They spend a good amount of their day learning and speaking in Spanish, and they also focus on learning about Hispanic culture. Dia de los Muertos is celebrated on November 1 and 2 and, judging from the stories he's been telling and the worksheets he's been bringing home, that's been the main theme of class for the last week or so. And, then last week they took all the Spanish immersion kids, K-5, on a field trip to visit the National Museum of Mexican Art tucked in a neighborhood of Chicago that's known for it's Mexican-American roots.
With a little brother still at home, it's a bit of a dance for me to get away for a whole day. Knowing that, I'll probably only have one school trip this year, but this field trip looked so fun!! So, I cashed in all my favors and tagged along.
It was a big ol' group of kids but, turns out, there were lots of other parents who felt as I did, so we had a fairly good ratio of adults to kids. Still, it was a little crazy to have all those kids wandering the neighborhood, but we did pretty well!
First, we visited a Mexican bakery to pick out a sweet treat:
Wandered the neighborhood a little bit to check out the murals. There were some really amazing ones; despite it being a snowy, windy day, I wished we could have had more time to wander a little bit more:
We ate lunch at one of the many neighborhood Mexican restaurants. It was so yummy! It made me a little nostalgic for my time living in Logan Square in the Hispanic district.. Yummmmm:
Our final stop was at the museum to see their Dia de los Muertos exhibit. We had an awesome tour guide who walked us through and told us about all the displays. It was fascinating. First, she talked about the history and origins of Dia de los Muertos influenced by the Mayan and Aztec traditions:
The next room focused on how the traditions changed with the arrival of the Spanish in South America. The culture shifted their focus slightly with the introduction of Catholicism, but they retained many elements of the original traditions:
There were other, more modern interpretations of old traditions and culture. As I've come to learn more about this tradition, I've really come to love its celebration of life and family connection even beyond death. Some of the imagery may seem a little morbid at first glance, but it's actually a reverence and appreciation for death as just a next step; that is a cool way to look at it:
I had a great day.. Townshend, however, seemed less impressed.
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| the face of a kid excited and enthusiastic about new foods and experiences |
Overall, the kids did great, still, by the end, we were all ready to head home:
It was a cool trip! I'm excited to know that, as they do this every year, I'll likely have a chance to go again.
1 comment:
Sounds like a really fun trip. None of the field trips I went on while all my kids were in school were anywhere near as interesting. We ate at a little restaurant up near the St Paul Minnesota Temple last time we were up there called Catrinas Mexican Restaurant, a little hole in the wall place but really, really good food. Lots of Catrina art decorating the place. I agree. Cool stuff! Judging from the pictures, Townshend had a good time,too.
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