Content Objectives
Background Knowledge in Building Community
The unit opens by guiding students to connect with their own background knowledge. Through the works of Sandra Cisneros, Rudolfo Anaya, Esmeralda Santiago, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Carmen Lomas Garza, and others, students encounter authentic voices that illuminate the complexity of contemporary Latinx experiences (See figure 1 in the Resources section). Students reflect on where they come from, the communities they belong to, and the experiences that have shaped who they are. They will discuss how people sometimes judge communities without knowing them and how those ideas can affect belonging. I will use this starting point to introduce the idea that borders are not always physical. Some are created by perceptions, culture, and society. This prepares students to read The House on Mango Street through the lens of identity and belonging.
As an activating activity, students deconstruct the title of the unit. The objective at the start of the unit will be to understand the concept of borders as one that serves as both a physical and symbolic framework. Students will examine geographic borders crossed through migration, linguistic borders navigated through bilingualism and language use, and cultural borders negotiated through questions of heritage, and belonging.
In Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, students will begin to analyze how roots shape identity even when individuals encounter social borders.[20] Students will explore how Cisneros presents identity as something grounded in family, language, and community while also showing how those roots are challenged by the boundaries people encounter in their everyday life.
This idea becomes evident in her vignette "Those Who Don't,” where Esperanza reflects on the invisible borders that separate neighborhoods and shape people's perceptions of one another:[21]
“Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. […] people who are lost and got here by mistake. But we aren’t afraid. We know the guy with the crooked eye is Davey the Baby’s brother, and the tall one next to him in the straw brim, that’s Rosa’s Eddie. V., […] All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes.”
Rather than describing a physical border, Cisneros reveals how fear and misunderstanding create social boundaries between communities. As students analyze this passage, they will examine how stereotypes influence belonging and consider how their own communities shape their own identities. Through classroom discussion, students examine how these invisible borders affect relationships and reflect on similar experiences in their own lives.
Cisneros expands this exploration of identity in "No Speak English," where the focus shifts from community to language. The vignette illustrates that language is more than a means of communication; it is a connection to culture, memory, and family:[22]
“[…] She sits all day by the window and plays the Spanish radio show and sings all the homesick songs about her country in a voice that sounds like a seagull. Home. Home. Home is a house in a photograph, a pink house, pink as hollyhocks with lots of startled light. The man paints the walls of the apartment pink, but it's not the same, you know. She still sighs for her pink house, and then I think she cries. I would. Sometimes the man gets disgusted. He starts screaming and you can hear it all the way down the street. Ay, she says, she is sad. Oh, he says. Not again. ¿Cuándo, cuándo, cuándo? she asks. ¡Ay, caray! We are home. This is home. Here I am and here I stay. Speak English. Speak English. Christ! ¡Ay! Mamacita, who does not belong, every once in a while, lets out a cry, hysterical, high, as if he had torn the only skinny thread that kept her alive, the only road out to that country. And then to break her heart forever, the baby boy, who has begun to talk, starts to sing the Pepsi commercial he heard on T.V. No speak English, she says to the child who is singing in the language that sounds like tin. No speak English, no speak English, and bubbles into tears. No, no, no, as if she can't believe her ears.”
Through the character Mamacita's experience, students will recognize that linguistic borders can preserve cultural identity while also creating feelings of isolation. Classroom discussions will encourage students to examine how language reflects personal history and consider how bilingualism or multilingualism shape their own identities. These conversations help students understand that roots continue to influence identity even as people navigate new cultures and communities.
As students continue reading The House on Mango Street, they explore additional vignettes that deepen their understanding of identity and belonging. In "My Name," students examine how names connect to family history, culture, and personal identity:[23]
“In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing. It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse--which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong. My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild, horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, […]”
In "A Rice Sandwich," students will explore how the desire to belong can shape the way people see themselves and others:[24]
“The special kids, the ones who wear keys around their necks, get to eat in the canteen. The canteen! Even the name sounds important. And these kids at lunch time go there because their mothers aren’t home or home is too far to get to. My home isn’t far but it’s not close either, and somehow, I got it in my head one day to ask my mother to make me a sandwich and write a note to the principal so I could eat in the canteen too. […] Okay, okay, my mother says after three days of this. And the following morning I get to go to school with my mother’s letter and a rice sandwich because we don’t have lunch meat. Mondays or Fridays, it doesn’t matter, mornings always go by slow and this day especially. But lunchtime came finally and I got to get in line with the stay-at-school kids. Everything is fine until the nun who knows all the canteen kids by heart looks at me […] Then she was sorry and said I could stay - just for today, not tomorrow or the day after - you go home. And I said yes and could I please have a Kleenex - I had to blow my nose. In the canteen, which was nothing special, lots of boys and girls watched while I cried and ate my sandwich, the bread already greasy and the rice cold.”
Lastly, in "A House of My Own,” students reflect on the importance of remembering where they come from even as they imagine their future:[25]
“Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man's house. Not a daddy's. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed. Nobody to shake a stick at. Nobody's garbage to pick up after. Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.”
