Lesson by Maria Miraballes
Essay by Geraldo L. Cadava, Northwestern University
Grade Level: 7–12
Number of Class Periods: 5
Primary Theme: Latina/Latino History
About This Lesson Plan Unit
The objective of the unit is to have students recognize the economic, social, and political challenges faced by Latinas and Latinos throughout the United States from the 1930s through the 1960s, as well as the triumphs they achieved. Over the course of the five lessons the students will analyze primary sources that include court documents, speeches, and policy statements as well as visuals such as photographs and artwork reflecting the experiences of men and women who fought for equal economic, social, and political treatment in the United States. Students will then write an argumentative written response evaluating the challenges that led to the civil rights movement as well as the achievements Latinos and Latinas made during this time period.
Lesson Plan Author: Maria Miraballes
Additional Research by: José A. Gregory
Historical Background Scholar: Geraldo L. Cadava, Northwestern University
Additional Information About This Unit
Common Core State Standards
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social or economic aspects of history/social science.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.6: Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
What political/economic/social challenges did Latinos and Latinas face between 1930 and 1970?
What political/economic/social accomplishments did Latinos and Latinas achieve between 1930 and 1970?
Documents
Documents
Theresa A. Ybáñez, Mujeres de San Antonio: Emma Tenayuca, mural on exterior east wall of Quick Wash Laundromat, South Presa Street, San Antonio, Texas, 1994. Photograph by Al Rendon, 1994
Detail of Mary Agnes Rodriguez, “Mis Palabras, Mi Poder,” on Emma Tenayuca, “La Pasionaria de Texas,” mural on exterior wall of Burleson School for Innovation and Education, San Antonio, Texas, 2020. Photograph by Edgewood Independent School District, September 23, 2020
“Workers Alliance leader Emma Tenayuca, with clenched fist in the air, speaking to crowd outside San Antonio City Hall following a parade protesting scarcity of Works Progress Administration jobs,” San Antonio Light, March 8, 1937
“Emma Tenayuca and her attorney, Everett Looney, in courtroom during her trial on charges of unlawful assembly and disturbing the peace,” San Antonio Light, July 13, 1937
“Striking pecan shellers picketing on the sidewalk in front of the Southern Pecan Shelling Company at 135 East Cevallos Street,” San Antonio Light, February 25, 193
Russell Lee, “Mexican women separating meat from shells. Pecan shelling plant. San Antonio, Texas,” March 1939
Justice Albert Lee Stephens Sr.’s majority opinion in Méndez v. Westminster School District, 64 F. Supp. 544 (S.D. Cal. 1946), US District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division, Conclusions of the Court, February 18, 1946, National Archives (NAID 294945), catalog.archives.gov/id/294945
Alberto Urista (Alurista), Preamble of “El plan espiritual de Aztlan,” 1969 in El Grito del Norte (Albuquerque, New Mexico), vol. 2, no. 9 (July 6, 1969): 5. Full plan adopted at Chicano Youth Liberation Conference, Denver, Colorado, March, 1969, by Alurista and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales. (A Spanish-language translation of the document (El Grito del Norte (Albuquerque, New Mexico), vol. 2, no. 9 (July 6, 1969): 6, Enriqueta Vasquez collection, courtesy of the Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective) is also included.)
Excerpts from the Manifesto of El plan de Santa Barbara from Chicano Coordinating Council on Higher Education, El Plan de Santa. Barbara: A Chicano Plan for Higher Education, 1969, pp. 9–11
Excerpts from Luisa Moreno, “Caravans of Sorrow”: Non-citizen Americans of the South West, Washington DC: American Committee for Protection of the Foreign Born, 1940 from an address delivered at the panel of Deportation and Right of Asylum of the Fourth Annual Conference of the American Committee for Protection of the Foreign Born, Washington, DC, March 3, 1940
Excerpts from Barack Obama, “Remarks Honoring Sylvia Méndez, Recipients of the 2010 Medal of Freedom,” February 15, 2011