In Barefoot Heart,
Elva Treviño Hart
uses the
storytelling
tradition of her
family and culture
to recount her
migrant childhood.
Each chapter
begins with a
Mexican dicho
(proverb) that sets
the stage for the
vignette from her
life which follows.


Ten questions, each
student must answer five

http://www.usu.edu/connections/literatureexperie
nce/barefootHeart/ReadingAssignment2009.pdf



Breakfast with the
speaker essay contest
Students appearing
without assignment
Late registrants
http://www.usu.edu/connections/liter
atureexperience/lunch.cfm
Standards for Folklife Education, Pennsylvania
Alliance for Arts Education, 1997, p. 2

We become who we are in large part by our participation in groups in which we share
[family], ethnicity, occupation, age, gender, religion, or other cultural factors.

Folklife traditions are an important basis upon which cultural groups establish and pass
on shared values and specialized knowledge.

By focusing study on such traditions, we may gain a better understanding of how a
particular group of people communicate with each other, what they value, and how they
perceive the world and their role in it.

Folk groups, the groups in which humans spend most of their time, provide access to
commonalities as well as differences, and by studying the folklife of folk groups students
can develop conceptual frameworks within which to examine and reflect on both
differences and commonalities.

USU has a renown folklore program and folklore archives (that includes the Latino/a
Voices Project) that can help with this academic reflection.
A compact, traditional statement passed along in oral tradition in a
fixed form that expresses ethical or philosophical truths; wise
observation about life, the world, or human nature.
•A juventud ociosa, vejez trabajosa. (To leisurely youth, laborious old age.)
•Arriba ya del caballo, hay que aguantar los respingos. (Once mounted on a horse, one
must hang on when he bucks.)
•El mal escribano le echa la culpa a la pluma. (The poor writer places the blame on the
pen.)
•Si quieres el perro, acepta las pulgas. (If you want the dog, accept the fleas.)

Value laden
 Morals
 Values
 Taboos

Context important meaning changes depending
on context:
 A rolling stone gathers
no moss

Pedagogical
 Occupational: Silence is
golden, shut up and get
rich.
 Weather Red sky at night,
sailor's delight;
Red sky in morning,
sailor take warning.
 Family: A stitch in time
saves nine.
 Health: An apple a day
keeps the doctor away.
Ask students why they think Elva Treviño Hart used
dichos to begin each chapter of Barefoot Heart?
Have students to choose a dicho (proverb) from
Barefoot Heart that they relate to.
 ask:
Who might use the proverb—someone in an occupation, parent?
When might it be used?
Why might it be used?
What is taught?
How might proverbial phrases and sayings (or jokes, gestures, body language)
used by people be useful to note and interpret?
 How can paying attention to the folk traditions of others help us?





Oral tradition of passing on culture, history, beliefs of a group from
one generation to the next as a means of explaining the world
around them.
•Story of the day you were born
•Odyssey
•Los Melones

Has a performance /
entertainment aspect
Engages:
 Emotionally
 Mentally



Is a medium for
communicating experience
Represents spectrum of
human condition: good,
bad, and in between

Pedagogical

Teaches place in community
(connections & roles)

Shows right and wrong way to
do things (gambling)

Fairness (or lack thereof)

Belief system outlined
(curandero/as)

Other?
Discuss with students the Treviño families’ use of
storytelling—“remembering.”
Divide students into groups of five.
 Ask students to draw a story from the book that they remember most (this is a
suggestion from Elva)
• In groups, have student share the story they chose and why this story/episode resonates
with them
• As a group, discuss how storytelling is manifested in their lives.
To define the group (story of when you were born or when parents met)
Define roles in the group (think of roles of daughters & sons in the Treviño family)
What is appropriate or inappropriate behavior (story of great grandfather’s gambling
that cost the family fortune)
Who has power; how power is given/taken (story of Kit and horses)
Other
 Discuss how storytelling might/does manifest itself in college life—how to interpret and
use.
“Foodways refers to the whole interrelated system of food
conceptualization and evaluation, procurement, distribution,
preservation, preparation, consumption, and nutrition shared by all
the members of a particular society.”
~ Jay Anderson
•Comfort foods (warm tortillas)
•Holiday foods
•Food customs: protocol, responsibility & aesthetics
•Food taboos: prohibitions against certain foods or combinations of foods

Procurement (how we get food)


• self production (gardening)
•
• hunting
•
•
• foraging
•
• grocery shopping

Food
preparation
Pedagogical
Preservation
•

Food presentation
• home canning
•
• drying
•
• freezing
•
• butchering
• salting
• smoking
• pickling
• storing store bought foods
traditional recipes
preparation techniques/tricks of trade
who does the cooking & where
artistic element
cleanliness / ritual behaviors
•
•
•
dishes—special, everyday
table setting
inside/outside
prayers, toasts, “words”
food handling
Eating style: family, formal, with
hands, etc.
Give every student a warm tortilla, have butter,
salt, sugar, cinnamon available for their use.
Ask
students to recall the Treviño families’ use of tortillas.”
• As a group, discuss how foodways are manifested in our lives.
comfort foods
celebration days/holy days
taboo foods or foodways
good (familiar) smells vs. bad (unfamiliar) smells
 Discuss how foodways might/does manifest itself in college life—and how
being aware of the similarities or differences of our foodways from others
foodways might impact us/them.
How has this year’s literature experience
touched you?