A traveling exhibition that fits into a suitcase and some percussive pandemonium arrive in time for Latinx-Hispanic Heritage Month.
 

For Spanish-language students across all School divisions as well as Latin American Society members, Latinx-Hispanic Heritage Month began with a special package direct from Latin America. The Latin American Traveling Suitcase is the brainchild of the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies. The suitcase can be borrowed throughout the year and comes packed to the brim with “artifacts” from the region, bringing a bit of Latin America directly to the students.

“I began sharing the Latin American Traveling Suitcase,” says Supervía Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies Silvana Niazi, “because I wanted to find more ways to bring Latin America into the classroom to open students’ understanding of how we can use artifacts as a form of archival evidence to examine topics of interest.”

Last year, the suitcase focused on economic artifacts, like national currencies, varieties of corn, and coffee exports. This fall, the traveling suitcase features jewelry, dolls, handmade ornaments, and other examples of craftsmanship from around the region. Students are able to handle a braided grass treasure box from the Caribbean, a floating house model from Brazil, hand-woven textiles from Mayan indigenous communities in Guatemala, and a carved gourd shaker from Peru. The collection also includes postcards, posters, and books on Latin American art. 

“Students love holding the artifacts and studying them, while making connections to major themes and topics in our History of Latin America class,” says Niazi. “This traveling suitcase also allows students to explore the commodification of art for tourism and the differences between folk art and high art.” Teachers can challenge students to describe what they see in the suitcase using their language skills and have them make connections to key themes—like how the diversity of the art reflects the diversity among Latin America’s peoples and nations. 

“I used the artifacts with the Middle School Latin American Society to engage in discussions in Spanish on the themes of racial, ethnic, religious, and linguistic variations in the region by exploring what the artifacts revealed about resources available, materials, use of masks, and the role of color and figures in post-Colombian objects,” says Niazi. “The kids had fun and didn’t notice we were studying language alongside topics like geo-political sub-regions!”

The celebration of Latinx-Hispanic Heritage Month 2024 continued in the Middle School with a special assembly: Luis Garay’s Percussion World. Garay introduced students to a blend of spicy, undulating South American, Caribbean, and African rhythms—on every piece of percussive instrument imaginable, from snare drums to maracas. Garay also invited students onstage, ultimately squeezing 60 Middle Schoolers onto the Caplin Theater stage, where they played the balafon, djembe, talking drum, congas, bongos, and timbales in roaring unison. Garay and his drums will hit the Upper School in October, while Gabriel Guzmán will take the Lower Schoolers on a journey through the diversity of Mexico’s music and culture using song, games, and movement.