CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
Teaching Language and Culture With a Musical Play: Mariachi Girl
A graduate project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of Master of Arts in Theatre
By
Linda Russano
December 2018
Signature Page
The graduate project of Linda Russano is approved:
______Professor Anamarie Gallardo de Dwyer Date
______Professor Adrián Pérez Boluda, PhD Date
______Professor Matthew Jackson, Chair Date
California State University, Northridge
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Table of Contents
Signature Page ...... ii
Abstract ...... v
Section 1: Introduction ...... 1
Childhood Play and Cultural Curiosity – A Personal Reflection ...... 1
Mariachi Girl ...... 2
Personal Background and Graduate Project Methodology ...... 3
Classroom Experiences - Personal Reflections and Observations ...... 5
Section 2: Learning through Drama and Theatre ...... 9
Hull House and Viola Spolin ...... 9
Roxanne Schroeder-Arce and Culturally Responsive Teaching ...... 12
Reader’s Theatre ...... 14
Section 3: Pedagogy and Practices ...... 16
California Standards 4th - 5th Grade Language and Performing Arts ...... 16
LA Opera ...... 19
Perspective from Spain ...... 20
Current Events ...... 20
National and Regional Approaches to English Education ...... 22
Tiger Team ...... 22
Challenges to Language Learning – Catalunya (Catalonia) ...... 24
Graduate Project Goals and Cariño CEIP Curriculum ...... 25
North American Language and Culture Program in Galicia ...... 26
In Cariño - Personal Observations and Reflections ...... 27
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Language and Linguistics - Challenges and Solutions ...... 27 LÓVA ...... 28
Section 4: Mariachi Girl for use in Language and Cultural Education ...... 31
A Multicultural, Multilingual and Cross-Discipline Approach ...... 31
Section 5: Creating the Workbook for Mariachi Girl ...... 36
About the Play ...... 39
What is Mariachi? ...... 39
Make-Believe and Acting ...... 40
Let’s Talk – More About Mariachi Girl ...... 41
Music and Tradition ...... 41
Cita Finds Inspiration ...... 43
English and Spanish Word Search ...... 43
Making Theatre ...... 44
Do you Know These Jobs Onstage and Offstage? ...... 44
Setting the Stage ...... 44
Posters and Playbills ...... 44
Cita Performs ...... 45
Dancers and Movement in Mariachi ...... 45
Mariachi Attire ...... 46
Make Your Own Mariachi Moño (Bow Tie) ...... 46
What Kind of Play Would You Write? What Kind of Son Would You Sing? ...... 46
Conclusion ...... 48
Bibliography ...... 49
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Abstract
Teaching Language and Culture With a Musical Play: Mariachi Girl
By
Linda Russano
Master of Arts in Theatre
As increasing interdependence within the contemporary global community has also led to a dichotomy of building both bridges and walls worldwide, the potential for creating empathy and cultural understanding through theatre and performing arts is as important now as at any time in history. The power of communication through theatre, especially as it can influence young audiences and participants, may be life-changing and influential in shifting society. This graduate project considers those concepts as it uses the musical play Mariachi Girl to provide American language and cultural education in
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Spain. With those ideals in mind, I have created a teaching tool to accompany the play, the Mariachi Girl Workbook for Language and Cultural Education (“Workbook”).
Through study of the play, in-class exercises, and the Workbook, this graduate project teaches students cultural history and influences of Mexican-Americans in the
United States; English and Spanish language in America, musical tradition and instruments, mariachi, theatre practices; concepts of immigration; gender roles; family in society. The project considers application of California curriculum standards for fourth and fifth graders, Spain and European Union standards, and the potential for teaching both English and Spanish language learners in the United States. It has been used to teach
North American English and Culture for fourth and fifth graders in the coastal town of
Cariño, province of A Coruña, in the autonomous region of Galicia, northwest Spain.
Research to create and implement the Workbook has been conducted on-site in
Spain while participating in the North American Language and Cultural Assistant program through the Education Ministry of Spain, and the Autonomous Region of
Galicia. The process of creating the Workbook as a teaching tool is the essence of this graduate project. Characteristics of those participating in the classrooms where the
Workbook was created are not included. There are observations and reflections of my own experiences in the creative process. As a multicultural, multicultural and cross- discipline approach to teaching, the process will be useful for further study and can be applied as a model for future projects in theatre, music and drama in education and community engagement.
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Section 1: Introduction
Childhood Play and Cultural Curiosity – A Personal Reflection
The desire to sing, to play, to engage in family and community ritual has been with me since childhood. The joy of expressing oneself in song was valued in my home.
Along with one musical sister, and another who tried, we were in demand at family gatherings. A cousin would play guitar with the American folk songbook of the 1960s and 1970s, and the only grandparent I knew, my paternal grandmother, would beam.
From my upstairs bedroom under the eaves, I’d hear my mother’s bright soprano ring out in Spanish while she did chores inside, or while hanging clothes outside on the line in our semi-rural Connecticut backyard. My childhood vocal repertoire included the Mexican song Cielito Lindo (Lovely Sweet One) and Cuba’s Guantanamera (The Woman from
Guantánamo). Wearing our embroidered peasant blouses, my musical middle sister Ann would play Joan Baez songs on her guitar while I sang along, or we’d listen to those songs on the record player as we plotted our future. My mother was American born, of
Spanish descent, and introduced us to the Pan-American world she knew from her own upbringing. Given a sense-memory theatrical exercise today, I can still draw on the sensations of playing dress-up in a handmade skirt of red flannel and green satin, a sequined eagle front and center. If I didn’t fully understand the Mexican-style dress of china poblana at the time, putting it on transported me quickly to Cielito Lindo’s “Ay, yai, yai, yai, Canta y no llores” (Ah, ah, ah, ah, Sing and don't cry).
The significance of my family’s efforts to broaden our knowledge of the world beyond us, and those who live in it, has influenced me throughout my global pursuits of education, business, and the performing arts. Embarking on the Master of Arts in Theatre
1 in Southern California, at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), informed me further. The history of Mexican-Americans in the Western region of the United States was not part of the curriculum I remember from my elementary school in the 1960s. The current environment for the Mexican-American community throughout the United States at this point in the twenty-first century – along with rising intolerance of so many around the world – is a topic I would have eagerly discussed with my late parents. Instead, I am incorporating the memories I have of their teachings – their legacy – to pursue my interests in the performing arts as a tool for teaching empathy and cultural understanding.
Mariachi Girl
Having been introduced to Mariachi Girl in the Seminar in Child Drama at
CSUN, I recognized the play’s possibilities for use in language and cultural education.
Written by Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, with music and lyrics by Héctor Martínez Morales, it includes both English and Spanish dialogue and lyrics. It features Cita, a young girl with Mexican roots who wants to follow her family’s musical heritage by singing mariachi. While that tradition has been restricted to men, she asserts herself within her
Mexican-American family and community, overcoming cultural and gender limitations.
She expresses herself through her talent, while analyzing self-doubt and identity conflict.
She recognizes societal stereotypes, familial pressures, and challenges the idea of
American assimilation.
With the opportunity to join the North American Language and Cultural Assistant
(“Auxiliar”) program through the Ministry of Education in Spain, and the Autonomous
Region of Galicia, I realized that it could be the ideal situation to bring the play and create a teaching tool to implement and teach in the classroom. Based on my participation
2 with LA Opera Education and Community Engagement, I proposed creating a teaching tool as a workbook (the “Workbook”) that was modeled to some extent after the student and teacher guides they use to accompany opera education for school children. Once accepted into the Auxiliar program, assigned to a primary school, and approved to use the play both in the classroom and for this graduate project, the process began to design the
Workbook and establish a timeline for on-site research and completion. That period of time, primarily during the month of October 2018, is referred to as the “research period.”
CSUN’s Research and Graduate Studies found my research “meritorious of funding,”
(Carpenter) and I was awarded funds to support this graduate project during the research period. By accepting that award I am required to present my work during the 2019
CSUNposium. I also received Graduate Research Travel Funding from CSUN Associated
Students to assist me during the research period.
