Teaching Geography Workshop 2: Latin America – Part 1: Guatemala
JIM BINKO:
In this program, we see the powerful connection between geography as a
field of study and some of the teaching processes and techniques that
make geography come alive to students.
In our case study, we focus on Latin America--specifically, the country of
Guatemala. Like so many of its neighbors, Guatemala has a history of
political instability and cultural oppression. It is this turbulent past that
historical geographer George Lovell must study in order to make sense of
Guatemala's present-day struggles. As you watch the case study, keep
our objectives in mind. We want to be able to explain the relationship
between migration and cultural conflict.
This relationship is illustrated in: Standard 4: The Physical and Human
Characteristics of Places and Standard 9: The Characteristics,
Distribution, and Migration of Human Populations on Earth’s
Surface.
Both standards address the changes that occur in a land and its people.
For example, we will see that the indigenous Maya population has, in the
past, experienced collapse, but is now growing very rapidly. At the same
time, farmland has become scarce, forcing people to leave their highland
homes in search of work in the cities.
As you watch the video, look for the factors associated with such
rural to urban migration, as well as transnational migration. And
finally, watch for the tools used by geographers to understand where
people live and why. Later, in our classroom segment, seventh-grade
teacher Randy Hoover focuses on Mexico, another Latin American
country, to help his students answer the inquiry question: Why do people
migrate?
NARRATOR:
In the highlands of Guatemala, weary Maya Indians welcome a truce
following the peace accords of 1996. A victim of the violence was
Magdalena Gonzales, who lives in this house compound with her
surviving grandchildren and their families. The pipes that carry this water
to the village were an innovation brought by her son. He also led efforts
to build a road and a school and a church.
(\speaking local language\)
TRANSLATOR:
Wanting those kinds of things made him suspicious in the eyes of certain
people. It caused rumors to go around that he's only doing that good
work because he's a member of the guerrilla organization.
NARRATOR:
The organization was Catholic Action. His son, Diego, was too young to
remember his father and grandfather when paramilitaries entered his
compound in 1982. They beat, bound and took away first his grandfather
and then his father.
(\speaking local language\)
TRANSLATOR:
I heard a shot, and I knew my son was dead.
NARRATOR:
Ten years later, a human rights group exhumed 12 bodies at this site,
among them, Doña Magdalena's son.
(\Magdalena shouting\)
(\wailing\)
NARRATOR:
Diego, in the center, watched as scientists revealed the crushing blow to
his father's head. Now, 20 years after the murders, Diego has grown up
and moved to Guatemala City. His farm can no longer support him. He
now sells fruit for five dollars a day. Tens of thousands of other Maya
have migrated here, too. Rural-to-urban migration is a key regional
feature in Latin America. Diego's siblings face the same problems.
“Poquito nos tocó a cada uno y por eso que cada uno...”
TRANSLATOR:
Since we each got very little land, each one has to move wherever they
can to support one's family. That is why we are scattered all over the
place.
NARRATOR:
The same forces that push Indians out of the highlands also led to the
violence. What are those forces, and what are the prospects for change?
The future for these children will grow out of Guatemala's troubled past.
For a historical geographer, the past is fertile ground. George Lovell is
researching patterns in both time and space to explain the collapse--and
now the explosion--of Maya population.
After the conquest in the 16th century, the Spaniards had little interest in
highland resources. They saw something in the hills more valuable than
land. It was labor. The Spaniards saved Mayas' souls and forced their
bodies to work silver mines and lowland plantations.
LOVELL:
To supply them with ready pools of labor, Spaniards forced Maya Indians
to build and to live in compact towns like this...
NARRATOR:
And this...and this. The new settlements, called “congregaciones”, were
laid out in classic Spanish-American grids and located in valleys. The
dense urban settlement pattern helped decimate Maya population. The
conquistadors brought from Europe a host of exotic diseases, like
smallpox. The close living quarters and poor sanitation just accelerated
the devastating illness.
Lovell estimates that the Guatemala Maya numbered two million before
the Conquest and fell to 128,000 by 1625. It was part of the largest
population collapse in human history, but when the Spanish Empire itself
collapsed here, many Indians left the congregaciones to return to their
age-old pattern of dispersed rural settlement. Gradually, their numbers,
too, rebounded, to the point where many now fear a dangerous
population explosion. George Lovell wants to know why.
The year 2000, and Doña Magdalena is now 92. With Diego now
working in Guatemala City, she relies on one of her other grandsons,
Paulino, still living in the compound.
