El blog de la Srta. DeSousa

First of all - Halloween is NOT the Day of the Dead! What do you already know about el Dia de los Muertos? What do you want to know? Can you relate this to any of your own holidays or traditions? When and where is it celebrated? What do they do?  ​​Check out these videos to learn even more about Day of the Dead. What can you recognize in this traditional ofrenda? We will be watching the movie Coco which focuses on this holiday and this   video   in class. Now that you know a little bit more about el Día de los Muertos, what do you notice about the videos? How do they exemplify what happens on this day? Try these   games   to review some of the important terms.       So, what do you think about the holiday and culture? Answer some of the questions I posed earlier in the post. Write your thoughts below!

¿Qué quiere decir el verbo llorar?  ¿Qué quiere decir la palabra llorona? La llorona es una mujer que llora porque sus hijos están muertos. A couple of years ago, the story of la llorona was featured on the NBC series Grimm. The series Grimm is a drama with characters based on Grimms' fairy tales like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel.  This week the show focused on the legend of la llorona, a woman who is forced to roam the Earth looking for her children. This year there is even a new movie coming out about the legend! Here is the trailer. There are several versions of the story which originates in Mexico but generally the story of la llorona is a tragic tale of a woman who drowned her children either to be with the man that she loved, or to punish him, or out of complete desperation. When she reached the gate to the afterlife, she was questioned about where her children were and sent away to find them.  Here is a  video  that explains this and other ve...

What do you think of when you hear the name Christopher Columbus?  So did Columbus really discover America???  Check out this short  video  about the history of Columbus and this  video  explaining the origins of the holiday to learn more.  Christopher Columbus or Cristóbal Cólon as he is known in Spanish is a complicated figure in history and social media is helping to finally explain this history to the United States.  There are currently fifteen cities who no longer celebrate Columbus Day as noted in this  article  and I expect that there will be more cities and states following this trend in the coming years. Here is some more information as well. After watching the videos and talking about the information we read in the online  blog  that we viewed in class, what do you think about Christopher Columbus?  Was he an inspiring founder of the new world or an evil villain who violently conquered the new world?  W...