Puerto Rico Hurricane Fiona

While we were all bombarded with the news of Queen Elizabeth’s death, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans were struggling to survive Hurricane Fiona but found little coverage in the news media here in the United States and probably globally. Several thoughts/concern/questions arise from this dilemma.

Virtually the entire country of Puerto Rico was without power when the hurricane struck and thousands still are due to an aged grid which makes the archipelago particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and creates long recovery times before power is reinstated. The power issue runs deeper than a faulty grid however, and leads us back to Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. territory with no voting representation in congress or in presidential elections. Further, the formerly government-owned electric company was privatized under the ownership of Luma. Austerity measures which cut back on public spending and encourage state owned infrastructure to go to private hands combined with Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. territory with no voice in elections have created the current situation in the country.

While current events in Puerto Rico are often muted to us here in North America, it is pertinent to remember that Puerto Ricans are not nor ever have been passive recipients of American imperialism. They continue to organize, fight, and create new ways to thrive which are important to recognize and teach students.

What do our students know about Puerto Rico?

At the beginning of 2021 the Latin American and Iberian Institute hosted a workshop on Afrolatinidad including lesson plans centering Puerto Rico. To access these lesson plans please click here.

The LAII’s Vamos a Leer blog has book reviews and guides centered on Puerto Rico including Parrots Over Puerto Rico, Maxy Survives the Hurricane, Sembrando Historias: Pura Belpre, bibliotecaria y narradora de cuentos, and many more.

Teaching for Change: Building Social Justice in the Classroom has released a comprehensive reading set for middle and high school students since 1990 about Puerto Rico. The book is free to download on their website by clicking the link above. Included are sections on history and geography, identity, government, economy and civil life, and much more.

Why are some stories centered in the media while others are marginalized?

It is pertinent to work with youth on media literacy. By understanding how the media works, whose voices are centered and why, and how to read between the lines will ensure students have the tools to critically interrogate and interact with the news while developing their own world views. Below are some helpful links to incorporate media literacy education in your classrooms.

Common Sense Education has compiled a list of resources on media literacy including lesson plans and articles for educators.

The Center for Media Literacy is a great resources also including lesson plans and educator content relating to the topic.

How can we get involved in Puerto Rico?

Below are several organizations that are raising funds for disaster relief including roofs, health, clothing, and many more avenues that support community recuperation.

Techos Pa’Mi Gente https://twitter.com/marisel_moreno/status/1571648167581564928

https://www.tpmgcorp.org/toma-acción

Taller Salud https://twitter.com/schock/status/1571664435323838464

PayPal Taller Salud: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6PD82KHZ9RDQE&source=url

https://www.tallersalud.com/

Casa Pueblo https://twitter.com/schock/status/1571668388501413889

https://casapueblo.org/

Centros de Apoyo Mutuo (Mutual Aid Centers) https://twitter.com/schock/status/1571671630610591745

https://tinyurl.com/apoyomutuo

AgitArte https://twitter.com/schock/status/1571672712015380480

https://agitarte.org/donate/

Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico https://twitter.com/schock/status/1571687560153382912

https://www.comedoressocialespr.org/

SuministrosPR.com https://suministrospr.com/

Hurricane Fiona Relief Fund (Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia)

https://e.givesmart.com/events/t1K/

True Self Foundation
https://www.trueselffoundation.org/

Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico

https://ayudalegalpr.org/

La Fondita de Jesús

https://lafonditadejesus.org/

Brigada Solidaria del Oeste

https://www.bsopr.com/

Women’s History Month!

This month is Women’s History Month. Like Black History Month, women’s history should not be understood as a separate part of the history of the Americas but as a vital part, one that – if missing – would leave the canvas blank. We should always strive to elevate the voices and experiences of women. The LAII K-12 Outreach Team has created relevant educational content we encourage you to explore this month and every month!  

We have STEM guides featuring Latina women who have contributed to science, technology, engineering, and math. This includes:  

• a guide about Berta Caceres a Honduran environmental activist who was assassinated in 2016 for her work.

For all our STEM guides featuring women please visit: https://laii.unm.edu/info/k-12-educators/curriculum/latinxs-in-stem-guides.html. 