George Lovell visits the Gonzales farm to see if growth of their family
provides insights into the larger Maya society. Why did Diego have to
leave? Why can't the land support the whole family? Harvests of corn
have sustained life here for thousands of years. The size of Maya
population was limited largely by the size of the corn harvest. The land
has been good to the Gonzales family. Doña Magdalena now has 24
great-grandchildren. She has just divided the land into separate plots for
her six grandchildren. But are the plots big enough for each family?
“Aquí es... ya empieza el de Diego Ezequiel...”
LOVELL (\translating\): This is the boundary marker between my land, which lies behind me,
here, and over here, in front of me, is my brother Diego's land. You can
see just how narrow the strip of land is.
NARRATOR:
Paulino draws a simple map to show the layout. Doña Magdalena's
husband once farmed five acres. Then it supported 11 people. Now it
has to support over 30. How do they do it?
“Lo más que nos aguanta es hasta agosto...”
TRANSLATOR:
We harvest our corn in January and in a good year, our corn can last all
of the family--all nine of us--until August. If the corn runs out before
August, what that means is we'll just have to start working to get money
to buy the corn earlier.
NARRATOR:
Like millions of other Maya, Paulino has to find other work for a good part
of the year. That's why his brother, Diego, now lives in the city. He
migrates seasonally for temporary employment. But are there really too
many Maya for the land? Maybe the problem is the way the land is used.
George Lovell heads off to study the dominant industry of the highlands.
Traditionally, it is marked by tall trees shading low shrubs like this. This
is a coffee finca. Lovell talks to the workers and asks them how much
they make.
¿cuánto pagan quetzales por diario?
“Eh, por... por día...más o menos,
TRANSLATOR:
Only eight quetzales and 20 cents.
NARRATOR:
Eight quetzales: $1.50 a day, is a meager wage by any standard. It is
common across Guatemala. On coffee plantations like this, Lovell finds
the geographic root of the violence and the migration. By the mid-1960s,
just three percent of Guatemala's farmers controlled two-thirds of the
arable land. At higher elevations, they grow coffee. On the hot coastal
plain, they grow bananas and sugar cane like this. Most are cash crops
for export. Very little money returns to the Maya, who support an
exploding population on the small remaining land. Squalid housing,
impoverishing wages and little land of their own led many Indians to want
to better their situation, and with that desire came conflict. In a new
millennium, the guns are quiet, for now. But the underlying problems
remain. The Maya don't have enough land to support themselves, and
there is little industrial growth to take up the slack. Guatemala's
population will depend on its children, who will soon reach child-bearing
age. Will their culture and economy change to encourage family
planning? Will they have access to birth control? At current rates, the
country's population will now double in just 24 years, compared with 120
years for the U.S. So as geographer George Lovell ponders the outlook
for Doña Magdalena's great-grandchildren, he can only hope for a
change in the balance of people to the land that supports them.
GIL LATZ:
The challenges facing Guatemala, and much of Latin America, are linked
by two important geographic issues: migration and cultural conflict. The
people of Mexico and Central America often migrate. Why is it that they
are compelled to move? For many, the reasons are economic "pull"
factors. Maquiladora plants built near Mexico's border with the U.S.
attract workers from across Mexico. Giant Mexico City is like a magnet
pulling people out of the surrounding countryside.
There are also "push" factors that drive people away from their homes to
other places, such as inadequate food or lack of employment. Another
common "push" factor in Central America is cultural and social conflict-often over land use and ownership--such as we saw in the Guatemala
case study. Geographers create and use maps, pursue on-site field
work and conduct interviews to analyze social, economic and cultural
conflicts, such as those experienced by the Mayan people in Guatemala,
and in the Chiapas region of Mexico. As we look forward, political stability
and economic progress will depend on how governments in this region
address the current inequity in the distribution of land and many other
resources.
SUSAN HARDWICK: In human geography, we look at geographic processes as they occur
around the entire world. When we examine the process of migration, two
things stand out. First, the rural-to-urban migration pattern we see in
Guatemala can be found in nearly every region of the world.
Second, transnational migration--people moving across national
borders--is now occurring at a higher rate than ever before. In South
Asian cities like Delhi, the promise of jobs pulls people in from the
surrounding countryside, creating crushing pressure on the city's
infrastructure. Halfway around the globe in Mexico City, a flood of
migrants from rural parts of Mexico have made this sprawling city one of
the three largest metropolitan areas in the world. In major cities
throughout the developing world, this is a familiar in-migration pattern.
We see a very different pattern when we look at migration of people
across national borders. In the "new" Europe, where people can easily
cross national borders using their standardized EU passport, the ease of
migration has created a shifting sea of ethnic and national identities.