Personal Background and Graduate Project Methodology
While classroom and community education workbooks may be common in elementary schools and in theatre outreach programs, my exposure to them as an aid to teaching in the performing arts was non-existent prior to my involvement with LA Opera
Education and Community Engagement. While I have taught various subjects at the college and university level (with a previously earned Master of Arts in Writing, undergraduate degree in Economics and extensive acting and vocal training), my experience educating elementary/middle school students has been limited to musical theatre and drama classes on an hourly basis, and consulting as Teaching
Artist/Education Coordinator with Theatre of Will. I also volunteered as CSUN Mentor
3 to fifth-graders in the Young Storyteller’s Script-to-Stage program. These occupations were for limited weeks in D.C. and Los Angeles areas.
As a performer, educator training participant, and Opera League volunteer, I spent many months with LA Opera while in Los Angeles, including the time of enrollment in
Seminar in Child Drama. During that class, I analyzed and presented LA Opera’s use of activities, crafts, and colorfully annotated historical information in handout guides. Some of these guides are used during their Saturday Mornings at the Opera program where families engage in activities together before a musical production tailor-made for young opera-goers. Having gained firsthand knowledge of the positive impact of these materials and their implementation encouraged me to pursue creating my own. Their work, available for public use, became a model for this graduate project. I subsequently considered other elements found through research, and academic examples following standards in California and Spain. The design and creation of the Workbook for Mariachi
Girl became my own, and the central, creative component of this graduate project.
Prior to arriving in Spain, preliminary research for the graduate project began with analysis of the play, the creatives, and past productions (including one at the
University of California at Riverside that was part of another student’s directing project).
Additional study included mariachi in America and intentions of the playwright. Once discovered, this led to evaluating historical use of theatre games to teach cultural assimilation versus modern theories of culturally responsive teaching. While preparing and executing research on-site in Spain, tools from Reader´s Theatre, Meisner Technique,
Boal Image Theatre, and Spolin Theatre Games were considered and implemented into the weekly sessions. Examination and application of curriculum standards in the United
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States and Spain, guidelines for Auxiliaries in Galicia, workbooks from LA Opera, worksheets for education used in the United States and Spain, and weekly lessons derived from the play were implemented on-site in Spain, and integrated into the Workbook.
After correspondence with CSUN’s Research and Graduate Studies regarding formatting restrictions in CSUN’s graduate project submission requirements, I determined that their option to attach the Workbook as a supplementary file – instead of as a section in or appendix to this manuscript – would allow greater flexibility with designs and formatting. It is not meant as a ready-to-publish guide. It is a creative rendering of an educational tool that will be used in the classroom in Spain, with additional possibilities in future. In order to provide complete information for anyone reading the manuscript alone, subsequent sections describe ideas for its contents.
This graduate project does not report on characteristics of students participating in the learning process. The Workbook is used as a teaching aid, not an evaluation tool.
This manuscript portion of the graduate project provides aspects of creating and implementing the Workbook, and observations of my own experiences in the classroom.
Classroom Experiences - Personal Reflections and Observations
Once on-site in Cariño, Spain, I had a month to complete the work I intended to use in this graduate project. Feeling welcome to begin, I immediately realized the potential to include not just the fifth-grade class I had intended, but also a fourth grade class whose homeroom teacher was one of my leads, and who welcomed the opportunity.
I explained that the Workbook would include visual, written and oral exercises to assist in the process of teaching language and culture through theatre, and that the process of creating the Workbook as a teaching aid was the essence of this graduate project. The
5 teachers shared with me the kind of worksheets, games, activities, and craft-work they used. Creating the Workbook would incorporate word games, fill in the blanks with vocabulary matched with pictures, drawing, free-writing (English or Spanish), descriptive phrases, among other areas described in later sections. The themes of the play, questions posed to the characters, and shared elements between cultures were shared. While the students may not have understood all of the English I presented from the play, they laughed at Cita playing with her Barbies pretend-arguing, and understood the symbolism of the blonde, buxom Barbie representing a typical American image.
I needed to explain geographical locations, as they pertained to me as an Auxiliar and the various places I’ve live in the United States, and what various locations signify in the play. The concepts of America, North America, and the United States are not always easy to differentiate. Dialogue in the play refers to the family now being “American” so I needed to clarify that while Mexico is also considered part of America, and in fact North
America, the reference here meant that the family was now in the United States and in a different country. Including a map in the Workbook that highlights the path of migration through mariachi became a prompt for further discussion.
The research period included adjustments in order to make up for time lost by the first week’s orientation away from school, school holidays, the school’s own cultural celebration day (celebrating harvest through the chestnut festival) and unexpected administrative occurrences. I could work with time out of two or three class periods a week, as long as it did not interfere with regularly scheduled activities. Since I discovered the first week that my primary responsibility for English conversation was in the
Arts/Crafts class, I determined that creating something do with the play would allow me
6 to satisfy both needs. While I am not required to come up with activities in my role as
Auxiliar – other than language and culture related – I felt that this would be a learning event that could connect the play with required tasks, and learn about theatrical costuming as well. Therefore, I decided the idea of creating individual mariachi moños
(bow ties) could be successful. I decided on the material with assistance at the local fabric store, which is well-stocked with colorful synthetic materials and sequins for costuming during the festivities of Carnaval held the week before the religious period of Lent begins. More details on creating the bow ties are discussed in subsequent sections, and instructions are included in the Workbook.
Working with students on English language dialogue and theatrical techniques became an important aspect over several sessions. The process was inclusive to all students at their own pace, and focused on intent and understanding rather than perfecting language and inflection. If a student understood what he or she was saying, that was preferable to reciting words without meaning. Additional information on this application is found in subsequent sections.
The experience of teaching English to Spanish students in Galicia has been of importance to me on a personal level. My maternal grandfather left Galicia as a boy of fifteen, around 1903, going to Cuba and then Florida where he met my maternal grandmother (of Spanish-Cuban roots). They eventually made their way to New York where they raised a family and died before I was born. They were forward-thinking people, and he gained his education in part by listening to los lectores, the cigar-factory readers who stimulated the minds of those immigrants rolling tobacco leaves. I met his extended family, previously unknown to us in the United States, almost thirty years ago
7 after traveling to his birthplace and encountering them by chance. Now having built strong friendships with these family members in Spain, I am reminded of the sacrifices made not only by those who leave their homeland, but by those who remain. I respect the students I am honored to teach, and recognize the challenges faced by all of us. In addition to the excitement of watching these students expand their English and find interest in the subject, I appreciate the encouragement I received to continue my education. My hope in implementing this project is to imbue the same encouragement, and to inspire respect for others, as well as within themselves, for themselves, as Cita herself recognizes by the end of the play.
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Section 2: Learning through Drama and Theatre
Hull House and Viola Spolin
When theatre educator and formalized improvisation games pioneer Viola Spolin trained with Neva Boyd at the recreational training school Hull House in Chicago in the mid-1920s, she joined what was considered a progressive education movement of the era.
Boyd worked with the American heiress Jane Addams, who created a settlement house and community center in the former Hull mansion at the end of the previous century.
Founded with Christian beliefs to provide housing, social, health and nutrition assistance to people living in extreme poverty, Hull House maintained recreation space for immigrant children living in nearby tenements. Those children, who often did not speak English, were provided a safe environment off the streets and an opportunity to play and socialize among themselves, with guidance from the leadership of wealthy, white, Anglo-Saxon American women. In practice, the games and play-acting exercises were used to assimilate those immigrant children into that particular American culture.
“Despite her deep respect for the cultural diversity of the immigrants she served, and being committed to using Hull House to promote inter-cultural understanding and peace, Addams herself noted that she perceived speedy cultural assimilation as the most effective means of ensuring a recent immigrant’s success in America” (Goodson 6).
