The Hispanic World
• Films: Ballet Folklorico / Zoot Suit / Like Water for Chocolate
• Projects: Choose ONE of the following…
o A. DANCE. If you love dance, take a long, hard look at the Ballet Folklorico film, do a little more research on Amalia Hernandez, and especially her investigations of regional Mexican folklore, cultural traditions and folk tales. What did you find out about how she used these tradition and what it all meant for Mexico and the world of dance? Did you find any interesting web sites? If so, evaluate them and report. Have fun!
o B. FILM. Are movies your thing? OK, here’s a challenge… See if you can find a 1960s-70s Mexican horror film to watch (try YouTube, et al). Then, if you can find Quentin Tarantino’s From Dust to Dawn, his homage to Mexican horror movies. If you get that far, be creative and put together a project that could be part biography, part analysis of this Hispanic genre and how or if it lead to greater things in Mexican cinema…so, you likely will want to read a little bit about that topic, too!
o C. If you have time, check out the book version of Like Water for Chocolate and page through it to see how it compares to the film. Obviously, watch the film, then write up a creative expose about how the culture we see in this family film, either does or does not reflect the Hispanic culture depicted in the film. Have you found any familiar themes in past units from this class that remind you of this plot? Any other cultures that are patriarchic or matriarchic in their way of life??? What’s your opinion?
• Guidelines
o All projects should be submitted as an email attachment in Word.
o Double-spaced text.
o Inserted pictures should be in addition to the required length of at least 750 words.
o In all cases, be creative and try to reflect what you learned from the chapter and films to inform your project. Ask questions: What’s worth knowing about this subject? What’s interesting about this culture? How does this culture reflect the greater world community? How does religious faith influence the culture and its theatre and drama?
