The Magnificent Hy-Field Course

By Gabriel Bencosme

In the United States, we witness many wonderful acts cultivated by Latinos across New York State, especially in the educational atmosphere. Every day, we see incentives being dictated by Latinos in the education department across the United States, particularly in New York, and in the Bronx. These masterpieces of endeavors being introduced by Latinos contain the purpose of being reminders, informative, entertaining, and showcasing images that can be relatable to the audience. One of the lecturers who has implemented these criteria of Latino culture that contains pieces of art, films, images, paintings, and so forth is Prof. Magdalena Sagardia-Jiménez. She is a Puerto Rican professor, who studied at the University of Puerto Rico and has been making remarkable attributes ever since she arrived in New York City. 

Prof. Sagardía is behind the scenes of multiple prestigious courses on the Lehman campus. She is an influential lecturer of the Latino Studies and Africana Studies department. She used to teach Spanish at Fordham University, the same institution she graduated from shortly after she arrived in the US. She was also a Spanish lecturer at Hunter College depicting a more credible aspect of her proficiency in Spanish. She has assisted into this newly introduced platform that has been dominating Lehman College for nearly a year, therefore introducing Prof. Magdalena Sagardía with a thorough authenticity and tremendous enthusiasm for Caribbean dialect, film, literature, poetry, and art.

Prof. Sagardía has this hands-on project occurring on the Lehman campus ever since the Spring semester of 2023 which is the Hy-field course. It is a significantly well-put-together combination of class hours that takes place off-campus grounds that facilitates the learning process of Lehman students who have contentious breakthroughs in learning properly or engaging the concepts of the topics that are mandated to be discussed. She has this extraordinary theatrical persona that exemplifies her persona has extreme intrigue about Latino heritage, going through Latino Literature, studying the movie’s visuals by analyzing different perspectives it may consist of, and traveling to theaters to identify the embodiment of the orchestrations of the plays, and providing an assessment that may differ the campus scenario but it corresponds in a top-notch matter with the integrity of her courses.

Prof. Sagardía is extremely enthusiastic regarding the body of work that Latinos have expanded throughout the United States. Her fluency in speaking in Spanglish is authentic and incomparable, passionately including her roots as another positive portion as well. Witnessing her method of presenting authors, artists, panelists, and many other speakers who occupy the position of Latino art is like watching a presenter at the Latin Grammys, phenomenally speaking at events, and interacting with the audience with a lucrative ethic. Throughout the beginning of Lehman College’s Spring semester in 2024, she has organized a handful of events to her catalog for her students to witness beforehand as a method to create attachments that can have them in sync with their essence and cultural ties. With the help of her faculty team, she has managed to invite the Dominican author Rey Andújar, who is also the author that wrote one of his most essentially relevant novels “Candela” which solidifies propaganda of misleading intel of what defines the Caribbean; in this scenario, the Dominican Republic. The elements of this course have also aided in meeting other top-notch artists like Dominican artist and writer Rita Indiana.

When visualizing the arts of Latino films whether it’s a movie or soap opera, Prof. Sagardía's viewpoint is to pay attention to what the author is saying through subliminal messages. Whether the context can be executed in a ridiculous manner, you need to understand why the author chose to deliver it objectively. She solidifies that the Caribbean has a unique form of vocabulary utilized to express itself that students are contemporarily studying to have a much better understanding of the language and what messages is attempting to convey.

“In a sense, I give Caribbean literature courses, Caribbean literature when it's about representing a part of what we are, there is a vocabulary. Many of the texts that we read have a vocabulary that is very Caribbean of course. It has a vocabulary; forms of writing and it also contains a certain humor. So then that humor to be able to understand something like a soap opera is a humor that we need to feel comfortable to accept. Since most of us are Caribbean, we accept the humor and we laugh in class, we laugh because we understand the definition of that humor”

Prof. Sagardía’s interest in Caribbean films is additional material for her to instruct and teach her students. Something as subtle and perplexing as a Soap Opera can be viewed only for romantic and entertaining purposes, but she illustrates that it is something more profound than that. It is meant to effectively impact with its comical, humorous traits along with its realism to make it relatable and relevant to her teaching procedure. This encourages students to volunteer frequently to also evaluate the content from their viewpoint to add their ideologies that can be applied to the category. This content also features charismatic themes to captivate the audience more to lure you more into the message it is providing you. It is dictated by Prof. Sagardía to break the serious boundaries of the topic, while also having a critical approach to it. She does not want to provide material with 100% seriousness because it may be overlooked, her desires are to depict an enchanting, realistic film for you to execute in multiple ways.

