Description

Students will learn about Austin printmaker and arts activist, Sam Z. Coronado. Lessons contextualize and connect Coronado’s work to the history of printmaking and Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada. Students will create their own print based on a social/political issue of their choice and compose an artist statement that describes their work. The primary sources presented here are from the Sam Coronado Papers, 1970-2008.

Date Range: 1970-2008
Grade Levels: 9-12
Countries: Mexico & the United States
Course Subjects: Art & Art History studies; Borderland studies; Mexican American & U.S. Latinx studies; Religious studies; U.S. History: 1877-present
Topics: Austin, TX; Texas history; printmaking; art and activism; Chicano/ Latinx activism
Teaching Time Frame: 10, 60 minute lessons

Guiding Questions

  • How has printmaking changed/stayed the same throughout history?
  • How do artists/activists employ art to support their political and social interests?
  • Why is it important to contextualize artists in order to understand their work?

Summative Activities

  1. The final activity for this class is the creation of the students’ own prints and artist statements. Students will create a print based on issues that they feel strongly about.
  2. Students will participate in a group share/critique of finished prints.
  3. Students’ work can be shown publicly.

Relevant Teaching Standards

Lesson 1-5

TEKS Guidelines

  • Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies
    • (c)-(4) – The student understands the causes and impact of the Mexican American civil rights movement from the 1930s to 1975.
    • (c)-(9)-(D) – Analyze the connotations and histories of identity nomenclature relevant to Mexican Americans such as Mexican, Spanish, Hispanic, Latina/o, Chicana/o, illegal, undocumented, Mexican American, American Mexican, or simply American.
    • (c)-(10)-(A) – The student understands the relationship between Mexican American artistic expression and the times during which the art was created. The student is expected to describe how the characteristics and issues of Mexican American history have been reflected in various genres of art, music, film, and literature.
    • (c)-(10)-(C) – Describe the role of artistic expression in mobilizing Mexican Americans and others toward civic participation and action.

C3 Framework

  • History
    • D2.His.3.9-12. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.
    • D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.D2.His.14.9-12. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.
  • Taking Informed Action
    • D4.7.9-12. Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.

Lesson 6-10

TEKS Guidelines

  • Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies
    • (c)-(12)-(C) – Create a written and/or oral presentation on a contemporary issue or topic relevant to Mexican Americans using critical methods of inquiry.
    • (c)-(12)-(D) – Analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions.

C3 Framework

  • Taking Informed Action
    • D4.6.9-12. Use disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses to understand the characteristics and causes of local, regional, and global problems; instances of such problems in multiple contexts; and challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address these problems over time and place.
    • D4.7.9-12. Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.

Downloads

PDF – Unit and lesson plans

PDF – Primary materials

Rights Statement

Creator: Cassie Smith, Doctoral Candidate, Anthropology, University of New Mexico (Fall 2018)
Date: 2019-04-18

This unit is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License (“Public License”). This license lets others share, remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit the creators and license their new creations under the identical terms.

Printmaking of the Past, Present, and Future: The Legacy of Sam Z. Coronado (Unit)