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Abstracts of Curriulum Units from
Indo-Hispano Cultural Legacy of New Mexico

Teaching Cultural Tolerance and Traditions in the Middle School
Toni Barela

Writing a curriculum unit that will be taught with middle school students on the topic of the Lady of Guadalupe, causes me to believe that it is important to give an overall perspective of the population where I work and of my personal philosophy as a bilingual-bicultural educator. Even though I teach at a school that has a population of ninety-five percent Hispanics, the umbrella term "Hispanic" does not give an actual representation of the diversity of this population. Many students come from families whohave lived in the community for several generations. Several of these students profess an allegiance to the neighborhood or "barrio" where they live. Each neighborhood becomes an area where students "claim" a gang affiliation. There are those students whose families come to the United States, mostly from Mexico, for a better life. All of these students struggle to "fit in" and to achieve their goals. They attend school with the same expectations and dreams of many other young people their age. Hopefully, I will become instrumental in helping them achieve these aspirations in a non-threatening environment. I think it helps me to be a bilingual-bicultural teacher. I can assist each student with the presentation of topics and themes that close the disparities between them. I can introduce topics that give them an understanding of all the things that make them same. I can guide them to recognize their commonalties and hope that with this guidance they learn to focus on their similarities.

De Nina a Mujer: RITES OF PASSAGE
A Young Girl’s Ceremony
Katalina R. Chavez

Traditions are events that people throughout the world hold in high esteem. This is particularly true in New Mexico where celebrations like the Matachines Dance have continued virtually interrupted for centuries. The people of these communities feel a deep sense of obligation to ensure the continuance of these traditions. Two celebrations in particular, the Quinceanera and the Kinaalda have increased in popularity, despite popular culture interferences. Girls today are enthusiastic at the prospect of being honored as a newly-emerging adult into the community. Staging such an event in a classroom can be fun and provide students with a new awareness of the historical significance of it and an opportunity to appreciate it.

The Treasure Chest of Indo-Hispanic Culture and Music of New Mexico
Willva Delgado

This unit is designed for use in a middle school irchestra class. It could easily be adapted to classes for Spanish, bilingual, social studies or chorus in middle school or high school. It is intended to provide students with an opportunity to learn about the rich culture of the Native American, Spanish, and Mexican heritages, primarily through the medium of music. It is also intended that students will recognize the contributions of this legacy in their lives. Another aspect will be to tap into the memories of senior citizens about this heritage and to provide a means for their knowledge to be passed on to the next generation.

Students will listen to and become familiar with various forms of music from Indians of the Pueblos to the Spanish villages. Some of this will be accomplished through recordings in the classroom, in addition to guest performances. Field trips to the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and a senior citizens’ center will provide enriching opportunities to learn more about the various forms of music and culture. Another direction to obtain more information, will be to have students survey their own family members about music of their backgrounds, and who will in turn share this with the class.

Numerous projects will occur on a weekly basis. These projects will take students from observation, to analysis, to creativity and finally to performance. Students will keep journals and will record their critical analysis as well as their personal responses.

Students will learn orchestral works for performance at school and also at one of the senior citizens’ centers. These performances will focus on the music and traditions of the cultures that we have studied, along with the class’ creative works. Special events will occur at the end of the first semester with a performance of Los Farolitos of Christmas. The end of the second semester, students will perform pieces pertaining to the history of the Cinco To Topde Mayo celebration.

Myth and Memory:
Sharing Sacred and Secular Space in the Indo-Hispano World
Susan Gandert

Pueblo dancers mark the passage of time with both sacred and secular dances — Evergreen, Butterfly, Harvest, Corn, Comanche, and Matachine dances. Nuevo Mexicanos also mark the passage of time with sacred and secular dances - Matachine and Comanche dances. Both peoples cling steadfastly to the traditions of their ancestors who struggled to preserve their culture and way of life. Early relationships between the españoles mexicanos and Native Americans were rife with conflict; however, an examination of the cultural traditions celebrated today indicates that gradually a peaceful coexistence occurred as both began to adapt and share their lives with one another.

The dynamic Indo-Hispano cultural traditions of Nuevo México are the theme of this unit. By studying the folk drama Los comanches and the dance drama La danza de los matachines, students will gain an appreciation and understanding of the historical, social, and religious beliefs that have shaped these unique traditions.

