Albricias is a national journal that showcases poetry, artwork, and other creations submitted by students in the Spanish Honor Society, or the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica.

At Linganore, it is mandatory for each member of the Spanish Honor Society to submit something to this journal annually. Submissions for the November issue were required to have something to do with celebrations.

The work of two students, Hailey Nell and Kathryn Thomas, was accepted into the November issue.

Nell has completed four years of Spanish, and decided to submit a piece of digital artwork to Albricias since she really likes drawing. She titled her artwork la danza de los diablos, or the dance of the devils, in celebration of the Bolivian holiday, Diablada.

“I decided to choose this as my celebration piece because my father is from Bolivia, and his family celebrates this holiday,” she said.

Nell received third place and a prize of $50. She said, “I think that the reason my submission got third is because it was set apart from the other pieces; my artwork was digitally painted, whereas the others were hand drawn.”

Thomas submitted a poem to Albricias, entitled “El sentido de las celebraciones.”

“I decided to write El sentido de las celebraciones because it was mandatory for my class to submit a poem or another creation for Albricias, and I really like poetry. I was actually pleasantly surprised when I found out that mine was accepted into the November issue,” she said. Here is an excerpt from her poem:

Cuando reflexiono en los hitos de mi memoria,

veo las celebraciones que vivían en mucha gloria.

Las reuniones llenadas con la nostalgia y la risa,

los conocidos viniendo y yendo en una brisa.

Mr. Andres Wright, honor society advisor, said “Since Linganore is a sponsor of the journal, I made it mandatory for my students to submit something. But since we didn’t complete it until towards the end of the year, I wasn’t expecting anyone’s submission to be successful enough to get published in the issue. Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I found out that two students were accepted!”

Submission guidelines for the next issue are available on the American Association of of Teachers of Portuguese and Spanish website.  The theme will be “Pueblos indigenas.”