Central America Curriculum Units
The Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona offered its second round of workshops for K-12 teachers during the spring semester of 2003. Educators interested in Latin America met to explore specific topics related to the Latin world. They engaged in presentations from university faculty and community experts at an academic level to satisfy their personal interest and knowledge. They also discussed ways to incorporate such information into the K-1 curriculum. The lessons found in this collection were derived from theses dialogue sessions. The titles of the spring 2003 workshops were: Carnaval, Tango and Central America.
We have created three lessons for each of theses workshops, a primary lesson, intermediate lesson and secondary lesson. However each is adaptable to a variety of teaching levels. Please modify information, ideas and the activities to fit your appropriate level, and feel free to share your ideas with the outreach department. A variety of teachers participated in the workshops, not just social studies or Spanish teachers. Such a mixture of expertise and personal interest enriched the discussion and lessons created, as well as reminded us all of the power behind interdisciplinary learning. Hopefully the lessons found in this collection will inspire you to include information and details from Latin America into your own teaching.
Lessons
Workshop Organizers and Participants
Kristel Foster
Workshop coordination
Robin Zenger
CLAS Outreach Director
Participating Educators:
- Maria Balaguer
- Elizabeth Barrett
- Barbara Beamer
- Rennee Bennett
- Steve Bracamonte
- Dolores Carrion
- Yolanda Garcia DeCruz
- Maritz Everis
- Patricia Dow
- Stephen Gomez
- Obudlia Gonzalez
- Jenny Graber
- Elliot Lax
- Betty Liverman
- Karen Lowery
- Norma Martinez
- Pat McElory
- Sam Mendivil
- Amy Mol
- Margie Mora
- Guillermo Navarro
- Julie Rigoli
- Nancy Smith
- Raynelda Saba
- Norberta Sousa
- Edel Camero
- Marco Bravo
- Tobias Canto
- Gerson Gonzalez
- Juan Guerrero
- Roland Herman
- Jenny Mia
Pre-Lesson Resources & Histories
Central America is a land of dense forests and vast export-crop plantations. This region bears many social and ecological scars of recent civil wars and natural disasters. Many indigenous people live in Central America, including 3 million Maya in Guatemala, 150,000 Miskito in Nicaragua and the 40,000 Kuna of Panama. The Caribbean coast has extensive mangrove swamps and flat lands that were converted to plantations during the colonial period. The Pacific coast is drier because it lies in the rain shadow of the easterly trade winds but has some fertile soils associated with volcanic activity. The mountain spine of Central America has natural vegetation that includes cloud forests (obtaining their moisture from mist and clouds) and vivid birds and mammals, such as the quetzal and jaguar.
Economic History
The economy of Central America was founded on the collection of cacao (chocolate) and indigo (a blue dye) for export to Europe during the colonial period. Agriculture then expanded during the nineteenth century into coffee production in the highlands, and banana and sugar plantations on the coasts. In Costa Rica, coffee was produced on small European and mestizo owned farms, but in El Salvador and Guatemala, coffee was consolidated into large operations controlled by a few families (known as oligarchies). In Guatemala and Honduras, U.S.-owned companies such as Standard Fruit Co. and United Fruit Co. took over large areas of land for production of tropical fruits, especially bananas, for export. As mentioned earlier, the influence of the fruit companies on the economy and politics was so great that these countries were sometimes called banana republics, and government force was used to drive peasants from livelihoods inland to provide cheap or indebted labor on the plantations. After the Second World War, cotton and sugar production expanded, and a boom in livestock herds began to provide meat for urban domestic and export refrigerated beef markets.
Oppression and Uprisings
Repressive military regimes in many Central American countries provoked unrest in the countryside. In 1976, an unequal distribution of land and wealth was quite evident, as 8% of the population controlled 70% of the land. Thousands of peasants had to live on small plots of land or move to find work on plantations or on the coast. Revolution erupted in Nicaragua in 1979 and guerilla movements spread in El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980's. With violence permeating the countrysides, over a million peasants were displaced, fleeing into neighboring Mexico or farther northward, or retreating into remote mountains where the military, which did not differentiate between ordinary people and guerrillas, often annihilated whole communities. Powerful oligarchies attempting to retain power were associated with thousands of massacres and murders. In 1979, The Sandinistas took power and initiated socialist reforms in Nicaragua. The United States was concerned that this revolutionary uprisings was supported by the communist Soviet Union, and funded covert efforts to overthrow the government, including training volunteer revolutionary forces, or "contras," who crossed into Nicaragua from neighboring Honduras. Several decades of unrest in these countries slowed the development of agriculture and the economy, and it was not until political reforms and peace accords in the 1990s that funds and political will were generally available for economic and social development. Unfortunately, many countries in Central America are still suffering from the consequences of these difficult years.
Costa Rica has not experienced this degree of social unrest and is noted for a long tradition of democracy since 1889. This country supports no standing army, and has maintained a higher standard of living than many other Latin American countries.
Present Scenario
New economic activities in Central America include the development of shellfish production, especially shrimp aquaculture, which is of high economic value but has been shown to damage coastal mangroves and fish breeding sites in Honduras. The attempt to find higher value exports than the traditional crops of sugar, cotton, and bananas have focused on new nontraditional agricultural exports, especially fresh vegetables and flowers. Rather than grow these and other crops on large company landholdings, the current strategy is contract farming, in which farmers are guaranteed a market if they produce crops to the exacting quality standards of multinational corporations, such as Del Monte.
Low wages in Central America have also attracted labor-intensive manufacturing, such as garment industries, to urban areas in El Salvador and Honduras. Costa Rica, with a better-educated workforce and more stable economy, has lured high-technology companies such as Microsoft, General Electric, and Intel to build factories near San Jose.
