Maybe I am missing something but when I had French (which was mandated at the time), we had to learn the French National Anthem and what does Liberté, égalité, fraternité means, even reading parts of Qu'est-ce qu'une nation? and the take on the book.
So you take a Spanish class in a predominantly Mexican region of the country - you don't see too many Germans there - shouldn't you expect to learn some of the culture too?
Maybe the good old dad there should have paid for private language lessons in some other language.