National Hispanic Heritage Month

Features: Art & Culture

Mission Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Acuña, San Antonio, Texas

National Hispanic Heritage Month

Since 1988, the U.S. Government has set aside the period from September 15 to October 15, to honor the many contributions Hispanic Americans have made and continue to make to our nation by observing National Hispanic Heritage Month. The term Hispanic, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, refers to Spanish-speaking people in the United States of any race. On the 2010 Census form, people of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin could identify themselves as Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino." More than 50.5 million people identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino on the 2010 Census, making Hispanics a significant cultural presence in the United States.

The Roots of Hispanic Culture in the New World

Through EDSITEment resources, students can explore the history of Hispanic culture in America in architecture, memoir, and music. The Picturing America project, for instance, celebrates Hispanic Heritage with a handsome visual reminder of the Spanish influence on American history, religion and culture: Mission Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, one of the oldest surviving stone churches in America. In the EDSITEment lesson plan, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Concepción and the Spanish Mission in the New World, students are invited to use the image of the mission to explore the way Spanish missionaries and native American tribes worked together to build a community of faith in the Southwest in the mid-17th century. Another EDSITEment resource, the NEH-funded PBS series When Worlds Collide, explores the moment and the many implications of the encounter between the newly-arrived Europeans and the native peoples of the Americas, while also offering a wide array of educational resources and lesson plans. EDSITEment guides students in exploring the culture that resulted from this encounter and the resulting explorations of the Americas more deeply.

Accounts of ventures into uncharted territories by Hispanic explorers and missionaries of the Southeast and Southwest form a vital part of U.S. literary and historical heritage. A prime example, the journey of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, can be found by visiting the EDSITEment-reviewed resource New Perspectives on the West. Students can then embark on The Road to Santa Fe: A Virtual Excursion to journey to one of America's oldest and most historic cities along the ancient Camino Real to discover the multilayered heritage of the peoples who call New Mexico their homeland. For another perspective on Spanish exploration and settlement, visit Web de Anza, an EDSITEment-recommended 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.

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Historical and Cultural Legacies

A large selection of reviewed web resources that explore the cultural legacy of Mexico, Central America, parts of the Caribbean, as well as other Latin American nations is also featured on EDSITEment. NPR’s Afropop Worldwide introduces the great variety of music with African roots today in countries like Colombia. A Collector's Vision of Puerto Rico features an interactive map of Puerto Rico and a rich timeline. 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. Other EDSITEment resources focus on the history and culture of other countries. The EDSITEment lesson plan, Mexican Culture and History through Its National Holidays, encourages students to learn more about the United States’ closest southern neighbor by highlighting Mexico’s Independence Day and other important Mexican holidays.

Additional EDSITEment-created resources help students attain a deeper understanding of the history and cultural wealth of that large and diverse country. EDSITEment marked the Mexican Revolution’s Centennial (1910-2010) with the NEH-funded PBS documentary, The Storm That Swept Mexico and a special, EDSITEment-created bilingual spotlight that explores the Revolution’s historical background, including the muralist movement, and the musical legacy of the corrido tradition. EDSITEment also notes Mexico’s vital role in world literature by saluting one of the most important poets in the Spanish language and the first great Latin American poet, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in a fully bilingual academic unit. Here, teachers and students will find two lesson plans, accompanying bilingual glossaries, an interactive timeline, numerous worksheets, listening-comprehension exercises, and two interactive activities, one of which entails a detailed analysis of her portrait.

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Hispanic Culture and Literature Today

Contemporary authors writing about Hispanic heritage in the United States include Pam Muñoz Ryan, whose award-winning work of juvenile fiction is featured in the EDSITEment lesson plan, Esperanza Rising: Learning Not to Be Afraid to Start Over (the lesson plan is also available in Spanish). Set in the early 1930s, twenty years after the Mexican Revolution and during the Great Depression, Esperanza Rising tells the story of a young Mexican girl's courage and resourcefulness when, at the tender age of thirteen, she finds herself living in a strange new world. Pam Muñoz Ryan also enriches her story with extensive historical background. Students are given an opportunity to engage in interesting classroom activities that encourage them to imagine the difficult choices facing those who decide to leave home and immigrate to the United States. More resources, like the NEH-funded documentary La Ciudad, give students a further taste of these types of experiences.

On the literature front, both Latin America and Spain have a rich heritage. Students can learn more about some of the most important poets from the Spanish Golden Age and from the twentieth century through the feature Six Hispanic Literary Giants (this feature is also available in Spanish). Students can choose to work with an EDSITEment-created interactive launchpad to study more closely Pablo Neruda's "Oda al mar" ("Ode to the Sea").

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Spanish Language, Hispanic Culture

More resources are featured on EDSITEment’s new section Best-of the-Web Spanish Language Websites, which offers teachers, parents, and students dozens of websites evaluated by panels of educators and approved by EDSITEment for use in the classroom for their quality, educational potential, and presentation. The websites can be found on EDSITEment’s Reference Shelf and are grouped by Spanish proficiency level. They represent a rich, multifaceted array of Spanish language content from various fields within the humanities. Sample excellent audio resources, like La Red de Radioifusoras y Televisoras Educativas y Culturales de México A.C., which offers a wide collection of webcasts with video and audio related to cultural events and performances in Mexico, or the official website of El Museo Nacional del Prado, which explores the art collections of Spain’s premier museum.

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Featured Lessons

Featured Websites

Featured Additional EDSITEment Resources

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ABOUT THE IMAGE

Mission La Concepción at Sunset. Photo by Lee Wilder, Courtesy National Park Service.

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