“Latinas in History: An Interactive Project,” Brooklyn College, CUNY: http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/latinashistory/latinashistory.html
A comprehensive website on the contributions of Latina women to American history. Includes an introductory essay which considers Latina experiences throughout the United States by geographic region; a timeline featuring important Latina figures from 1492 to 2008; and a collection of lesson plans (listed under “Resources”), many already adapted for elementary, middle- and high-school learning levels. Most importantly, this website incorporates historical overviews, sound, animation, photographs, videos, biographies and links to primary and secondary sources that tell a range of mini-biographies of Latina writers, labor leaders, entrepreneurs, activists, educators, artists and others who have shaped America’s past and present.
Smithsonian Latino Center: http://www.latino.si.edu
The Latino Center highlights Latino heritage and culture in the United States by facilitating the development of exhibitions, research, collections, and educational programs at the Smithsonian and its affiliated organizations. Teachers are particularly encouraged to explore the “Online Curriculum” located in the Educator’s section of the site. It includes links to a variety of online exhibitions on Latino peoples from different regions, including Central America and the Caribbean, as well as links to a number of engaging classroom activities that explore Latino history through stamps, visual images, baseball, and carnival.
“Hispanic Americans,” Library of Congress, American Memory Project: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/hispanic-americans/
This website explores the culture, contributions, and interactions of Hispanic peoples in North America through rare maps, historical documents, local histories, recorded songs, interactive games, and detailed online bibliographies. Materials range from the time of Spanish conquest in the Americas during the fifteenth and sixteenth century to the present-day; most materials focus on the early colonial period. Of particular relevance for this program, however, are sections on “Immigration: Mexican Experience” and “Immigration: Puerto Rican/Cuban Experience” listed near the bottom of the website subheading “Exhibitions and Presentations,” as well as a new collection of materials entitled “Supreme Court Nominations: Sonia Sotomayor,” which includes articles, primary documents, and web links to media coverage of the 2009 appointment of the first Latina woman to the Supreme Court.
“Mexican Americans and the United Farm Workers of America,” Library of Congress, American Memory Project: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug22.html:
On August 22, 1966, the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), later renamed the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), was formed. This small online exhibition documents the development of this organization under the founding leadership of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, when the UFW won many labor or civil rights concessions for disenfranchised Mexican-American farm workers, an important aspect of the Chicano movement. The Chicano movement has been an often-ignored part of the civil rights struggles in the 1960s; it was, nonetheless, a landmark period for the second-largest ethnic minority in the U.S.
“Latinoteca: The World of Latino Arts and Culture,” University of Houston: http://www.latinoteca.com/
Latinoteca is an online portal to written, sound, and visual information about the history and cultural development of Hispanics in the United States. It features free, downloadable texts, sound recordings, videos, and materials, as well as links to a variety of web pages dealing with all of the Latino arts and culture. Material is organized by five themes: art and music; culture; history; literature; and voices for justice. Somewhat cumbersome to navigate, this website is nonetheless a treasure trove of recent scholarship and current events about Latino culture and concerns. Topics range from: family and demographic patterns, foodways, festivals, language, religion, and education.
“Uncovering America: The Hispanic Experience Today,” a CNN Special Report: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/hispanic.heritage/index.html
A special CNN series that explores the challenges confronted by America’s contemporary Hispanic community and its growing influence in the realms of politics, culture and business, and asks: “What does it mean to be Hispanic in America today?” The website includes links to articles about the history and current challenges and successes of Hispanic Americans, as well as several short video clips and oral history interviews. A timeline and map help illustrate when the U.S. Hispanic population grew and why, as well as where they currently live throughout the country.
University of Texas, Austin, “Study of the Spanish-Speaking People of Texas:” http://www.cah.utexas.edu/ssspot/index.php
Includes more than 900 images taken by photographer Russell Lee between April and June 1949 in Corpus Christi, San Angelo, San Antonio, and El Paso, Texas, a unique visual record for that period. The collection is unparalleled in its scope, variety, and quality. It features families, children, schools, churches, housing, migrant workers, professions, business, community organization, health care, politics and leisure activities. University of Texas professor George I. Sanchez commissioned the multi-year socioeconomic study in 1948 to document the expanding Spanish-speaking population of Texas and to educate public officials, bureaucrats, other powerful and influential Texans, as well as the general public about them. Materials are organized by city, and a separate section includes ten lesson plans that explore the history of the project, visual literacy, and questions of race and prejudice.
University of Texas at Arlington, Center for Mexican American Studies Oral History Project, “Tejano Voices:” http://libraries.uta.edu/tejanovoices/
Focuses on seventy-seven oral history interviews with Tejano and Tejana leaders from across Texas conducted by Dr. José Angel Gutiérrez, an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at Arlington, between 1992 and 1999. They emphasize the personal stories and struggles of the interviewees, many of whom were the first individuals of Mexican descent in their communities elected or appointed to government office. The interviews were videotaped, transcribed, bound, and placed in the UTA Libraries’ Special Collections Division, where they are made accessible to students, scholars, and the general public. All of the interviewees have signed deeds of gift/interview agreements, transferring all of their proprietary and copyrights for the interviews to the university.
Jean Sutherland for the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, “Understanding Hispanic/Latino Culture and History through the use of Children’s Literature”: http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1997/2/97.02.06.x.html
Developed by a third grade teacher participating in a Yale University teachers’ workshop, this unit uses children’s literature as a means of increasing student awareness, understanding, and appreciation of Hispanic/Latino culture and history, along with the roles various Latino men and women have played in the historical development of the United States. The activities of this unit target third graders, though the general approach and content easily can be adapted to older learners, and the bibliography of additional resources includes several selections geared to high school readers and adults. |
