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ABOUT THE AUTHOR MarĂa del Rosario Corona Horta graduated from Western Washington University & Fairhaven College in 2013 with a double major in Spanish with Law, Diversity, and Justice Concentration with a focus on Education and Leadership for Immigrants and Underrepresented Groups. Currently, she is attending Antioch University Seattle and is pursuing a Masters in Urban Environmental Education. Her goals and aspirations are to create her own non-profit community center: a space for all people, especially immigrants and underrepresented groups; a space where they can learn about different resources and become engaged in forming a resilient community through service projects. Thus far, she has had a lot of experience working directly and developing programs for immigrants, Latino/a, and migrant students and families. She hopes to gain skills in environmental justice education and learn how to create curriculum that focus on students stories, their culture, and their environment, with leadership opportunities. Ms. Corona Horta calls her children's book Urban Traditional Community Garden. In this story, MarĂa represents herself as the aunt of Marco as she walks him through a few Aztec traditions and the story of how they found their home. The author was inspired, in part, by telling stories to her 15 nieces and nephews on the Aztec story, traditional foods, medicines, and garden techniques.
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The story Urban Traditional Community gardens Dedicated for educators to support their Mexican-American students and/or Indigenous youth "Health is directly connected to the land disposition, colonialism, migration to the city and a disconcertion to traditional foods" says Jolie Blachettle, a practicum student at University of British Columbia* Immigrant populations and Indigenous communities have been displaced for centuries, especially now when 80% of the population lives in cities. This has created a lack of connection to mother earth, traditional foods, medicines, and gardening skills. Studies have shown direct health impacts for the lack of accessible and health food and water. It is critical to unite and work towards a healthy sustainable environment. However, for the purpose of this book, I will focus on Mexican-American and Indigenous youth.
*Excerpt from the video, Vancouver Native Health Society Garden Project
Introduction 2a
As an Urban Environmental Educator, it is important for me to explore my own indigenous background and research traditional Aztec foods, medicines and gardening methods. As an educator, it is important for me to understand my own traditions and background to better support students in their own explorations. Often times, this process can be daunting and scary because lack of support and limited resources can make one fee alone. However, if youth know that there are other indigenous people who have been in the same place of feeling disconnected from their land and are also trying to find those lost traditions, then that can make the process easier. A few ways in which educators can provide support to Mexican-American and Indigenous youth are: interdisciplinary learning, traditional practices, place based learning, intergenerational community gardening, and gardening skills, such as composting , amending soils, ect. At the end of the book, I have provided a few ways in which you can bring these into your classroom as away to engage both your Indigenous and nonIndigenous youth. There are also resources that I have provided for educators who want further assistance.
Introduction 2b
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On a beautiful day in their P-patch, as they watered their maiz, squash and beans, Rosita asked "Mira, Marco, do you see anything different with our veggies?" Marco answered, "Yes, el maiz and squash look like they are growing"
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As they continued their watering, Rosita then asked, "Did you know our great ancestors, los Azteca, once grew these exact foods?" Marco shook his head and asked, "Did they have the same gardens as we do?" Rosita responded, "No, their gardens were a little different. Let's take a journey to the past and see what it used to be like."
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"In the time of los Azteca, you had to travel in a canoe to get from place to place. As they canoed past the city, they noticed maiz, squash, beans and flowers growing. "These gardens are man-made islands called chinampas, which were made on top of a swamp," Rosita explained. "But why a swamp?" Marco asked, not understanding his tĂa. "Well let's go back in time and see what we can discover," Rosita said excitedly.
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"The legend says that Huitzilopochtli, God of sun and war, visited a priest in a dream, where he told him to search for an eagle perched on a cactus holding a serpent. This would be their sign that they had found their homeland. It was a swampy island, which they named Tenochtitlan, 'the Place of the Prickly Pear Cactus,' because of all the cactus that grew on the island."
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"It was the greatest empire of all time, well, until the Spaniards came and conquered our lands, but we will save that story for another day," Rosita told him sadly. "I want to hear it pleaseee," Marco begged. "Another time, let's finish painting Huitzilopochtli," said Rosita. They continued to paint Huitzilopochtli, as they made up stories of what he was like for the rest of the afternoon.