Central America has also seen a boom in tourism, often geared to ancient ruins and natural attractions of the coasts and rain forests. Environmentally oriented tourism, or ecotourism, is designed to provide employment opportunities for local people while protecting ecosystems. This industry has brought mixed results, as the benefits are not shared equally among residents, and some regions are becoming so crowded that environmental degradation is occurring.
The ecological diversity of Central America also supports biological prospecting, for new medicines and products with commercial uses. For example, Costa Rica has signed agreements with multinational pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck, that give the companies rights to prospect and develop in return for turning over a share of profits to the national government and to local people. Geographers are working with indigenous groups in Central America to map their resources. This allows groups such as the Miskito of Honduras to gain more control over their land and plan its use.
Source:
Marston, Sallie A., Knox, Paul and Liverman, Diana M., World Regions in Global Context: People, Places and Environments, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2002 pp. 413, 418-420.
Central American Federation (1852-1838)
The Central American Federation formed in 1825, including five of the seven republics of Central America--Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador. After gaining independence from Spain in 1821, these countries were briefly annexed to Mexico. In 1825, the nations became a loose federal state and appointed Manuel José Arce as the first president. He was succeeded by the liberal leader Francisco Morazán in 1830. Political and personal rivalries between liberals and conservatives, poor communication, and fearing that one state would have more control than others, led to the end of the Federation in 1838. The Congress of the Federation was dissolved and Morazán's military forces were defeated by Rafael Carrera, the conservative Guatemalan leader. In 1842, Morazán made an attempt to reestablish the Federation from a new location in Costa Rica. Politicians in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador continued to fight for unification. At the Central American conference of 1922–23, the U.S. recommended that the Central American countries form a Union. However, this idea was not favorably received, partly because of earlier U.S. policies in Panama and Nicaragua with which many Central American politicians disagreed. Nevertheless, geography, history, and practicality are factors that repeatedly encouraged unionization. No official nation ever became of these small individual Central American countries. In 1951, the Organization of Central American States was formed to help solve their common problems and in 1960 the five nations established the Central American Common Market, to address their similar economic needs.
Sources: T. L. Karnes, The Failure of Union: Central America, 1824–1960 (1961);
N. Maritano, A Latin American Economic Community (1970).
Search the CLAS video collection for videos on Central America
Central American Unit Bibiliography
Primary
Adams, Faith, Nicaragua: Struggling With Change (Discovering Our Heritage), Dillon Press, 1987.
Discusses the history and culture of the Nicaraguan people and contemporary life in this country torn apart by conflicting forces in the twentieth century.
Adams, Faith, El Salvador: Beauty Among the Ashes (Discovering Our Heritage), Dillon Press, 1986.
Describes the people, history, folklore, social life, and customs of the Central American country and examines the plight of those Salvadorans who have fled their war-torn land to take refuge in the United States.
Cameron, Ann, Allen, Thomas B., The Most Beautiful Place in the World, Random House, 1993.
Guatemala is a place of stunning beauty and grim economic reality. Abandoned by his mother, Juan lives with his grandmother and shines shoes. He passionately wants to attend school, but fears Grandmother will say no. Finally gathering his courage, he is surprised when she not only agrees to send him to school but also chides him about the importance of standing up for himself.
**Henshaw, Dorothy, Quetzal:Sacred Bird of the Cloud Forest, Morrow Junior Books,
1996.
The Quetzal’s sacred relationship to the people of Central America is explored, as well as species facts and current environmental issues that effect this rare bird.
Maloney Markun, Patricia It's Panama's Canal!, Linnet Books, 1999.
Information about the construction, current usage, and future of this important waterway, focusing on present-day Panama and how the return of the canal will impact the citizens, economy, and future of this country.
Rohmer, Harriet, Wilson, Dorminster, Stearns, Virginia, Mother Scorpion Country (Stories from Central America.), Children’s Book Press, 1987.
This beautiful bilingual (English-Spanish) retelling from Native American mythology makes available to children the folklore of the Miskito tribe in Central America.
Shields, Charles J., Henderson, James D., Let’s Discover Central America, Mason Crest Publishers, 2002.
(set of 8 books 1.Central America: Facts and Figures, 2 Belize, 3.Costa Rica, 4. El Salvador, 5. Guatemala, 6. Honduras,7. Nicaragua, 8. Panama)
Simons, Suzanne, Isias, Diego, Trouble Dolls: A Guatemalan Legend, Apple Publishing, 2000.
Discover the legend of the magical trouble dolls, traditional Guatemalan good luck charms. Learn about the fascinating games, foods, crafts, and folktales of the Mayan civilization in Guatemala. Then, with your own set of six tiny trouble dolls, wish for good luck and happiness!
**Solá, Michele, Angela Weaves a Dream: The Story of a Young Maya Artist, Hyperion Books, 1997.
A portrait of weaving through the eyes and the hands of a young Maya girl.
Secondary
Dolan, Edward F. Panama and the United States: Their Canal, Their Stormy Years,
Franklin Watts , March 1990.
The geography, history, and politics of Panama, beginning with the attempt by France to construct a canal in the 1880s, the reality of construction of the canal in 1914, and concluding with the last decade of American ownership of the canal in the 1990s.
Cheney, Glenn Alan, Revolution in Central America (An Impact Book), Franklin Watts, March 1984.
Explores the causes of conflict in Central America, examining the social-political-historical elements of each country individually in its struggle for change.
** = Copies available from the Center for Latin American Studies, University of Arizona.