The immigrant author Salman Rushdie recently called the 20th century
the "century of the immigrant." The skyrocketing rate of migration can
seem a daunting challenge. Push factors-- economic, social or political
conditions that push people out of their homes--shed a negative cast on
migration. But we should remember that the pull factors that motivate and
energize migration--job opportunities, political freedom and social
mobility--represent hope for rich and poor migrants alike, and perhaps a
chance to realize their dreams for a better future.
BINKO:
The story of Guatemala is a compelling and especially moving example
of the impact of human settlement, distribution and migration. But other
Latin American nations can provide valuable comparative case studies.
Our teacher, Randy Hoover, chooses to focus on Mexico, a regional
neighbor also dealing with migrating populations.
As his seventh graders organize and analyze their data, notice the
masterful way Randy utilizes inquiry-based teaching to bring his students
to true understanding of push-pull factors and other forces influencing
migration. As you watch, note Randy's use of group investigations to
engage students in developing geographic perspectives. Be thinking
also about how you might apply the inquiry process in your own
classroom.
NARRATOR:
Randy Hoover teaches seventh-grade world geography at DoverSherborn Middle School in Massachusetts. Today his class investigates
Mexico and issues of migration.
HOOVER:
Okay, our basic question that we're researching here is, why do people
migrate? And specifically, we're focusing on Mexico.
NARRATOR:
Randy posts the inquiry process that students will follow. This keeps
them oriented to overall lesson goals.
HOOVER:
So we're going to go into groups and you're going to figure out how to
organize the information that you have. By presenting it to the class,
you're going to be telling us your analysis. What conclusions did you
come to? What patterns did you see? Things like that. And then tonight
we'll follow up by having you basically answer this question, "Why do
people migrate?" in the form of a writing assignment.
Before we go into groups, why don't we just kind of review what we know
to this point.
NARRATOR:
Today's class is the second day of a two-part lesson on Mexico. Now
Randy tosses out a few questions in order to review the information they
acquired yesterday in the research phase. What are some of the reasons
that people migrate? What do we know at this point? People migrate to
the border of Mexico and the United States because of maquiladoras.
HOOVER:
What are maquiladoras? They're factories that are along the border that,
um, manufacture products for the United States. So the answer, then,
they're going to maquiladoras for what reason? To make money and
work and stuff.
The research phase was based on a video clip that we showed from the
series The Power of Place. There was another case study that they also
read about for homework as a follow-up. So watching the video in class
gave them kind of a visual picture of how those people live, gave them a
sense of, you know, why they might migrate. Then reading about it pretty
much prepared them to do what they needed to do in class, which was
organize it and make some conclusions about why people migrate.
Okay, go ahead and pull your desks together.
NARRATOR:
After review, the class breaks into groups. Each team has a slightly
different assignment, answering a single part of the overall question.
Dividing tasks among groups fosters collective learning.
HOOVER:
You're going to provide us kind of a visual, the spatial aspect of the issue,
by creating the map. Other groups might come up and point out things on
it.
NARRATOR:
Slips of paper explain their assignment and keep students focused on
their task.
HOOVER:
You guys are working on, uh, the idea of moving. Why do people move?
What do they experience when they migrate--some of the new challenges
and opportunities?
HOOVER:
It's really important-for seventh graders particularly, I think--to have not
only verbal instructions but also their task written out so they can refer
back to that. Especially when they get in groups, they have a lot of
energy and they like to work together, but they tend to lose focus. So
they can get back to what exactly are we supposed to be doing here?
NARRATOR:
As students work, Randy circulates throughout the room, monitoring their
progress and answering questions.
HOOVER:
A lot of times they won't necessarily call me over, but once I'm there, they
have a lot of questions. And so that tends to help them get focused, and
especially if maybe one kid might not be particularly involved, I can try to
bring him or her in. So, you guys are focusing on the human factors?
What's involved when you move? Have any of you guys moved? How
long ago, Erica?
ERIKA:
In fourth grade.
HOOVER:
In fourth grade? So think about how you felt when you were in a new
place, a new school, meeting new people, and try to kind of tell us a little
bit about how that might be for someone anywhere in the world.
HOOVER:
Tracing a map from the overhead, you know, they don't have to worry
about the exact shape. A lot of times they're more concerned about their
artistic presentation than the content. So any little aids that I can give
them to get them to the content tends to help. And some kids just do an
outstanding job once they have an outline or something to go ahead and
fill in the details, the really important stuff.