Prof. Sagardía: It fills me with joy when we attend these events, and I am aware that these students are looking forward to it!

She has acknowledged how these ongoing engaging activities are concepts of enjoyment she wants to introduce to her students who are unfamiliar with these works of art. The people she and her students interact with are also generously humble figures who always want to interact with their fans and speak of distinctive viewpoints that may contrast with the subject.

Prof. Sagardía: Exactly, and that is part of the project of what we refer to as “Hy-Field” because, when I speak of “Hy-Field” I am referring to the activities that take place outside of campus, going outside, and earning enriching knowledge. That is what it exactly is. We witness these people; they’re doing a job that we love, but these people are people. We can also reach these destinations and work in these spaces.

Prof. Sagardía tackles the misconception of artists being “unreachable” and how we as people continue to be human beings whether our occupations characterize us as being wealthy or much more stable than the average ubiquitous figure, are frequently viewed to be untouchables, as celebrities who never lay contact with their fans; but not in this scenario. The public figures who solidify an amazing part of Sagardía magnificent Hy-field content are people who are always more than delightfully happy to connect with their fans and the viewers invited to these amazing activities. The pandemic, despite being as tragic as it was for many other individuals, was an uprising for new content to be uplifted and supported. Throughout the Spring semester of 2023, CUNY has confirmed the additional Hy-field course and while the alternative was still fresh; Latino Studies’ chairperson Dr. Alyshia Gálvez vouched for Prof. Sagardía in being one of the main lecturers for this ideology to be familiarized with students. Its content was described as simplified and having a better understanding of art. It has only been 3 semesters of the Hy-Field course being led by Prof. Sagardía and she continues to dominate this agenda contemporarily. Although Hy-field didn’t have a name to be represented, with the help of Lehman College’s students and faculty member Sagardía, it found a name for its impeccable portrayal.

One of the most marvelous key points of Hy-Field has been not only traveling to other areas in New York City but there has also been an initiative of traveling to Puerto Rico, Prof. Sagardía's home country where they meet the artists on the island known as “La Isla del Encanto” with enhancing engagement and also meeting those in charge of the community services that lead an empowering movement in the country, whereas it continues to cultivate more interests and growth for the course itself to be receiving more recognition. Prof. Sagardía took an oath to offer at least 6-7 Hy-Field related courses per semester, and based on her cultivation and hard work; it has made an effect and has attracted the theme of the diaspora and the context of prestigious inventions that were attributed beforehand to the course, but not as familiarized to the students until Prof. Sagardía offered the helping hand to help portray more the presentation of the work and encouraging students to also ask questions and to assist these performances. It has been a challenge, but she still pursues these aspirations, and the rest of Lehman College awaits to see the outcomes.

The growth of Hy-Field has been followed with a multitude of characteristics that were meant to have accustomed the students who are willing to volunteer and articulate their interpretation of their ideas that correspond with the work that is introduced throughout the semester, with a variation of Hybrid and Asynchronous, traveling to museums and neighborhoods where she embodies her persona of high intellectual by being fundamentally knowledgeable of what the students are viewing during their stay. Prof. Sagardía felt that this method of utilizing the course was also ultimately better to have students orientate and witness new things, however, there is a hardship since many of these students have other responsibilities such as having to work in their shifts and other fulfillments outside of campus, which is why she does her best to keep a simplified schedule and selecting these events to take place on Friday nights and Saturdays to help assist students appear. Lehman College’s reputation is intact and holds endurance, especially in this factor to help instruct the students, the campus is also in contact with one of the most important directors, Carlos Gálvez who forms a part of “El Museo del Barrio” which aided in making the Hy-Field course included it in its project and for one day, visit the El Barrio, East Harlem to look at the paintings and murals done by East Harlem’s natives.

Speaking of El Barrio, East Harlem; is currently going through the infamous basis of gentrification just like many other communities in New York City are facing to this day. Prof. Sagardía tends to look at it in a positive manner that this is a way to embellish the community and polish it more, improving its infrastructure, having an organic variety of mixture, having a combination of high-class and low-class citizens with a fair share, and so forth. It is giving many of its natives the solution that they have asked for, which is to provide them with a better source of living. However, she dissents from the “necessity” of substituting one population for the other to make the neighborhood “better” in a sense. Prof. Sagardía has also lived in El Barrio for many years, but just like many other of its former residents; she felt obligated to leave due to its absurd pricing where she now lives in Washington Heights, Manhattan; another neighborhood going through the same phase. She refers to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, being one of the neighborhoods to suffer the upheaval of heavy gentrification caused by Real Estate to vanish its essence and diluted consecutively, but it still has some of the characteristics that made it stand out priorly which are themes that she would like to introduce to her students approximately. Her desire is for more people to orientate in community organizations and a unifying, peaceful movement to passively protest to fight against the tedious dynamics of gentrification. However, Prof. Sagardía considers these neighborhoods to be strong and resistant since they are still here to this day, only hoping that it remains this way.