To celebrate Women’s History Month we thought it would be exciting to get to know some of the students who study Latin American Studies here at UNM. We conducted interviews to learn more about these brilliant women. Interviews are a great way for students to connect with the world around them and explore their interests. An idea to incorporate Women’s History Month into your classroom is to have students interview influential women in their lives. They can do written interviews or an oral history project where they work to create questions that would bring out the interviewees story in the most interesting way. They can also use this opportunity to think about their own goals and future plans and how they might achieve them. This could take shape as response paper after completing an interview with another person where the student reflects on how they conceive their own experiences brought forth by interviewing others. Following is our first interview and accompanying bio of one of the LAII graduate students. Stay tuned for more to come!

Joselin

Joselin is a MA student in the Latin American Studies program here at UNM. She grew up in LA with her older sisters and her mother who raised her daughters by herself once in the United States. Her family migrated to LA from Guatemala before Joselin was born so she had the unique experience of being the only one in her family born and raised in the United States. Her mother worked relentlessly to support her daughters which often put her older sisters in the roll of care givers.

This exposed Joselin to the diverse people who can and do occupy the position of ‘mother’ as her sisters were there for her in ways her mother was both emotionally and physically. She noticed at a young age that this was different from most of her friends’ families as they often had both father and mother present in a more traditional sense. She grew to appreciate the multiple ways to raise children and the many people who contribute to a child’s upbrining. Her experiences and feelings of pride surrounding her childhood would later inform her research interests.

She was always academically motivated, delighted and invigorated by learning. She was consistently told to work hard and seize the opportunities she had in the United States that she otherwise may not have in Guatemala. When asked how she thinks her educational experience would have been different had her family not migrated to the United States, Joselin responded that in Guatemala she believes she would still have pursued higher education but would have embarked on a more traditional career path such as being an accountant or lawyer. In the United States she had the freedom to branch out and explore her interests in the academy such as anthropology.

Navigating college as a high school student without experienced parents, was daunting and seemed unattainable. Luckily for Joselin her high school, though underfunded, had a wonderful college advisor who helped her and her classmates navigate the admissions process and understand how to fund their education. Upon her advisor’s encouragement she decided to attend Cal State LA where she studied Anthropology. While she experienced some growing pains at first as she wasn’t used to the rigor of a university education, she soon settled in and excelled. At times she was working up to three jobs while taking 5 courses in one semester. Reflecting, she believes her strong work ethic was inherited from her mother who was always working to support her family.

Through an undergraduate fellowship at her university supporting students to pursue tenure track careers and her experience working with two Central American professors who were brother and sister, Joselin was exposed to academia after a bachelors and was motivated and supported in her pursuit of furthering her education. The siblings gave her a glimpse of her potential and showed her that she too had a place in higher education. She applied to a few different PhD and masters programs eventually deciding on an MA in Latin American Studies because she was offered a wonderful financial package attesting to her qualifications and value to the university.

“I’m a firm believer in whatever comes to you is meant for you.”

Her upbringing, both family and the diversity of LA, inspired her to pursue Latin American Studies and to focus on Central American mothering as a research topic. Here at UNM she is a fellow for the Center of Southwest Research where she works on a digitization project for an archive in Mexico City that focuses on post-revolutionary Mexico. She translates the meta data- all the information like key words and descriptions you use when you look things up. She is exposed to older versions of Spanish which is enlightening and difficult at the same time. Her work enables documents from the archive to be accessed remotely worldwide.

Joselin will be graduating this May and has been accepted into two PhD programs. She is deciding between Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz and American Studies here at UNM. Her goal is to write a book and she believes working on her dissertation will give her the clarity and experience to achieve her dream of publishing her own work. Her focus is the narratives of Central Americans living in the United States. Specifically looking at the settlement experience of Central Americans and the differences between immigration and migration and how they negotiate their new place and ways of being in their new context. This stems from her mother’s experience of negotiating her new place in the US as a Guatemalan woman.

Her advice for young women who want to pursue higher education is to find someone who they can trust and who pushes, encourages, and believes in them. She says hold on tight to those people as they will help you navigate the complexities of higher education especially if you are a first-generation student who may not have the experience and support within your own family. This goes for educators as well, “having the patience to allow you to grow,” is vital according to Joselin. Educators have the power to make real and lasting difference in young women’s lives. Thank you Joselin!

Additional Resources:

We would like to highlight the Smithsonian virtual film festival in honor of Women’s History Month featuring Chilean-American artist Cecilia Vicuña including a “virtual conversation about her work that explores the deep histories, coastal traditions, and the ecology of her homeland of Chile. With Amalia Cordova, Latino curator for digital and emerging media at the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and Saisha Grayson, time-based media curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.” Click here for more information about how to register.  

Upcoming Workshop!

We will be running a workshop on incorporating sound into the classroom at the end of this month. We are excited to have Dr. Ana Alonso Minutti presenting at this event!

