ABSTRACT
The text central to this chapter is a moving piece on the subject of two Venezuelan refugees arriving in Chile and their vetting by an immigration officer whose family had themselves been Chilean refugees in Venezuela. It is written by a refugee, María Elena Morán, who fled from Venezuela first to Cuba and then to Brazil. The exercises in this chapter, as well as asking for research on the events in Chile and Venezuela referred to in the text, call for reflection on the connotations of the titular word patria and its possible equivalents in English, and associated notions such as patriotism and nationalism. Venezuelanisms (some more widely ranging across Latin America) are studied under vocabulary, and the use of the written accent in Spanish, especially the discrimination of por qué / porque / porqué, is examined. Grammar covers the Spanish gerund and equivalence with English forms in -ing, the modal usages of the verb deber and the values of the verbs saber, poder and conocer in past tenses; finally, attention is called to the use of que and de que. Production exercises involve evaluation of Anderson’s concept of a nation as an imagined community and debate on the need for international borders.