Demographic groups were stigmatized within the larger group of immigrants, and as a hierarchy prevailed among them, the leaders of Hull House advanced the efforts of more educated groups rather than encouraging community empathy. For example, prior to Spolin’s arrival, in early 1903, Boyd wrote of a “production in which Greek immigrants performed Sophocles’ Ajax in their native language, along with several other
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Greek plays. Addams recognized the cultural significance of the production, noting that the Greeks living around Hull House ‘often feel that their history and classic background are completely ignored by Americans, and that they are easily confused with the more
[sic] ignorant immigrants from other parts of southeastern Europe’” (Goodson 9).
Spolin, a daughter of Russian immigrants, expanded and created rules for games that Boyd had started to help children learn language and other skills: “socialization, cooperation, and even morality, because all must agree on the rules and abide by them for a game to be any fun. And the act of playing changes the participant. She [Boyd] wrote:
‘Play involves social values, as does no other behavior. The spirit of play develops social adaptability, ethics, mental and emotional control, and imagination’” (Viola Spolin).
Hull House engaged in a combination of the three women’s specialties to influence the children: recreation (Addams), play (Boyd), and recreational play – improvisation (Spolin). While imagination was encouraged, it was the emphasis on aesthetic conformity that prevailed. Boyd would consider the “‘understanding of self and others incidental’” (Goodson 12, 19-20).
Spolin would expand their efforts and engage in “cooperative, non-competitive dramatic activity” that would pursue “‘teaching without over-intellectualizing”’ and stress the importance of “meaningful group work” (Goodson 24). While Addams would emphasize recreation, Spolin would intend to maintain that spirit as much as possible within a structured form. To acknowledge Boyd’s intentions, she would emphasize collaboration without a requiring a specific outcome. Yet the underlying concept was to belong, to share, but to find an acceptable form of behavior and ritual at the end of the
10 session. Exercises establishing position (high/low status) would create an image of place in society.
Spolin did create opportunities to bridge the women’s concepts with her own, and focused on inter-personal relationships rather than the pedagogy of strict dramatic principles. Yet along with the charitable intentions, there appears to have been a lack of tolerance, or respect for human differences. The goal was conformity. Spolin’s keen awareness of the influence of poverty on individuals’ social and creative behavior were reflected in her 1939 personal notes. “There became evident (to me) by my work in settlement houses a waste as fearsome, as terrible as that wrought physically by slums.
This was the great creative waste (of vast numbers of boys and girls.) of men and women.
Poverty, [sic] superstition does not only take its toll in physical life but it also stunts creative growth in the individual so that he indeed becomes the beast in the jungle struggling for survival!” (Goodson 27).
As Spolin’s work continued, she became well known in and outside the theatre world of Chicago, and for her book Theatre Games which contains exercises useful in teaching improvisation. Her son, Paul Sills, carried on her legacy with their Second City troupe (which formed the comedic skit origins of Saturday Night Live). He maintained a commitment to the Italian commedia dell’arte style, originating in a country whose emigres made up a large part of the wave of immigrants discredited and acculturated through Hull House. Yet the identity of Second City remains oblivious to that part of its own roots. Practitioners maintain it is the theater of everyday life— in the “tradition of commedia, the strolling players, the Roman farce, and before that the Greeks of harvest things” (Goodson 45-46).
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Roxanne Schroeder-Arce and Culturally Responsive Teaching
Nearly a hundred years after Viola Spolin began her training at Hull House, the idea of assimilation to one American culture waxed and waned, intercepted in the second half of the century by forced acknowledgment of civil rights. However constrictive the current environment may be politically, an artist’s vision is broader and widens larger with each social challenge faced. Juxtaposed to Hull House’s culturally assimilative teaching is culturally responsive teaching. Mariachi Girl’s playwright Roxanne
Schroeder-Arce wrote about her intentions to apply this to her work. As a university professor in Texas teaching those studying to become theater educators, and in her role as playwright and scholar, she shared her views on her play, and on culturally responsive teaching in an article she wrote for International Journal of Education & the Arts (IJEA) in 2014. Her interest is to serve not only her immediate university community and the
Latinx population of her region in Texas, but also to engage in discussion regarding the production of “plays of color at historically white institutions” (2).
Schroeder-Arce writes about the work of scholar Geneva Gay, an African-
American scholar and professor based in New York who outlined five principles of
Culturally Responsive Teaching. According to Schroeder-Arce, these include:
• Acknowledging the legitimacy of the cultural heritages of different
ethnic groups, both as legacies that affect students’ dispositions, attitudes,
and approaches to learning and as worthy content to be taught in the
formal curriculum.
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• Building bridges of meaningfulness between home and school
experiences as well as between academic abstractions and lived
sociocultural realities.
• Using a wide variety of instructional strategies that are connected to
different learning styles.
• Teaching students to know and praise their own and each other’s cultural
heritages.
• Incorporating multicultural information, resources, and materials in all
the subjects and skills routinely taught in schools (7).
This is an inspiring counterpoint to the institutional approach made to acculturate without respect for historical identity and roots. It is the emphasis of “acknowledging the students in the room. Teachers must adapt both curricula and methods of teaching to include the cultural backgrounds of the students and make connections to different cultures and aspects of society” (7).
Through her play, Schroeder-Arce not only succeeds in presenting a dramatic view into a family dynamic from the perspective of a child, she also manages to have the audience realize the value of a culture that is unique, and also a part of the American story of immigration recognized by most. In the IJEA article Schroeder-Arce analyzed a study guide used in companion to a Texas production of Mariachi Girl. She discussed her reaction to some of its contents, and her subsequent suggestions were implemented in the construction of in-class exercises and final development of my Workbook. For instance, she indicated the usefulness of pictures and bilingual word games. There was a prompt
13 for discovering family heritage, traditions and change, and she encouraged bilingual opportunities throughout the guide.
One of Schroeder-Arce’s discoveries was also apparent in the research classrooms in Cariño. She noted that teachers who brought their students to see the play complemented the study guide with resources to “reach children with different learning styles. They encouraged students to write and draw in response to the play as well as read further about women in mariachis and customs of different cultures. They encouraged students to write in English and/or Spanish” (7). It became clear during the research period in Cariño that the Workbook should include coloring, drawing, photographic images for viewing, along with written portions, verbal opportunities and word games.
For those with laptops, digital exercises would follow.
Implementing this graduate project is evidence that Schroeder-Arce succeeds in her goals to foster understanding under Gay’s tenets, especially as building bridges between “academic abstractions and lived sociocultural realities” (8). She has created a vehicle for teaching empathy along with language and culture. This 21st century approach to societal improvement through cultural inclusivity transcends outdated methods of the founders of Hull House.
Reader’s Theatre
One of the useful methods of working with English language learners is applying
Reader’s Theatre techniques. Reader’s Theatre can be used with straight literature, or with dialogue from a script. While texts may be created especially for it, the objectives are suitable for use with Mariachi Girl in Spain. Carrick writes that it provides a context for purposeful reading and encourages interaction and active response and interpretation
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(209). This is ideal in an English language learning classroom where each student may have a portion of the script and will listen to each classmate while working in pairs for their part. “Dramatic reading of the text provides the reader an opportunity to experience literature and identify with the story characters; therefore, the reader can become a character, interpret how and what the character feels, and understand what the character experiences” (Carrick 212). That interpretation of how the character feels is intrinsic to building empathy for cultural understanding. This idea will reappear in the Workbook as
Cita is illustrated playing with her dolls as part of her internal world that the students can tap into while they learn the dialogue and the themes of the play.
Reader’s Theatre “does not require makeup, sets costumes, props or memorization of lines; only a script is needed. Reading aloud from the script, the readers use their voices, facial expressions, and bodies to interpret the emotions, beliefs, attitudes, and motives of the character” (Carrick 209-10). The role of narrator who provides transitions and elements that would be apparent in product was accomplished in partnership with the in-classroom teacher.
