Elsa M. Calderon
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1. To develop a working definition of culture.
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2. To learn the physical and agricultural geography of the Caribbean, with a focus on Puerto Rico.
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3. To identify and sample some foods of the Caribbean.
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4. To analyze literature from the Caribbean, including the oral tradition of “refranes.”
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5. To acquire information about Puerto Ricans in New Haven.
1. Students will develop a working definition of culture.
What is culture? The first thing a teacher must do in presenting this unit is to develop his/her own working definition of culture. Some sources to assist in this task are included in this unit.
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary
defines culture as the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations, the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group. The key words here are human behavior and transmitting knowledge. In this unit human behavior includes eating and writing. The knowledge transmitted is the selected body of knowledge which includes such things as the daily activities, centered around food, of people from the Caribbean. If the teacher is not familiar with Caribbean cuisine, cookbooks are an excellent source of information. (See the Teacher’s Bibliography.)
One anthropologist’s definition of culture is a multiple one; Clyde Kluckhohn is quoted by Clifford Geertz in his book,
The Interpretation of Cultures
. Kluckhohn defines culture as:
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(1) the total way of life of a people;
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(2) the social legacy the individual acquires from his group;
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(3) a way of thinking, feeling, and believing;
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(4) an abstraction from behavior; (5) a theory on the part of the anthropologist about the way in which
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a group of people in fact behave;
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(6) a storehouse of pooled learning;
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(7) a set of standardized orientations to recurrent problems;
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(8) learned behavior;
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(9) a mechanism for the normative regulation of behavior;
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(l0) a set of techniques for adjusting both to the external environment and to other men;
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(11) a precipitate of history, . . . a map, a sieve, a matrix.
Clifford Geertz, a giant in the field of anthropology, states, “Believing man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs.” (Geertz 1937,4-5)
The teacher in this unit is encouraged to brainstorm with the students on the question of what is culture. Students should start their journals with their own definitions. At intervals during the unit, the teacher will ask the students to re-examine this definition, to add or change it if desired. Students will rewrite their definitions at the end of the unit. The purpose of the journal is for students to record their impressions, experiences, and thoughts on a weekly basis, and to share their self-selected entries with their classmates. For example, students will log in their reactions to the foods, their reaction to the literature, the results of the science experiments, the data on their research, and any other thoughts or reactions on an ad hoc basis. After sharing the definitions of culture, the class could develop a class definition, to be displayed in the room in the form of a banner.
My advice at this point is that the teacher accept all student responses at the beginning and continue the inquiry throughout the unit. Whatever the class definition of culture is, the look for these elements to be represented in some form: 1 communication, 2. transmittal of values, verbally and non-verbally, 3. ties that bind a group together, 4. rituals and ceremonies, 5. families and groups of intimates, 6. set reactions to familiar stimuli, 7. daily routine activities such as eating.
Throughout this unit, the goal is for students to realize that culture may be studied via literature, or via life experiences such as traveling or dining. A student will learn a lot about the Puerto Rican culture, for example, by interviewing senior citizens at Casa Otonal. Some schools in New Haven have a partnership already established with Casa Otonal, so the teacher representatives may be contacted for this activity.
What is Puerto Rican culture? Teachers who are not familiar with Puerto Rican culture should read these units from the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute:
An analysis of “The Oxcart” by Rene Marques, Puerto Rican playwright
, by Norine Polio,
La Nueva Cancion en Puerto Rico
, by Doris M. Vavsquez, and
Mythology: A Study of Puerto Rican Myths, Legends and Folktales
. by John C. Warner, all from Volume II, 1987;
Cultural Understanding Through Folklore
, by Christine Y. House, and
Puerto Rican Folktales
, by Doris M. Vasquez, both in Volume II, 1993. Other materials may be found in the Teachers’ Bibliography at the end of this unit.
Puerto Rican culture shares many similarities with other cultures of the Caribbean, such as Cuban and Dominican. Part of the reason for this is historical. These islands had either Taino (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) or Siboney (Cuba) Indians, related to the Arawak Indians from Venezuela. They each had Spanish “conquistadores”, beginning in 1492. They each had Africans, brought over as slaves after the Indians were decimated by poor treatment, hard work, and disease. As a result, these islands have a similar racial and ethnic mixture or “mezcla”. In contrast, Mexico has a mixture of Spanish and Native American, but the Native Americans were Aztecs and Mayans.
