The Life of Julian Castro, by Eight-Year-Old, Carlos Martinez

Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to share with you a cool school packet assignment described below that's great for teachers and is related to a historical person of choice that in this case, features a wonderful  video presentation by eight-year-old, second grader, Carlos Martinez, whose project was on U.S. presidential candidate, Julian Castro.

Carlos met Julian last fall,  took a picture with him and has been stoked ever since.  When the teacher gave him this assignment, he knew immediately who he was going to focus on for his project that requires him to play the role and even dress like him in his video presentation.  

How awesome is that?!  I see the resemblance!  

Check out below what the assignment actually consisted of and listen to "Julian's speech" where he kindly acknowledges none other than Carlos Martinez, "a young man with an open hand, waiting for his turn, to take the baton of opportunity forward."  My eyes are misting up! 😢

Maybe someday, Carlos Martinez will be a U.S. presidential candidate himself!  

You just never know! 🤩   

-Angela Valenzuela

#EthnicStudies #MexicanAmericanStudies #CulturallyRelevantCurriculum

P.S. Here's the email on all of this that I got from his Mom today together with assignment components:

Hi Angela, Carlos did the speech as part of his wax museum project for school that you—especially elementary school teachers (Angela's note: That you can download here.) Carlos attends Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic School in southern California. The teachers mailed a packet home with all of the forms the kids would be going through as they did the research for their assignment like a biography, a map, and a portrait, etc. The steps of the assignment are below:  

• Choose a person from history (living or dead)

• Help your child stay on task in completing the work each day

• Assist in creating the Tri-Fold board (optional) and prepping items to dress up as their person of choice.

• Encourage your child to practice the speech that they will write. (It is written in the first person, as your child is assuming the role).

• Help your child in recording and posting on FlipGrid

Carlos chose Julian as soon as we found out about this assignment in the fall. As part of his research, we even went to see Julian in LA when he had a fundraiser here. I put pictures of his completed assignment below.  

               -Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, MS, MSGIST