Goals

1. To understand and appreciate Hispanic folk traditions, both past and present.

2. To recognize the influences of the natural environment on the folklife and folk arts of the Río Grande region.

3. To experience Hispanic cultural traditions by participating in related activities.

Overview

The Hispanic Folk Arts and the Environment: A New Mexican Perspective curriculum guide offers an invaluable opportunity to see how environmental forces shape human activity and how human activity shapes the environment. At a time when the world's natural resources are diminishing and its populations are expanding, it is crucial that students understand the importance of these relationships.

This curriculum guide helps young people find ways to become aware of and involved in the physical and aesthetic aspects of their environment. The lessons present a holistic view of a traditionally agrarian people living in New Mexico and southern Colorado. Through this curriculum students will learn about peoples' relationship to the environment through the example of the Hispanic people of New Mexico. They will begin to translate this knowledge into activities that relate to the same human needs and environment which sustain them.

The projects included here are designed to inspire youth to experience elements of self-reliance and creative problem-solving by experimenting with a variety of natural materials, practicing cultural traditions and applying personal aesthetics. The lessons can also be generalized to apply to other geographic and cultural areas around the country.

The Hispanic Folk Arts and the Environment: A New Mexican Perspective curriculum guide provides teachers nationwide with a model of how the folklife and folk art expressions of the Hispanic people of New Mexico are shaped by environmental and historical forces. The folk arts of the Hispanic people of New Mexico (in particular) are the oldest expressions of European folk arts on the North American continent, spanning nearly four centuries from the time of the Spanish-Mexican colonization of New Mexico in 1598 to today.

Due to the Hispanic people's adaptation to the remote environment of the Río Grande and to Native
American and Anglo American influences, the folk culture of these people is remarkably still active. This curriculum guide explores the settlement patterns of the Spanish colonists, the traditions of house building in adobe, the weaving of wool from the churro sheep, and the preparation and utilization of traditional food staples. The relationship between these survival-based folk activities and the region's climate, geography, natural resources and complex weave of cultures provides the focus for this curriculum.

The Hispanic Folk Arts and the Environment: A New Mexican Perspective curriculum integrates the study of folk arts into other subject areas and develops skills aligned with the National Standards in Education and the Goals 2000 legislation. In addition, it approaches the subject matter in a holistic, hands-on and interdisciplinary manner which teachers should find both refreshing and exciting.

The first lesson, Land, River and Hispanic Settlements, examines the distinctive environmental features of this region and the nature of some of its earliest inhabitants, the Pueblo Indians, who lived in compact villages along the Río Grande in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona: the Tiwa, Tewa, Towa, Keres, Zuni and Hopi peoples. The second lesson, Building Community: The Roots of Adobe, looks at the tradition of domestic building in adobe. The third lesson, Folk Arts in the Home: Río Grande Weaving, focuses on blankets used in trading as well as in the home, woven from the region's valuable resource of sheep's wool. The fourth lesson, Foodways of the Río Grande, examines the staples of the Río Grande, beans, squash, chile, corn and wheat, and how they have traditionally been grown and prepared by the Hispanic people of New Mexico.

Every student who explores this cultural landscape and its folk traditions will be tremendously enriched. Students will discover a cultural bridge connecting the peoples of North America to those of the countries further south as well as to those of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

As Americans strive to familiarize themselves with the cultural traditions of recent immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries, the culture of the Hispanic people of the Río Grande takes on more importance because of its proven capacity to adapt to the conditions of life in the United States. The cultural expressions, including the folk arts of this people and region, are key to understanding the new national identity which is growing out of the conscious weaving of strengths and resources of its culturally diverse citizenry.

Folklife (La vida popular) is the traditional cultural expression of a particular people who share a common ancestry, history and understanding. It may include the activities by which a people meet their basic needs of food, shelter and clothing as well as any traditional art form such as music, dance or storytelling which enhances the quality of life and gives expression to their soul.

Folk arts (Las artes populares) are defined as those traditional expressions characterized by a shared community aesthetic which are transmitted orally or by example within a community such as an ethnic, tribal, local or regional, religious, occupational, age or gender group. The folk arts of the Hispanic people of the Río Grande region of New Mexico and southern Colorado generally share identifying characteristics described on the following page.

National Competency Skills Addressed

Visual Arts

historical and cultural understanding; perceiving, analyzing and responding; creating and performing

Language Arts

reading and listening strategies; appreciation and respect for their own language, culture, and literature and the languages, cultures, and literatures of others; use of language to share experience and gain insight into their own and others' lives

Social Studies

knowledge and cultural understanding; democratic understanding and civic values; thinking and decision-making, communication, research and study skills, and social participation

Mathematics

problem solving, communication, reasoning, making connections

Science

critical thinking and decision-making skills; research and study skills with a variety of resources; communication skills, including language arts and mathematics; science process skills; creative approaches to problem-solving

Rationale

Every culture is a product of its history and its relationship to the natural environment. Cultures bear the imprint of the land, sky, rivers, deltas, oceans and seas where they developed. The Río Grande, which originates in the mountains of Colorado and which cuts through the heart of New Mexico, has been the lifeblood of Native American and Hispanic communities for centuries. Like all great rivers, the Río Grande has supported an agriculture whose surpluses of fruit and grain have made possible the development of a rich and integrated folklife, which like a river is always changing.

Like all of the cultures that constitute U.S. society, the Hispanic culture of the region of the Río Grande has contributed substantially to American life. Its values of self-sufficiency, resourcefulness, a time-tested relationship to the land and its adaptability to new cultural, social and political realities are all important contributions to national life.