As in mastering a language one has to learn not just the literal meaning of words but also their con

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Persecution and ProtestActive Listening in the
Language Classroom

• As in mastering a language one has to learn
  not just the literal meaning of words but also
  their connotations, and to grasp those one has
  to know the politics and economic systems and
  histories of the place
• Tracy Kidder on Paul Farmer

Arpillera by Violeta Morales in Tapestries of
Hope, Threads of Love The Arpillera Movement in
Chile 1974-1994.
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Teaching human rights through a multi-media
project

• Bringing human rights issues into the foreign
  language class a film based approach
• Contextualizing the films depiction of human
  rights abuses
• Further investigating human rights abuses through
  other cultural expressions
• Desired Outcomes

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Bringing human rights issues into the foreign
language class a film based approach

• Why it is appropriate
• American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
  Languages Standards Community, Connections,
  Culture, Comparisons, Communication
• Wide range of human rights issues that affect
  Latin American culture

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Contextualizing the issues of human rights in the
film

• Analyzing current web sites, students expand
  their knowledge of civil war, immigration and the
  Disappeared in Latin America by examining the
  historical and sociopolitical contexts.

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Further investigating human rights abuses through
other cultural expressions

• Students interpret, analyze and discuss related
  works of art and literature that depict abuses
  and solutions to conflicts in Guatemala,
  Argentina and Chile.

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Desired Outcomes

• Participation in service learning projects on the
  local and international level
• Assimilation of new found knowledge and
  engagement in the political process

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La historia oficial in a first year Spanish
language class.

• http//www2.bc.edu/rusch/ho.html
• Before viewing
• While viewing
• After viewing activities
• The Disappeared in poetry and arpilleras

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Pre-viewing on the Web

• Investigate historical context of movie
• Acquire background on Dirty War in Argentina and
  the human rights abuses in Chile under Pinochets
  dictatorship
• Introduce to the term Disappeared
• Listen to the song Ellas danzan solas (They
  dance alone) by Sting
• Consider different meanings of historia in
  Spanish story versus history

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While Viewing Questions on the web

• Students fill in chart about the movie
  characters social classes and occupations.
• Students recall two critical moments in the film.

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After Viewing

• Students consider the sociopolitical backgrounds
  of the main characters and speculate on their
  actions and motivations.
• Students analyze the form of protest by the
  Madres/Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo.
• Students learn about the former School of the
  Americas (SOA), now renamed the Western
  Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
  (WHISC), and read contrasting post 9-11
  editorials about whether it should be closed.
  Students must then take a position on the issue
  and defend it.
• Students are asked to decide what should be done
  to those who participated in government sponsored
  crimes against humanity.

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After Viewing a selection of students comments

• As explained by Father Roy, the WHISC has, at
  the very least, inadvertently supported terrorism
  and human rights violations in Central and South
  America. In essence it has been a partner in
  generating a conflagration by adding fuel to
  burning embers.
• regardless of WHISCs stated goals, there are
  far too many examples of how the program has been
  manipulated for bad ends. Numerous graduates of
  the program are only the more dangerous due to
  the program
• The officials say that they have closed the SOA
  and opened the WHISC with new goals,
  organizations and tactics. They cite their
  priority as controlling drug trafficking yet only
  8 of students take pertinent courses to that
  goal. The problems in South and Central America
  are not going to be solved by teaching combat
  tactics. Instead, we need to help build up the
  economy and infrastructure to foster a stable
  society.
• The realist in me . . . sees no nonviolent
  substitution for the WHISC as long as there are
  combating military groups in Latin America. Does
  it need heavy reform? YES! Create a curriculum
  that stresses respect for human life. Create an
  ethical code like that of doctors. . .
• to say that perpetrators of human rights
  violations should be pardoned is saying that
  human rights are not worth protecting.

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The Disappeared in poetry and arpilleras

• Examine arpilleras made by Chilean women
• Compare to public protests by women in Chile and
  Argentina
• Consider how a traditional skill is transformed
  into a means of protest
• Discuss the poems Una disculpa and Memorial de
  las locas en la Plaza de Mayo from Absence of
  Shadows by Marjorie Agosín
• Examine the themes of exile and protest
• Discuss connections made in poems between the
  Dirty War, the Civil Wars in Central America and
  the Holocaust

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El Norte in a second year Spanish language class.

• http//www2.bc.edu/rusch/elnorte.html
• Before viewing
• While viewing
• After viewing
• Art and literature Representing civil war,
  immigration, border crossing

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Before viewing activities on the Web

• Define and discuss refugio político, la guerra
  civil guatemalteca, la inmigración in relation to
  the film
• Discuss geography of the area and the cultural
  and ethnic profile of the victims of the
  massacre.
• Discuss possible reasons for seeking refuge in
  the United States and contemplate possible
  difficulties that political refugees (certainly
  Rosa and Enrique from El Norte) might confront
• on reaching the border
• on crossing the border
• on arriving in a United States border town

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While Viewing

• Complete on-line activities
• Comprehension check
• Understanding of language
• Plot/action
• Characters
• Imagery and symbolism

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After Viewing

• Examination of the portrayal of stereotypes in
  film
• Comparison between atrocities committed in a real
  town (Panzos, Guatemala) and those portrayed in
  the film
• Roles of the United States, the Catholic Church,
  Cuba and the Cold War in Guatemalas civil war
• UNHCR (ACNUR) Refugees today around the globe
  legal protection and solutions

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Art and literature Representing civil war,
immigration, border crossing.

• La frontera (mural) by Victor Ochoa
• Alaíde (poem) by Otto Raúl González
• Tres canciones para mi madre (poem) by Julia
  Esquivel

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References

• Student quotations taken from assignments from
  Boston College Elementary Spanish class and are
  used with permission.
• Agosin, Marjorie. An Absence of Shadows.. Trans.
  Celeste Kostopoulos-Cooperman et al. Ferdonia,
  NY White Pines P, 1996.
• Esquivel, Julia. Tres canciones para mi madre.
  Florecerás Guatemala. Mexico Ediciones CUSPA,
  1989. 380.
• González, Otto Raúl. Alaíde (poem), by Las
  armas de la luz. Antología de la poesía
  contemporánea de la América Central. Ed. Alfonso
  Chase. San José Departamento de Ecuménico de
  Investigaciones., 1985. 400-402.
• Kidder, Tracy Mountains Beyond Mountains. New
  York Random House, 2004. 174.
• Ochoa, Victor. La frontera. 1994. August 24,
  2005. lthttp//www.calacapress.com/chicanozauruz/ch
  iczaur-paintings.htmlgt.
• Official Story, the La historia oficial. Dir.
  Luis Puenzo. 1985. Videocassette. Fox Lorber,
  1995.
• Morales, Violeta Where are the? Dead or Alive.
  Tapestries of hope, Threads of Love The
  Arpillera Movement in Chile 1974-1994. By
  Marjorie Agosin. Albuquerque U of New Mexico P,
  1996. 82.
• Norte, el. Dir.Gregory Nava. Arrow, 1983.