One afternoon in late October, with the fall semester well underway, seven Upper School students gathered in room 303 on the third floor. This is not a typical classroom, but a space designed for dialogue, centered around a long conference table and chairs, a whiteboard, and a projector. It is an intentionally chosen setting for Señora Amparo Barón’s Advanced Spanish: Culture, Literature, and History course, also known as PensArte, where students use art as a lens to explore and analyze the fine arts of 20th-century Spain and Latin America. The course is conducted entirely in Spanish.  

As each student arrives to the classroom, they greet Señora Barón in Spanish and find their seats. On this particular afternoon, students welcomed a guest lecturer—one of many that visit throughout the semester. Señora María del Carmen González, a freelance educator at The Whitney, led a lecture and discussion about women muralists, Mexican Muralism, and women surrealist artists. Each image Señora del Carmen González displayed sparked curiosity and conversation amongst the students, sharing their thoughts and interpretations of the art in front of them. Then, students created their own murals while Señora del Carmen González continued her lecture; an immersive, multisensory learning moment. 

This is just one example of the rich learning opportunities thoughtfully baked into this advanced, year-long course. By the time of publication, students had already welcomed several guest speakers and led an assembly featuring salsa dancers and musicians. They also participated in immersive experiences around New York City, including seeing Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway and taking a Spanish-language tour at The Museum of Modern Art to study the work of surrealist artists Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. Together, these experiences offer a glimpse into the robust and carefully scaffolded curriculum designed by Señora Barón, who traces her passion for teaching back to her own experience as a student.

“My vocation for teaching began in a literacy program during my last year of high school, where I helped older adults learn to read and write,” said Señora Barón, who has been teaching for 35 years. “Since then, I’ve experienced the magical and transformative power of language—a vital tool for creating human and cultural connections. When I faced the challenges of learning a second language myself (English), I understood that teaching Spanish would allow me to share an essential part of my identity, my language-learning experience, and my desire to open windows into Hispanic culture. Over time, my approach has evolved into a more experiential pedagogy in which students learn grammar while engaging with culture in authentic, meaningful ways. PensArte was born from the idea of using the arts—music, painting, literature, film, and architecture—as the central lens of the course so that Spanish becomes a living medium for dialogue, reflection, and connection.”

In Advanced Spanish: Culture, Literature, and History, students explore a wide range of topics drawn from the contemporary culture, society, history, art, and literature of the Spanish-speaking world across Europe and the Americas. The curriculum spans poetry of the Golden Age, regional culinary traditions of the Caribbean, Catalan modernist architecture, Simón de Bolívar and the wars of South American independence, the films of Pedro Almodóvar, bolero and tango, the art of Goya and Velásquez, social realities in Central America and the Caribbean, and Pre-Columbian civilizations. Throughout the course, students continue to refine their speaking and writing skills, strengthening their ability to express complex ideas across a broad range of subjects. 

“When designing [this year’s] curriculum, I considered several factors: current museum exhibitions in New York, guest speakers who could address the arts studied in each module, and [Nightingale’s] Hispanic Heritage Month celebration,” Señora Barón explained. “This celebration allowed me to connect the music module—particularly the musical production of the Latino community in New York and the Salsa movement of the 1960s and 1970s—with the course content.”

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, PensArte students hosted an assembly for their Upper School peers. They opened with a presentation in Spanish on the 20th century salsa movement, and then welcomed Foreign Affair Band to perform and teach a few salsa steps. Students in Classes IX through XII were soon on their feet, dancing and laughing together while deepening their understanding of rhythm, identity, and cultural expression.

Reflecting on the course so far, senior Lydia S. ’26 shared that she is most proud of her presentation to Upper School at this assembly, which gave her the opportunity to practice both her Spanish and public speaking skills. “This class enabled me to build confidence in all aspects of Spanish,” she said. 

Soon after, PensArte students attended Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway, a musical inspired by the lives of the legendary Cuban musicians behind the Grammy-winning 1997 album of the same
name. Told through a blend of historical moments and fictionalized storytelling, the production moves between the 1950s and the 1990s, tracing the musicians’ early years, their experiences during the Cuban Revolution, and their eventual reunion to record the album.

“Before going to see Buena Vista Social Club, we listened to Salsa music in class and discussed its rich history, but I had not yet felt the true power of it,” reflected Lydia S. ’26. “When we went to Buena Vista, my classmates and I immediately understood the significance of Salsa as a cultural movement. We saw the story of Omara Portuondo and felt the music on another level. This experience was crucial to my [connection] and my classmates’ connection to the Salsa movement.”

A typical day in the PensArte classroom is designed so that students experience art entirely in Spanish, balancing analysis, creativity, and conversation. Depending on the module, a class may begin with a
brief review of the day’s objective, followed by a cultural or linguistic warm-up connected to the previous lesson. Students then engage in a presentation or analysis of an artwork or artist through images and short videos, taking notes along the way. This work is followed by guided discussions or small-group activities to interpret the artwork or assigned readings, such as Eclipse de siete lunas. Classes often conclude with a review of specialized vocabulary related to each fine art.

As a senior, Stephanie A. ’26 is most proud that her years of Spanish classes at Nightingale have concluded with a class that is “so interesting and well-rounded,” she said. “We are not deliberately learning more grammar or technical things, but we are practicing confidence in our Spanish skills.” 

Through exposure to art, lectures, and advanced texts, students develop greater fluency, precision, and confidence in both speaking and writing, while naturally expanding their vocabulary and refining their grammar. 

For Señora Barón, art serves as both subject matter and catalyst for deeper learning.

“Art encourages reflection on identity, history, social issues, and culture. Creative tasks invite risk-taking, self-expression, and collaboration,” she said. “[Students] develop resilience and understand that mastery of a language is a gradual, beautiful process.”

That philosophy, colleagues note, shapes not only what students learn, but how they experience language itself.

“[Amparo] has a particular way of making students feel that what they are learning together is of the utmost beauty and importance, almost as if they are being let in on a secret because of their Spanish studies,” said Chair of the Modern Languages Department Alex Klikunas. “She also makes them see beyond just the next quiz or test, and really think about what it means to be a speaker of another language—an honorary member of another culture—for the rest of their lives.”

At Nightingale, modern languages are an integral part of a student’s experience, with Spanish beginning as early as Kindergarten. As students enter Middle School, Nighthawks can choose another modern language to pursue, building a strong foundation for Upper School study. With this scaffolding in place, students in advanced courses like PensArte are able to dive deeper into their linguistic and cultural learning.

In those classes, students move beyond the mechanics of language study, “interacting directly with experts and artists, and challenge themselves to engage with native speakers in a nuanced way, learning how to think critically about the history and culture of the people who speak their target language—not just the verb conjugations and grammar. They can begin to make comparisons between their own culture and identities, seeing both what is similar and different from their own experience. They also come to see their own multilingualism as a tool—a lifelong skill that opens doors and broadens their perspective,” Mr. Klikunas said.

For Señora Barón, that long-term impact is central to the course’s purpose.

“Beyond language, I hope this class becomes something they remember for life—looking back on their final year of Spanish with joy, pride, and a deep sense of connection to a cultural and geographic space they most likely only knew superficially,” she reflected. “I want them to leave not only with vocabulary and grammar, but also with the artists and cultural expressions that touched them, broadened their perspective, and stayed with them long after the course ends—language as a window to a different world.”