LATINOS AND THEIR FAMILIES: WHO ARE THEY?

Latinos in the United States are typically treated as if they are one large, relatively homogeneous group. However, the typical Latino remains as elusive as the typical American. Latinos have come into the United States from various countries, each with their unique historical and cultural traditions. Moreover, even when they are from the same country, different waves of immigration have pulled from different economic or regional sectors resulting in different demographic and adaptive profiles.

(Cauce and Domenech-Rodriguez, 2000)

Latin American studies has not yet become an essential part of curricula and may only be offered as an elective for the interested students that happen to have it taught in their school. My first hint of the worlds south of the border, was as a senior in high school taking the elective International Literature and reading Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Prior to that and even thereafter, exposure to the countries and cultures of Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, in my academic career were nonexistent. Fast forward 20 years, and as a teacher in the same district I went to school in, for several reasons, I am surprised that there is still not a push for Latin American studies. First, National Hispanic Heritage Month was established in 1968, which means there has been plenty of time to develop at least a few lessons. Secondly, Philadelphia has been a destination for Puerto Rican migrants since the 1800’s, with there being a large influx in the 1950’s due to Operation Bootstrap, which means there has been a student population in need of a curriculum that reflects them for decades . Thirdly, today 24.1% of school district students are Hispanic/Latino (USNews, 2024), with several schools enrolling over 90% of students of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, which means that although there has not been a SDP curriculum that reflects the history and culture of all its student population, there are still students that need it.  All of these facts point to a gap between what is and what should be. This curriculum unit seeks to close that gap. By presenting a calendar of 31 lessons corresponding to the 31 days in National Hispanic Heritage Month, teachers will have the opportunity to broaden the knowledge and perspectives of their students. Additionally, the unit will encourage students to see the interwoven history and culture for Americans and Latin Americans. Through celebrations of culture and  stories of immigration, assimilation, racism, revolution, and cultural pride, this unit will speak to some missing learning objectives in today’s elementary curriculum in Philadelphia classrooms. Like they did with Black History in the 1990’s and Native American History in the 2010’s, the School District of Philadelphia seems ready to include specific units on Latin American History.

One more reason Latin American studies has not yet become an essential part of curricula also has to do with the politics of who is teaching and who is living the experiences being taught. Creating a climate where the study and appreciation of Latin American life, culture, and geography is more about learning about our fellow human beings with whom we share space living this one life we have together, rather than seeing Latin Americans as if in a fishbowl to be observed, documented, and kept account of. The power dynamic of this “us vs them” mentality is a hindrance for not only academic pursuits, but for actually living harmoniously.

Since language is ever alive and evolving, one essential question requires attention when heading into this foray: what does it mean to be Latin American? So far, the terms Hispanic and Latin American have been used almost interchangeably in this unit, but they are not interchangeable.  Furthermore, the term LatinX, since trending online in August 2005 (Google Trends), has grown in popularity, or notoriety, depending on whom you talk to.  So it may be necessary to parse out these terms prior to asking our essential question: do all these terms define the same people? The answer is “no”, but it is not a simple “no” by any means.

Who is who? Hispanic vs. Latino/a vs LatinX

Outside of the United States, people of South and Central America and the Caribbean often identify themselves by their country. Get folks to talk, and their region, state, or town become even more diverse and yet specific to describe their self-identity. Inside the US, the terms Hispanic, Latino/a, and LatinX seem to fight for position as the best identifiers. This is quite different from people from other countries in the world- yet it speaks to the US view of other places. Europeans are either European or their nationality. The same for people from Africa and Asia. The only other region that the US seems to want to break continental divides for is the Middle East, where cultural /and ethnic/ similarities have grouped people across three continents. This need to group people into categories that “help” Americans quickly identify foreigners or people of foreign ancestry, while at the same time reducing people’s claims of their own cultural identity, has become a tool for politicians and business people. Alcoff (2005) said, “Today we may think of this issue as one primarily of concern to marketing firms and political strategists who seek the most effective ways to market commodities and/or ideas, and who are rapidly constituting target markets that constitute ethnicity in relation to consumer preference and patterns of consumption.” Still, the terms are in use and the debate continues at the expense of those who did not coin the terms.

