Background Content
Student Background Knowledge
During the year of Spanish prior to this unit, students completed an eight week unit of study on the Mexican celebration of El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) in which they learned about the significance of calaveras, edible or decorative skulls used during the Day of the Dead, and limited details about La Calavera Catrina, Mexico’s “Grande Dame of Death,” created by José Guadalupe Posada. Also in this unit, students were exposed to Calaveras poems, which are poems recited for the Day of the Dead. These are satirical poems that poke fun at people who are alive in such a way as to suggest they are dead. The people being satirized are in the public eye, often politicians and people of power. Calaveras poems are an accepted and safe way to make fun of the rich and powerful. These poems also point out that in the end we all end up in the same place. These satires can also be found in the form of illustrations incorporating skulls, thus the name Calaveras. In this unit, my students had the opportunity to create their own Calaveras poems about a famous individual or a family member. As background knowledge for this unit, students completed a brief study of the Mexican Revolution.
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