Latin American

The interior of a living room with Santa bears on display next to a radio and bulky speakers on an antique coffee table. There is also a Pointesettia plant, and tropical art on display on peach-pink painted walls.
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A summer Christmas in Costa Rica

Peak Web January 5, 2026

“Pura vida” is the unofficial national motto of laid-back, cloudless Costa Rica. It is the one-size-fits-all response to life’s greatest satisfactions: good food, weather, and company. Because Costa Rica is 10 degrees from the equator, it gets 12 hours of daylight starting just after 5:00 a.m. Locals wake up with the sun and have lengthy coffee breaks. “Puntualidad” is not a high-mileage word in this language.  The Costa Rica I visited annually since I was small was detached from the hubbub in the capital, and I was allowed to teeter across the streets unsupervised to buy syrupy mangoes at my…

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A collage of four photos: Maria Marraza’s professional headshot, a cut-out photo of Barazza in her grad uniform holding flowers after graduating SFU, a photo of Barraza holding her degree in front of the university of Salamanca, and a photo of author Gabriel García Márquez
7 min 0 1468

SFYou: Dr. María Ignacia Barraza

Peak Web November 11, 2025

María Ignacia Barraza is an assistant professor in the department of world languages and literatures in the faculty of arts and social sciences at SFU. This semester, she’s teaching “Modern World Literatures 104W” and “World Literature 410,” with the special…

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

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© The Peak Publications Society

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society