The term Latino, a shortened form of latinoamericano, was used to describe the people from Spanish colonies in Central and South America since the 1850’s (Blakemore, 2022).  Latino referencing males and the term Latina referencing females, as per the Spanish language endings of the “o” and “a” being the male and female distinction of words respectively. It has since come to identify the people of broader geographic regions instead of linking a country to its Spanish colonizers and the Spanish language (Alcoff, 2005). Therefore currently, the term Latino/a describes someone from South America, Central America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean. Choosing to identify as Latino/a can therefore seem more inclusive because it recognizes those that people speak languages other than Spanish. In short, Latino/a describes people whose home country or ancestry spans some 33 nations of South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico.

At relatively the same time in the 19th century, the term hispano, the Latin term for Spanish, was used to describe people of Spanish descent in the US, even though previously it was often used to describe ancient Spanish people (Blakemore, 2022). In the 20th century, around 1978, the term Hispanic was used to label people of Spanish cultural or ethnic descent in the U.S. The 1980 U.S. Census was the first to seek an official count of Spanish-speaking Americans (Blakemore, 2021), unencumbered by the fact that language is only one aspect of culture and that choosing to group people by their language totally /discounts/undervalues/ their ethnicity, culture, ancestral nationality, and indigeneity. In short, Hispanic refers to people who speak Spanish, and although seemingly inclusive in how people can find a commonality across political divides, it may also be the least sensitive to diversity. However, since the term is the one used by the US government for several decades, it has been an extremely popular self-identifier, particularly with older generations.

The term LatinX was coined more recently in 2004 by the LGBTQ+ community in the US as a more inclusive word, removing gender from the terms Latino/a for those who no longer wanted to be held to the binary and their allies CITE. Since the term stems from Latino/a, the term still refers to Americans whose ethnicity and heritage comes from South America, Central America, Mexico, or the islands of the Caribbean. In short, if the battle between Hispanic and Latino/a were decided solely on the basis of inclusivity LatinX would seemingly be the winner. However, in 2019 (Lopez, et al), most people who identify as Hispanic or Latino/a, had not heard of the term LatinX, much less embraced it. Additionally, due to religious and cultural animosity toward the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, as well as traditionalists who prefer the comforts of what has been, the term LatinX may have a long road ahead in gaining popularity.

As teachers of kids 5-18 years old, it is known that inclusivity is no longer optional: students can and should be able to loosen the chains of traditional roles and language that do not define or describe who they are. Therefore in 2024, it may be that although not as popular and surely politically charged, LatinX may be the best term to use. An added bonus, in particular with older students, can be a discussion, as this has been, about words, language, and identity in as far as we collectively and individually use and accept new words into our lexicon, and for our ELA teachers, exploring and giving an example of how language evolves and changes for need and side by side of social changes.

Although LatinX describes the people of a larger range than Hispanic, it still does not distinguish in a meaningful way the array of cultures that the term engulfs. In many ways, Americans unfamiliar with the geography of South America, Central America, Mexico, Spain and the islands of the Caribbean, could easily make assumptions and consider LatinX people to be more the same than different in a willfully ignorant way that does little to honor the diversity among those included in the term. So then what are the differences and what are the similarities among the LatinX population? And moreover, what is the benefit of using the term if stark differences abound?

