Every year the Spanish II  and Spanish Heritage classes come together to put on a Spanish Market.  Each student picks a partner and comes up with a product to sell at the market.  Each student is given ten “pesos” to start and has to buy at least two other products.  Students get to set their own prices and bargain for the lowest prices possible.  Also, students must speak Spanish the whole time or lose a peso.   At the end of the market, each group counts up all their pesos and whoever has the most wins.

The Market was created by former RB Spanish teacher Bridget Riordan.  Since then the teachers have continued the project for around ten years. The most successful product this year was cupcakes, along with quesadillas, ice cream sundaes, and waffles.

“Some students had video games set up to play. That was very clever,” Spanish teacher Julie Obradovic said.

The most money earned in Obradovic’s classes was 83 pesos.

Student Sotero Barraza (class of 2015) participated in the market by selling chicharones with his partner Alexis Chavez.  Their product was very successful by earning 113 pesos.  Barraza described the market as “bien,” or good.

“I liked the market because there was a variety of food to choose from,” Barraza said.

He spent his money on products like yogurt, chocolate cake, and horchata.  He liked everything he had, especially his chicharones.

The Spanish market is the highlight of the entire Spanish II course.

“We decided to implement this project for many reasons, but primarily because it allows the students to have a realistic experience with the language in a market environment. Of course it’s also a tremendous amount of fun, and a great way to have some treats,” Obradovic said.