A variety of media is used in this unit to enrich the students’ understanding of the Indo-Hispano tradition. Students will watch videos and slides of community performances, listen to inditas, visit museums and historical sights, read first person accounts of the events that shaped these cultural traditions, as well as essays. They will also stage plays, sharing what they have learned in performances for other classes. This unit is designed so that students will experience Indo-Hispano culture and history as they enhance their Spanish language skills, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Indo/Hispano Art: Making Connections Through Hands-On Activities
Lisa Gillett

An Indo/Hispano curriculum stresses the importance of making connections. This Indo/Hispano art curriculum will help students recognize the blending of cultures that occurred in New Mexico’s past and unravel similarities and differences in the various Indo/Hispano arts of that era. Through art activities the students will gain a better and fuller understanding of their own ethnic backgrounds as they study New Mexico’s vast cultural heritage.

The unit is intended for a high school beginning Art I class. The curriculum revolves around the students’ lives and their collective histories. The lessons in the unit explore Native American art and Hispanic art in New Mexico. The students will uncover the underlying themes and early technologies of the two cultures. They will see how the themes and technologies overlap and intertwine in the art work being shown and discussed. Through curiosity and investigation the students will learn about the history and culture of the people who came before them.

There are six lessons in the Indo/Hispano Art unit. They are bead weaving, overlay design jewelry, coil pottery, linoleum block printing, retablos, and tinwork. Each hands-on activity has a colorful and exciting introduction and time set aside for reflection on the subject.

"Los Pastores" Goes To Broadway!
Teaching Spanish by using Plays in the Classroom.
Martin Hoehne-Sanchez

Taking your Spanish classes to a Broadway play can be very expensive as well as highly improbable especially if you don’t live near Broadway. This educational unit is designed to bring Broadway into the Spanish classroom! Implementing various theatrical activities into the classroom with high school students can be an effective way of teaching Spanish.

For centuries, the world of drama and theatre has been a powerful method of teaching. Plays, in particular, have been a unique source of entertainment as well as an excellent way of educating the audience about historical events, myths and legends, heroes and villains, morals and religious themes. This educational curriculum unit centers on an ancient Spanish play entitled "Los Pastores," "The Shepherd’s Play." This creative unit is designed to immerse high school students in Spanish as they study and perform "Los Pastores." Students will then be guided to produce their own Spanish play based on the main characters and themes of "Los Pastores." While the students are studying and performing these plays, they will improve their skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing Spanish. Another equally important learning objective is that students may come to appreciate and enjoy "Los Pastores,"To Top for it is among the many rich Hispanic traditions alive here in New Mexico.

"I am New Mexican:" A Celebration of New Mexico Culture
Elizabeth Rivera

This unit is designed for integration with New Mexico history units. This is a language arts unit that uses literature, history, traditions, and drama to teach the Indo-Hispano cultures of New Mexico. This is a paced unit that requires an entire semester so all of the information in the unit may be covered.

Students learn best when they are engaged in meaningful learning that is relevant to their lives. The purpose of this unit was to create an enjoyable learning experience for both students and teachers. This unit is also designed around the New Mexico Content Standards and Benchmarks for the Language Arts curriculum. This unit is suggested for middle school students but may be used throughout the high school level as well.

I am a second year teacher at Garfield Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, therefore, this unit is also made to meet the needs of my students. Bilingual materials are used in English and Spanish. Some of the literature in this unit includes;

Always the Heart/ Siempre Corazon, by Jim Sagel; Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya; and Woven Stone, by Simon Ortiz. Some of the topics covered in this unit are: natural ways of healing and the curanderos of the southwest, destiny, language, and the Spanish conquest of New Mexico.

An Exploration of Hispanic and Native American Culture through Literature
Thomas Sloan

The goal of this curriculum is to develop reading skills in middle school students by engaging them with material that is both meaningful and relevant to their lives. Chapter books and short story compilations have been selected to form the basis of a reading program based on their strength in addressing cultural issues and a high-interest factor for middle school students. The material is adaptable to either a nine week unit or semester long class. An implementation plan to work with novels as a whole class is included, as well as a series of suggested class projects. A history of New Mexico is also provided as background information for the teacher.

Links to the Natural World within Hispanic and Native American Literature
Shelly Thornton

This unit will begin with an overview of the history of contact between Hispanic and Pueblo Indian cultures in New Mexico. There are many differences and similarities between the two cultures, both historically and in the present. There are also blendings of the two, leading to a unique cultural environment. Historically, the natural world plays an important role in both cultures – the connections to and the importance of plants, animals, and birds will be explored. The differences and similarities of the attitudes between the cultures of the past and those of the present will be explored. Students will look for links to our nature theme within the context of culturally appropriate novels, short stories, poems, picture books, videos, and guest speakers. The unit is designed for a 7th grade language arts/literature class of learning disabled students. Even though this unit is designed for a language arts/literature class, it could easily be modified to work within the context of a New Mexico history class. There are many links to the 7th grade social studies curriculum included in this unit. The goal is to acquaint the students with the history of two important cultures in New Mexico and to To Tophave them analyze the role the natural world has played in those cultures in the both the past and present.