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Glossary Mira:look Maiz: Corn Chinampas: man-made islands Tía: Aunt Huitzilopochtli: Aztec God of sun and war Interdisciplinary Teaching The suggestions I provide below on interdisciplinary teaching focus primarily on elementary schools. These are just a few, but I also provide resources at the bottom to find further support. 1)Any teacher can Utilize this book as a way to introduce gardening through reading. 2) Social Studies teachers can teach about the Aztec's traditions and also learn about the history through the land of the garden. 3) Math teachers can connect this book to the Aztec Calendar or count the worms per foot with their class and multiple that by the whole lot as a fun and interactive way to practice math. 4) Art teachers can connect shapes in the gardens and have them draw them. When they talk about the color spectrum, they can talk about the variety of colors in the veggies and fruits, then connect to that to healthy nutrition. There are also a number of art projects to be done in the garden, as shown in the book. Resources: Teachers in New Zealand are also supported in taking students out of the classroom and on educational visits, through an extensive website http://eotc.tki.org.nz/ Education in Scotland Outdoor Learning: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/ap proaches/outdoorlearning/index.asp Outdoor Learning in Denmark: http://outdooreducation.dk/ Curriculum for Excellence through Outdoor Learning from Scottish Government (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010) Beames, S., Higgins, P. J., & Nicol, R. (2012). Learning outside the classroom: Theory and guidelines for practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Example of Traditional Place Based Curriculum When providing support to indigenous communities, it is important to practice place base learning activities with elders, students, and teachers. Place based learning will develop an understanding of “place” as much more than a physical location. An Indigenous understanding of place recognizes and values places to be made up of relationships, experiences, histories, stories, languages, skills, and ceremonies. The example below comes from Making Meaning In Place: Place, Place-based Learning and Curriculum A Model Curriculum Unit prepared by Talia London and Lisa Dumoulin in 2008. Activity: Place base learning Objectives: Identify the relationships that make the place important to the Indigenous culture Materials:Storybook or video of your choice about an important place and/or place-based activity Process 1) Show a picture book or short video about an important place and/or place-based activity in an Indigenous community to show your students. 2) Hold a sharing circle to hold a discussion on their learning. 3) Use this book or short video to help students think about what makes a place important. Emphasize (or ask your students to identify) the relationships that make the place important to the Indigenous culture, including relationships: between different people (e.g. between Elders and children) between people and the environment between people and animals/plants between language and the place or activity Sample books: Land is our Storybook Series McLeod, T., Willett, M. & MacIntosh, T. (2008). The Delta is my home = Ehdiitat shanankat t'agoonch'uu = Uvanga Nunatarmuitmi aimayuaqtunga. Calgary: Fifth Press. Enzoe, P., Willett, M. & MacIntosh, T. (2010). The caribou feed our soul tth n et d gh dd . Markham: Fifth Press. Other books: Olsen, S. & Larson, J. (2006). Yetsa’s Sweater. Winlaw, BC Sono Nis Press. Sample Videos: Grade 1/2/3 Nisga’a students learned a out the Oolichan Fishery in Fishery Bay on the Nass River (5 min. video): http://gingolx.ca/education/NBES/nisgaaculture_oolichan.html Reference: London, T.,Dumoulin, L. (2008) Making Meaning In Place: Place, Placebased Learning and Curriculum A Model Curriculum Unit
Gardening Skills: While it is important to teach across disciplines and be culturally relevant, it's also important to teach basic gardening skills to youth. Teaching them how to garden gives them an opportunity to explore where their food comes from and be more connected to mother earth in hopes of taking care of her better. Below are few gardening skills that are fun ways for youth and adults to get out and have fun in their gardens:
Compost or worm compost projects are fun ways to talk to youth about food waste and how to make nutritious soil and even natural fertilizers for the gardens. You can find great projects to work on with youth at Home Composting Made easy. Preparing soil or a garden bed is a great way to learn the basics of gardening. You can make competitions amongst youth to see who can do the best and fastest double-digging technique, which is turning the soil. A great video that describes this technique is called double-digging. Adding the right soil amendments will help teach your youth about the health of the soil and learning about new critters. For a quick and fun soil check, have kids dig out of the garden a cube of soil about one foot and have them count how many worms are in it. A healthy garden has 10-30 worms per one foot. Planting is a great way to introduce the germination process. You can start in the classroom germinating beans or lettuce. Then, you can teach them how to do these activities at home. Then bring them back to the classroom to transplant. Finally, learning the value of watering their plants is crucial. It's important for youth to learn how much to water plants without drowning them. Watering plants can be a fun and easy activity to do with kids. You can get special brightly colored watering cans and have the kids decorate them and the rain barrels. Reference: Owens, H., Cline, B., Friendship Gardens' Gardening 101 Guide. http://friendship-gardens.org/resources/gardening-101
Implications My final message to educators reading this book is have to fun, get your hands dirty, reconnect with mother earth, and discover the mysteries that lay beyond. Find creative ways to engage your youth in gardening, building community, and giving back. I have provided a few examples of how to do this and hopefully this has sparked your interest to research other ways that you can engage your youth. Lastly, I will encourage you to work your in community with other teachers, parents, extended family members, community partners, businesses and non-profits. This allows you to not feel alone and work within community to make a greater impact.