The place of richness
COA Spanish professor and Yucatán program director Karla Peña, in red pants, with 2022-23 students; photo credit Enrique Solís.
An interview with COA Spanish professor Karla Peña, the director of Programas de Inmersión Cultural en Yucatán, COA’s hallmark language immersion program in México. Peña joined the full-time faculty this year after many years of running the program.
By Dan Mahoney
How does it feel to see these students immerse themselves in Yucatán culture?
To answer this question, I have to take you back to the beginning: the winter of 1999 when the students of COA and Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán met. They sat one in front of the other along with professors and administrators from both organizations. It was a moment full of magic; after one fall term of Spanish classes, our students were in Yucatán talking and interacting with huge smiles and bright eyes. The magic is still there after all these years, with each new group that embarks on this amazing immersion journey. Every year it reminds me that a positive attitude is the doorway to the destiny of your choice.
What is one of your favorite memories from Programas de Inmersión Cultural en Yucatán (PICY)?
There are too many to count, but here are two that come to mind:
In 2010, Don Francisco Canul Poot of Yaxunah was standing with his host son, COA student Stu Weymouth ’12. There were hugs and tears, because it was time for Stu to leave what had been his home and his family for three weeks. With sincere emotion and his heart in his hands, Don Francisco told me, “This is our son Stu. He looks a little different, but he is ours.” These relationships established through the hearts of the families and students last forever.
In February 2019, Iain Cooley ’21 couldn´t believe that after a basket-making workshop, he could understand that when your basket is full, the only way to let something new in is by taking something out, just like in PICY´s immersion program. To be fully immersed, you have to empty out some things that you carry inside in order to let new things in. His presentation was a welcome reminder that the cultural immersion process is complex, fascinating, and demands personal growth.
What draws you back to COA year after year?
The students are the most important reason that I return to COA. Each one has their own history and so many talents to share. They are sources of never-ending inspiration and learning. We are all students and teachers at different times in our lives.
I really love the collaborative approach that comes with COA’s vision of a human-ecological approach to learning, both in what it lets me do and in the kind of students it attracts and with whom I get to do it.
Student projects mix every kind of discipline and approach, from artistic studies of making jewelry with palm leaves, to puppet theater with children, to anthropological studies of cooking, farming, or gender differences, to scientific studies of arthropods or bird migration or fisheries conservation. So every day brings fascinating new adventures. Every student gives me an excuse to meet new people and explore new aspects of the people and culture of my own beloved Bella República de Yucatán.
How has PICY changed over the years, and what are your hopes for the future of the program?
After 24 years, the biggest change is the kind of students we see, although it is impossible to compare the different generations. PICY has always been a personalized program, tailored to each group and each student, so each year is different. Each time a student is able to broaden their perspective and leave their familiar surroundings, the motto Life Changing, World Changing rings true. I’m convinced that a broader approach to human ecology is a way of understanding the micro-universes within our societies, and PICY allows our students to change and adapt their worldview to include these interconnections.
As I always say in my classes, “Without context it is impossible to understand the text.”
The first generation of faculty who started the COA program in México are starting to be succeeded by others who are also interested in supporting students in a variety of ways. I very much look forward to collaborating with them as their Spanish skills improve and their knowledge of the area and connections and collaborations with people in Yucatán grow. The challenges of COVID-19 forced us to experiment with variations in ways we work with rural communities.
I hope we can continue to learn from those experiences, and push the limits of what is possible for giving students really accelerated and profoundly transformative experiences through immersion in language and culture. I also hope we can continue to develop the resources for supporting and sustaining our physical facilities and, even more importantly, the team of people who work with us in PICY. They include, for example, wonderful teachers like Raul Manzanilla, as well as incredibly effective administrative staff like Lucero Guttierez and logistics staff like Don Francisco.
