Article research, culture history, dancing and more!

A Small History Lesson

•Preference for earth-like colors, like brown or dark red, although it is not uncommon to find vivid greens and strong yellows as part of the clothes’ colors.

•Traditional Mexican clothing combines native and European elements. The fibers of choice among the Mexicans are cotton, bark and agave (which were known and used by native Mexican pre-Hispanic civilizations to make their clothes), as well as wooland silk (introduced by the Spanish later).

•Typical women clothing includes a skirt, a “huipil” (a kind of sleeve-less tunic), a “quechquémitl” (a closed shoulder cape) and a “rebozo” (a kind of shawl).

•Mexican clothing for men is mostly “European-like”, which means that both the trousers and the shirt are European garments, and possibly the only native addition to the men’s wardrobe is a large blanket cape, called “Sarape”. Men often wear Mexican boots too.

•During the Carnival, the Mexican clothing of choice is the “Charro” suit, popularized by the famous musical ensembles known as the Mariachis. 

•Commonly used coins in circulation nowadays are: 50¢, $1, $2, $5, $10; the rarely used coins are: 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, $20, $50, $100.

•Traditional Mexican foods include tortillas, beans, rice, chicken, beef and goat based dishes, avocado, papaya, corn and etc.

A Few Dance Moves I've Tried Practicing

http://youtu.be/EUxFducYXyk

My Article Research

The article discusses how cultural values may impact the learning experience for a Hispanic American child. Hispanic Americans are united through customs, language, religion and values.

Characteristics of Hispanic Students

•Family commitment

•Loyalty

•A strong support system

•Child’s behavior reflects on the honor of the family

•Hierarchical order of siblings

•Discomfort with classroom competition

•Importance of respect for authority

•The male is perceived as dominant and strong

•The female is perceived as nurturing and self sacrificing

How I Can Play A Role As A Teacher

•Be aware of cultural group characteristics and self image problems

•They have customs, values, and educational orientation

•Allow the school to provide Spanish-speaking teachers, counselors, and educational assistants

•Pay attention to identity formation and individuation because it is challenging and problematic for them

•Focus on the strengths of each individual

•Plan interventions

•Group counseling with peers or even parents call on pastoral counseling

•Match instructional resources and methods to individual environmental, emotional, physiological and psychological preferences

The Type of Environment They May Prefer

1.A cool environment

2.Conformity

3.Peer oriented learning

4.Kinesthetic instructional resources

5.A high degree of structure

6.Late morning and afternoon peak energy levels

7.Variety of opposed routines

8.A field dependent cognitive style

How Hispanic Students Differ From Anglo Students in the Learning Environment

•Numbers of generations in the United States

•Behavioral styles

•Individualism

•More inclined to picking up their parents beliefs, preferences and lifestyles

•Hispanic males become independent sooner

•Lower self esteem

•Anglos prefer learning alone and eating or drinking snacks while learning

Anglos are also are more auditory and visual

Rosa De La Arte

A few friends and I went to go visit Artes de La Rosa, which is a Hispanic Cultural Center in Fort Worth Texas, on March 24, 2012. There we went to an art gallery created by a Hispanic artist who had moved to Fort Worth in the past few months trying to make his passion for his cultural art work known. It's funny because as we were standing trying to figure out a piece he was standing with us as if he was apart of the audience. Then all of a sudden he introduced himself and pretty much caught us off guard and we all laughed.We got the chance to talk to him and he broke down many of the paintings explaining how he created them and the background behind where the ideas came from. We also had gotten to take a picture of him next to one of his pieces. There were a few based off of his experiences like one he created of his grandmother named "Los Regazos de Abuela" meaning the "The Laps of Grandmother". There was also a piece of art with his daughter acting as a samurai and we had the opportunity of meeting her at the display as well as his wife. There was also a time where they let Hispanic students in high school write a paper over what they thought the paintings were about, how they felt about it, how they related to it or even just write a short story about it and read it to the audience that was there. The arts were very interesting I truly enjoyed this experience and wouldn't mind doing it again. 

Here are a few pictures from the gallery below I got some of the titles to the pieces misplaced and couldn't figure out how to fix it and I apologize but I hope you enjoy!

Stand and Deliver

As a child our teachers had us watch the movie Stand and Deliver and I never understood or even cared enough as child to look into what it was about. Like the rest of the students I laughed and forgot it right after it went off. Now that I am a young adult I have took it upon myself to view this movie again. It reminds me of Freedom Writers and is also about youth in the Los Angeles community but this particular story primarily focused on the Hispanic culture. As it is today, Hispanics are considered apart of the minority and are viewed as "illiterate" and incapable of reaching an intelligent peak to achieve success in school. This teacher Jamie Escalante starts working at this school but realized these students have way more potential then what the school assumes they have. So he takes it in his hands to start teaching them a more difficult curriculum because he knew they were capable of doing so and he wanted to open up the possibility of them earning college credit their senior year. These students also had big responsibilities in their homes helping out their parents and siblings taking on big responsibilities which sometimes clashed with this but the teacher helped them work through their situations. Faculty didn't agree with him and often were against him. When the students took the AP test to earn college credit, they all worked so hard but were accused of cheating because though they passed they got all of the same problems wrong but Escalante knew it was because they were Hispanic and were underestimated. They agreed to retake the test over the summer and passed again. This movie has such a big impact not only on Hispanics but other races as well. Our students shouldn't be underestimated by the background of their culture or the color of their skin. This movie opens your eyes to not what the students need to change in order to learn but what the teachers should change in order to teach. Our children are capable of so much more we must give them the opportunity to prove it.