Rosa Elena has a long history teaching the art of mundillo. Rosa Elena enjoys teaching her craft because she likes to see her students learn to appreciate how from a little thread and a piece of wood, a beautiful pattern can emerge. She also feels it is truly important to preserve and present her culture and will present and demonstrate mundillo whenever the opportunity arises. She wants her students to take pride in what they do and to strive to become, not just a lacemaker, of which there are thousands, but a lacemaker who always tries to make the best work she can with beauty and love.

Whether teaching in New York City or in Puerto Rico, her students learn in the same manner-starting with basic stitches and then learning more sophisticated stitches-because everyone must "learn to crawl before they can walk." She is currently a professor at Boricua College in Brooklyn, but through an apprenticeship grant funded by the New York State Council on the Arts Apprenticeship Program she continues to work with apprentices in Manhattan.

Below are some classroom activities that draw on mundillo and Rosa Elena's experiences.

Social Studies | Visual Art | Folklore | Math | Science

Social Studies

Fashion Statement
In a sidebar on the "Lace and Lacemaking" page, is a profile of Puerto Rican feminist and labor activist Luisa Capetillo. Although she led an intense political life, she is best known for being the first women to wear pants in Puerto Rico.

Although fashion is often dismissed as a frivolity, it is in fact an extremely important component of societies. It is recognized as a powerful marker of group identity. Fashion includes clothing, hairstyles, accessories, jewelry, body art and concepts of beauty. What individuals wear communicates information about a range of things including occupation, social rank, gender, sexual availability, locality, class, and group affiliation. Although as readers we often misinterpret other people's fashion statements, most of us tend to categorize people according to personal and/or socially proscribed definitions of who should be wearing what when.

Exercise:
Engage students in a dialogue about fashion. What are the terms they use to categorize people according to the way they dress? What do you think of school uniforms. What are the fashion trends of you and your classmates/friends. Does what you wear express your personal philosophy, what you think or believe. Your creativity. Do you have a choice in what you wear? How do you express yourself?

Make a list of the different styles and an associated interpretation of what you think they mean. Then interview people who you think fit that style and ask them what they feel or what they want to communicate when they wear that particular outfit or style. Return to your class and have a sharing session. Question your assumptions were they right or wrong? What did you learn from interviewing people.

Online Resources:
Fashion-Era.com
http://www.fashion-era.com/sociology_semiotics.htm#What%20Is%20Fashion?

About.com: Women's History
http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/fashion/

Written Resources:
Fashion, Culture and Identity by Fred Davis
Professor Davis discusses several intriguing theories about fashion's social and psychological significance in modern culture. What makes clothes fashion; how fashions evolve; how fashion choices express social status, gender identity, sexuality, and conformity; and how fashion is (or is not) accepted are all discussed, Davis having reviewed over 200 sources of writings by social scientists and fashion students.

Where'd You Get Those: New York City's Sneaker Culture 1960-1987 by Bobbito Garcia
The first of it's kind, the lavishly illustrated and remarkably comprehensive, Where'd You Get Those?, is an insider's account that traces New York City sneaker culture back to its earliest days. Describing how a small and dedicated group of sneaker consumers in the 70s and early 80s proved instrumental in establishing current corporate giants like Nike and Adidas, aficionado Bobbito Garcia writes with the exactitude and affection that only a true believer could bring. While chronicling the rise of sneakers through the lean years of the 60s, the bulk of the book examines sneakers released between the golden years of 1970-1987. Information-packed entries for each model include all of the color combinations available, nicknames of particular models, any relevant athlete endorsement, and (often hilarious) running commentary and stories from a rogues' gallery of fanatics who weigh in on the pros and cons of each sneaker.

Dialogue prompts:

What are the terms used to categorize people according to the way they dress?
What are some popular styles among students?
Do clothing and fashion express their inner self, creativity, or beliefs?
What does clothing say about gender, social status, locale, occupation, conformity, cliques?
How do finances influence style choices?
How much choice do they have in what they wear?
In what other ways do they express themselves?
What influence do they think mass media have on young people's clothing?
Where do they see lace on clothing?
Do they design, make, or modify clothes? Don't forget shoes!
Find interview release forms and tips, see Unit II of Louisiana Voices, www.louisianavoices.org.

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AFRO-PUERTO RICANS
The folk art of mundillo traces its history to Spain and Europe yet there are other Puerto Rican folk traditions that have their origins in Africa-where many Puerto Ricans claim ancestry.