HOOVER:
Yeah, that's fine. Don't be too concerned about the exact shapes. We
want to mainly get the regions.
NARRATOR:
The first three geography standards address spatial skills. Map-making
helps students interpret maps, develop mental maps and visualize how
people move through their environment.
HOOVER:
Map work is something that we kind of integrate into the different themes.
A theme like migration, which tends to be a little abstract, you can make it
a little more tangible by pointing out on a map--visually, spatially, get a
sense of, you know, what kind of areas are we talking about? Where are
they moving? To kind of see it.
STUDENT:
It goes along the plateau, this "Chihuahua" thing.
STUDENT:
Yeah, there we go, and it comes back up here.
NARRATOR:
Other students are engaged in creating charts, diagrams and lists.
HOOVER:
How is it changing? Take a look here, Scott. In five years, how did it
change?
SCOTT:
Um, well, it went down.
HOOVER:
It went down, okay. Where do you think those people moved?
(\Scott answers softly\)
STUDENT:
Urban areas?
HOOVER:
Urban areas, right, Josh.
Okay, so that's what you want to kind of emphasize to the class is that
this is going down and that's going up, right? The third step of organizing
the information is the hands-on part, and so, often I'll have them work in
groups, bounce ideas off each other. And then do some sort of way that
they can share that with the class. Another advantage of that is that the
whole class can benefit from different things that were covered by each
group.
HOOVER:
Have a seat back at your original desks. Why don't we start with this
great map that's up here? You three map makers come on up and tell us
what you're showing here with that neat color code and everything. They
usually come from this area down here on the...
STUDENT:
Mesa del Norte. Which is applied to...which covers this whole area. It's
very dry, so it's hard for them to make money. That's basically why they
move up to Monterey and into the United States, so they can make
money and send it back to their families.
HOOVER:
Great, very nice. Why don't you three come up and show your nice chart
there?
STUDENT:
We realized that out of the total population, a lot more people are living in
the urban cities instead of the rural farmland, and as the years go on,
urban areas are getting higher in population and the rural is getting lower.
Because people are moving out of the rural areas to get jobs in the city.
HOOVER:
Okay, great. Nice job. Let's put this up.
STUDENT:
And some of the pull factors of what's pulling them into migrating is that
the maquiladoras is where they get a chance to make bigger wages and
bigger money so that they can send it back to their family. Some of the
push factors are the "hollow core" where there was not very much work.
All they could do was raise goats. Migrate to Mexico City, where it's
Mexico's best job source.
HOOVER:
What types of things do they assemble in those plants?
STUDENT:
Um, Mattel. That's one of the brands.
HOOVER:
What does Mattel make?
STUDENT:
Toys.
HOOVER:
Toys, okay.
STUDENT:
Cars, the, uh, reflector lights.
HOOVER:
Okay, so kind of small plastic things.
STUDENT:
And then the TV, like, tubes.
HOOVER:
Mm-hmm, TVs, computers. If you look at a lot of the products that you
have in your house, it might say "assembled in Mexico."
NARRATOR:
At class's end, Randy gives homework in the form of a writing
assignment. Let's take a look at the writing assignment here.
HOOVER:
This is how we're going to sum all this up. Think about the big picture
now: Overall, why do people migrate? This is a theme that we'll see in
other parts of the world as well. It happens a lot in Latin America. It also
happens in just about every other part of the world. It helps them, I think,
bring it together at the end by some sort of a writing assignment referring
back to the original question. In this case: Why do people migrate? They
went through the steps of thinking about it, researching, organizing it,
analyzing material, and then the written follow-up is the answer--their
answer-- to that question.
HOOVER:
Feel free to bring in your own experience. If you've moved at some point,
what kind of challenges did you face? How did you feel being in a new
place? Feel free to add to it. Do the best you can with that tonight. Thank
you.Nice job today.
BINKO:
There you have the benefits of two sources of content, Guatemala and
Mexico, both rich in geographic perspectives on the human condition.
Our teacher, Randy Hoover, effectively demonstrates how unifying
geographic themes can be extrapolated from similar landscapes. He also
illustrates how the national geography standards--in this case, Standard
4, dealing with the physical and human characteristics of places,
and Standard 9, the characteristics, distribution and migration of
human populations--can inform and guide classroom content.
Note that the lesson requires students to think through issues
systematically and with focused attention on one central inquiry question:
Why do people migrate? We saw students collaborate in groups and
engage in the inquiry process, organizing and analyzing data in order to
answer a geographic question. By creating and working with maps,
Randy's students gain skills with his important tool and develop a better
understanding of the factors associated with migration.