Incorporating Global and Latin American Sounds into the Classroom
Thursday, February 24th at 4:30 pm MST

Sign-up link: https://unm.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEufumsqzkoG9VMNvcwbvn_0ItQL4wjmGeb

The first part of this workshop will feature a special presentation – “Living and Learning through Sound: Developing a Sonic Epistemology”. Drawing from her recent fieldwork in Costa Rica, Dr. Ana Alonso Minutti will address ways in which artists and scientists associated with the Universidad de Costa Rica, in conjunction with local activists, have developed the workbook ¡Escuchá conmigo! (2021), an invitation for kids and young adults to engage in an exercise of listening through the body to connect with nature. Having grown up in Mexico, she will address a similar project developed in her home country, Suena Mexico (2016), an illustrated book that tells a story using the yells and calls of street public services (el gas, la basura, tamales, etc.). Taking these two book projects as case examples, she will propose ways in which teachers and students can think through sound and engage in creative exercises to promote human and nonhuman connections. An active hiker, Ana will introduce the practice of soundwalking as yet another way of developing a sonic epistemology. By sharing her recent experience walking over 80 kms of El Camino de Santiago (Spain), she will propose doing soundwalks to create harmony between body, mind, and soul by listening through walking. Lastly, drawing from her time living in Albuquerque for the past eight years, Ana will address the ways in which the unique New Mexican soundscape has been a catalyst for her research, teaching, and composing. Ana Alonso Minutti is a music scholar, pedagogue, writer, and occasional composer based in Albuquerque, NM. She is passionate about listening, learning, loving, and living. Currently, she’s spending her sabbatical in Spanish-speaking lands, as she had missed thinking and speaking solely in her native language.

Following Ana’s presentation, participants will further explore how to incorporate sound into their classroom teaching. What does the world sound like? What does Latin America sound like? How is sound a form of resistance and sovereignty? Listen to soundscapes from around Latin America and Iberia, participate in an “ear opening” activity using South American sounds, and learn what resources are available to help you incorporate sound – including music, oral history, and podcasts – into your classroom. The resources provided are applicable across grade levels, languages, and subject areas. An educator book guide on “Hungry Listening” will also be provided and discussed. Explore, listen, and open your ears in this hands-on virtual workshop.

February is Black History Month!

This month we honor the adversity and triumphs experienced by African Americans not only throughout North America but in of all the Americas. While we honor Black history this month it is important to remember that we should elevate Black histories, Black voices, Black realities every month. Additionally, this month should not be understood as a separate part of the history of the Americas, but as integral to the history of the Americas. Afro-Latinxs have influenced and created the Latin America we know today.

“Sonia Guimarães is a Brazilian Professor of Physics at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica. She was the first black Brazilian woman to earn a doctorate in physics and has dedicated her career to improving the representation of black Brazilians in academia.” Click here to explore our lesson plan about Sonia!

Afro-Latinidad describes members of the African diaspora who were brought to Latin America and have since migrated all over the world, bringing their culture with them. There are many culturally distinct practices and characteristics of Afro-Latinidad, each region having a diverse and rich manifestation of this cross-cultural identity. African cultural traditions have permeated Latin America for hundreds of years, some being obvious and others more subtle. Only recently have many countries begun to start the process of officially recognizing Latin Americans of African descent. Teaching about Afro-Latinidad is essential when teaching about Latin America.

Buena Vista Social Club is a group of Cuban musicians who were virtually forgotten in Cuba’s past until they were reunited in 1996. The group is World famous, bringing Cuba’s African roots across the globe. Click here to explore our film guide for the Buena Vista Social Club documentary!

During the 2020-21 school year, the LAII hosted the Institute’s first-ever teacher workshop series on Afro-Latinidad! Throughout the series, we discuss a variety of Afro-Latinx cultures across Latin America, a range of spiritual and cultural Afro-Latinx traditions, and a diverse selection of historical Afro-Latinx figures. Please visit Afro-Latinidad :: Latin American & Iberian Institute | The University of New Mexico (unm.edu) to find more activities.

Literature is a wonderful way to learn about Afro-Latinx cultures and histories. Today’s book review provides us with a great opportunity to celebrate Black History Month!

Halsey Street

By Naima Coster (Little A, 2018)

Who? What? Where?

