Miradas focuses on the acquisition of cultural competence and communication skills through innovative themes, culture, grammmar reviews, and writing workshops.  This text solves a variety of needs in the third-year Spanish course:  developing reading skills, strategies for literary analysis, expanding vocabulary, consolidating grammar and writing proficiency, and offering connections with other cultural manifestations such as music and film, all within a communicative context.  Miradas truly brings students from the high intermediate level to the advanced level of proficiency in the four skills, as defined by the ACTFL Guidelines.