Assigment 3- Katelyn Rowell- Life in El Paso, Texas

In 2006 my family moved from Rochester, Michigan to El Paso, a city right on the border of Texas and Mexico. My parents are both engineers who were working for a company named Delphi at the time. For the four years that we lived in El Paso, my parents would cross the border every day to get to their offices in Mexico. Because of where we were living, we were surrounded by Hispanic culture. I was actually one of the only two kids in my grade who wasn’t Hispanic. I have memories of my friends teaching me Spanish as we played on the playground during recess. It was normal for me to eat traditional Mexican foods and learn about Mexican holidays such as Día de los Muertos. The community that I lived in was incredibly hard-working, religious, and family-oriented, and definitely had a substantial impact on my life. I remember moving to Kentucky when I was eight years old and wanting to become completely fluent in Spanish so I could go back to El Paso and surprise my friends. Although I haven’t been back to El Paso since we moved, it holds a special place in my heart, and I would love to visit there one day.
This year I’m taking AP Spanish, and part of the curriculum is being able to compare your culture with cultures in Spanish-speaking countries around the world. As we learn about the cultures in different countries, I’ve found that my experiences living in El Paso have definitely helped me to make connections. When we talk about Mexico in class, my memories of living in El Paso match up with the content we are learning. In addition, my family also traveled to Mexico over spring break. While we spent the majority of the time at the beach, we visited a Mayan village as well as Chichen Itza. It was very interesting to learn about Mayan culture as well as Mayan history. Last year we talked about Chichen Itza for a day in Spanish class, so it was really cool to see the Temple of Kukulcan in person after talking about it in class.