Today we made our way from Veracruz to Xalapa. On the way, we stopped in the small town of Antigua to see the first landing spot of Hernan Cortez, Spanish conquistador in the early 1500s. Once we arrived in Xalapa we visited the Museum of Anthropology.
What did I notice?
Antigua’s unintentional, historical treehouse = We arrived at the port where Hernan Cortez first arrived in Mexico. Soon after Cortez’s arrival, the check-in point for materials and people moved to another site. In this original spot, the trees have remained stronger than the buildings of the port. Parts of the buildings still stand, including window frames to peek through and half walls to climb over. While time has caused the walls to crumble, the trees have grown into and around the building, taking it over. The roots stretch up and out of the ground to hug the deteriorating walls. Glimpses of the choral used to make the original building appear between branches.
The Anthropology Museum - Our afternoon brought us face to face with the great stone Olmec heads which were probably created between the years 300 and 900. The space of the museum is an open floor with artifacts comfortably spaced out in chronological order. The museum stretched to outdoor gardens containing more of the statues. As we walked through the museum, I couldn’t help but think of all of the characters we passed in the stone faces. I’m sure I passed a Bart Simpson look-alike and Fiona of Shrek face.
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| whispering to an Olmec head |
What connections can I make?
Storytelling - I get caught up in thinking about what kind of character the real Hernan Cortez was and who these different stone figures really are. I would love to ask my students to sit in the historical treehouse and write a story about what they think would happen, or have them plop down next to one of the Olmec statues and give a story ot that character.
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