Nick Rause

Elem Spanish Language and Culture II

Señor Poole

October 9, 2019

Culture Activity – The Ancient Spanish Monastery

This past weekend on fall break, I was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with my family. Fort

Lauderdale, especially Hollywood Beach where we stayed, had a large Hispanic population.

Most of the people that worked in the stores and restaurants were Hispanic. I’ve been to other

parts of Florida, but Hollywood Beach seemed to have a lot of Latinos. Many of the people

there spoke Spanish very well and I was able to pick up on a couple things they were saying.

However, it was very hard to comprehend because they spoke so fast. Hollywood Beach is only

about 20 minutes away from Miami, which I knew had a large Latino population (about 70

percent). It came to no surprise to me that I would experience some Hispanic culture while I

was there. Before my family went down, I research some places that were “Hispanic” sites. I

found The Ancient Spanish Monastery was only about four miles down the road from our hotel.

My family and I decided to take a tour there on Monday. It was raining but the gardens

and architecture were amazing. The Monastery and Cloisters of St. Bernard de Clairvaux were

originally built in Sacramenia, Spain in 1133. The Stones were dismantled in 1925 and put in

storage in New York City until 1964. Col. Robert Pentland, Jr. purchased the building and

erected it in its current location. The architecture is some of the most magnificent I’ve seen and

some of the relics are on display. The church still holds mass in English and Spanish. Often,

people have their weddings, quinceañeras, and photoshoots there.