This article discusses how the critical examination of "culture as difference" and "culture as hierarchy" is often lacking in the Spanish language classroom. As such, the author suggests that the current challenge in the Spanish language classroom is to identify techniques to enhance not only students' language proficiency but also their cultural awareness. One way to achieve this is by applying a critical pedagogical approach to the language classroom. Critical pedagogy is an invitation to redefine the roles of the teacher and students, building a classroom community in which education is approached as a multilateral relationship where teachers learn as much from their students as students learn from the teacher and each other. Furthermore, in the critical classroom, participants question the course content, and create alternative materials in order to approach the target cultures in alternative ways. The significance of applying critical pedagogy in a Spanish language classroom is not only to empower the participants directly, but also to empower indirectly the members of the cultures being studied in the classroom by giving them a face to which students can relate. Therefore, applying critical pedagogy in a Spanish classroom has the potential to contribute not only to the literature on critical pedagogy in the foreign language classroom, but also to raise cross-cultural awareness among college students. (Contains 1 figure.)