In her article, "The Puerto Rican Vejigante: The Importance of Teaching Art in its Social and Cultural Context," Patty Bode, a middle school art teacher in Amherst, Massachusetts compared the vejigante masks traditions in Ponce (a town linked to the European maskmaking traditions) to masks from Loíza Aldea, whose population is predominantly Afro-Puerto Rican. "The mask makers in the town of Loíza Aldea…carve the masks from coconut shells, a style derived directly from African traditions. We compared these coconut shell masks to the papier mâché masks in Ponce which are linked to the European tradition, and usually painted with chromatic acrylic paints. The comparisons of the towns, the demographics of their populations, and their styles of mask reveal some of the social context of art making, and illustrate Puerto Rico's history of race and class stratification. We extended our research about the town of Loíza to learn that this community has maintained African traditions over the years in many aspects of life such as cooking, language, and religion. This leads us into a discussion of race, and heightens awareness of the multiracial heritage of Puerto Rico." see Patty's website for more information on her lesson: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/17_01/Puer171.shtml

Exercise:
Another folkloric tradition that has both African and European dimensions is the call and response drum and dancing called bomba y plena. Although the distinctions aren't so clear, bomba is generally thought of to be more African and Plena more European. Read the history of bomba y plena and lead your students in a discussion of race and the multiracial heritage of Puerto Rico.

Bomba represents the strong African influence in Puerto Rico. Bomba is a music, rhythm and dance that was brought by West African slaves to the island of Puerto Rico. Bomba is originally played on "Barriles" or barrels of rum with goat skin placed and stretched over the drum. There are many different patterns of Bomba. The most popular one which has been adopted by many orchestras is sicá. Other patterns are yubá, cuembé, and Bomba Holandes. Many of the sources in which I have read claim Loiza Aldea as the place where Bomba took its form, but there are other styles of Bomba which come from other areas of the island such as Santurce and Mayaquez.

Plena which is another form of folkloric music of Puerto Rico is also of African origin but has more North-African/Arab influences in it. Plena was brought to Ponce (the second largest city of Puerto Rico located on the southern tip of the island, often referred to as "La Perla del Sur" or The Pearl of the South) by blacks (also known as "cocolos") who migrated north from the english speaking islands south of Puerto Rico. This music is originally played on "panderos" which are similar to tambourines without the jingles. As to the origins of the panderos it is said to have been brought by the Spanish who in turn got the instrument from the Moors (Muslims of mixed North-African and Arab blood) who ruled Spain for 800 years. Plena is a rhythm that is clearly African and very similar to Calypso, Soca and Dancehall music from Trinidad and Jamaica.

Until 1953, Plena and Bomba were virtually unknown outside of the island of Puerto Rico when a man by the name of Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera started the orchestra that would be known for introducing Bomba and Plena to the world. What Rafael Cortijo did with his orchestra was modernize these Puerto Rican folkloric rhythms with piano, bass, saxophones, trumpets, and other percussion instruments of Cuban origin such as timbales, bongos, and replacing the typical barriles with congas. —http://www.geocities.com/tumbabongo/BOMBAPLENA.html

Online Resources:
Center for Black Music Research http://www.cbmr.org/styles/bomba.htm

Video Resources:
Bomba: Dancing the Drum, Ashley James and Roberta Singer
BOMBA, DANCING THE DRUM, is an infectious tribute to the legendary Cepeda family, known as the "patriarch family" of bomba, Puerto Rico's classic African-rooted music and dance. For nearly a century "la familia Cepeda" has been in the forefront of the struggle to keep the bomba tradition alive in Puerto Rico. Don Rafael Cepeda, the 86-year old patriarch of the family, learned from his grandfather and has passed it on to each of his 13 children who, in turn, are passing it on to their children and grandchildren.
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TOBACCO ROLLERS
When Puerto Ricans migrated to the United States mainland, they often took jobs hand rolling cigars, an important industry in New York City that employed thousands of workers of many nationalities. Today the craft is nearly forgotten.

Exercise: View "The Last of the New York Cigar Rollers," a film by Karen Kramer and discuss how and why the craft has become nearly obsolete. The film documents three of NYC's cigar rollers who demonstrate and explain the step-by-step process of making the cigar by hand, and the history behind their dying art. What is the importance of documentary films? What types of documentation exist? What are the audiences and strengths for each type? Have students take one form of documentary and conduct a short piece on something of meaning in their lives. Students may also research the contributions of urban documentarian Jacob A Riis, best known for his pioneering work in photojournalism and bringing the greater public to an awareness of the deplorable conditions in tenement housing. (www.mncy.org/Reserach/BAHS/feb01a.htm)

[The film is available from First Run Icarus films, 21 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 718/488-8900, 13min color, 1990.]
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"Cigars were hand-rolled at a rate of $3.75 per thousand in New York tenements in the late nineteenth century. On February 27th, 1883, the first practical cigar-rolling machine was patented. It was invented by Oscar Hammerstein (1846-1919), an immigrant who made a fortune from his invention and became an opera impresario. Now he is perhaps best known as the grandfather of the lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II." (www.mcny.org/Reserach/BAHS/feb01a.htm)

Exercise: What were the positive and negative social implications of technology and automation in cigar rolling? Now that we live in a mostly automated world, and one increasingly built upon Internet technology, have students engage in speculation and dialogue on the positive and negative implications of the Internet.