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Section 3: Pedagogy and Practices
California Standards 4th - 5th Grade Language and Performing Arts
In creating a plan to use the play as a teaching tool in the United States as well as
Spain, the California standards for theatre education became a good starting point.
Having used the standards in previous coursework as well as consulting to the Los
Angeles Unified School District as a Teaching Artist and Education Coordinator, the application was familiar. California’s standards include processing, analyzing, and responding to sensory information through language and skills that are unique to theatre.
Students observe their environment and respond, using the elements of theatre. They also
“observe formal and informal works of theatre, film/video, and electronic media and respond, using the vocabulary of theatre” (California 3). The following selections from the standards represent elements that were applicable for use with this project in Spain:
1) Use of the vocabulary of theatre, such as sense memory, script, cue,
monologue, dialogue, protagonist, and antagonist, to describe theatrical
experiences.
2) Identification of the structural elements of plot (exposition, complication,
crisis, climax, and resolution) in a script or theatrical experience.
3) Application of processes and skills in acting, directing, designing, and
script writing to create formal and informal theatre, film/videos, and
electronic media productions and to perform in them. While the class
worked with selections of scenes, they were able to gain an understanding
of many levels of theatrical production through in-class exercises and the
Workbook.
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4) Participation in improvisational activities to explore complex ideas and
universal themes in literature and life.
5) Demonstration of the use of blocking (stage areas, levels, and actor's
position, such as full front, quarter, profile, and full back) in
dramatizations.
6) Collaboration as an actor, director, scriptwriter, or technical artist in
creating formal or informal theatrical performances.
7) Understanding of the historical contributions and cultural dimensions of
theatre by analyzing the role and development of theatre in past and
present cultures throughout the world, noting diversity as it relates to
theatre.
8) Understanding of the role and cultural significance of theatre by creating
appropriate costumes (props, sets) for a cultural celebration. This was
accomplished by studying costuming for the play and the genre of
mariachi, by designing and creating the emblematic mariachi moño (bow
tie), and by designing sets (that included props) on paper.
9) Interpreting how theatre and storytelling forms (past and present) of
various cultural groups may reflect their beliefs and traditions. This was
the key element to the project – imparting empathy.
10) Analyzing ways in which theatre, television, and film play a part in our
daily lives. This was achieved by showing the influence of the genre – for
example, watching an actual mariachi girl perform on America’s Got
Talent; televised interviews with the cast of the Dallas Children’s Theatre
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production of Mariachi Girl; mariachis of both genders in video on the
streets of Los Angeles, and more. This was followed by discussion.
11) Identification of types of early American theatre, such as melodrama and
musical theatre. The students were provided Workbook and in-class
examination of American theatre in addition to the play itself.
12) Students critique and derive meaning from works of theatre, film/video,
electronic media, and theatrical artists on the basis of aesthetic qualities.
13) Develop and apply appropriate criteria for critiquing the work of actors,
directors, writers, and technical artists in theatre, film, and video.
14) Describe devices actors use to convey meaning or intent in commercials
on television.
15) Students apply what they learn in theatre, film/video, and electronic media
across subject areas. They develop competencies and creative skills in
problem solving, communication, and time management that contribute to
lifelong learning and career skills. They also learn about careers in and
related to theatre.
16) Use of theatrical skills to dramatize events and concepts from other
curriculum areas. Cross-curriculum was the essence of this project, since
there was no specific theatre class. In addition to English language, areas
of cross-over included music, Spanish language, arts and crafts, math,
reading, movement, geography, history, social studies.
17) Identification of roles and responsibilities of performing and technical
artists in theatre, film, television, and electronic media. This was
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accomplished while I was a guest speaker during LÓVA, and in
Workbook exercises (California 54-71).
LA Opera
Materials created by LA Opera for their Educators’ Workshops and at their program Saturday Mornings at the Opera follow the California standards for theatre and cross-curriculum education. Having used these materials as a participant in their
Education and Community Engagement programs, they became valuable in the formation of the Workbook. For the Saturday Mornings at the Opera program, new works are commissioned by LA Opera. In the past they have included versions of classical opera addressed to young audiences; they have also been stand-alone topics related to historical events. Take-away study guide/workbooks have included historical facts, explanations of the production, descriptions of characters, and age-appropriate games related to the themes and vocabulary.
The visual impact of the workbooks is important to the overall concept. During
Educator Workshops, in-depth analysis of full length production is provided along with study guide/workbooks for the participants to understand and explain a deeper level of the opera and opera history. Thus, the intent of this project and the Workbook was to follow the model of the LA Opera Education and Community Engagement to education and enlighten not only the research classes in Spain, but also to apply this process for use in the United States upon my return.
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Perspective from Spain
Current Events
December 6, 2018 marked the fortieth anniversary of the referendum outcome to accept the current Constitution of Spain, following almost the same number of years under the Régimen de Franco ([Francisco] Franco regime). The libertad or liberty that unfurled since December 6, 1978 has allowed freedom of expression to increase, while the system of constitutional monarchy and democracy currently in Spain has allowed greater democratic participation of its population. As a member of the European Union,
Spain continues to broaden its role on the world stage, while accepting the internal challenges in a country of individual regions with multiple languages and identities.
In Galicia, the celebration included reflection on particular Articles of the
Constitution. It is made clear in part of Article 27.2 that “Education will aim at the full development of the human personality in respect for the democratic principles of coexistence and fundamental rights and freedoms,” ‘La educación tendrá por objeto el pleno desarrollo de la personalidad humana en el respeto a los principios democráticos de convivencia y a los derencho y libertades fundamentales,’ (my trans.; Montero 14).
Victor Freixanes, President of the Royal Galician Academy that is dedicated to the study of Galician culture and language, found Article 3.3 most personal to him. In part, it states that “The richness of the different linguistic modalities of Spain is a cultural heritage that will be the object of special respect and protection,” ‘La riqueza de las distintas modalidades lingüisticas de España es un patrimonio cultural que será objeto de especial respeto y protección’ (my trans.; 15).
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The value of language, arts and theatre has been recognized as an important part of the transition to freedom. The incorporation of these into the public school curriculum is consistent with European Union standards and Spain’s own desire to allow the freedom of expression to continue. The sub-sections that follow will address the particular guidelines within the European Union, Spain and Galicia, and how my graduate project contributes to meet those guidelines.
In other areas, Spain uses theatre to contribute to the social development of its various regions. The Cross Border Project, for example, operates an international
Summer School of Applied Theatre outside of Valladolid, offering workshops in Spanish and English, with Spoken Word, Drama in Education, and Forum Theatre activities involving local children. Topics include dealing with Alzheimer’s in the family, financial stresses in contemporary life, social pressures in Spain, and even a social drama to promote awareness of violence occurring against women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
However, there are still challenges in the classroom. Despite what he calls recent international focus on “character education,” Juan Luis Fuentes of Universidad
Complutense de Madrid (Complutense University of Madrid) considers this concept has
“weak development” in Spain, based on “educational legislation and the theoretical problems that underlie it” (Fuentes 353).
“For many, the concept of moral education has been considered too close to
indoctrination, and the word virtue has lost its true meaning, in the classical sense,
and is perceived only in its religious dimension, and thus rejected; being
interpreted as a move towards secularisation on the one hand, and modernity,
laicity and democracy, on the other” (Fuentes Virtual Insight).
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In Cariño’s primary school, where religion is still offered but not mandatory, lessons in character development may be handled individually by the classroom teacher.
With the school and my two lead teachers giving me the opportunity to share my perspective while allowing me the flexibility of expressing my point of view through implementation of this graduate project, I see the affects and optimism of an open society.
National and Regional Approaches to English Education
Tiger Team
For English language study in Spain, the use of the Macmillan published, British written Tiger Team workbooks serve as a foundation for teaching grades one through six.
Through this effort, the Spanish government adheres to European Union standards and its own Ministry of Education guidelines. This project lies within the goals of Primary
English Education as it is meant to “help students learn the principles of oral expression and comprehension, reading, writing, calculation, the acquisition of basic notions of culture, and the habit of coexistence as well as the study and work habits, the artistic sense, creativity and affectivity, in order to ensure an integral formation that contributes to the full development of the students' personality, and to prepare them effectively for
Compulsory Secondary Education” (Tiger 5).
