Sneak Peek: How to plan a Cinco de Mayo event at your school that promotes school pride, cultural awareness, student leadership and collaboration.
As educators, sometimes we get the chance to make a lasting impact, even outside the walls of the classroom. When students look back at their educational experiences, oftentimes it’s the big events that linger in their memory, especially those that directly involved them in the planning.
Cultural connection is at the heart of a heritage Spanish class and learning by doing is the philosophy behind the Linaje and Ascendencia curriculums.
Cinco de Mayo can be a perfect opportunity for our Latino students to rally together around planning a school event that celebrates their culture and showcases Latino pride in the wider school community. This holiday celebrates the Latino culture and their contributions to life in the United States. While Cinco de Mayo is sometimes abused by people who are just looking for a chance to party (same as it happens with St. Patrick’s Day) it is still a special day for chicanos to celebrate their roots and what it means to be Mexican American. For those outside the Mexican or Latino heritage, it’s an opportunity to learn and appreciate someone else’s culture in a meaningful way.
Have you ever considered hosting a Cinco de Mayo community event? The Latino Student Group at my former school organized a beautiful event that brought the whole community together, and even showcased local Latino businesses. Want to learn how to pull off an event like that? Here’s how!
Make it Student-Led
The best way to create leaders within your student body is to give them the chance to step into the role of organizers. Now, I know it may seem scary to offer an event that will be open to the public and not be in total control of it, but I think you’ll find that when we raise the expectations, students meet them! I was so impressed with how much of the responsibility for planning this large event was shouldered by high school students.
Your job will be to lay out the tasks that need to be done, and then make sure the students know what they will be in charge of. Consider partnering with other teachers who may be interested in seeing this type of event happen. It would be perfect for a Spanish Club, a Latino group, or even a heritage Spanish class to take on. When students see their hard work come to life it is all worth it.
Connect to the Community
Have students contact local Latino vendors and dance groups to see who may be interested in showcasing their dances and selling their merchandise. My former school that ran this event had around 50 vendors lining the hallways. They even had a food truck!
Decide if you want to use this event as a fundraising opportunity (first check with your administration to see if that is a possibility). You could charge a small fee for businesses to have their booth at the event. After all, it’s great exposure for them. This money could even be used to pay for the dance groups who likely would otherwise be volunteering their time. Don’t forget about students who may be involved in cultural dance groups, they can perform as well!
Other Optional Activities
It’s up to you how far you want to take things. Perhaps the first year you do it, you only focus on group dance performances, a food truck, and Latino business booths. If you want to take the event a step further, you could also invite musical groups to perform. It can be another great way to get community members interested in the event, and just create a great atmosphere for inbetween the dance groups or while people are shopping and eating. Typically bands are paid for performances, but you may have success in asking for them to volunteer for an event like this.
Interactive workshops could be led by students or experts in the community. Ideas include a papel picado station, piñata making, Alebrije coloring, or Huichol yarn art. Supplies will need to be purchased or donated, so keep that in mind. You may also want to consider putting out some form of sign-up sheets so you can plan for how many participants may be at each station, otherwise just run the workshop until supplies run out.
The student body can become more involved if you add things like an art contest, or an essay competition about aspects of Mexican culture. Some ideas for the art contest could be mural-inspired art like Diego Rivera did, or Frida Kahlo-inspired self-portraits. Be sure to give students enough advance notice of the event for them to decide if they want to participate and to create their entries. Determine who will judge and how the winners will be announced.
A low-prep addition could be to invite a guest speaker to share about the history and importance of Cinco de Mayo, or assign groups of students the task of making poster boards/displays with historical highlights that could be displayed around the school. You could choose to incentivize attendance for the community event by tying in to a standard/assignment in your class. By giving students different options of how to participate you’ll likely have higher engagement. Some students may not have the option or ability to get back to campus after the school day has ended.
Ideas on how students can show participation:
- Be a part of the planning crew prior to the event that contacts vendors/speakers/dancers/food trucks etc.
- Help set up/tear down the day of the event
- Be an MC to introduce the performers
- Enter the art or essay contest
- Create a poster board with accurate information to display at the event
- Lead, or help run one of the interactive stations
- Perform with a dance group or musical group (if they are a part of one)
- Write a short reflection of what the event meant to them
- Act as an event photographer (seek permission to take photographs prior) and share images with the coordinating group or teachers so they can make a slideshow to share with any student who couldn’t attend
- Promote the event via social media channels, posters, or email communication to parents
Organization and Supervision
It’s likely that this event will be taking place after school hours. Ensure administration is on board and decide how it will be supervised. If your school typically hosts events after the school day, you may have a community education office that needs to give approval for use of the spaces that vendors or performers will be using. Several teachers or adult volunteers will need to be enlisted to direct the vendors, dancers and musicians. If you’ve partnered with a Latino community group, that can be another option for help with coordination to ensure a smooth-running event. Make sure to get confirmation from groups who said they can perform and assign them a timeslot.
Promote
Use social media, the school website and local media outlets to spread the information about the event. You can also add them to community sites or event pages for more visibility. Be prepared for a large (or small turnout)! Whatever happens, students will have learned all about what it takes to run an event like this, and they’ll hopefully have great memories of the actual experience.
The goal is to educate students and the community on the history of Cinco de Mayo, celebrate Mexican heritage in a way that encourages respect for cultural diversity and cross-cultural learning, and create an opportunity to bring local businesses together for a common goal is at the heart of hosting an event like this. Students will greatly benefit by directly tying their learning to a real-world experience.
Final Thoughts
If the idea of hosting this celebration at your school is giving you anxiety, break it down into manageable steps, or scale it back. I offered a lot of ideas on how to expand it, but you can always do a bit less, especially if your school has never run an event like this. Start with the art contest and a guest speaker, or have the food truck come and have students make a craft. Invite the community in future years.
If your school or community setting is not conducive to being the host, or you can’t take on a task this large, you might be able to find an event happening nearby. It’s okay to start there! Let students and their families know about the opportunity and ask them to report back. Or, attend it yourself if you can!
Pin for later!
