Literature students exhibit on Latin American Day and Comix Day

Among the colourful decorations and lilting tiple music, the English students and teachers at Parvatibai Chowgule College of Arts and Science (Autonomous) were in for a day of culture, comics, food and literature on 28th February, 2020. Latin American Day in its third edition and Comix Day in its first, were organised by the students of Third Year Latin American Literature, and Second Year Visual Literature courses along with their teachers.The celebration was a part of their ongoing course evaluation.
Booths strategically set up near their college canteen, the students began drawing crowds. The Latin American students were split into pairs, with each pair adopted one Latino country. Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Puerto Rico were featured through the lens of their politics, literature, culture and heritage, and food.
Touring through Colombia and Cuba one simply couldn’t walk past native games like rana and cubilete, nor look away from the bowls of elote, brigadeiros, tembleque and Peruvian chicken. Booths like Brazil’s and Chile’s taught visitors Spanish slang and Latino history. Asst. Professor Delilah Pacheco mentions, “It all began with the idea of extending our discussion on the Latino identity outside our classroom. In an unconvential setting, the students were able to hone their people-skills and share information that truly excited them.”
The students of Visual Literature, chose from a variety of mediums, through which they presented their research and analysis on their graphic novels. Students chose to present their reflections through videos, chart papers, models, booklets, and interactive activities. They even cosplayed a character or two! The Graphic novels covered were Maus, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, FunHome, Contract with God and Underwater Welder.
Asst Prof Andrew Barreto, the mind behind this one of a kind Comics Studies course, commented saying, “Being a leader in academics is challenging. During the inception of this course, we were the only ones in India leading the way. Now others have emulated us – our University’s Dept., for instance. However, it doesn’t stop at just creating courses, we need to develop cohesive learning processes as well. Evaluation is a big part of it, and our goal is to make learning an enjoyable process. I am really happy that students have had a positive reaction to all our efforts.”