Spanish
Spoken by around 400 million people in the Iberian Peninsula, the Americas, North Africa and the Philippines, the Spanish language can claim a present and future as significant as its past. With Spanish now in wide use in the U.S., many people study Hispanic language, literatures and cultures for practical and professional reasons. But they find much more than nuts and bolts in the extraordinary language which has given world literature great geniuses like Cervantes, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, García Lorca, Borges, García Márquez, several Nobel laureates, and a stellar cast of enduring fictional archetypes (Celestina, the pícaro, Don Juan, Don Quixote and Sancho Penza). Spanish courses at PSU draw on a history rich in adventures and encounters: from the time of Spain’s multicultural past, through the Christian Re-conquest and global expansion, struggles for independence and democracy, to the growth of vibrant Spanish-speaking communities in North America. Courses explore such areas as history, politics, economics, customs, traditions, and literary and artistic trends. A major and a minor in Spanish are available.
