this place are from France and they were present at the fair so if you stopped by you could talk with them and practice your french. Their food is always in huge demand. A lot of the attendees who arrived late wished they would have hurried to be able to taste their pastries. I hope next year you can stop by and enjoy the rest of the stands so you can see the amazing decorations and food that they have to offer!
Au revoir!