Pedagogical Engagement Exercises

Group 1: A Crisis of Sovereignty

  • Anastasia Demes (Naciones: la guerrera España, y la tranquila y abundante America, unidas por el amor y la fidelidad sostienen el Frono de Fernando Septimo)
  • Ryan Hobbs (Letter written from Manuel Duran de Castro to the Marqués del Valle del Tojo, in Potosi, Bolivia)
  • Liliana Talamantes (Letter from Spanish Americans in Mexico to the Spanish King Fernando VII)

Online “gallery walk”: The students will take time to view a group of images from the exhibit. As they examine them, tell them to reflect on what they see. Have them either write on a post-it note or in a notebook a thought or two, or a question, about each of the images. This can be assigned as homework or done in class. Then, bring the students together to discuss everyone’s thoughts and questions about the documents.

Group 2: Confronting the Instability of Early Republican State Formation

  • Sarah Forbes (Decree dissolving the Constitutional Convention and Bolívar's promises to the people)
  • Matthew McKaig (Supreme Executive Power Manifesto)
  • Max Morales (Decree on treatment of the indigenous tribes of Colombia)

Plot each document and year that it was produced on a map of Latin American. Look at geographic links and compare the temporal space surrounding each marker.

Group 3: As the Mexican Empire Dissolves, Central American Caudillos Rise

  • Daniel Vasquez (Letter titled Grito Patriotico written in El Salvador 1843 by a group of Liberals)
  • Fernando Salazar Matinez (Legal decree concerning individual rights in Central America)
  • Joseph Herbert (Published letter from President Guadalupe Victoria to the Mexican People)

I. Discuss the significance of these documents, along with any similarities and differences as a class.

II. After the discussion, split the class in two groups: Pro and Con.

III. Each group is to come up with Pros and Cons of what each document is seeking to achieve.

IV. Regroup and discuss how life would be like in this era of Latin American history, drawing comparisons to modern day governments.

Group 4: Global Connections and Transformations

  • Elizabeth Warner (Portrait of Spanish Baroness Emiliana Serrano de Wilson in her novel Las Perlas del Corazon)
  • Kathryn Wilk (Chocolates E. Juncosa Trading Cards with images depicting the Cuban War of Independence, 1895)
  • Madison Tumey (Personal account by Protestant Missionary Almon Greenman)
  • Dinda Aryputri (Portrait of actor Miguel Lavalle taken by the Villalongin Theater Company)

Create an interactive map in which the student has to place the documents in their correct region based on the photos and short descriptions (omitting the place). Once all the documents are in the right place, the map could include information about those cities and greater civilizations at the time, while also physically drawing connections to Spanish/North American regions that interacted with the creation of the document.

Group 5: Preventing Disease in a Connected World through Public Health

  • Colin Barnett (Método preservativo y curativo del cholera epidémico)
  • Alyssa Denaro (Postcards Showing Panama Canal Death Toll)

Have students plot each document and year it was produced in a map of Latin America. Then, have the students choose one plot to focus on and create and act out a dialogue based on the contents in the chosen document.

Group 6: Mexico: The Modernity of Revolution

  • Jacob Avanzato (Photographs from the Mexican Revolution)
  • Luis Carlos Orozco Medina (Letter written from Eliseo Ruíz to Lázaro de la Garza, in Ciudad Jímenez, Chihuahua, México)

Have the students look at each of the individual documents for a very short period of time. After they have gotten a glance at the documents, they will be handed a word key with specific objects, words, or names of people that can all be found in one or all of the documents. The students may then look at the documents and attempt to find each object in the answer/word key. Whoever finds them all first, wins. By playing this game, students will have analyzed the documents far closer than they otherwise might have. This will allow them to pick up on things they had not noticed before and is a great way to familiarize with famous figures in Latin America, as well as the Spanish language.