Unlike the term Hispanic, which refers specifically to people from Spanish speaking countries, LatinX is not just concerning itself with language, but is also about location; again, South America, Central America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean; and removing gender. It may be that most Americans do not realize this and think that LatinX Americans share stereotypical cultural characteristics, most notably language and food. However, we know that in Brazil and Haiti, Spanish is not the official language. Additionally, indigenous languages are still spoken:

The indigenous population of Latin America consists of approximately 50 million people, who belong to 500 different ethnic groups. The largest populations (in absolute and relative terms) are in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Bolivia. In total, the indigenous population accounts for 8 percent of the region’s population. (De Dios, 2020)

In truth, the term Hispanic is a census derived term used in order to distinguish geographic differences in language rather than to distinguish cultural heritage. Therefore can we pinpoint what people from 33 countries, close to 560 languages (UTAustin maybe) and about 500 cultural groups, have in common with each other besides the fact that they speak Spanish? That question posited, is there power in acknowledging that not being from the USA or Canada can give a perspective that could be shared among the vast majority of these grouped only by geographic boundaries as outsiders looking in? Might people of color in the US in particular look for recognition of their contributions and place in history beyond the influence that the Spanish conquistadors left via colonization, and be celebrated and honored?

Therefore, to settle the debate created by the first essential question: Who is who? Hispanic vs. Latino/a vs LatinX, this unit will use the term LatinX with the express desire to be the most inclusive by definition, even though the term has not yet been embraced by all that could use it as an identifier. For those unfamiliar with the term, defining it will be a teachable moment and allow teachers to be allies. Additionally, the term LatinX, unlike the term Hispanic, does not include Spain, but does include Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language and Haiti, where it is French. Although the colonizing country will be acknowledged as the colonizing country, the influence will be strongly Spanish, since according to the census of 2020, there were 63.7 million Hispanic Americans, people either from or descended from people from a Spanish speaking country (Census/Pew, retrieved 2024),.

What events, people, ideas, and movements should be included?

Taking on the task of creating a curriculum unit to celebrate and honor LatinX Americans and their heritage during Hispanic Heritage Month (sic) seemed monumental once the breadth and width of who LatinX people are sunk in. The next essential question became: What events, people, ideas, and movements should be included?

In order to explore which LatinX topics would be best suited for an elementary school level set of lessons, some difficult truths had to be acknowledged. It was clear that the topics of racism, discrimination, and assimilation should be explored. Case in point: the struggles of our population of Mexican ancestry. From the Mexican-American War to the Zoot Suit riots and the Bracero Program to current topics in immigration, Mexican Americans have faced uphill battles in the USA just to have a place to call home. America revels in its diversity, while at the same time constantly tries to regulate, eradicate, and assimilate it. Americans eat the most Mexican food outside of Mexico, while actively trying to close its borders from Mexico. Americans consume the cultures while shunning the people from which the culture comes. In so many ways, the one unifying similarity across all the LatinX cultural groups may be the lack of inclusion extended to people of LatinX heritage in the USA.

On the other hand, if we were to start to explore the differences of all LatinX American cultures, the parameters of this paper would explode exponentially almost immediately. For that reason, a more systematic approach was taken with flexibility being a key component. The thousands of years of history and millions of people from which this unit could derive its content from is massive.  This plethora of information needed to be cultivated with a sensitivity and heart for its audience. One way to accomplish this is with a survey for students. Therefore this unit also includes a student survey in order to better prepare the calendar for use with students from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Teachers choosing to use this unit are to find out from their students which topics are of interest to their students. Additionally, the survey will ask them their ethnicities so that unit lessons can incorporate the events, people, ideas, and movements of that country or region. Ultimately, the goal is for students to have some control over the direction of their learning. Self-directed learning (SDL) by individuals with “internal locus of control, motivation, support, and self-efficacy” leads to “improved performance” (Boyer et al, 2000) among adults. Furthermore, among high school students who struggle with traditional in-school settings, SDL, coupled with support and encouragement, grew their confidence, positive attitudes towards learning, indepence, and fulfillment in the learning process (Schweikert-Cattin and Taylor, 2000). Research on elementary school students using SDL is scant since for at least half of their elementary careers students are learning the fundamentals of how to learn and not so much content. However, as per my experience as a teacher for over 20 years, by 3rd grade students are ready for a little “choose your own adventure” on their learning journey.