The reason is also geographical. These islands in the Caribbean are tropical, have a moderate and constant climate that hovers around 78 degrees year-round, adequate rainfall, and fertile lands. The islands of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are more mountainous, especially in the central region, than Cuba. As a result, the crops are similar in these three countries. That is, they yield similar fruits and root vegetables.
This unit has a geographical component. The teacher begins the unit with the geography of the Caribbean (and Mexico). The purpose is two-fold: to locate the countries and oceans and thus develop map skills, and to draw connections between the geography and the kinds of food found in the countries. The geography they will study is the physical and agricultural geography.
2. Students will learn the physical and agricultural geography of the Caribbean, with a focus on Puerto Rico
I have found many of my students to be lacking in geography, map skills, and general information about Latin America. Some students know Puerto Rico is an island but do not know where it is located and sometimes confuse it with Cuba. Very few know its exact political affiliation with the United States; Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth or “Estado Libre Asociado”. That means it is associated with the United States. It has rights more developed than a territory or a military protectorate but less developed than a state. For example, Puerto Ricans have been citizens ofthe United States since 1917 but cannot vote for the President of the United States, unless they move to the mainland of the United States. Puerto Ricans may be drafted to the army of the United States but have no vote in the United States Senate or the United States Congress.
Some students cannot locate Mexico and yet it is our neighbor. Most students have no idea how long it would take to fly to Puerto Rico (2 hours by plane from JFK Airport) yet a large percentage of the school-age students in New Haven make this trip every year. I have found that many of my students are not familiar with their own state, Connecticut, and have not traveled much outside of New Haven. Some students believe Fair Haven is a neighbor city and not New Haven at all. Despite this lack of information about their surroundings, I have found my students to be very receptive to basic information about geography, neighboring countries, and other countries. It is hoped that after acquiring the map skills from this unit, a student can transfer these skills. It is hoped that after studying about other countries and traveling by means of the imagination, a student will navigate throught his neighborhood and his world with more confidence and knowledge. Perhaps he will even be inspired to travel to a Caribbean island to further his studies. The school system sponsors trips to Africa, France, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Russia. Perhaps it will consider trips to Puerto Rico in the near future
The Caribbean, as the region to be studied, includes the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the other islands located south of Florida, east of Mexico and Central America, and north of South America. The bodies of water include the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean.(Mexico) Students will be provided with a map of this region. Students will label the islands and Mexico in Spanish. Students will label the bodies of water in Spanish: El Mar Caribe, El Oceoano Atlantico, El Oceano Pacifico. It is important that the maps used are in Spanish and that the students study the maps not only of the country itself but of the regions nearby. Therefore, when studying Puerto Rico, I start off with a map of the Americas, followed by a map of the Caribbean, followed by a map of Puerto Rico. I keep these displayed throughout the entire unit. I add on the student-made maps as soon as they are completed. After each map is studied, I drill the students orally on the countries or capitals on a daily basis, for classroom points. I also give frequent quizzes on labeling and locating.
Students will study and label in Spanish the maps of the following countries: Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Students will study the capitals and major cities of those islands. Students will label the major rivers and lakes and mountain regions of those islands. The teacher will indicate the names that are Indian in origin. (e.g. Jayuya, and Utuado in Puerto Rico) Since students usually are interested in flags, students will study the flags of all these countries. When students discover the similarities between the flags of Puerto Rico and Cuba, the teacher will explain or the students will research the reason for this similarity.
At the same time, students will study the climate, temperature, rainfall, and wind conditions of these countries. Students will examine the topography of these islands with an eye to growing crops. Students will study the crops that are in fact grown in these islands. If interested, students will study the rain forest of Puerto Rico: El Yunque, and compare it to other rain forests in the world. I have found my students to be very interested in the rain forests and in any projects related to the rain forests. I capitalize on this curiosity by having the students do several hands-on projects on the rain forests. Charting rainfall and temperatures of specific locations is easy and popular. Students use Spanish newspapers and Spanish television shows to chart the temperature changes in the islands. Four different groups will track the temperature in these cities: New York City, San Juan, Santo Domingo, Havana.
After studying the Caribbean region, the students will study Mexico. The class will gather the same sorts of information it gathered about the Caribbean: location, major cities and capitals, bodies of water, climate and agricultural topography; flag. The teacher will point out that the Native Americans in Mexico were different than the Arawaks, Caribs, Siboneys, and Tamos in the Caribbean, and point out the names of cities and rivers (and pyramids) that are Native American in origin.
