When we first saw the poster above, we immediately thought of the Cultural Feast book club/field trip series that we have been doing this year. When we called, Redwood City Library was quick to respond and offered to do a special field trip for us!
Arriving at the library (appropriately enough, right after their bilingual Spanish/English story hour), they had cleared out a space for us near the dresses and were playing catchy folklorico music.
Armando started us with a list of countries in the Americas and how recently they had gained independence. Maria then read aloud "What Can You Do With a Rebozo?".
When she came to the part where a rebozo can be used as a blindfold when hitting a piñata, she asked if we knew the piñata song. Everyone shook their head, so she promptly played it - though we couldn't follow along, it's definitely catchy.
Armando then introduced the beautiful dresses and the regions they were from - all were privately owned and had been generously loaned out for the display. Though only a small percentage of regions of Mexico were represented, they were all stunning.
The variety of the costumes fascinated us - given a map of Mexico's regions, we could guess at some geographical influences but history has also played a role. The Houston Institute of Culture has an interesting writeup - for example, Jalisco shows Spanish influences because of a longer colonization period, and Nuevo Leon shows German influences from the German immigrants living there and neighboring (now) Texas.
At the end of the session, Armando and Valeria brought out an "Ojo de Dios" craft kit, and taught us how to make one. It is a great craft for all ages - the students brought their own personalities into choosing the yarn and wrapping them. Although it originally represented indigenous beliefs of a god's eye, we can instead see the colors and the central cross as a reminder of God's love for us.
After all that crafting, we were hungry! Librarian Armando had recommended MexCal Taqueria as a personal favorite - it was only five minutes from the library, and has a small parking lot which is handy since that section of Middlefield Rd ("Little Mexico") in Redwood City can be crowded. We didn't get any pictures of the food, but take our word for it, it was delicious!
Menu is a mix of English and Spanish - try something new!
We would like to thank the librarians of Redwood City for sharing their time and putting together a wonderful field trip just for our homeschool group - we are so blessed! Also, we would like to thank Casa Circulo Cultura - they do important work supporting the local Latino community and although the timing didn't work out, they would gladly have hosted a tour for us as well.
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