Penelope Grand decides to return to her childhood home on Halsey Street in BedStuy New York to be closer to her aging father. Once home Penelope is forced to bear witness to the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood as she struggles to confront both past and present, as well as her complicated family relationships. Halsey Street captures the feeling of what it means to return home when you never wanted to and the complexity of dysfunctional family dynamics between an absent mom Mirella, and an emotionally unavailable father, Ralph. This beautifully written novel weaves memory seamlessly between the pages in rich detail as Penelope tries to decide whether she will continue to let the past decide her present. 

Principle Themes:

Motherhood is a constant theme throughout the book as Mirella attempts to mother Penelope and the complexities their dynamic engenders. Coster is able to create a character for whom mothering has never been easy, and of a woman who struggles to understand her daughter. A second theme is gentrification, a process that has now gripped many major U.S cities and displaced many long term residents, gentrification changes the home Naima once knew and makes her wonder if this is place she can still call home.

Discussion Questions:

What type of tensions do you see in the book between Penelope, Ralph and Mirella?

What themes related to belonging and community did you notice?

What are the intersectional experiences of diaspora and gentrification/displacement in BedStuy?

Age: 14+

Region: US: New York

Language: English

More Resources:

Interview with the author: https://themillions.com/2018/07/rich-collective-life-naima-coster-on-halsey-street-gentrification-and-writing.html

The author’s website: https://www.naimacoster.com/

General book guide discussion questions: https://bookriot.com/book-club-discussion-questions/

For additional books centering Black experiences visit our book review collection of Afro-Caribbean Children’s and YA books

February LAII Educator Newsletter: Upcoming Workshops, Resource Materials, and More

Happy February, educators! We hope your school years are going as smoothly as possible and that your 2022 has started off well. In our latest newsletter, we share ideas, prepared lesson plans, and other opportunities and resources to help incorporate Hispanic and Latinx themes into your learners’ studies. ¡Disfrútalo! 

Incorporating Global and Latin American Sounds into the Classroom -Thursday, February 24th at 4:30 pm MST
What does the world sound like? What does Latin America sound like? How is sound a form of resistance and sovereignty?
In this workshop, participants will learn how to incorporate sound into their classroom teaching. Listen to soundscapes from around Latin America and Iberia, participate in an “ear-opening” activity using South American sounds, and learn what resources are available to help you incorporate sound – including music, oral history, and podcasts – into your classroom teaching. The resources provided are applicable across grade levels, languages, and subject areas. An educator book guide on Hungry Listening will also be provided and discussed.
Explore, listen, and open your ears in this hands-on virtual workshop.
Register Here

Spotlight: México y la frontera
Our featured resources this month focus on activities that will help students learn about Mexico and the Mexican/US borderlands using historical and contemporary lenses. This includes a resource guide on the Mexican Revolution, and a podcast guide and a film guide exploring la frontera.

Mexican Revolution Grade Levels: Primary and SecondaryDownload Activities

Podcast Guide: Fue el estado Grade Levels: Spanish IV, V, APDownload Activities

Film Guide: Which Way Home? Grade Levels: Secondary Download Activities

Educator Guide: “LA LÍNEA”
Miguel’s life is just beginning. Or so he thinks.
Fifteen-year-old Miguel leaves his rancho deep in Mexico to migrate to California across la línea, the border, in a debut novel of life-changing, cliff-hanging moments. But Miguel’s carefully laid plans change suddenly when his younger sister Elena stows away and follows him. Together, Miguel and Elena endure hardships and danger on their journey of desperation and desire, loyalty and betrayal.
An epilogue set ten years after the events of the story, shows that you can’t always count on dreams–even the ones that come true.
This book is appropriate for the middle grades (6 – 8).
Download  the Educator Guide

Recent Workshops at the LAII
Para Todos: Teaching Immigration & Activism in the K-12 ClassroomThe LAII recently hosted a professional development workshop on how to teach immigration and activism in the K-12 classroom. We were joined by Alejandra Domenzain, author of For All/Para Todos. Alejandra grew up in Mexico and the United States. She has been an advocate for immigrant workers for over 25 years, and also worked as an elementary school teacher. Currently, she is dedicated to improving workplace health and safety for low-wage workers.Workshop RecordingPresentation & Resources Social Justice and Activism in Everyday Curriculum: A vibrant social justice movement led largely by young activists is keeping immigration, racial justice, and other important movements in the headlines. As teachers and community-based educators, we can help youth learn about these issues and develop the skills they need to be civically engaged. Discover curriculums and best practices for integrating social justice from the University of New Mexico and UnidosUS Affiliate, Cesar Chavez Foundation, in a conversation moderated by Alejandra Domenzain, immigrant worker rights advocate and author of “For All/Para Todos”.Workshop Recording

The Importance of Bilingualism for Deaf/HH New Mexican Children -Friday, February 4th at 12 pm MST
The Lobo Language Acquisition Lab is very excited to host Dr. Jennifer Herbold of the New Mexico School for the Deaf as part of our #CelebrateBilingualismNM Speaker Series on Friday, Feb. 4th at 12pm MST. Dr. Herbold is presenting “The Importance of Bilingualism for Deaf/HH New Mexican Children.” This is a virtual event and ASL interpreters will be provided.
Register Here

Looking for more professional development?

