By Magnus MacLeod 12ET

On the 11th of March, the lower sixth Spanish students - all 5 of us - and Mrs McDonald went on a trip to the British Film Institute in London. We gathered at 10:00, enough time for some of our cohort to strike a lucrative deal at Krispy Kreme’s. The theme of the day was the dictatorships of Franco and Pinochet, in Spain and Chile respectively, during the 20th century, and especially the enduring memory of those times and how each country is dealing with that. We started with a powerful documentary called “The Silence of Others”, which focused on the people who are fighting against Spain’s 1977 amnesty law to get justice for themselves or loved ones who suffered under Franco. After lunch, Professors Sarah Wright and Miguel Garcia gave a presentation which provided more context about the dictatorships themselves, talked about other films that deal with the same topics, and took questions from the crowd. Finally, two members of an activist group called “La Comuna” came on video call from Spain to answer questions about the work they have been doing, some of which we saw in the documentary, and to answer our questions. Overall, this was a very interesting and enlightening day out, as well as a chance for us to see how much our Spanish has improved since the last time we came. Thank you to Mrs McDonald for organizing this trip!