La cultura y La comida

Camila Evans, Afrolatinizamos Cohort 2023

Essential question: What is a cultural food item? How has Latin American food been influenced by African cultures? What is an Afro-Latino food? How do Afro-Latinos prepare their food? 

Learning Targets: 

1. Students will be able to describe ingredients in a dish.

2. Students will be able to draw connections and conclusions about how geography and history influences the types of food eaten in Latin American countries.

Audience: High school Spanish 2 students grades 9-12

Objective: Students will be able to describe rondón (cuisine/dish) and research its different varieties throughout Latin America. 

Pedagogical Goals: The goal of this lesson plan is for the students to learn about how Latin American food was influenced by its African roots. One of the goals in the food unit is to identify different foods, but since food is a part of culture, the goal is for students to experience and get to know how culture is shared, expressed and passed down via food. Students will learn about the intersectionality of the African Diaspora and see the connection between the “West Indies” and the English speaking Caribbean with the Spanish-speaking countries. Additionally, students are encouraged to use critical thinking to make the connections between food, culture and the environment; how does the changing environment affect the preservation of a culture? The goal is ensure that students will gain the knowledge about how everything is connected. 

Standards: MLII.CU1 The students understand perspectives, practices, and products of the cultures where the target language is spoken and how they are interrelated. B. Identify patterns of behavior typically associated with cultures, such as eating and shopping customs. 

Warm Up: ¿De dónde eres? (Where are you from?) Responde con una foto o nombre de un plato de comida. (Rather than respond with the country/city, respond with a photo or name of a dish that represents where you are from/culture) 

Example: Yo soy de alitas de pollo con salsa mumbo. (I am from chicken wings with mumbo sauce)

Essential Questions: 

• What is Afro-Costa Rican food? 

• How did African descendants influence Costa Rican food in the past? Present? 

• How did Afro Latinos influence Latin American cuisine in the past? Present? 

• What’s the price for cheap exotic fruit at our grocery stores?

Hook: Watch Episode #1 of Afro Latino Travels with Kim Haas Costa Rica (Bring in cacao fruit + chocolate products) Alternative video, Los Gordos Monchies

During the video: students circle the ingredients they hear in a word bank. ¿Cuál es el origen del nombre “rondón”? 

After viewing: In the video, you heard some English words, where do you think they come from? How did they get to Limón, Costa Rica? 

Enrichment reading: : Read “How to Cook Tom Enderlin’s Rondón” in groups out loud. Answer questions about rondón’s origins and how you make it. Compare to what you saw and heard in the video. 

Webquest: Students complete a webquest where they research recipes for rondón in different countries throughout Latin America. 

• What other Latin American countries make rondón? ( Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama,  Colombia, and Venezuela). 

• What do all of these places have in common? 

• What ingredients do they share in common? Which ingredients are different? 

• Why are some ingredients different? 

• What made it possible for all of these countries to have the same dish? 

• How is it affected by environmental changes and pollution?

Extra resources:Retaining Rondon: Creole Food in a Changing World (Niaragua)

Closing: Discuss what their experience was like doing the research for the WebQuest. 

• What kind of sources did you find? 

• What kind of sources were you hoping to find, but did not find? 

• How has your perception of “Latin” food changed? 

• How does this food relate to any food of your racial or cultural background? 

• Do you have anything similar in your culture? 

• Think about how the Rondón was prepared; do you make coconut milk from scratch or get it from a can?