Understanding Latinx Identity Through Reading
In the World Language classroom, students are expected to construct their own connections to texts and identify similarities and differences between those texts and their own culture. This unit expands students' understanding of literature that may be unfamiliar to them. It challenges them to look beyond their own experiences as they explore how identity is shaped, challenged, and transformed. As a result, students develop critical thinking skills by examining multiple perspectives.
As students’ progress through the unit, this section emphasizes the importance of identity-centered reading in the classroom. Wagner argues that literacy instruction should recognize students' identities as an essential part of learning rather than treating identity as a separate topic.[26] Building on this idea, students engage in close reading and literary analysis that prepare them to approach more complex texts with greater confidence. Throughout the unit, students will keep a visual journal through drawings and writing. The journal will allow students to record their thinking, reflect on their learning, and identify similarities and differences across the texts.
For this content objective, selected readings and visual texts explore the themes of belonging and Latinx identity while encouraging students to reflect on their own identities. The readings provide the foundation for close reading, reflective writing, and collaborative activities. Students identify literary elements, make text-to-self and text-to-world connections, and examine how each author represents the many experiences of Latinx identity. Organizing the readings around the idea of roots helps students recognize how family, culture, language, and community shape identity. It also helps them recognize shared experiences while appreciating the diversity within Latinx communities.
Students continue analyzing these themes through selected works by other Latinx authors and artists. In Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, students will study how family traditions, faith, and community shape Antonio's understanding of himself as he struggles to balance different cultural influences:[27]
“In many cuentos I had heard the owl was one of the disguises a bruja took, and so it struck a chord of fear in the heart to hear them hooting at night. But not Ultima's owl. Its soft hooting was like a song, and as it grew rhythmic it calmed the moonlit hills and lulled us to sleep. Its song seemed to say that it had come to watch over us. I dreamed about the owl that night, and my dream was good. La Virgen de Guadalupe was the patron saint of our town. The town was named after her. In my dream I saw Ultima's owl lift Ia Virgen on her wide wings and fly her to heaven. Then the owl returned and gathered up all the babes of Limbo and flew them up to the clouds of heaven. The Virgin smiled at the goodness of the owl.”
In When I Was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago examines how family, migration, and cultural expectations influence identity while reflecting on the meaning of belonging in more than one place:[28]
“I had my last guava the day we left Puerto Rico. It was large and juicy, almost red in the center, and so fragrant that I didn’t want to eat it because I would lose the smell. All the way to the airport I scratched at it with my teeth, making little dents in the skin, chewing small pieces with my front teeth, so that I could feel the texture against my tongue, the tiny pink pellets of sweet. Today, I stand before a stack of dark green guavas, each perfectly round and hard, each $1.59. The one in my had is tempting. It smells faintly of late summer afternoons and hop-scotch under the mango tree. But this is autumn in New York, and I am no longer a child.”
And for the visual text objective, students will analyze Carmen Lomas Garza's "Tamalada" as the artwork celebrates family traditions and cultural memory.[29]
The readings will encourage students to examine how everyday experiences, food, and community gatherings preserve heritage across generations. The teacher will guide students in making connections among these works through close reading, visual analysis, classroom discussion, and reflective writing. To summarize, students will compare each author's perspective while considering how their own families, traditions, and communities continue to shape their identities.
The primary objective of this unit is to help students develop their language skills while thinking critically about identity, culture, and the world around them. Through literature, memoir, poetry, and visual art, students will examine how language, cultural heritage, family, and community shape individual identities. Beyond studying authentic texts, they will develop a broader understanding of the diverse experiences that define Latinx communities and foster greater respect for the perspectives of others.
As a result of this unit, students will: (1) recognize and value the diversity within their classroom and community, (2) understand both the similarities and differences that connect people across cultures, and (3) appreciate the unique backgrounds, traditions, and personal stories that shape individual identity. The unit's overarching questions encourage students to consider how learning about the lives of others can build empathy, respect, and meaningful connections. Through reading, discussion, reflection, and analysis, students will recognize that identity is shaped by family history, language, and culture. They will also understand that while the past influences who we become, individuals have the ability to define themselves. Students will engage in how to preserve their cultural heritage, and contribute to their communities.
The sequence of learning experiences intentionally scaffolds students' understanding by moving from literary fiction to memoir and culminating in visual art. Each text offers a different perspective on identity while reinforcing the central idea of ‘Where Roots Shape Identity.’ Together, these text sources demonstrate that identity is not formed by a single experience but through the traditions, memories, and communities that shape our lives. By the conclusion of the unit, students will have strengthened their interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational language skills while developing a deeper appreciation for the richness and diversity of Latinx experiences. More importantly, they will advance with a greater understanding that every person's story contributes to a larger human experience. My hope is that they are able to recognize these stories are an essential step toward empathy, belonging, and cultural understanding.
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