Further, the Tiger system acknowledges globalization and recognizes that “one of the main objectives of Education, from the earliest possible age, must be to provide citizens with useful tools to develop competences that enable them to adapt to an increasingly globalized [sic] and interdependent society” (Tiger 5).
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European Union governments emphasize the opportunity for multilingualism, and cross cultural understanding. Spain has maintained their commitment to providing resources for the education of two languages in addition to Castilian. In order to do this,
Spain’s Ministry of Education supports acquisition through formal and informal education. The Auxiliar program provides an adjunct to regular education, and the curriculum receives a social and cultural component with a degree of flexibility in implementation.
In addition to obtaining skills, knowledge and rating abilities, the competencies may be imparted through creative means. Here are the key competencies, and how this project contributes to advancing knowledge:
Competence in linguistic communication in which the individual
interacts through texts in multiple modalities and formats, either
individually or collectively. This is accomplished through in-class
study and practice of the script (alone, in pairs, with fluency
coaching, or with the entire class).
There are two dimensions to this: one related to the knowledge of
the world and one related to the intercultural dimension. Through
work with the play, students engage with each other, the
intercultural representative, the fluent foreign language speakers,
and begin to understand the elements and themes of the play.
The cultural awareness and expression competence underscores the
value of different cultural and artistic endeavors; critically and
respectfully. The goal from this is both a source of enrichment and
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enjoyment, and consideration and value other peoples’ heritage.
This is the essential component of the in-class lessons and creation
of the Workbook. With that accomplishment the project succeeds.
Sean Aita wrote in Scenario of Antonin Artaud’s belief that, “To break through language in order to touch life, is to create or recreate the theatre” (64). Aita’s work with
Theatre in Language Learning (TiLL) combines that with the study of plays he writes and produces in schools to bring enjoyment into language learning. I seek to create a theatrical memory through language every time I walk into the classroom. When students remind me who the characters are and what they are doing based on the previous week’s activity, or I am asked in the hallway when we will be working again on the mariachi moños (bow ties), or I see the students engaged as images of Cita and Danny having truthful conversations with newly learned words, I am confident that barriers are being chipped away even if just by a crack. Then, I know I can pursue this ideal in the U.S.
Challenges to Language Learning – Catalunya (Catalonia)
Like Galicia, Catalonia is an autonomous region with its own language. In 2014
Carla Ulldemolins published a small study about the perception of using drama to teach pre-kindergarten students English in Catalonia, and found that the issue of teachers lacking the background and knowledge of applying theatre techniques in the classroom was generally the reason they did not implement them. At Cariño, efforts are made to include such activities in the pre-kindergarten group. Lack of teacher training seems to be at the core of some of the challenges today. The Auxiliar program can augment what is lacking in this area.
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In a 2017 article in the newspaper El País, “The traditional method of teaching
English isn’t working,” highlighted the challenges of teaching English by traditional means that have has not been effective for the majority of the population. As a result, the regional government there began a program to focus on culture, and the cultural differences found within languages. They de-emphasized grammar lessons in a shift toward emphasizing cultural expressions and differences within separate countries to explain verb tense and vocabulary usage. The pilot program has determined that, “any measure designed to improve the quality of teaching is welcome, but until Spanish language teachers spend time abroad, their ability to teach will be reduced” (Lyne).
While ideally exchanging teachers for intensive language and culture immersion abroad can be a desired choice, bringing native speakers into Spain is the emphasis at this time.
Considering this, and with input from the partner teachers in Cariño, exercises in the
Workbook included phrases used in American English that could provide fluency and grammatical training.
Graduate Project Goals and Cariño CEIP Curriculum
In coordination with the guidelines of the European Union and Spain’s Ministry of Education, Galicia’s participation in the North American Language and Culture
Program is discussed in the following sub-section. The details were not provided to me before being selected for the program and assigned to Cariño. It wasn’t until I arrived and attended the first day’s orientation in Santiago de Compostela that I saw some of the information below (in a slide presentation). Subsequently, I requested clarification on certain issues, and received an online version of the guide. Once I was able to analyze
Galicia’s curriculum goals, and understood that Cariño implemented these through the
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Tiger Team series, I was able to focus aspects of the Workbook on those standards. There is overlap with California standards, and the graduate project already satisfied many of the requests of the program. I have indicated the individual aspects of the varying guidelines that relate to this graduate project.
North American Language and Culture Program in Galicia
The Auxiliar program in Galicia for 2018-2019 is part of EDUlingüe, the Galician
Foreign Language Strategy 2020 designed to stimulate language learning and promote knowledge of other cultures; actions that are included in the educational project of each school. The goal of the autonomous government is that native speakers allow the Galician students to hear, speak, and become immersed in another language naturally.
Within the classroom the expectation is that the students will “expand their knowledge and respect of other cultures, enabling them to have positive and respectful attitudes toward cultural diversity in the world… also understanding and empathy with the culture that you represent” (my trans; Guía.).1
Below are some of the program goals that are met by this project:
Reinforce fundamentally the oral skills of the students in
the foreign language, as a native speaker of the same, and
promote cultural dissemination. For this, try to make his
relationship with the students constant.
Encourage students' motivation and interest in the language
and culture of their country of origin. Promote training
1 The original language guide can be found through the link referenced in the bibliography. 26
initiatives and / or support for the teaching and learning of
languages.
Your presence in the classroom (and in the center) should
be a source of ideas, creativity and new resources.
Perform the functions that the faculty with whom they
collaborate consider appropriate and that are linked to the
Multilingual Program.
Promote the teaching of culture and civilization in their
country of origin.
Bring educational resources, especially authentic material
from their countries of origin (my trans; Guía.).1
In Cariño - Personal Observations and Reflections
Language and Linguistics - Challenges and Solutions
My background as a Spanish language speaker comes from study beginning in middle school through intermediate college level. The Spanish I learned from my mother
– a native English speaker who spoke with her parents partially in Spanish – was useful in performing songs and uttering phrases. Since meeting my extended family in Spain, I have expanded my ability to carry on conversations fluently, and have even taken two graduate courses conducted in Spanish. I have been considered by family, teachers and employers as articulate in my native English language abilities, without a severe regional accent of the United States; generally neutral mid-Atlantic. However, I was unprepared for the challenges of communicating in the school and environs of Cariño.
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Galician language is taught as a secondary language in school, and is frequently used in rural areas. I am familiar with some of the sounds and use them in informal settings with family in Spain, and occasionally include them in my use of Castilian – standard Spanish – which causes confusion or dismay, or even distrust. While Castilian is the main language in the schools, my grammar and accent is not always understood by students, teachers, and people I generally encounter. I can express myself, or puedo defenderme (I can defend myself) as my Galician cousins inform me. While I have spoken Spanish to assist translating in classes until now, I intend to focus on (American)
English as much as possible in the classroom for the duration of my stay.
That brings me to the next discovery, which is that English language education for many I encounter from my generation, including those who teach, has predominantly been British-Cambridge. This means that pronunciation differs, definitions differ, and a translation from British English to American English (and vice versa) is often required.
The third challenge I have encountered is the Spanish that is used in Mariachi
Girl (and other Mexican-American Spanish that I have used) versus the Castilian Spanish that is native here in Cariño. As a result, I created an activity in the Workbook that suggests students identify words that are the same or different among all three. Although
I am a participant in the North American Language and Culture program, I might consider adding another column in the classroom to include British English.
