Los Buses de Guatemala

Guatemala Folk Art buses.

En Guatemala, many buses are decorated according to the bus owner's taste. Colorful and when in service packed with people, groceries, merchandise, and even chickens!

Bellow are a few pictures of actual buses that run between the towns and villages in Guatemala. Answer the following questions try to use sentences when answering. Remember to place your name and to number your answers!

1) De que colores es este autobús?  

2) En tu ciudad hay autobuses como este?

3) Cuantas luces en forma de circulo puedes detectar en el bus?

4) De que color son las luces circulares?

5) Cuantos rectángulos hay en la parrilla del bus?

6) De que colores es este autobus?

Fun Facts! - México

Photograph by: Joel Sartone, National Geographic photographer.

Did you know that each year between the months of October and March millions of monarch butterflies make the long journey between Canada and the U.S. to Mexico?  

Millions of monarch butterflies, mariposas monarcas, make the journey south to Mexico for the winter. There they reproduce in areas that have been designated butterfly sanctuaries. The monarch butterflies travel about 120 kilometers a day for 33 days to reach these sanctuaries in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

 Answer the following questions in Spanish: 

1) Has visto a las mariposas monarcas?   2) Por qué crees que vuelan a México para el invierno?

Click on the image above and print out your own mariposa monarca!

España: Flamenco (Level 1, 2)

Do you like to dance? - ¿Te gusta bailar?

Do you like to Sing? - ¿Te gusta cantar?

In Spain many children learn to sing, dance and even play the guitar when they are little. Watch the video below and see la Macanita sing and dance flamenco. Watch the next video and see Carmelilla sing and dance flamenco music with her familia!

Do you like how Carmelilla and la Macanita sing and dance flamenco music from Spain? - ¿Te gusta el flamenco?

España: Flamenco (Level 3, 4)

Flamenco dancer Belén Maya. Photo by: Gilles Larrain

Flamenco is a type of music and dance that originated in southern Spain in the autonomous region now known as Andalusia. It involves three instruments: 1) the singing voice, 2) guitar playing, and 3) dancing with a type of flamenco clapping sometimes becoming a fourth instrument. It is known for it's strong, melancholic / sad, improvised, and beautiful expression through all three instruments.

Flamenco is known to be an art form influenced by a mixture of cultures including the Gypsies, Moors, Jews, and the native Andalusians. Traditionally flamenco artist did not receive any formal training, instead they grew up listening and watching relatives, friends and neighbors perform. Today most flamenco artists are trained professionally in specialized music and dance programs. 

There have been many famous flamenco dancers and singers including the dancer Carmen Amaya, Belén Maya, the signer Camarón de la Isla, and the guitar player Paco de Lucia, etc. Watch the video bellow to see Carmen Amaya, one of the most famous and most pasionate flamenco dancers perform. As a bonus also watch Marisol a famous Spanish child-star sing and dance flamenco!

1) Te gusta la musica flamenca? 
2) Te gusta como se baila? 
3) Te gustaria aprender flamenco?

 Vocabulary / Vocabulario 

Andalusia - an autonomous region of Spain. It includes the provinces of Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Malaga, Jaén, Granada, and Almería. It is located in the south and is the most populated area of Spain. People from this region are also known as Andalusians.

México - Voladores de Papantla

The Ceremony of the Flyers from Adolfo Davila on Vimeo.

There is a story told by the Totonacas, one of the many indigenous peoples originally from the area we know as Mexico. The story, which has been passed down from generation to generation, tells of a time when there was a great drought that took hold of the land. Because there was no rain there was no water, and because there was no water there was no food. To help bring the rain back and end the drought, five Totonaca young men were sent out to deliver a message to the gods. They left the village and walked through the forest for days looking for the tallest tree they could find. There at the foot of the tree they stayed overnight meditating and asking the tree's spirit to help them in their quest. 

Voladores de Papantla

The next morning they blessed the tree, cut it down and took it back to their village never allowing the trunk to touch the ground until they found the perfect location. When they did, they then set the tree down, stripped it of its leaves and branches, dug a hole to stand it up straight and blessed the site with ritual offerings. 

That same day, the five young men dressed themselves with feathers to resemble birds with the hope of attracting  Xipe Totec's, the rain god's, attention. They then secured themselves to the tall tree trunk with very long vines that tide around their waists and began to climb all the way up to the top of the pole. There they meditated and listened to the fifth young man play the flute and drum. Finally the other four young Totonacas spread out their arms like birds and made their way down slowly. Xipe Totec saw their beautiful dance and brought rain to the land.

Los Voladores de Papantla continue to perform the dance that has been passed on by their ancestors.


Click on the video above to see young voladores preparing and learning from their elders the ways of the Volador. Click on this link to read a story in Spanish called ¡A VOLAR! by Francisco Fernández Illustrated by Myriam Holgado. 

 Vocabulary / Vocabulario 

Papantla - is a city and municipality located in the northern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz. 
Totonac people - an indigenous, native group of people originally from the eastern coast and mountains of Mexico, residing mainly in the Mexican states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo (click on the names of the states to see a map of where they are located). Totonacas speak a language called Totonac.
Volador - means flyer, he who flies.