Online Resources:
Article on the development of Manhattan's Chinatown around industries such as tobacco rolling, needle trades, and hand laundries, http://www.ny.com/articles/chinatown.html

Visual Art
Because painters include cultural and personal symbols in their portraits, they can be read for cultural information. Look closely at the symbols and colors included and omitted from Rembrandt's painting, Portrait of a Woman. What cultural statements can you infer from each photo? What do you see? (encourage students to point with their words). Have students historicize their comments by researching the time period in which it was painted (1634, Holland). Have students create a self portrait of themselves—either through words (an essay or poem), collage, painting or drawing, a dance phrase, or original music. Their self-portrait must include symbols that can show the viewer his or her values, and role in life or perspective on life.

Folklore
Rosa Elena said she never made lace alone as a girl, it was always a group activity. What activities are more fun for students to do as a group? Ask them to list and compare and contrast activities they do in groups and alone.
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Explore Rosa Elena's decision not to sell her lace. What is something so valuable to students that it has no price?

(Ethno)Mathematics

Patterns, ones that tejadores like Rosa Elena use and ones that exist in nature, are all studied by mathematicians. There are several unexpected places to find patterns—in a slice of fruit, on a fern frond, and on a girl's braided hair. Math educator Dr. Gloris Gilmer has spent a lot of time thinking about the ways patterns are used by people in their daily lives. She is particularly interested in the creative and highly mathematical ways in which African and African-American women braid their hair. The type of applied mathematics Dr. Gilmer is involved in is called ethnomathematics.

Exercise: Have your students spend 20 minutes looking for patterns in their everyday lives. Have them sketch the pattern or bring the object from home. Have them describe the relationship between the angles, and repetitions mathematically and then discuss their social function. Alternately, bring in a half dozen fruits, cut them open and, as a class, document and then compare the different types of patterns revealed in each fruit's cross-section.
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The patterns that are used in lacemaking are directly related to geometry, a branch of mathematics that deals with the measurements, properties, and relationships of points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids.

Exercise: Ask your students to research a mathematician who has made a contribution to geometry. Write a short biography of the mathematician and summarize his or her contributions to geometry. Alternately, you can have your students research the applied uses of geometry (i.e. in professions such as interior design and architecture).

Online Resources:
Ethnomathematics and African-American hairstyle patterns: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/gilmer-gloria_HAIRSTYLES.html

History of Geometry:
http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Geom/his.html

"A Short International History of Geometry and Mathematicians who Contributed to its Development" http://geometryalgorithms.com/history.htm

Science

Exercise: Find answers to these questions
Why do spiders spin webs?
how does a Bolas spider trap its prey?
Do all spiders have fangs? Do all have poison glands?
What are the six kinds of spiders in North American that can hurt people?
How are spiders helpful to people?
Some types of spiders can do amazing things. Record five interesting facts about spiders at "Interesting Spider Facts."

Online Resources:
How Spider Webs are Made: http://www.nides.bc.ca/Assignments/Insects/Spiderwebs.htm
Australian Museum online: http://www.amonline.net.au/spiders/toolkit/silk/types.htm
Worldwide (spider) webs: http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/conmag/1996/decoi/1.html
Wild web-like lace designs: http://lace.lacefairy.com/ID/PolkaWebs.html

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The araña stitch is the spider stitch in mundillo and is created through a a series of twisting and knotting stitches. It is the last stitch a beginner learns. Compare the work of a tejadora to that of a spider. What is the purpose of tejadora's work? What is the purpose of the spiders work? Who or what is involved in completed work? How long does it take each to create their work? Do both have the same learning curve? What is the relationship between aesthetic and function?

araña stitch

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Queens Anne's Lace
Named after Queen Anne of England, this prolific wildflower grows in fields and beside roads almost everywhere in the U.S. It is usually white, but can be pink. Tiny clusters make up the flower head, and the foliage is also lacy. Nicknames are "Wild Carrot," because of its roots are shaped like a carrot and smell like carrots, and "Chigger Flower," because chiggers (tiny insects related to spiders and ticks) live in the field grasses where the flower grows.

Nature, with its multitude of shapes and colors, offers endless inspiration to artists. Natural materials, such as clay, silk, and pigments are also processed and used by artists to create work. Interview your art teacher, or call your state arts council and ask for a list of visiting arts educators, about the role nature plays in their artwork.