Each year, BYU’s Education Week draws thousands of participants—but what many don’t know is that some lectures are offered in Spanish.
BYU Education Week presenters bring a variety of knowledge and expertise to their classes: Gina Villalobos and Tomás Hidalgo Nava (Mexican and Latin American Narrative and Film), two faculty from the BYU’s Spanish & Portuguese Department, blended gospel insights with cultural learning, helping participants gain a deeper appreciation for Hispanic American culture through the lens of faith—and unlike traditional presentations, they did it all in Spanish.
The Love of Christ in Every Language: Understanding the Value of Culture
More than 7,000 languages are spoken around the world—and probably more if the number accounted for dialects and undiscovered languages, Villalobos shared. “With a language comes a culture, and with culture comes practice,” she said, adding that even though differences in cultural practices can be difficult to understand, we can come to understand their value through a Christlike perspective.
To demonstrate the importance of understanding different peoples and cultures, Villalobos recounted an infamous interaction between Phillip and Nathanael, two of Jesus’s original twelve disciples. Phillip had heard of Christ, gained a testimony of His divinity, and told Nathanael, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth.” Nathanael responded, asking, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Phillip’s invitation was simple: “Come and see” (John 1:45–46).
Villalobos taught that, in a similar vein, it may be easy for us to question cultural values we don’t understand or to accept certain cultural stereotypes. To combat this tendency, she offered three simple steps:
First, learn about the culture. “[Learning about cultures] is a responsibility,” Villalobos said, a time to inquire and ask, “What is your history?”
Second, understand the culture. “Trying to discern meaning [of cultural differences] contributes to understanding and respecting the social norms of a certain group,” she explained.
Third, appreciate the culture, which, as Villalobos taught, means to love our neighbor. “The value of cultures is more than we think, more than we know, and more than we see. Sometimes it is difficult to learn, understand, and appreciate cultural differences that are not assimilated to ours,” she said. “Where is the solution? Christ is the solution.”
Representations of Christ and His Atonement in Hispanic American Art
For the past 2,000 years, artists from cultures around the world have portrayed Christ in art. “We can imagine Him in many ways,” Hidalgo said. “But it would be practically impossible to represent the Savior in a 100 percent reliable way, and not only His physical image, but all His glory, His splendor as a divine being.” Hidalgo shared several depictions of Christ from various cultures and described how each culture’s beliefs and traditions influenced the artistic renditions.
Hidalgo shared that early Christian representations of Christ were largely symbolic. Symbols such as the fish and the monogram of Christ, a cross-like symbol with the letters alpha and omega, represented the Savior, since the predominantly Jewish culture avoided anything that could be mistaken for a “graven image” (Leviticus 26:1).
As Christianity began to grow in a world heavily influenced by Greek and Roman traditions, the images and symbols of Greek and Roman gods began to be applied to Christian representations of Christ. Hermes, the Greek god of shepherds, was often depicted as a young man who carried a lamb on his shoulders—imagery now associated with Christ as the Good Shepherd throughout Christianity.
Hidalgo also shared a photo of a street-side mural in Santiago, Chile, depicting Christ. The image was accompanied not only by angels and doves but also with a corded telephone. “Even today, people still think about how to represent the Savior,” Hidalgo said.
Art is a powerful tool to learn about Christ, Hidalgo said, but he stressed that it is not the most important one. “There are many, many beautiful paintings, there are many very interesting representations that are very connected with culture and traditions, but I predict that when we see the Savior face to face, we will be surprised that [these] do not represent Him as He is,” Hidalgo said. “We can know the Savior a little more through art, but we can never know Him better than through a direct relationship.”