I’m always looking for ways to bring mass or commercial holidays into the Spanish classroom, but with a twist. This month is no different. This month is Women’s History Month, and what better time than to celebrate our famous Latinas who have contributed so much to the culture. But you might be saying, “wait, how do I do this? At least in a non-man hating way?” The celebration of women doesn’t mean that we are ignoring men. Heck, men wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for women 😅. But if the topic of “well why do we have to celebrate all of these groups?” comes up, I would recommend that you gently remind your students that many of these groups (women included) have had long histories of oppression and violence. Short story: We celebrate them to honor them.
Defining terminology
Now is a great time to define terminology that belongs under the “feminismo” umbrella. Terms such as:
- Género
- Sexo
- Feminista/feminismo
- Igualdad
- Derechos
- Movimiento feminista
- Machismo
- Relación tóxica
By building your students’ vocabulary, you are also building awareness of the issues that have & continue to plague our societies.
Music
Introduce your students to songs with strong female empowerment messages. Here is a playlist that I made. Not all songs have to do about love, though I think that it is healthy to discuss what to do in toxic relationships, however, each song takes a look at female empowerment from a different angle.
For my analysis of each song go to link: https://youtu.be/_ObkfxrFYxc
Projects
You can always create a project that takes a look at “mujeres poderosas”–I created one that I’m very happy with! It highlights 5 different women who took the world by storm with their lyrics! More details below, but some artists include Celia Cruz all the way to lead singer of Bomba Estéreo!
Project preview:
Readings
Bring in outside resources such as this awesome website, https://latinitasmagazine.org/tag/womens-history-month/, geared towards young Latinas.
How do you plan on incorporating WHM in your Spanish classroom? Let me know in the comments below!
Besos,
Allison