LÓVA In the academic year 2018-2019, Cariño’s elementary school is implementing a program for its fourth graders called LÓVA - La Ópera, un Vehículo de Aprendizaje
(Opera, a Vehicle for Learning). The concept behind LÓVA is that students will take creative, technical and logistical control over every aspect of creating a performance
28 piece throughout the academic year. During the process, as they are guided by teachers, they will learn skills useful in all aspects of life, as well as performance art.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York initiated a similar program in 1983, called
Creating Original Opera and since then, The Kennedy Center has implemented Kids
Create Opera, with professional development seminars led by Mary Ruth McGinn and
Peter Hoyle. It is through McGinn that LÓVA was introduced in Spain, after she worked with teachers in Madrid during a Fulbright opportunity in 2006-2007. Since then, schools have continued to send teachers for training Madrid, inspiring many classrooms each year. Galicia is one of the regions that has recognized its value, and Cariño has a core of practitioners who work with different grade levels each year.
The fourth grade class that is studying Mariachi Girl is also participating in
LÓVA. There has been substantial cross-over and complements between the two opportunities, which indicates the benefits of cross-curriculum study to expand the knowledge of theatre and drama in a school that is focused on interdisciplinary studies.
LÓVA incorporates free-writing after an activity, sharing thoughts openly about feelings, expectations and desires, and formalized exercises to encourage mind-body awareness.
While the students have LÓVA every day, I attend two of the sessions each week.
I have been called up on to present career notes on professional acting, and the pages I created in the Workbook regarding theatre-making will be distributed to all the students.
In one session we were presented with a lesson on creating stage lights from recycled tomato sauce cans. Photos from that demonstration are included in the Workbook and will provide an opportunity for the students to recognize the overlap between Spain and
United States theatre practices and traditions.
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LÓVA also provides an opportunity for students to take on positions of leadership within the group. The students are encouraged to engage in respectful listening and sharing of responsibilities. While the process has months to go, it provides an opportunity to apply skills and discipline for the fourth grade students who are also studying Mariachi
Girl. My role as observer-participant has contributed to my understanding of how the teachers interact with students. It also facilitates relationships and trust among all of us.
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Section 4: Mariachi Girl for use in Language and Cultural Education
A Multicultural, Multilingual and Cross-Discipline Approach
This graduate project succeeds as a multicultural, multilingual and cross- discipline study for the following reasons:
1. It addresses a community within a large culture in a foreign country
that has historical ties to both. Within Spain, the idea of communities
within the larger culture is known, and within Galicia, the concept of
immigration to have a better life - as the play suggests - is understood.
One of the terms from the play used in classroom discussion is otro
lado – being on the other side. If that is a border (even a wall); an
ocean; a socio-economic status; a philosophical distance; whatever it
might be, the idea of even being “the other” on the other side is a
valuable lesson through this graduate project.
2. Words and emotions are tied together. Speaking many languages does
not, by itself, indicate that an individual exhibits empathy or
understanding. The goal of this graduate project to is to have students
understand why something is being said, and what it means to them.
Exercises in the Workbook provide the opportunity for self-reflection
and expression. During the research period, I observed the lead
teachers’ approaches to imparting knowledge, consideration and
creative thought. In whatever language the students are learning, they
will continue to adhere to the same concepts for each one.
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3. I have taught elements of English language, Spanish language, art and
design, drama and comedy, improvisation, movement, and reading
with this graduate project; geography, history, music, American
culture, Mexican-American culture, and even math as they measured
and converted from centimeters to inches. Mariachi Girl has it all.
Play Analysis and Dramaturgy
Ideally, the reader of this graduate project manuscript will also have access to the supplementary file Workbook, as well as the play itself (available via Dramatic
Publishing “DPC”). Understanding that may not be possible, this section provides my description and analysis of the play so that anyone reading this can understand the basis for using the play in Language and Cultural Education. It also serves as reference when reading the supplementary file Workbook if access to the play is not possible.
Mariachi Girl takes place in an American town where a young girl (Cita) with
Mexican roots wants to follow her family’s musical heritage by singing mariachi. While that tradition has been restricted to men, she asserts herself within her Mexican-American family and community, overcoming cultural and gender limitations. She expresses herself through her talent, while analyzing self-doubt and identity conflict. She recognizes societal stereotypes, familial pressures, and challenges the idea of American assimilation.
At the play’s start, Cita is not satisfied with the restrictions put upon her, and feels confused about her value. Her teacher Mrs. Parker encourages her and provides her an historical female mariachi role model, but her father Luis refuses to acquiesce to her desires to join the family tradition. Mariachi participation has been passed down through generations by men. While her brother doesn’t have interest to continue, she is forbidden.
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As the play unfurls, the dramatic questions will include how she can fulfill her desire to become a mariachi, and how she can accept herself, her identity, with confidence in America. Another question will be whether or not her father will respect her role and accept changing traditions. While she may not be mature enough to understand why he doesn’t support her, she is sensitive to her family’s values, and has an awareness of social pressure even at her young age. She finds release from her fears in make-believe, where her dolls can engage in conflict without harm to her. Her brother
Danny warns her, however, that if she doesn’t quit her desires, and fit the norms of their current community, she will inevitably suffer from peer ridicule.
While Danny changes his mind to support her, and her mother Carmen agrees, she seeks her father’s acknowledgment. That will be difficult for Luis. His close friend (and mariachi) José tries to convince him to give her a chance. José also suggests they expand the group to increase their audiences. Luis is appalled by that idea. He refuses to consider modernizing to include an accordion player.
He sings “Un Acordeón” (“An Accordian”) – reminding José that even if living in the United States means everything beforehand is supposed to be erased, he’ll remember what’s correct in his mind. As far as he’s concerned, an accordion won’t change how he feels inside. His customs will remain. Luis is convinced that traditions are made only in the past until he can look inward and realize the spirit of his own father to guide him.
In the events leading from conflict to crisis to climax, Carmen concedes Luis won’t allow Cita to join the mariachis even though Mrs. Parker encourages her. Carmen wants to protect her from disappointment. Luis is threatened by a changing environment.
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In her make-believe world Carmen engages in therapy with imaginary conversations with her dolls – a blonde, stereotypical American Barbie, and darker toned
Mexican doll. Cita is self-conscious and has feelings of inferiority in an America that maintains her looks, her history, her interests do not belong. As the interactions with her dolls continue, she remains conflicted.
Cita’s teacher Mrs. Parker has a surname that does not identify her as Latina, and has a lighter skinned appearance than Cita. Cita is amazed when Mrs. Parker reveals her heritage is Mexican-American. Mrs. Parker inspires Cita to accomplish all she can when she tell her eres especial (you are special) and shows her a book about a female mariachi well-known in history. She sings “No, I’m Not the Same” to let Cita know that even if she looks the part of a typical American, she also felt like she didn’t belong.
Mrs. Parker interjects herself into the family dynamic, creating an ally with
Carmen who then advocates to her husband for Cita’s participation in a mariachi school event. Yet Luis continues to object, citing tradition. Then, in flashback sequence it becomes evident that Luis feels he disappointed his father by not becoming a big, true, mariachi star in the U.S. Danny will try to persuade him that it is now Cita’s chance to continue the dream, inspired by their abuelo (grandfather), and become a mariachi.
Knowing Luis has forbidden her participation, Carmen, Danny and Cita conspire to surprise Luis with her performance at a mariachi school event. Cita’s talent is recognized by Carmen, and José attempts secret rehearsals to avoid discovery by Luis.
Carmen tries again to convince Luis to accept change and encourage Cita’s desire, without success. Carmen brings Cita to perform anyway, to the delight of Mrs. Parker.
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Danny and Luis arrive just as she starts and Luis still refuses to listen. He turns to leave.
Danny stands up for Cita.
The play’s climax occurs when Luis – leaving the auditorium in refusal, stops when he hears Cita through a closed door. He acknowledges her voice and the music that crosses generations and gender, and binds them together. She has already been allowed to perform by her mother, so Cita just needs her father’s respect at this point. She has realized who she is and has found confidence in herself.
As a play for young audiences, and in this graduate project for language and cultural learners, exposition is handled with enough inherent action to maintain attention.
