Storyteller Olga Loya tells of her experience growing up Mexican American in Los Angeles, trying to choose between the Latino and Anglo cultures, and realizing that she might belong to even more than two cultures and that perhaps there was a way to live with all of them.

This is a perfect lesson plan to use with students while talking about immigration, issues of being bicultural, or about how to use personal stories to address an issue.

A great lesson especially for Language Arts and Social Studies classrooms!

 

Lesson Plan
Download the Nepantla: Between Worlds lesson plan (PDF)

Story Excerpts
The following MP3 tracks are story excerpts for use with the Nepantla: Between Worlds lesson plan. Please note that these excerpts are protected by copyright and are exclusively for educational use.

Story Excerpt #1 -- Nepantla: Between Worlds -- 2:35 minutes

Story Excerpt #2 -- Spanish is Dangerous -- 2:14 minutes

Story Excerpt #3 -- Grandma Talk -- 2:28 minutes

Story Excerpt #4 -- Why Do You Want to Go to College? -- 3:26 minutes

Story Excerpt #5 -- But You Don't Look Mexican -- 3:45 minutes

Story Excerpt #6 -- What Does a Mexican Look Like? - 2:47 minutes

Story Excerpt #7 -- My Own Rhythms -- 1:41 minutes

Story Excerpt #8 -- Mezcla: The Best of Both -- 1:22 minutes

Story Excerpt #9 -- Bridge Between Worlds -- 1:46 minutes

(Need help to download the MP3 Story Excerpts? Click here for directions.)

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About Olga Loya
Storyteller Olga Loya was captivated by the vivid stories her Mexican grandmother and father would tll. Absorbing all of their secrets and following the tendrils of memory that bind people and families, Olga fashioned and invented herself, out of her own substance and imagination, a stirring universe of creation. Growing up in a up in the barrio of East L.A. where family rituals and traditions were the center of her emotional life, the young Latina, performing improvisation as a girl, has mastered the vocabulary of artful storytelling. With her poetic eloquence Olga’s stories are an impassioned quest to keep alive not only the fabric of her family but the larger Latino culture, richly robed in folktales, ancient myths, and history.


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