After studying Mexico, the class will focus on Puerto Rico. The geographical information will be connected by the students to the crops grown in the island. For example, due to the rainfall, temperature, and other factors, Puerto Rico is able to produce such crops as: the mango, the plantain, the guava, and the quenepa. At this point, the teacher will ask the class who is familiar with these foods. This inquiry provides the transition to the next area: identification and sampling of the actual foods.
3. Students will identify and sample some foods of the Caribbean
This part is the most enjoyable. Students will eat the foods mentioned in the reading selection! What students will resist an activity that is food-centered or that involves eating? I had one student this year who quietly refused to participate in my Spanish class. When I brought in “platanutres” to sample, he came to life and moved his seating from the back of the room to the front of the room. He smiled for the first time this year. When I brought in “arroz con habichuelas” and “tostones” in another class, my students were delighted and rated the activity highly in the post activity evaluation sheet. High school students love to eat and it is a constant battle to enforce the no-eating rules in the classroom. In contrast, this unit encourages food in the classroom, but for a pedagogical reason. An added bonus is that it is nutritious.
I identified and sampled several foods at once, but a teacher may opt for identifying and sampling one food or category at a time. The complete list is: rice (arroz), guayaba (guava), mango (mango), platano (plantain ) and “quenepa”. All may be found at a Super Stop and Shop or local small grocery stores or fruit stands in the New Haven area. The teacher first asks the class what a mango is. If nobody is familiar with a mango, the teacher brings in a mango and brings in drawings of a mango and drawings or photos of a mango tree. On the very first day of this activity, every student gets an opportunity to sample this delicious fruit. A teacher may bring in an unripe mango and a ripe mango to indicate when the fruit is ready to be eaten. To generate vocabulary in Spanish, the teacher asks the class to describe the fruit, outside and inside, and to describe the flavor of it. For example, a mango is large, similar to a pear or apple in size but bigger, and has a golden tinge when ripe. “El mango es una fruta grande, parecida a la pera or la manzana, y es amarilla cuando esta madura.” The students make and display a vocabulary list of all the words they learn in this unit. Also, they keep their individual lists in their journals. Another example would be: The mango has a delicious flavor, that is hard to describe. It’s, like a peach and a watermelon but it’s so difficult to eat! “El mango tiene un sabor riquisimo pero es dificil describirlo. El sabor es como un melocoton y una sandia pero que dificil es comerlo!”
I have found that my students like to predict what will happen, so I do science experiments in my Spanish classes. Before we cut the mango, I ask the class to predict what the inside will look like, the colors, seeds, etc. I give my students a lab experiment to write up IN SPANISH. This is an excellent means of learning vocabulary and of reviewing question words and questions in Spanish. A sample question: What color do you think this fruit will be inside? “De que color sera la parte interior (adentro de ) de esta fruta?” The students work in groups of three(3). I sometimes choose who will be in each group, I sometimes let the class decide. They always get to choose who will be the person who does the experiment, the recorder who writes the answers, and the reporter who reports their results to the rest of the class. This is an example of cooperative group learning.
Students enjoy sampling recipes from cookbooks, so this is another activity presented in this unit. One student told me that the best activity in the unit was making her own cookbook, so I included it in the unit after receiving her input. I have several cookbooks from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Caribbean, in both Spanish and English. If a teacher does not have the same resources, any cookbook on Puerto Rican or Caribbean cuisine may be found at Barnes and Nobles or Waldenbooks. (See Teacher’s Bibliography.) Some of the best recipes, however, are those not found in the cookbooks, but in the cook’s head. Students are encouraged to ask their mothers, aunts, grandmothers, etc. for their favorite recipes, and the students either write them down or tape them.
3. Students will identify and sample some foods of the Caribbean
This part is the most enjoyable. Students will eat the foods mentioned in the reading selection! What students will resist an activity that is food-centered or that involves eating? I had one student this year who quietly refused to participate in my Spanish class. When I brought in “platanutres” to sample, he came to life and moved his seating from the back of the room to the front of the room. He smiled for the first time this year. When I brought in “arroz con habichuelas” and “tostones” in another class, my students were delighted and rated the activity highly in the post activity evaluation sheet. High school students love to eat and it is a constant battle to enforce the no-eating rules in the classroom. In contrast, this unit encourages food in the classroom, but for a pedagogical reason. An added bonus is that it is nutritious.
