Spanish Club is a club run by Manitou students and advised by both Ingrid Perez and Paola Valladares, who teach and give the space for students to learn more about the Spanish language and gain the experience and knowledge of the Spanish culture. 

Spanish Club has existed at MSHS since 2018 and was originally created by Terrence Batson when he was in charge of the World Language classes and events. “I’ve been doing Spanish club for two years. Last year, Spanish Club was under Mr. Batson’s leadership,” Perez said. “Since he is no longer working at the high school. I took the leadership this year.” 

Spanish Club hosts regular events and projects for their members. “So usually when the school year starts, we teach them how to dance salsa. And we always have chips and salsa on Fridays, every day at our meetings,” Perez said. “And we just tried to do stuff that it’s fun for the members like we have started to do outings this year, going to restaurants that are owned by Spanish speaking people, and they practice the language by ordering in Spanish.”

Spanish Club takes part  in many projects, from bracelet making for the Pulsera Project supporting Latin American Artists to the Unbound program. “Our holiday card sale and Valentine’s Day photo booth—are all to raise money for Moris, he is a child from El Salvador who Spanish Club sponsors through a program called Unbound,” Club Treasurer Elanor Fugate said. “We send money to him every year that his family can use for food, school supplies, and other necessities.”

Some people may assume that since they don’t have the best grasp on Spanish, that they shouldn’t join the club, but the members and leaders of Spanish Club deny this. “I would say that Spanish Club is a really fun club. You don’t have to know Spanish to join it. That’s a common misconception. And we get a lot of hesitation from people looking to join a club but not sure what to do. We do go to restaurants and order food in Spanish. So it’s a great way to learn conversational Spanish,” Club President Rebeeca Davis said. “That’s separate from taking a Spanish class where you’re learning grammar. So you don’t need to know Spanish but we do touch on it. And we do learn some phrases and some conversational Spanish.”

Spanish Club aims to encourage the students of MSHS to learn more about the spanish language and to engage with the spanish culture at large even giving back to those communities. “We try to do a little bit more of cultural things and not necessarily because everybody that goes there you know there are different levels of Spanish, so we can’t really do like a Spanish lesson or anything like that,” Vallladares said. “But we tried to teach them salsa or organize events where they can go to a Mexican restaurant and order in Spanish, like cultural stuff rather than actual teaching.”