Check out National Geographic’s free, online courses!
The National Geographic Society provides free, online professional development courses to formal and informal educators worldwide. Courses span a wide range of topics – from training in National Geographic’s geo-inquiry process, to conservation, to storytelling, to service learning, to an educator certification, and more. There is something for everyone and some courses come with the opportunity to earn continuing education credits. An online educator community for course graduates is also available.
The LAII’s K-12 Program coordinator has completed a few of their courses and cannot recommend them highly enough! Click below to learn more about the opportunities available and to sign up.
Learn More

Other Opportunities Summer Institute for Global Educators 2022: July 18-22, 2022 Looking for creative and innovative strategies to incorporate a global perspective across disciplines in your classroom curriculum? With presentations from Pitt faculty, UCIS staff, and other experts across a number of disciplines and including themes and topics such as language acquisition, sustainability, architecture, migration, math, culture, geography, and history, the virtual Summer Institute for Global Educators 2022 will enhance your teaching and your students’ learning! Sessions will include the use of film and media, simulations, games, and technology to enhance global learning and teaching. Synchronous and asynchronous daily sessions will be offered with time built in for participating educators of similar disciplines to collaborate and develop activities and lesson plans from the Institute’s offerings.  APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, April 1, 2022  WHO CAN APPLY? Pre-service and in-service high school educators in the U.S. and Pitt College in High School teachers. This program is FREE for all participants. ACT48 credits will be covered for participating PA teachers. LEARN MORE: pi.tt/SIGE Dual Language Education of New Mexico DLENM provides support, workshops, and resources to educators across the state and beyond. See below for more details on their upcoming training sessions for educators, as well as a link to their newsletter. Winter Institutes Math Training – Secondary and Elementary Soleado – DLENM Email Newsletter Albuquerque Museum K-12 Resources Bring the Museum into your classroom! The Albuquerque Museum has a variety of virtual resources to offer inspired by our exhibitions and collections. The museum is currently offering pre-recorded videos as well as live virtual presentations on Zoom and Google Meet. Click here for more information

Black History Month 2021

Feliz Black History Month!

February first is the start of Black History Month! To help your students learn about and celebrate Afro-Latinos and Black history and culture in Latin America, check out our materials from last year’s workshops centered around Afro-Latino traditions and significant figures from Latin America.

Check out these lesson plans to teach about Bomba:

Grades 3-5 (in English) Lesson Plan
Grades 3-5 (in Spanish) Lesson Plan
Grades 6-8 (in English) Lesson Plan

What does the phrase “representation matters” really mean?

Check out this STEM guide that explores the experiences of Dr. Guimarães from Brazil

Check out this film guide to learn more about the Buena Vista Social Club:

Grades 11-12 (in English) Lesson Plan

Want more materials? Check out our other lesson plans and guides from last year’s workshops here.

LAII Educator Newsletter: September 2020

We hope that the 2020-21 school year is off to a great start. In this newsletter, we share ideas and prepared lesson plans to help incorporate Hispanic and Latinx themes into your learners’ studies this month in addition to other helpful ideas for teaching during the pandemic. ¡Disfrútalo!  In the month’s newsletter:· Hispanic Heritage Month Activities, Vamos a Leer Educator Guide: The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle (in English and Spanish), Tech Spotlight: Google Meet, Current Event Activities SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER (ENGLISH) SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER (SPANISH) We also invite you to join our newly created LAII Educator Community Google Classroom for educators and parents to share how these tips worked for you and any other ideas you’ve come up with!

¡Feliz mes de la historia de la mujer!

Women’s History Month is here! Which inspiring women are you teaching your students about this month? Share their names in the comments below!

When it comes to women from Latin America and Latinas from the U.S., there is a long list of mujeres poderosas from which to choose. Here I will spotlight a few Latinas who have paved the way for future generations interested in STEM.