In order to create a survey that will result in actionable steps in terms of lesson planning, the essential question for this part of the unit is used as a guide. Breaking down the question into smaller parts and asking for respondents to align them with their particular culture is the purpose in order to inform the content of the lessons (Table 1). These questions can be modified to fit your student population. What is important is to find out what kids know about and therefore may find interesting to learn more about. For students that are not LatinX, sharing the answers to these questions in class will come with peer experts sitting right next to them eager to share their knowledge.

Table 1: Turning an essential question into questions for students to answer in a survey.

The calendar included in this unit chooses to answer these questions very broadly so that survey results can be incorporated into the lessons. Due to many of our students, statistically speaking, not being of indigenous ethnicities, the calendar intentionally has many lessons about cultures that are pre-Spanish colonization.  Also keep in mind that Indigenous Peoples’ Day is on the second to last day of National Hispanic Heritage Month, October 14th.

Along that vein, the first couple of lessons seek to define LatinX without betting into the debate of Hispanic vs. Latino/a vs. LatinX. Still, students should be able to walk away from those lessons empowered to discontinue the use of the self-identifier “Spanish” if they are not from Spain or of direct Spanish descent and adopt a term that displays a pride in their ancestral nationalities or Hispanic, Latino/a, or LatinX. The goal being that the inclusivity of the term LatinX means people from specific and diverse cultures.

Lastly, many heritage months utilize biographies as a way to celebrate and honor the cultural contributions of the members of the ethnic group to American culture and history. While they are a very important aspect of any heritage celebration but conversely being aware that resources already exist to make accessing biographies easy, this unit chose to focus more on /ideas/. Please take the time to swap out lessons included for biographies if the survey results show that students are more interested in particular people.

How can an interactive notebook help engage students?

Tools for student engagement are a necessary part of any teacher’s arsenal. This means that this unit needed to have a way for students to “buy into” the content, regardless of their heritage or connection to it. In order to better engage students, the calendar for this unit is interactive along with notebook accompaniments. The interactive notebook has been around for a while, but it is truly during the COVID year of quarantine that interactive digital tools for students became the new norm. All this will be accounted for as the last essential question is answered: How can an interactive notebook help engage students?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, one definition of interactive is “involving the actions or input of a user”. Therefore, by definition, an interactive notebook does more to engage students than an ordinary notebook because it requires input rather than merely transcribing what the teacher says. In other words, instead of kids writing down what the teacher says, they are writing their ideas and connections to the material that they are learning. Still, does the increase in engagement with an interactive notebook increase academic achievement? According to Toro (2021), whether in print or digitally, interactive notebooks do. My curriculum unit writing research has found over the last decade that bright colors, large print, rhyme, graphics, art, hands-on learning and musicality promote retention, build self-motivation, and increase engagement in ways that translate into higher academic achievement. All these elements make up the bulk of what interactive notebooks can look and sound like.

The interactive notebook components for this unit will include maps, comic page style inserts, and reference materials that kids can personalize. Teachers will also be able to create a personalized rubric for grading their students’ notebooks by using the basic rubric included. The goal is for students to take ownership during their creation of their LatinX curated materials in their interactive notebooks for National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Teaching Strategies

The overall teaching strategy in this unit is a calendar that includes interactive notebook pages. Within the pages for the notebook, students will begin by locating Latin America and identifying many countries therein. Students will examine topical ideas and historical events, as well as create representations of cultural artifacts.

An effective strategy for student learning is using questioning. Each lesson’s title is therefore an essential question so that students see the lesson as a challenge (Table 2).

Table 2: Essential questions as a teaching strategy

Another strategy for student learning is gamification. A simple tic tac toe style page for their interactive notebook both gives them a fun way to work towards a goal and, if used with another student, includes the strategy of kids working together. Another fun learning activity could be a trivia BINGO game, reiterating and reinforcing many of the concepts in this LatinX unit.

