National Hispanic Heritage Month
Each year, from September 15 to October 15, America honors the many contributions Hispanic Americans have made and continue to make to our nation by observing National Hispanic Heritage Month. This September, EDSITEment celebrates the history and artistic heritage of the Hispanic people whose cultural heritage has roots in Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
The Hispanic people were among the earliest settlers in the New World, and the accounts of their ventures into the uncharted territories of the southeast and southwest form part of our literary and historical heritage. You can find a prime example of one of these accounts, the Relation, written by Alvar NúÑez Cabeza de Vaca, by visiting the EDSITEment participating website, New Perspectives on the West.
Cabeza de Vaca's Relation is a gripping account of his years of wandering among the indigenous people in the Southwest. Published in 1542, it is as prized today for its literary merit as it is for its ethnological descriptions, and its easy-to-read style makes it accessible to even middle school students. You can find de Vaca's Relation and many other primary source documents relevant to Spanish exploration and colonization by visiting New Perspectives on the West. From the "Main Menu" on the left, choose "People in the West." Scroll down the main page of "People in the West," click on "Show Contents," and select "Cabeza de Vaca" from the selections indexed on the left.
For another perspective on Spanish exploration and settlement, visit Web de Anza, an EDSITEment participating website packed with primary source documents and multimedia resources covering Juan Bautista de Anza's two overland expeditions that led to the colonization of San Francisco in 1776.
The Hispanic people also have unique cultural ties to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The multi-faceted artistic heritage of these cultural ties has yielded outstanding examples of arts and handicrafts. You can explore one Hispanic culture's artistic legacy by examining the art and artifacts of Puerto Rico's history and culture at A Collector's Vision of Puerto Rico, an online exhibit documenting the people, history, and culture of Puerto Rico.
There are several EDSITEment lesson plans and Additional Learning Activities that can show you how to use online resources in the classroom. The EDSITEment lesson plan, Common Visions, Common Voices, examines the effects of intercultural contact, an issue vital to both contemporary and historical Hispanic culture, through an examination of the artistic and literary themes and motifs found in Mayan artifacts and trickster stories. You can complement this lesson plan with an Additional Learning Activity from the Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) entitled "Precolumbian Myths and Legends." In this learning activity, students study the Maya and Aztec cultures by reading examples of their myths and legends in order to gain insight in the history of these people. LANIC facilitates access to Internet-based information on, from, or about Latin America and has also become an important gateway to Latin America for primary and secondary school teachers and students.
To further extend this study of intercultural contact, consult the following Additional Learning Activity sponsored by LANIC entitled "Borders: A Multi-Dimensional Approach" . This lesson takes middle school students through a study of borders in their own lives.
Finally, you can find additional information relevant to National Hispanic Heritage Month by visiting the Summer Seminars and Institutes for schoolteachers page at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Read more about the Encounter between Europe (particularly Spain) and the native peoples of the Americas by visiting the website of "Converging Cultures: Native America, Europe, and the Encounter." Another relevant website from NEH's Summer Institutes program for teachers is "NEH Summer Institute for Teachers of Spanish to Spanish Speakers." This site addresses the particular needs of Spanish teachers who instruct middle and high school Spanish-speaking students in their classes.
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