Based on our geographic location alone, we Southern Californians could be forgiven if we sometimes get a little myopic in our awareness of Hispanic culture. After all, our next-door neighbor to the south looms so large—historically, politically, economically, culinarily and more—that it's easy to forget that Hispanic culture emanates from well beyond the borders of Mexico. Well beyond even just the countries within Central and South America, if we really want to air our implicit biases.
This being Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15), it’s a good time for PESA to roll out one of our student-created educational programs addressing this very topic, which is what we did recently for a group of 5-8 graders and some of their family members at TEACH Academy of Technologies school in Los Angeles. In making this particular presentation, we were joined by members of Loyola Marymount University’s Lions Club, which aligns with PESA on numerous initiatives.
In this case, students learned that Hispanic heritage can be found not just in our immediate south, but in the east as well—think Cuba and Puerto Rico—and on to Europe where it all originated, in Spain, of course. Students learned about varieties of regional cuisines, such as Spanish empanadas, Central American tajadas and Colombian and Venezuelan arepas. They also learned about local cultural traditions and festivals, such as Spain’s La Tomatina, dubbed the world’s largest food fight in which participants hurl tomatoes at each other; and Las Fallas, a modern homage to ancient Valencian carpenters’ tradition of celebrating the arrival of spring by burning small pieces of wood that has grown into a giant spectacle involving the creation and immolation of massive works of papier-mâché art.