Latin American History For Dummies: Analysis

When playwright and actor John Leguizamo wrote his hit one-man show Latin American History for Dummies he had kept his son, a middle school student at the time, in his mind. As a child of Latino descent in a non-diverse area, Lucas faced the brunt of many racially ignorant jokes and comments. In order to bring Lucas closer to his Colombian roots, he assisted him with his History project on finding great historical figures from Latin America. After hours of what seemed to be dead-end research Lucas gave up on his original idea claiming that “there is nothing about Latin history.” It was this statement that set John on a quest to find a Latino hero that his son and other children like him could look up to (Schulman).
The introductory antidote
The introductory section will focus on socio-political power dynamics present in Latin America leading up to the 18th century before the slave revolts in Haiti. On the first day of the unit, students will be prompted with the first essential question Under what circumstances should authority be questioned?(NCSS 6) Over the course of three lessons students will be introduced to readings from the Enlightenment and French Revolution, specifically the writings of Thomas Paine and snippets of the Declarations of the Rights of Man,(NY State Scope and Sequence 10.2a) to gain an understanding of progressive European philosophy, in regards to human rights and government control (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2) Students will then watch the beginning of a documentary of the Haitian revolution, focusing primarily on the hostile treatment of slaves and the political subjugation of freed blacks in order to identify discrepancies between France’s political philosophy and the realities of their colonies
An open discussion will be facilitated where I will ask prompting questions such as: “How should we confront social and political inequality?” (NCSS 5). Following the discussion, the class will be divided into small groups where they will take on the role of one of the five social groups in the Mexican War of Independence (Spaniards, Peninsulares, Native Americans, and African slaves). Each group will get a fictional profile of an individual of their corresponding caste and must determine if the current system in place benefited them if so, how would they ensure that things stay as they are and if not, what actions should be taken to enact change. Students will then come together in a forum and discuss whether they were pro or anti-independence and state their reasoning using the information from the profile and previous lessons (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1). Post forum there will be a debriefing session in which students will have the chance to look at all of the profiles and share their personal opinions with the