The Big Easy: Literary New Orleans and Intangible Heritage

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 11.04.04

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Content Objectives: Investigating Two Massacres, 448 Years Apart
  3. Teaching Strategies: Engagement with Culture through Performance
  4. Tlatelolco, 1968: student activities
  5. The Toxcatl Massacre, 1520: Student Activities
  6. Resources
  7. Materials for Classroom Use
  8. Appendix: implementing teaching standards
  9. Annotated Bibliography
  10. Notes

The Scene of the Crime, Mexico City: Performing History in the Language Classroom

Matthew Charles Kelly

Published September 2011

Tools for this Unit:

Materials for Classroom Use

Audacity® is a digital audio recording and editing program created and distributed by volunteers. It offers more than adequate capability for most classroom recording and editing needs. Audacity® is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux, and is available as a free download (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/).

Students who need a visual cue to conceptualize the sequence of events of 1968 may benefit from the timeline at National Public Radio's Radio Diaries: the History Project. (http://www.radiodiaries.org/audiohistory/storypages/mexico.html). 55 The timeline may serve as a model for students to create Spanish language classroom timelines.

Rojo amanecer 56 is a 1991 film by Mexican director Luis Fons. The film won eleven national and international awards, including nine Ariel awards, Mexico's equivalent to the Academy Awards. A dramatic adaptation based on exhaustive research, the film covers the events of the night of October 2, 1968 from the vantage point of an affluent family in one of the apartments overlooking the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. The film was produced in 1989 but release of the film was delayed for two years by state censorship. When the film finally reached distribution it became one of the most successful domestic films of Mexican cinema. The film is not rated by the MPAA.

Afterword

I also danced the Peppermint Twist on stage in a polyester three piece suit in an elementary history pageant. Not the Twist, but the Joey Dee and the Starliters Peppermint Twist. I didn't understand why we were dancing the Peppermint Twist and not the Twist. I'd heard of Chubby Checker, and I'd heard of the Twist, but I'd never heard of the Peppermint Twist. My teacher said she thought Chubby Checker might still be too controversial because this was the South, and that it was a miracle Betsy Ross and I were up there dancing at all. I didn't understand, but I think the real history lesson was still playing out. My dad was impressed with my dancing but was outraged that it was considered a history lesson. "History? It wasn't that long ago!" he said. I think my teacher was really young.

Comments:

Be the first to comment on this unit!

Add a Comment

Characters Left: 500