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Section 5: Creating the Workbook for Mariachi Girl
The premise of creating the Workbook is to allow students the opportunity to learn vocabulary, themes and concepts in companion to study of the play; or, by itself, following the period of in-classroom activities. It is a way to deepen understanding of the play even if it is not seen in performance, and to reinforce language and culture. The idea of the Workbook came from experience with LA Opera’s Education and Community
Engagement. Used to assist in the instruction of classical opera, or versions adapted for children, they provide colorful, engaging and informative materials to students and teachers. Whether they see the entire production or not, they are enlightened. Using those workbooks as a model, and finding additional resources once on-site at the school, I built a workbook that would be suited for this project, and could later be amended for bilingual use in a theatre setting, or an American school. For this project, the pages are meant to be shared in class. Some of them are used to generate discussion, others are games or exercises that can be done individually. After final submission, copies of the Workbook will be distributed to the classes participating for their future reference.
Throughout the research period, activities were generated in class that might have included worksheets ahead of time, or resulted in worksheet ideas for completion at the time of the final submission of this graduate project. The Workbook itself is not part of the graduate project manuscript but attached separately as a supplementary file. In the first few weeks of the research period, PowerPoint, videos and music were used to provide background information on the play and playwright, the genre of mariachi, and
American history and geography.
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During each meeting throughout the research period, various aspects of Mariachi
Girl as a language and cultural teaching tool were presented to two classes – one of fourth graders and the other of fifth graders. The fifth graders had individual laptops, so developing a paper Workbook was amended as practical. If the fourth graders might draw on paper, the fifth graders could use a design software.
Elements of Viola Spolin’s Gibberish Theater Game were useful to allow students freedom from dialogue at the beginning of a session. Once they knew the idea behind a scene, they would take on the character assigned and use gibberish with English sounds – not Spanish – to communicate the emotions of the scene with their partner. Following that, they would work on snippets of dialogue with the same partner. I would coach them up close, guiding but not intruding. The goal was not to perform their lines from the scene, but to first understand, and then communicate the words and intent. They were not rushed, and could speak as softly as they wished. If correcting a mispronunciation would have disrupted the language flow, it was delayed until after they finished. These were
Reader’s Theatre techniques, which do not require full stage performance and can assist language and meaning comprehension by allowing the students to use their “voices, facial expressions, and bodies to interpret the emotions, beliefs, attitudes and motives of the character” (Carrick 210).
In addition, my prior study and personal practice in Meisner’s approach to repetition allowed me to guide the students to relaxation in expression while instilling the various ways of saying the same thing. His repetition technique is meant to foster spontaneity in addition to concentration. Once they had said their lines more than once, we continued, and I kept my eyes focused on the student, listening intently to what they
37 were saying, and each time acknowledging how they said it. They began to return the engagement. All of these activities were based on time available, around their regular classroom schedule. Time allowed for this project in each class period varied from a twenty minute portion, to the full fifty minute session. Since space and time were limited, the exercises were chosen for brevity and simplicity. Since the fourth graders are attending LÓVA daily, they are exposed to many kinds of theater games and exercises.
The fifth graders would have had more exposure to English, and the focus became motivating those less interested to allow others to engage in dialogue. As an alternative, two separate activities could take place simultaneously; language skills with dialogue with some, and improvisation with others. If it became tedious for the students to listen to the others go through their lines while they anticipated theirs, they could engage in improvisation exercises or costume design. Initially incorporating them all to create a scene, it became apparent that working in pairs apart from the rest of the group would be more productive. If fifth graders were not ready for considering plays as a literary genre, they would understand themes, and physical engagement would be highly valued. In addition, the costuming aspect held high appeal.
Assigned to the arts/crafts classes, I wanted to come up with something the students could create that would facilitate further understanding. While showing images of the mariachi attire, and explaining significance and symbols, the class indicated their familiarity with some of the elements. I decided that creating the mariachi moño (bow tie) would allow each student to input their individuality on this traditional symbol, possibly experience a transformative moment in wearing it in a tableau, and at least have a takeaway at the end of the study. Since the fourth graders in LÓVA have been creating
38 symbols used by the entire group, an individual design for this project offered an alternative. Each would represent their own band of mariachis. Fifth graders with laptops had the option of designing their patterns with computer software including TuxPaint, an open source program for drawing. The reaction has been positive, although has taken more weeks than anticipated due to school scheduling. It has become an important part of the Workbook and classroom activity.
The town of Cariño is known for its summertime festivals honoring the sea and its local participants in the fishing industry, with all ages participating in costume and dance in celebration. As a result, the concept of creating a design of significance to their customs was welcomed and encouraged. The selection of colors and patterns was up to each individual, and the final product was something they could keep and refer to in future. Unlike the exercises practices in LÓVA, where the group must come to a unified decision on visual symbols (a logo, to begin with) this opportunity allowed individual representation – as if they were setting the tone for their own group. Both experiences would prove positive for growth and development in other areas of study.
The Workbook includes the following sections:
About the Play
This includes a synopsis and description of the characters.
What is Mariachi?
This page provides a definition of the genre, along with illustrations to identify the history and geographic regions and influences over time. In order to assist students in understanding the land mass that makes up America, the difference between countries, and the immigration path of humans and their music, the map is essential.
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Mariachi music has its origins at least back to 18th century Western Mexico. It encompasses instrumentation and vocals, style, movement, attire and terms. It began at the ranches, as entertainment after long days of work and poetry set to music. Mariachis sang of their struggles, desires and dreams. The rancheros sang cowboy songs, or country-western laments as we think of them in the U.S., pining for home, loves lost, and life as they remembered it could be.
When the workers moved to the cities, so did mariachi. Immigration to the United
States from Mexico brought into the urban consciousness, influenced from other genres.
It is essentially country music, with sounds of polka and waltz infused with instrumentation of indigenous Mexican and transplanted African origins. The diaspora of humans from one world region to another, over time, has contributed to its history.
At the bottom of the page is an opportunity for students to think of their own lives, and those of their families. There is also a side box identifying mariachi on the
United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) list of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity which serves as a prompt for discussion. It also suggests that mariachis could not always remain on the ranches, which forced their transience in all-male groups. The reason for that movement opens another opportunity for discussion about life in Mexico under colonialism and into independence.
Make-Believe and Acting
This page has an image of Cita playing with her Barbies, with thought bubbles for their sparring words, internal to her, and a regular dialogue box for her response to voice her agreement with “Mexican Barbie.” With an explanation of the scene and a
40 comparison to her make-believe game with acting, the students will be able to engage in a theatre game derived from Viola Spolin’s Gibberish.
Let’s Talk – More About Mariachi Girl
Cita’s father Luis worked as a carpenter to support his family in the United States, and he played with the Mariachis as a hobby. This is where the students will understand topics in the play like life in the US, immigration, dreams unfulfilled, and respect for elders -- all topics through use of word games with vocabulary and read-out-loud for pronunciation. An image of Cita talking confiding in her brother Danny is included.
Students will have the opportunity to answer what they might do for work, and what they do for fun. The idea that sacrifice can be made for a family can be understood across cultures. Words from the play that might not have special significance but require special attention for Spanish-speaking students are incorporated into articulation practice paragraphs, retelling scenes or other related topics. For example, if the word “make” is pronounced “mah-kay” then the students can highlight words in a paragraph sounding similar to the correct pronunciation, and then practice reading those words out loud in the paragraph. They deepen knowledge of themes, while improving pronunciation. They will have the opportunity to draw themselves at work and play, along with their families, or create short prose or poetry to define these things.
Music and Tradition
These three pages provide illustrations of musical instruments and word matches that are typical of the research group schoolwork. The first of the three is titled “Some
Musical Instruments Used in Mariachi” as it is clear from the play that some instruments are considered traditional and others more modern. There are additional instruments, and
41 multiples of the same that are not included. The students are required to unscramble words and find some images to insert. They use the words in nine sentence completions below the images, and are asked to identify similarities across languages. Discussion is part of each of these worksheets. Vocabulary includes: guitarrón (acoustic bass guitar), violin, vilhuela (smallest stringed instrument), guitar, accordion, maracas, tambourine, and trumpet.
