By Brittanie Dawson/reporter
NE Campus students were taken through pivotal historic moments in Mexico Nov. 16 during Mexico: Yesterday and Today — The Bicentennial, presented by Dalel Cortes of Cuervnavaca, Mexico.
Cortes covered the four principal changes in the history of Mexico: the conquest by the Spaniards, independence from Spain in 1810, the liberal reform in the 19th century and the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
Cortes discussed the population changes since 1810 when there were 6 million people in Mexico to 105 million in 2010.
“Spanish has influenced American words and has stuck around,” she said.
Throughout history, various languages like Arabic have become language fads, Cortes said.
Although the presentation was in Spanish, students were actively engaged in the discussion. Cortes said Spanish is the third most-spoken language following English and Chinese. About 500 million people speak Spanish in the world, and 35 percent of Texans speak Spanish.
Mexico was originally a monolingual country with an assortment of native languages, Cortes said. But it has evolved into a country where only one million who live in secluded native areas are the only people who don’t speak Spanish.
Cortes compared the Mexican Revolution against dictatorship in the 20th century to Mexico’s first democratic election in the 21st century when Vicente Fox was elected and then Felipe Calderón.
“Mexico is different in that they name their streets after historic events,” said Jaime Palmer, NE Campus Latin Club adviser.
Several students said they were enlightened by the facts they learned about Mexico’s history.
In a question-and-answer segment, Cortes asked questions that students answered in Spanish.
“I was able to understand the presentation completely, and this program has inspired me to learn other languages,” said student Timea Grozavu after the program.
“I’m so surprised at how easy Spanish is.”
