Connecting Pre-Colonial Indigenous Central American Cultures to the Present

By Liora Valero

I teach arts-integrated Renaissance history to 5th graders with learning differences at the Lab School. During Teach Central America Week, I used resources from TeachingCentralAmerica.org to connect our study of Renaissance-era Central American culture to the present-day realities of Central American countries.

Students learned about the Gods & Goddesses of the Nahua, Aztec, and Maya, and then made Hojalatas based on symbols and imagery from different cultures in the area. We honored the Indigenous cultures that paved the way for much of what is still celebrated and practiced in the countries of Central America through food, art, literature, music, dance, and language.

By completing the Geography is History activity, students were able to compare and contrast pre-colonized and current cultures and think about how the Indigenous cultures we learned about were impacted by colonization and later globalization. We were able to connect Central American history to our larger conversations about Latinx History Month, and how complicated Latinidad is when we consider the many cultures under the umbrella, and particularly the erasure of Black and Indigenous identity in the term.

Find more stories from Teach Central America Week 2022.