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| Cabeza de Vaca crosses the desert (Wikipedia) |
Note: Few works of fiction rival the Relación of Cabeza de Vaca, a supposedly objective report of explorations in North America.
Get Ready: Is there any rational explanation for stories of healing by means other than traditional medicine, such as "faith healing"?
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| Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (Wikipedia) |
Note: "To dream the impossible dream": The quest of Don Quixote has been made popular in a charming Broadway musical (and subsequent film), Man of La Mancha. But the rather long book itself, by Miguel de Cervantes (arguably Spain's greatest writer, comparable to Shakespeare) has much to offer.
Get Ready: If you were to undertake a "noble quest," what would it be?
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| Scene from a live performance of La Vida es Sueño (Wikipedia) |
Note: The Spanish playwright Pedro Calderon de la Barca, commonly called simply "Calderon," was a near-contemporary of Shakespeare, and holds a position in Spanish literature similar to that of the Bard in English (along with countryman Lope de Vega). Few of his works have captured the imagination of the English-speaking world like Life is a Dream, which has one of the cleverest philosophical plot twists imaginable.
Get Ready: Is it possible to think one is awake while dreaming--or dreaming while awake? Has this ever happened to you?
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| The landing of Columbus (Wikipedia) |
Note: No, Columbus was not "Italian," he did not "discover America," and he didn't even touch the North American continent!
Get Ready: Do you think Columbus's "discovery" was overall a good thing or a bad thing?
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| Garcia Lorca in 1932 (Wikipedia) |
Note: The tragically brief life of Federico García Lorca--he died at 38--was nonetheless one filled with amazing work.
Get Ready: What had you accomplished (or what do you hope to accomplish) before the age of 40?
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| Picasso in 1962 (Wikipedia) |
Note: "You're no Picasso" we might tell a dabbler. Pablo Picasso's surname has become a byword for "artist," and the range and quality of his work shows us why.
Get Ready: At what age did you discover your passion?
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| Ramón y Cajal (Wikipedia) |
Note: It's never been easy to do research in Spain, a country with little support for science. But Santiago Ramón y Cajal found a way, becoming a trailblazing scientist!
Get Ready: How important is infrastructure--government support, proper laboratories, and so on--in the pursuit of new scientific discoveries? Can a "basement scientist" get far these days?
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| A fiesta--in Canada! (Wikipedia) |
Note: This cowboy slang just might turn you into a powerful flannel mouth. If you're game, you might even wind up flush!
Get Ready: Do you know how to play poker? Look at the words below and see if you recognize a couple of them from that game.
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| An old calaboose in Texas (Wikipedia) |
Note: If you get all balled up and come a cropper, this lesson on cowboy slang will help you directly. Learn seven more terms besides these!
Get Ready: What's the smallest town you've ever visited? How would you describe the kind of people that lived there?
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| (Wikipedia) |
Note: English is made up of many other languages. One of these is Spanish (the second most-common native language, after Mandarin Chinese; English is third!). Read on to learn some of the Spanish words we commonly use.
Get Ready: Do you know any Spanish words? Can you name some countries that speak Spanish?
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