I identified and sampled several foods at once, but a teacher may opt for identifying and sampling one food or category at a time. The complete list is: rice (arroz), guayaba (guava), mango (mango), platano (plantain ) and “quenepa”. All may be found at a Super Stop and Shop or local small grocery stores or fruit stands in the New Haven area. The teacher first asks the class what a mango is. If nobody is familiar with a mango, the teacher brings in a mango and brings in drawings of a mango and drawings or photos of a mango tree. On the very first day of this activity, every student gets an opportunity to sample this delicious fruit. A teacher may bring in an unripe mango and a ripe mango to indicate when the fruit is ready to be eaten. To generate vocabulary in Spanish, the teacher asks the class to describe the fruit, outside and inside, and to describe the flavor of it. For example, a mango is large, similar to a pear or apple in size but bigger, and has a golden tinge when ripe. “El mango es una fruta grande, parecida a la pera or la manzana, y es amarilla cuando esta madura.” The students make and display a vocabulary list of all the words they learn in this unit. Also, they keep their individual lists in their journals. Another example would be: The mango has a delicious flavor, that is hard to describe. It’s, like a peach and a watermelon but it’s so difficult to eat! “El mango tiene un sabor riquisimo pero es dificil describirlo. El sabor es como un melocoton y una sandia pero que dificil es comerlo!”
I have found that my students like to predict what will happen, so I do science experiments in my Spanish classes. Before we cut the mango, I ask the class to predict what the inside will look like, the colors, seeds, etc. I give my students a lab experiment to write up IN SPANISH. This is an excellent means of learning vocabulary and of reviewing question words and questions in Spanish. A sample question: What color do you think this fruit will be inside? “De que color sera la parte interior (adentro de ) de esta fruta?” The students work in groups of three(3). I sometimes choose who will be in each group, I sometimes let the class decide. They always get to choose who will be the person who does the experiment, the recorder who writes the answers, and the reporter who reports their results to the rest of the class. This is an example of cooperative group learning.
Students enjoy sampling recipes from cookbooks, so this is another activity presented in this unit. One student told me that the best activity in the unit was making her own cookbook, so I included it in the unit after receiving her input. I have several cookbooks from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Caribbean, in both Spanish and English. If a teacher does not have the same resources, any cookbook on Puerto Rican or Caribbean cuisine may be found at Barnes and Nobles or Waldenbooks. (See Teacher’s Bibliography.) Some of the best recipes, however, are those not found in the cookbooks, but in the cook’s head. Students are encouraged to ask their mothers, aunts, grandmothers, etc. for their favorite recipes, and the students either write them down or tape them.
5. Students will acquire information about Puerto Ricans in New Haven.
This last objective may be accomplished in different ways and in different junctures in this unit. The intent is for the students to recognize there is a Puerto Rican community in New Haven, and to gather information about this community as well as to gather information about foods from it. The students will research the basic demographics, such as the total population of Hispanics in New Haven, and the total population of Puerto Ricans in New Haven. Sources include the Census Bureau, El Centro San Jose, and guest speakers. Before embarking on this research, the teacher will ask the students to estimate the number of Puerto Ricans in New Haven and their percentage within the total city population.
The research begins in the classroom and then continues through larger and larger spheres: the school, the community, the city. Schools with a large Puerto Rican population will yield a lot of information. Schools with a small Puerto Rican population will rely on guest speakers and field trips. Field trips include: Centro San Jose, Junta, local agencies, and La Casa Cultural Julia de Burgos. Other sources are Spanish newspapers and magazines.
After gathering information about the Puerto Ricans in New Haven, phase two of the student research project is gathering information from this community. Suggested topics to research, related to food are the following:
1. Have you eaten the following foods?
2. Do you like the following foods: arroz, platano, guava, mango, quenepa?
3. What is your favorite food?
4. What is your favorite of the listed foods in # 2?
5. Do you know any saying or “refranes” about foods?
6. Do you know any “refranes”?
7. Do you know any songs about food?
8. How long have you been in the United States mainland?
The information obtained will be recorded in the student journals, shared in class, and discussed. The class will, as one of the cumulative activities, publish this information in a book entitled: Puerto Rico in New Haven.