Additionally, a strategy that is pretty fun and engaging is having kids draw or choose pictures to summarize their learning. Several interactive notebook pages are spaces for students to do that very activity. Creating a space for students to connect images to big ideas will help with salience and retention. It has been long debated in education, yet somewhat universally known in the classroom, that art plays an enormous role in children’s development. Malin (2012) found that students creating art in an art classroom developed a sense of independent identity and collective community, as well as “art making is potentially an important way for children to not only make meaningful connections to school, but to develop an identity that empowers them to assert personal meaning in their social and cultural world.” The art of Latin America and Latin America Americans expresses identity, culture, and the celebrations and struggles of self and community. As students interact with it, they too will interact with the ideas that it represents and hopefully will find their voice among the speakers.

One final strategy for student learning employed in this curriculum unit is Self-Directed Learning (SDL), as mentioned earlier. The survey that students will take as a part of their All About Me or Getting to Know You phase in the beginning of the school year will inform the lessons, so students may even be able to “teach” the lesson for the day by way of an introduction of the topic and its importance to their culture.

This curriculum unit has more than the usual amount of classroom activities in an effort to supply teachers with a connection to the culture and history of each day of Hispanic Heritage Month. In order to accomplish this, many of the activities are presented as short, one period lessons with brief assignments. That said, most of the activities could be made into week long projects with an artifact produced at the end of the week. The choice of whether or not to do a short activity daily or to create a more in-depth learning experience based on one activity a week is up to the situation within each classroom. It is recommended that students create an all about me project in the beginning of the school year in order to help guide this decision. If there are only a few cultures represented in the classroom, then it may be beneficial to go into greater detail about those cultures, and vice versa. The possibilities are almost endless. The hope and desire is that teachers and students can work together to create a meaningful and connected cultural exchange and learning experience.

National Hispanic Heritage Month Interactive Calendar

When discussing what familismo is, two other terms may be discussed for a deeper conversation: marianismo and machismo. Although these terms are just as salient and established in traditional Hispanic culture, they may be harmful and rejected in LatinX culture, the culture of the younger Latino/a/e person drawn to ideals and inclusivity. Marianismo is “an idealized traditional feminine gender role characterized by submissiveness, selflessness, chastity, hyperfemininity, and acceptance of machismo in males” (APA Dictionary of Psychology, 2018). Machismo is “a strong sense of masculine pride” that manifests as “a social behavior pattern in which the Latino male exhibits an overbearing attitude to anyone in a position he perceives as inferior to his, demanding complete subservience” (Mendoza, 2019). These terms may in fact be the exact type of traditionalism that the term LatinX is fighting to move away from and replace with a diversity embracing, inclusive term, freeing people from roles that no longer define them. While the lesson presented here chooses to focus on the value of family, the values placed on female and male roles for hundreds of years and although now seemingly less desirable albeit still prevalent, could be discussed for its positive and negative effects. For example, although these values may have undermined a person’s true identity, did it help to keep families intact?

Alcoff, L. M. (2005). Latino vs. Hispanic. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 31(4), 395–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453705052972

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Apa Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://dictionary.apa.org/marianismo

• This online book gives the definition of marianismo.

Aztecs, Maya, and Inca for Kids. Ducksters. (n.d.). https://www.ducksters.com/history/aztec_maya_inca.php

• This student friendly website houses articles on Mayan topics. This one was about ancient Olmec civilizations.

Blakemore, E. (2022, February 10). “Hispanic”? “latino”? here’s where the terms come from. History. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/hispanic-latino-heres-where-terms-come-from#:~:text=The%20term%20%E2%80%9CLatino%E2%80%9D%20also%20came,nations%20once%20owned%20by%20Spain.

• This article examines the terms Hispanic and Latino and the history of the terms.

Boyer, S. L., Edmondson, D. R., Artis, A. B., & Fleming, D. (2013). Self-directed learning. Journal of Marketing Education, 36(1), 20–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475313494010

• This article examines the benefits of people having a say in what they learn.

Cauce, A. M., & Domenech-Rodríguez, M. (2002). Latino families: Myths and realities. In J. M. Contreras, K. A. Kerns, & A. M. Neal-Barnett (Eds.), Latino children and families in the United States: Current research and future directions (pp. 3–25). Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group.

