El Mole: una canción para una comparación cultural

The first unit of my Cultura y Civilización unit this semester is called "La Diversidad de la Gastronomía." Every time I do this unit, I change it and try to add new resources. Thanks to Bethanie Drew, I have added an episode Master Chef Jr. Spain. And thanks to Elena López (and myself) I have added the movie Canela, which has been a fabulous way to ease back into Spanish (after a year off for many of these Spanish 4/5 students). I recently used the movie to end the semester in Spanish 1 and I have been adapting it a bit for Cultura y Civilización, but mostly we are using it to talk a lot of Spanish.

And thanks to Jean Rueckert and @palomajulian, I have added the song "El Mole" by Virulo. The song is sung by Virulo, a Cuban singer/humorist, who describes what el mole is. The first video below has him talking about las papilas gustativas (taste buds) of the Cubans and the first time he tried el mole. What a fantastic cultural comparison!

The first part of the activity that I did with students has a partial (edited) transcription of what he says. We did it as a reading activity and then listened to him. Another fantastic cultural comparison was his accent! Students at this level can hear the difference and actually got a kick out of how he dropped many syllables, especially the "s" at the end of words.

Then he goes on to sing the song, which basically lists all the ingredients of el mole. Students listened and filled in the words that they heard. And we have been singing it all week. The chorus "Mete, mete, mételo todo en el molcajete" is super pegajosa. And El Molcajete is the name of the restaurant in the movie Canela, so that is a nice tie in.

Students will have to do a cultural comparison (in the AP style) at the end of this unit and I think many of them will use el mole as the cultural product from a Spanish speaking country.

In the past, I have used another song about el mole, "La Cumbia del Mole," by Lila Downs, but this current song is more of a hit with students.

                     

Unidad Didáctica: La Diversidad de la Gastronomía

el aceite de oliva

el maíz

el asado argentino

las papas

Update 2/15/16 - I have changed this unit a bit by omitting the commercials and adding a movie and a few other songs. Click here to see the resources and a link to the new unit packet.

After having just finished a pretty heavy, somewhat depressing unit about La Narcoviolencia in México. I decided that I need to do something uplifting, light and fun.

So, I took Cristina Zimmerman's lead and decided to do a unit about La Diversidad de la Gastronomía with a focus on Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Spain. (unit packet here) We spent about 3 weeks on the unit.

These are the essential questions for the unit:

1. ¿Cómo se varían / comparan los ingredientes usados en la comida típica de los siguientes países: México, la Argentina, el Perú, y España?
2. ¿Qué impacto tiene la ubicación geográfica en la comida de una cultura/un país?
3. ¿Cuál es la percepción de la comida hispana aquí en los Estados Unidos? ¿Es una percepción correcto o incorrecta?
4. ¿Hay maneras diferentes para promocionar la comida en la televisión de cada país?

The first day we did the Zambombazo activity called Vine Vi Venci: Abecedario de comidas. There is so much culture in those videos! It was a great way to start the unit.

Since the units in my Cultura y Civilización class all have music in them, I decided to use two Lila Downs songs to start the unit. We focused on México to start and used these two songs with the amazing music videos --- lots of culture just in these videos! From the songs and music videos, students explored and learned about a variety of things including: mole, la importancia del maíz, mezcal, Oaxaca, Montealban, los Zapotecas, chocolate, geografía, y una variedad de comidas.

El Palomo del Comalito por Lila Downs (wksht)

La Cumbia del Mole por Lila Downs (wksht)

Before watching the video for La Cumbia del Mole, students watched this video: Mole Michoacano con el Chile Mayor for homework and tried to write down as many ingredients of mole as they could. The video is short, so they had to watch it 3-5 times.

Some of the other authentic resources related to Mexican food that students saw were the following:

• Article and infografía: ¿Cuáles son los alimentos básicos en la dieta de los y las mexicanas? 
• Video: Conoce el mercado de San Juan en la ciudad de México
• Programa y actividad del programa "Delicioso"
• Comerciales para Bodega Aurrera y Comercial Mexicana. (transcripts here)
• Los sitios de Bodega Aurrera y Comercial Mexicana (wksht)

This was the first (basic) assessment of the unit.

After spending six days on Mexico. We switched gears and starting looking at Peruvian food. We started by looking at this infografía: La riqueza de la gastronomía peruana en cifras. Students made a list of the top 5 foods and the top 3 drinks and then made Google Presentations describing the foods. The next day they viewed other classmates' presentations, read the descriptions aloud and said what food it was. Here is an example of one of the presentations:

  

Next, we spent a couple of days talking about Inca Kola using this article and these commercials, and the song in the third one (Lejos de ti):

Inca Kola: Amor de verano 2013 - ¡Beto y Anita! (larga versión)

Inca Kola: Amor de verano 2013 - ¡Beto y Anita!

Lejos de ti - el comercial de Inca Kola

Some other authentic resources related to Peru that students saw were these two infografías:

• La joya de los Andes (la papa)
• Su majestad el cebiche

After Perú, we used this funny commercial to transition from Peru to Argentina. It was a great way to talk about accents and cultural perceptions of different countries.

"El Argentino" McDonalds

Students investigated Argentine food and this is what this slideshow helped guide them after:
                 

Next, we watched these commercials and did this worksheet and this one (from Zambombazo). (along with a few speaking activities related to the commercials).

Jugos Arcor – Adolescente

Jugos Arcor – Nene

Jugos Arcor – Abuelo

Nueva Publicidad Banco Ciudad 2012 - "Pizzería"

Students then investigated Spanish food and this is what this slideshow helped guide them after:

             

We are finishing the unit tomorrow and we will use this commercial and worksheet.

Anuncio de España: Coca-Cola contra el sedentarismo ¿Y si nos levantamos?

Another thing we did during the unit was EAT and DRINK. Students had yerba mate, inca kola, jamón, arroz con frijoles, dulce de leche, olivas, and chocolate con chile.

This is the final assessment for this unit. This was a successful, engaging unit and I think it could be broken up in to 2 or 3 units, particularly the Mexico section!

What are your favorite authentic resources for a food unit? Please share