Institute brings Central America into focus for L.A. teachers

Haydee Licari, a teacher of Spanish and English as a second language at Dana Middle School in San Pedro, has seen current immigration trends reflected in her classroom. In recent years, her student population has shifted from being primarily of Mexican heritage to being increasingly of Central American, Filipino and African heritage.

That’s part of the reason why she decided to enroll in a workshop last month on the history, politics and culture of Central America, along with 19 other K-12 teachers from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). “This workshop was the missing link in my education,” said Licari, a teacher since 1989 with a master’s degree in education and school administration.

Combining presentations given by professors from universities across California and lively discussions, the intensive six-day workshop held at Bunche Hall was organized by the UCLA Latin American Institute (LAI) with funding from a Title VI federal grant of the U.S. Department of Education.

“The purpose of the workshop on Central America is twofold,” explained Cynthia Gómez, outreach coordinator at the institute. “It is designed to provide teachers with the knowledge and tools to enhance their curriculum with Central American content, as well as deepen their understanding of a region that accounts for a growing number of the LAUSD’s student population. Central Americans are the fastest-growing immigrant population of Latinos in the United States.”

 

Based on census figures from 2010, 3.1 million Central Americans live in the United States — with Los Angeles County hosting the largest number of these immigrants. The rapid growth in the population of Central Americans over the last four decades has been driven largely by increased immigration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and, more recently, Honduras. They immigrated to the United States, first, as a result of political repression and civil war, and, later in greater numbers, for economic reasons.

 

More than half of the teachers who attended the summer institute have been teaching in L.A. public and charter schools for more than 14 years. Many teach multiple subjects in elementary school, but several are social studies and language arts teachers; one teaches biology.

 

Veteran LAUSD teacher Georgina Salazar, who teaches Spanish in the humanities magnet program of Hamilton High School, has attended two previous teacher workshops sponsored by LAI and now plans her summer vacations around them. “This is a really great program,” she said, “I hope it never ends!”

 

 

The workshops exposed the teachers to diverse topics ranging from Mayan civilization and colonial history to Central American folklore and U.S. foreign policy in the region. The lectures progressively revealed a region with a highly diverse and accomplished pre-Spanish culture that has been obscured by the impact of Spanish colonization, U.S. economic dominance, the exigencies of the Cold War and economic globalization. The denigration of indigenous cultures, from the burning of Mayan books by the Spanish conquistadors to the outright genocide of Mayan people in Guatemala in the 1980s, continues to affect how Central Americans perceive themselves to this day, lecturers pointed out.

 

Kevin Terraciano, a history professor and director of the Latin American Institute at UCLA, explained that when Spain initiated its conquests, Mayans and many other indigenous groups of Central America lived in hundreds of highly organized city-states, practiced agriculture and possessed extensive trade networks. In fact, in the early 16th century, Mesoamerica was the most densely settled and populous region of the Americas, he said. After the arrival of the conquistadors, however, disease, forced labor and armed conflict decimated indigenous populations and reduced their numbers to only 10 percent of their pre-conquest numbers.

Despite this decline, by the end of the colonial period in the1820s, indigenous peoples made up the majority of the population of Central America; many indigenous groups continue to exist today.

In the same way that the indigenous heritage of Central America has been discounted, so, too, has its African heritage. The transport of huge numbers of slaves to the New World by the English and Spanish empires has had a lasting impact on the culture of the region. As CSU-Los Angeles professor Mario Castañeda pointed out, “No Latino culture or nation in the region developed without an African presence.”

 

 

To help teachers make the most of what they learned, participants received a variety of informational resources and guidance in creating grade-appropriate lesson plans that conform with mandated California learning standards — a requirement of the workshop.

 

“I learned so much important content about seven countries in six days from the most amazing experts in their fields,” Licari said. “The presentations were relevant to our students’ needs and cultures. I cannot wait to face my students in two weeks with the new and fun strategies I learned.”

 

Licari said she was also deeply moved by the personal stories told by several workshop presenters who acknowledged the impact K12 educators had on their own academic success.

 

“I feel so proud to be a Bruin alum, to return and see the brilliant minds we [teachers] might have inspired — it is so rewarding to see the fruit of our labor,” the San Pedro teacher said.

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To read the full story that appeared originally on the International Institute's website, go here.