Classroom Activities

Homage for María Pérez Molinar: Our Amá

Excerpt

María Perez Molinar. Amá. Our Mother. Abuelita. Our great-grandmother. Our present. Our past. Our future. Our history. Johnstown history. Like the passing of Thurman Hays, Doña Santanita Córdoba or Mary Martínez, the life of María Pérez Molinar represents the history of Johnstown, the history of the Colony. Amá has been the center root of a family tree that has branched out and flourished in Johnstown, that has included families like the Molinares, the Riveras, the Holguines, the Cantús and countless others. Today we are gathered here to honor and to pay our deepest gratitude and respect to María Pérez Molinar for all that she symbolized in our family, in our own personal lives and in the town history of Johnstown.

  1. Read full version of "Homage for María Pérez Molinar: Our Amá"
  2. After reading the story about Amá, have students interview one of their parents/grandparents about their ancestral background. Then have students create an essay based on the interview.
  3. Have students create an album of photographs based on the family member they interviewed; they should describe each photo with text.

Farewell to Francisca

Excerpt

Today, we are gathered here to mourn the passing of a great woman, my mother, Francisca Molinar Velásquez, who held the deepest love and respect for Johnstown, the small midwestern town in northern Colorado where she was raised as the oldest daughter of Saúl and María Molinar, one of Johnstown’s foremost founding families.

  1. Read full version of "Farewell to Francisca"
  2. After reading the story about Francisca Molinar Velásquez, have students create a poem about their own mother/grandmother using “Homage to Francisca” as a model.
  3. Students may be given the choice to write a song instead of a poem about their family member.

Baton Girl

Excerpt

Ugly. I always felt ugly. Ugly inside. Ugly outside. Ugly at home. Ugly at school. Ugly everywhere I went. Every time I saw my reflection, I wished I could rub off the Mexican brown and become white and pretty like Kathy Fields, Shirley Wailes or Debbie Brown, the rich white girls who rode the bus to school every morning when we lived on the Betz farm several miles outside of Johnstown. I yearned to be one of those pretty white girls, listening to them laugh, envying their neatly pressed dresses with matching ribbons and matching shoes. Sitting at the back of the bus with Cristela Gonzales, her sisters and brothers, I always felt ugly in my wrinkled second-hand clothes as we rode on dusty dirt roads to Letford Elementary School. Powerless dirty Mexican girl, swearing to myself that one day, I would be somebody.

  1. Read full version of "Baton Girl"
  2. After reading the autobiographical essay, have students write a reaction paper indicating what they would tell someone who felt like the narrator in “Baton Girl.” Students may also choose to write a letter to the narrator instead of creating an essay.
  3. Have students write their own self-identity essay where they answer the question, “Who am I?” They can use the poem, “Who Am I” or “¿Quién soy?” from the Superwoman CD as a model.

"Quién soy?"

After reading the poem, “¿Quién soy?” or “Who Am I?,” have students write their own “Who Am I” poem in Spanish or English, using this poem as a model.

Letters from Vietnam

(excerpts from Toys Soldiers and Dolls; these are the actual letters my brother wrote from Vietnam. Only the family names have been fictionalized)

  1. After reading the Letters from Vietnam, have students write a short essay describing either the Vietnam War or one of the U.S. Wars.
  2. Have students interview someone who particpated in a U.S. War and write a summary of the interview.
  3. Have students write a letter either to the fictional character in the letter or to someone they know who is currently serving in the military.