• This chapter explains that Latin Americans come from many different places and implies that terms are limiting.

de Dios, Martín. Affiliate researcher at the Center for Studies for Human Development (CEDH) of Universidad de San Andrés. Director of the Lewet Wichí Foundation., M. (2020, May 14). The situation of Latin America’s indigenous population and the impact of covid-19. UNDP. https://www.undp.org/latin-america/blog/situation-latin-americas-indigenous-population-and-impact-covid-19

• This blog post examines the indigenous populations in Latin America.

Google. (retrieved 2024). Google trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/

Lopez, M. H., KROGSTAD, J. M., & PASSEL, J. S. (2023, September 5). Who is Hispanic?. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/05/who-is-hispanic/

• This article gives data about who is Hispanic in the U.S. 

Machismo Literature Review Eunice Mendoza October 15, 2009

• This lit review defines machismo from multiple sources into a unified concept.

Malin, Heather. (2012). Creating a Children’s Art World: Negotiating Participation, Identity, and Meaning in the Elementary School Art Room. International Journal of Education & the Arts. 13.

• This article demonstrates support for art being a wonderful tool for learning.

Mcdaniel, R. (1970, June 10). Bloom’s taxonomy. Vanderbilt University. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

• This website shows an illustration for Bloom’s taxonomy and explains the components.

Mendoza, Eunice. (2009). Machismo Literature Review. Working Paper #2009-12. Center for Public Safety Initiatives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Available at https://www.rit.edu/liberalarts/sites/rit.edu.liberalarts/files/documents/our-work/2009-12.pdf

• This lit review defines machismo from multiple sources into a unified concept.

Periyakoil, V. (n.d.). Hispanic/latino american older adults – geriatrics. https://geriatrics.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/latino_hispanic.pdf

• This brochure gives information about the terms Hispanic and Latino.

Philadelphia City School District – U.S. News Education. (n.d.-a). https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/pennsylvania/districts/philadelphia-city-sd-101796

Schweikert-Cattin, Deborah E; Taylor, Raymond J.  Throw-away kids: A successful self-directed learning approach. Reclaiming Children and Youth Vol. 8, Iss. 4,  (Winter 2000): 227.

• This article supports self-directed learning for engaging students.

Toro, S. (2021, April 27). How to get the benefits of interactive notebooks in digital formats. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-get-benefits-interactive-notebooks-digital-formats/

• This online article examines how “spiral-bound interactive notebooks have long been a popular way to encourage creativity and critical thinking”.         

Write your name in maya hieroglyphs. (n.d.-b). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/586084fa20099ed7750a25c3/t/5f8b0741ce7cf718b1e30aa9/1602946883337/WRITE+YOUR+NAME+IN+MAYA+HIEROGLYPHS.pdf

• This website gives activity sheets for using Mayan hieroglyphs along with lots of pictures.

The calendar was created with students in 3rd and up in mind.

3rd-8th Standards for Geography: 7.3. Human Characteristics of Places and Regions

3rd

CC.1.4.3.A Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

CC.1.4.3.H Introduce the topic and state an opinion on the topic.

CC.1.4.3.S Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research, applying grade-level reading standards for literature and informational texts.

4th

CC.1.4.4.A Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

CC.1.4.4.H Introduce the topic and state an opinion on the topic.

CC.1.4.4.S Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research, applying grade-level reading standards for literature and informational texts.

5th

CC.1.4.5.A Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

CC.1.4.5.H Introduce the topic and state an opinion on the topic.

CC.1.4.5.S Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research, applying grade-level reading standards for literature and informational texts.

6-8th

CC.8.6.6-8.F. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

9-10th

CC.8.6.9-10.F. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self- generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

11-12th

CC.8.6.11-12.F. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self- generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Appendix 

Figure 1: All About a Country activity

Figure 2: Maya Hieroglyphics naming the months

Figure 3: Word clouds

Figure 4: Family values tree

Figure 5: Images of original and public domain content for National Hispanic Heritage Month Calendar

For a more on the debate of terminology and perhaps for older students: https://www.history.com/news/hispanic-latino-latinx-chicano-background