This article analyzes visual art and radio broadcasting as semiotic practices that serve as crucial sites of child and youth participation in Indigenous social movements. Looking specifically at a movement against organized crime, political corruption, and environmental exploitation that emerged in 2011 among the Purépechan people of Cherán,…

This article draws comparisons between young children's material explorations and the national and global politics surrounding the U.S.--Mexico border in order to theorize early childhood art education and art education curricular approaches, practices, and policies. Border theories of fluidity and new materialist notions of becoming are discussed…

Inspired by a beautiful bookmark one of the author's students made for him as a gift, he began a lesson exploring the vibrant bark paintings popular all over Mexico. The majority of his students have Mexican ancestry, so exploring the arts of Mexico is always popular and well received. Amate paintings can also be a great way to introduce the…

The Aztec Sun Stone is a revered Mexican artifact. It is said to be perhaps the most famous symbol of Mexico, besides its flag. It primarily depicts the four great disasters that led to the migration of the Mexica people to modern-day Mexico City. The Aztec Sun Stone also contains pictographs depicting the way the Mexica measured time, and was…

Mexican printer Jose Guadalupe Posada's (1851-1913) numerous prints of "calaveras" gave vast popularity to skeleton figures through his satirical and politically critical renditions of skeletons engaged in daily activities. They are oftentimes represented in festive and playful posturing. Calaveras have now become the most original trait…

"Armadillo Ray," by John Beifuss, is the tale of a young, curious armadillo who wants to know what the moon is. He is joined in his quest by snakes, prairie dogs, sage grouse, and owls. The beauty of the book is its simplicity, illustrations and landscapes, and its potential links to reading, geography, science, and mathematics. In this…

How do underrepresented populations, with little exposure to global media discourse, begin not only to develop a critical stance toward dominant messages in the media, but also to assert their own voices and perspectives in unfamiliar formats? How can a school with a mission to develop leadership skills for members of indigenous populations…

This article examines how 31 triads of 6- to 10-year-old children from 3 cultural backgrounds organized their interactions while folding Origami figures. Triads of children whose families had immigrated to the United States from indigenous heritage regions of Mexico (and whose mothers averaged only 7 grades of schooling) coordinated more often as…

This brief article describes the history, traditions, and food of the Mexican holiday known as Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Day, and explores classroom and studio activities that teachers can do with their students. Teachers are urged to encourage students to explore the topic of the Day of the Dead, comparing it to other traditions and…

This article describes ones classroom's experience integrating a lesson for fourth grade students that involved creating a new relationship between a fairly modern art medium--colored tissue--and an ancient craft. Yarn painting is one of the more popular art forms of the Huichol, an indigenous people from the western Sierra Madre ranges in Mexico.…

The instructional strategies suggested use a work of one of Mexico's most celebrated political history painters, David Siqueiros, to introduce junior high students to formal qualities in portraiture and contemporary Mexican art history. (RM)

High school students enrolled in a Spanish language class heightened their awareness of the Mexican people by studying and discussing Mexican crafts. Working in the style used by the Mexicans, they designed and made their own art products. (RM)

This lesson plan introduces K-grade three students to Mexican Indian architecture. Students will become familiar with the cultural context of the Indian treasure house; discuss the use of wood as the sole building material; compare the treasure house with present day structures; and create miniature treasure houses using wood materials. (GEA)