Endurance on a college campus is predominantly evident, especially for students who are multitasking by also devoting themselves to other things outside the campus-life. It is a rigorous element to bear with, but since Prof. Sagardía adores her students; she indicates that the solution to this is not separating your personal issues from your professionalism is not the answer, is to learn how to manage and execute your personal ties. There will be occasions when students may have a bad semester, life is full of ups and downs and it is entirely normalized and on top of that, you still must keep the maintenance of being consistent throughout your semester.

Prof. Sagardía: “Life is not made of a box, we’re a box full of things”

Out of all 11 CUNY College institutions in New York City, Prof. Sagardía felt very articulate and assimilated into Lehman College ever since she started working on this campus. With its diverse angle and its high capacity of Latino populations, it is one of the college institutions with the most Latino population in the whole United States. Ever since she used to study at the University of Puerto Rico, she has compromised with public services and her ability to execute her vision by bringing to light the amazing diaspora to showcase her students, and as of now; it continues to be a successful achievement.

There have been many narratives of the intricacies of Latinos born in the United States who consistently don’t commute from the United States to their native land and are seen in this complexity of dysfunctional strains of their heritage that many insinuate that in the approximate decades, those Americans with Latino descent will not prioritize their culture/nationality to their kids; thus having the race whither and being belittled due to “Americanization” belatedly, furthermore; not even speaking the native language, therefore, it may lead to what most think as an unattachment of their ethnicity. Prof. Sagardía states that despite the “lack” of the essence, that is not what makes a person Latino; a Latino defines versatility and a mixture of multiple ethnicities. You can be a descendant of Latinos while also carrying your experiences in New York and cultivate your American characteristics as well, in her perspective; that is what makes a person Latino, not just strictly one thing. Not being able to speak Spanish proficiently does not make you any less Latino, the language is a part of the heritage, but it does not signify the culture as a whole. There is an expansion of Latinos widespread across the whole country in other states that operate distinctively contrasting the Latinos in the New York state who have their methods of articulating what it means to be Latino to them. Prof. Sagardía considers it to be blossoming gifted to be Latino, referring particularly to the presence of Latinos in New York State because you witness different ethnic groups across the city, and you learn how they execute in their dialogues and the different codeswitching and slang that they utilize which is a blessing to interact with different groups of people who may speak the same language, but in their own authentic manner. 

Speaking on behalf of the Caribbean cultural diaspora, Prof. Sagardía whose teachings are based upon implies the Caribbean is a magnificent region that may be seen as one, but consists of multiple, unifying areas of diversity that make it the brilliant masterpiece it is. It is an overview of ancestral influences along with African descent remarking on its influence, followed by a long list of Caribbean languages like Spanish, Creole, French, Dutch, Papiamento, and so forth. However, it also ties to the theory of misconception. These countries exteriorly look like they are accurately stabilized when they are flawed due to influences of corruption, dictatorship, poverty, lack of unifying the social classes, etc. Despite its setbacks and its colonial impact, referring to the Hispanic countries in the Caribbean, Prof. Sagardía states that it also has a marvelous, intriguing segment of immense populations that inhabited these countries that can make great studies, but it also depicts social and political conflicts that can be seen to be similar and correlate with each other.

Prof. Magdalena Sagardía illustrates the Lehman campus to be significantly an embodiment of her structure and interests regarding the material she dictates, also discussing the Lehman campus as her family and that the students are also an essential factor of the family. With the approximate semester arriving promptly, she will be attentive to new material to introduce to her students, new theatrical performances, unfamiliar dialogues to be fulfilled, and teaching her courses from the Latino Studies and Africana Studies departments. With also an honorable mention that she has been recently promoted as a full-time faculty member at Lehman College. Prof. Magdalena Sagardía is a well-decorated, polished faculty member who is adored at Lehman College. She will be looking forward to developing new categories and illustrious activities to be thoroughly featured as priorities.