Relevance
This unit is not only a reflection of the Mexican and Latinos community in San José and their history but also explores issues of social justice and equality that can be part of a larger conversations involving how minority communities are often marginalized. I call attention to the process and discovery in examining and redefining the narrative of a minority or disenfranchised community or neighborhood within a broader, more dominant community, city or region. This unit’s use of public history, its methods and genres serve as the modus operandi and is applicable to any locale. Exploring the spatial relationship of a community and its broader historical, political, environmental and social connections opens new avenues of interpretations, understanding and ownership of your youth’s community. Empowering young students as producers of their history, and active participants in the public history of their own community serves as Michael Frisch states to create a dialogic history, one where history is not frozen in a past, but is active.
As public historians our youth can provide new analysis of their community’s history and progression. For Public History provides a process for the telling of history based on research, interpretation and public content. This unit has students using the film genera as the way of communicating this public history. This genre’s approach to histrionics uses the language of film to communicate, producing a specific type of experiences for the public. For a more in-depth discussed in this type of experience around media check out Rothschild’s book.
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