Five Mini-Lessons on Latino Cooking, Community and Culture

If you’re hungry, stop reading right now.

If you’re not hungry, keep reading … and you will be soon.

To honor Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated in the United States from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, we have compiled five New York Times articles that celebrate Latino people and their cooking with a range of foods across the country.

Here’s the menu:

1. Croquetas
2. Tacos
3. Mexican pizza
4. Barrio bread
5. Buñuelos

To accompany each article, we have designed a basic lesson plan that features a warm-up, discussion questions and a post-reading activity. Teachers might have students choose a lesson to complete or assign them to small groups for a jigsaw. At the beginning, we offer an idea for a warm-up for the whole class and, at the end, some options to extend learning.

In these mini-lessons, students will explore the relationship between food and cultural identity and appreciate how food can both preserve traditions and inspire innovation.

Let’s eat!

Warm-Up

Before jumping into a lesson, invite students to choose one or more of the following questions to discuss as a class or answer on their own for a few minutes:

• Why is food important to culture?

• What role does food play in your family and culture?

Articles and Questions

Now, have students choose, or assign them, one of the following lessons to complete. Note that each article is also available in Spanish.