First, we have Mirna Roman; she the tica (costariqueña) who was the first Indigenous doctor in Costa Rica. This trailblazer is from the Ngäbe community and became inspired to practice medicine by watching her mom treat her siblings. We’ve created a STEM guide in Spanish that includes interviews of Roman and a reflective follow-up activity. Click here to access it!

Next up, we have Ellen Ochoa. Did you know that in addition to being the first Hispanic astronaut Ochoa has also made and patented 3 inventions? Our lesson plan on Ochoa is in English and perfect for grades 3-6; it includes two interviews of Ochoa in which she reflects upon her achievements and goals for future generations. Click here to check it out!

Last, but certainty not least, is Nicole Hernandez Hammer. Hernandez Hammer is a climate scientist, who spent her early childhood in rural Guatemala and is currently based in Florida where she works with communities who are most afflicted by climate change. Our STEM guide on Hernandez Hammer is in English and features an interview of this advocate in addition to a news article that addresses the impacts of climate change in Florida. Click here to learn more about this current issue!

Here’s to mujeres poderosas everywhere!
May we know them.
May we be them.
May we raise them.

Is there another Latina in STEM that you want to see featured in one of our STEM guides? Drop her name in a comment below!

Book Group Recap: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

¡Feliz (casi) primavera, lectores y educadores!

This month, we discussed Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Under the Mesquite (Grades 7-12; Lexile 990L) at our book group. This is a very heartwarming read about Lupita, a high schooler who experiences and overcomes challenges both at home with her family and at school with her peers. Lupita’s experiences and challenges are very relatable to readers of all ages. Click here to view our book guide. For extended notes on Under the Mesquite, check out our previous post about it by clicking here.

McCall begins Under the Mesquite with a definition of the mesquite tree that attests to its strength and resilience to endure harsh climates and its adaptability. It becomes clear from the beginning of the text that this resilient tree symbolizes this key theme that we see as Lupita is put in tough situations and valiantly overcomes these challenges.

Consider creating a memory box as a way to extend Under the Mesquite with your class! As Lupita grows and faces different difficulties in her life, she journals her memories of her mother, family, friends and cities in her blue book. Her interest in saving the memories of loved ones allows her to write stories that will revive the moments. It is from the desire of keeping the memories of her loved ones that the activity of memory box is thought. Students will put a drawing, an object, a photograph, a note and other things in a box that keeps the memories of their loved ones, places or moments of their lives. And finally, they will keep this box in their classroom as a door that will lead them to the memories.

Join us next month! On April 9th, we will meet at Ponderosa Brewing (1761 Bellamah Ave NW) to discuss Juana and Lucas by: Juana Medina. (Grades 2-4)

Why Cascarones?

As Ericka told us in the previous post, the importance and influence of the culture of two different countries in the development and growth of a border child make a great mark in their way of looking at the world.

Some of the most important aspects that the book, They Call me Güero, touches are the family in the day-to-day life of a border child, he food and how it shows the cultural roots that his family has had for years, and finally how the Güero is fortunate to have the opportunity to participate and live in a social environment that allows him to live different traditions of the two countries.

Some of these traditions are the Quinceañera, the preparation of Mexican tamales, the celebration of the Day of the Dead, and Easter, among others. We wanted to highlight the creation of the cascarones as a celebration that is native to Mexico and the United States. This celebration is held during the month of Easter where children decorate the eggshells and fill them with flour, confetti, frost and other things. The idea is that after making the decoration and filling of these eggs, the game beings… who will break more eggs?

¡¡Manos a la obra!! // Let’s do it!!

List of things to use:

→ Clean eggshells (preferably white)

→ Food dyes (various colors)

→ Confetti or flour (whatever you want to fill the eggs with!)

→ X-Acto knife

→ Vinegar

→ Hot water

Process

Step 1

To begin, we make a small hole in the eggs at one end and then we begin to remove the egg from the shell with care to not break the shell. When you have empty eggshells, we will wash them with water and let them air dry.

Step 2

In cups with a cup of hot water, 1 tsp of vinegar and 10-15 drops of food coloring, we submerge the eggshells in the different colors leaving them to soak for about 5 minutes.

Dare to play with the colors!

This is what our cascarones looked like are after painting them.

Step 3

Now it’s time to add the filling! It’s important to think through what you want to put inside. Maybe a little confetti, or you can be riskier and put some flour in them.

After you put the stuffing in them, you cover the hole with a piece of tissue paper and glue, so that what you put inside the shell will have no way out.

Now you just have to enjoy and play with these fun cascarones.

Other sources