The next page, “Music Traditions,” retells a portion of the script and includes lyrics from the song in Spanish and English. It addresses the resistance Luis has to change, and why he doesn’t want Cita to perform. It provides an opportunity for students to answer these questions for themselves:
“How do you feel about traditions and change?”
“When someone suggests doing something in a new way, do you like to
try that, or do you prefer things to stay the same?”
“What customs and traditions do you have?”
The third page of this section continues with identifying instruments, with a circle around words and match up to a photograph of Luis and Jose having the conversation addressed on the previous page. It also includes a fill in the blank paragraph describing the scene, including words from the play: tradition, traditional, accordion, instruments, and fuller. On the second half of the page the students are asked to imagine themselves as one of the characters in the play (not including Luis). There is a rectangular-shaped grid- lined not space for them to write to the character of Luis about Cita performing with the mariachis, or about the mariachis modernizing. They are to express themselves as if they
42 were the character of their choice. If they choose a member of the mariachis, other than
Jose, they should indicate instrument played and any knowledge they may have of it.
Cita Finds Inspiration
This page has two images of Cita with her teacher, Mrs. Parker. Dialogue includes her question, “Are you white…” and the subsequent explanation and song that makes
Cita realize she isn’t alone. She also becomes inspired by learning of other female mariachis in history. When Cita confided in her teacher that she didn’t feel comfortable in her own skin, Mrs. Parker replied, “eres especial” (you are special). Students are asked:
1) What made Cita feel more confident after speaking with Mrs. Parker?
2) Have you ever had the experience of finding out someone was more like you
than you thought?
They are also asked to write one thing to share about themselves, in a heart shaped space.
English and Spanish Word Search
This section is an English/Spanish Word Search (from the play). This is a typical worksheet exercise in the Spanish classrooms, and also found in the LA Opera materials.
While some words are simple, they provide reinforcement of language and culture. The worksheet provides an opportunity for discussion of meaning and context in the play.
Words chosen are: orgulloso (proud), legacy, indigenous, latina, tradition, costumbres
(customs), American, estrella (star), dinero (money), dreams, mariachi, promises, college, abuelo (grandfather), choices, complicated, Mexican, identidad (identity), gigs, and son
(song). Other words and phrases will be incorporated in other pages and exercises, including Mrs. Parker’s exclamation to Cita to: break a leg/have a good show!
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Making Theatre
This page is the first of five pages about making theatre. It begins with definitions and terms and job titles, some that will be used again in the following four pages. It also includes information about the creatives behind Mariachi Girl. It provides a key word:
Collaboration. As a result of the school’s involvement with LÓVA, it seemed logical to include a look at making theatre happen from a U.S. perspective.
Do you Know These Jobs Onstage and Offstage?
Images of my friends and mentors, with their jobs depicted photographically, provide a personalized lesson for student inquiry. Students are intrigued by seeing people who are identifiable and provide a connection to reality. The pictures show individuals representing these aspects of theatre practice: Stage Management; Choreography; Dance;
Singing; Acting; Lighting; Set Design; Costume and Hair Design. The students are given clues from the pictures to match vocabulary and complete sentences.
Setting the Stage
This page has a background image of a stage set (designed by Prof. Delgadillo).
In the upper left corner is a description of terms the students might illustrate on the page.
They can also add pages on either side to sketch offstage activity, and at bottom, to indicate audience seating and the orchestra pit.
Posters and Playbills
The next two pages include images of two posters for Mariachi Girl productions, an explanation of what goes onto a poster or playbill and an opportunity for the students to design one or the other. It asks for the students to first reflect on the imagery and write what they see before the create their own. For this exercise a miniature is requested, and
44 will especially appeal to those students who generally draw in small scale. If the student prefers to turn the sheet over and draw on the full page, they may do so!
Cita Performs
This includes images and dialogue for the students to read and understand. Cita arrives at the school fiesta ready to perform. Her mother and teacher encourage her, even though Luis doesn’t approve. She sings with the mariachis and Luis still looks away.
Below the images there is separate dialogue from Carmen and Danny explaining to Luis why he should let her perform. Students are asked to practice reading aloud while thinking about the characters saying these words and about Luis receiving them.
Dancers and Movement in Mariachi
This page has the image of a painting by RD Riccoboni, a San Diego based artist
(and also a friend since elementary school). It is impressionistic of folkloric mariachi dancers in San Diego, as the paragraph below it describes. The students are to match the descriptive words or phrases with images on the painting – connect and circle them – and then enter the words to complete the descriptive paragraph below. The teachers in Cariño agreed that this image was ideal to describe colors, movement and objects. Whatever images I could obtain allowed me an opportunity to create a relevant task around them.
Still photographs of a production the play were used throughout the Workbook, with copyright permission by the playwright. My area of expertise is not graphic design; however, the aesthetic objective of the Workbook is to present the content in a manner that can be effectively used in print and on-line in the Cariño classroom, and to provide the overall concepts and content in an engaging manner. In future work, I would be
45 delighted to see a desktop publishing professional transform my design ideas and contents of the Workbook – for a theatre outreach program or school setting.
Mariachi Attire
This section has a coloring pane with traditional rural Mariachis the fourth grade students enjoyed when done as an individual activity. Information included about the attire provides an opportunity for discussion about life in Mexico during and after independence from Spain, and how the emblematic attire is worn in the United States by mariachis. An image from the finale of Mariachi Girl allows students to see attire used by men and women. They are to identify pieces in English or Spanish, then decide how they want to create their own image of modern mariachi, with themselves, or Cita. It is another opportunity to continue open discussion on ties between nations.
Make Your Own Mariachi Moño (Bow Tie)
Students choose their colors from a color wheel and create a pattern or design.
They see how to measure the material, glue or sew, and create their own to keep. A photo or drawing of themselves wearing their creation can be included in the frame displayed.
What Kind of Play Would You Write? What Kind of Son Would You Sing?
The two pages have imagery and will allow students to think about the play itself, how it ends and what they might create if they were writing a play or a song.
The front and back covers include personal emblematic artwork of a young girl, sombrero, and the actress performing as Cita (image provided by the playwright).
Another stunning image of folkloric dancers by RD Riccoboni© is included on the back with his permission. The final line comes from Los Angeles mariachi Richard Miranda.
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As he puts it, “The music of mariachi is in your heart. It comes from your heart. In mariachi music, no matter how you feel, there is a song that will express it. That’s true.”
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Conclusion
As a culminating project following two-and-a-half years of coursework, the process of creating the Workbook, working with students in class, the play and its themes has been a worthwhile endeavor. The potential outcome for me is to bring these accomplishments into professional practice. The outcome for the students is to have received North American language and culture instruction from me as an Auxiliar, using
Mariachi Girl, and to carry that with them into adulthood. Following the research period, and subsequent submission of this graduate project, the implementation of the Workbook continues. The students will complete their mariachi moños (bow ties) during Arts/Crafts classes, and selected students may continue to work on scenes and dialogue from the play. My role as Auxiliar continues through May 2019. Prior to that, in addition to the
CSUNposium (where I have asked to be allowed to video-present), I plan to schedule a video meeting with the playwright and interested students and faculty/staff in Cariño.
Since Roxanne Schroeder-Arce has offered her time to do this, the possibility exists for continued exchange, a discussion of playwriting to including all the LÓVA students, with
Q&A about the play. Since LÓVA includes a separate class of fourth graders not studying Mariachi Girl, I will share pages from the Workbook related to theatre-making with them. I will also present the school with additional copies and a digital version of the Workbook. The Workbook itself may be expanded or reconsidered over time. I have requested a two-year embargo of access to this graduate project should I use it in continuation toward a terminal degree, or should I work toward developing aspects of it for publication. If empathy and understanding can lead to tolerance and acceptance, the experience of creating this graduate project can lead to continued work in that field.
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