1. HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH september 15 - october 15 2008 t.sasscer/c.w.hill elementary

2. September 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. They all declared independence in 1821. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively Public Law 100-402 authorizes and requests the President to issue an annual proclamation designating September 15 through October 15, as "Hispanic Heritage Month." October 12, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, also falls within this 30 day period.

3. The 2008 Hispanic population for the state of Georgia is 770,816 and estimated to rise to 974,390 by 2012. County Hispanic Population 1990 Hispanic Population 2007 Gwinnett 8,830 140,780 Cobb 9,724 76,789 Fulton 13,703 73,452 DeKalb 16,099 61,981 Hall 4,717 46,183 Clayton 3,884 32,581 Whitfield 2,417 27,705 Cherokee 1,097 18,025 Forsyth 648 13,084 Henry 465 9,132

4. Who are Hispanic Americans? What is their story?

5. Hispanic Americans are the combination of First Americans and…

6. …the Spanish explorers and settlers of the 1600’s and 1700’s

7. We know that the First Humans left Africa millions of years ago, and crossed the Asian continent until they came to the far Northeastern corner

8. These first humans were hunters, and the animals provided food and clothing. They made their weapons and tools from wood, stone, or bone.

9. They followed the animals across the continent. Some people would stay when they found a nice place to live, while others kept on hunting the migrating herds for generations.

10. Eventually they crossed from Asia to North America, some by land, and others by sea.

11. In North America, many First Americans retained their nomadic lifestyle.

12. The Mississippians eventually built giant cities, such as Cahokia, in Illinois

13. After thousands of years, other people, like these in Mexico and Central America, ended up building great cities and had advanced civilizations.

14. This is what Mexico City looked like 700 years ago

15. At that time in Europe, most people were poor and had a hard life.

16. There were many wars, and a lot of sickness and diseases.

17. One disease was called ‘The Black Death’, and thousands of people died from it.

18. A medieval peasant’s hut

19. Almost no one knew how to read, but many had heard of a famous book called ‘Il Milione’. It was written about Marco Polo, and told of the amazing things he saw in China.

20. Marco Polo’s book told of the incredible spices found in India, which made food taste so much better than the food in Europe.

21. It also told of the riches in far away countries like China. Marco had lived there for many years. When the people in Europe read his book, they wanted to go there, too, and get rich.

22. One person who read it was Christopher Columbus. He wrote these notes while he was reading it, and the book gave him some interesting ideas.

23. It took three years to walk to China, and three years to walk back. There were deserts, mountains, and many thieves along the road. Only the kings could afford to send people there, and still they would have to wait six years to see if their men came back with anything.

24. Some people tried to sail there, but the journey was also long and very dangerous. Good maps were rare, and there were storms and pirates along the way.

25. This is what most people thought the whole world looked like. They didn’t know that North and South America were across the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Europe.

26. Some people thought that if you sailed west, you would fall of the edge of the earth.

27. Columbus convinced Queen Isabella of Spain to lend him some boats to find a quick way to China by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean.

28. It took Columbus five weeks to cross the ocean.

29. He landed on some small islands in the Caribbean Sea

30. There was some confusion. The Americans had never seen Europeans, and thought the white men might be gods. Columbus could tell he was not In China, so he thought he had landed in India. He called the Americans ‘indians’ and told them they and their land now belonged to the Queen of Spain

31. The Americans called themselves ‘Tainos’

32. A taino village

33. Every time he went back, Columbus told Queen Isabella that he didn’t find China, but the new places he found had plenty of gold. This wasn’t true. There was very little gold in the islands.

34. She got very excited and sent him back three more times. He never found much gold, and he never even found North America. But many people heard of the new lands he visited, and a lot of people wanted to come over to try to find gold, or at least have an adventure.

35. Here are some of the places Spanish explorers visited over The next 100 years.

36. Spanish Explorer Francisco Coronado looked in the deserts of the American west for the ‘Seven Cities of Gold’.

37. Pizarro looked in the mountains of South America.

38. When they found gold or silver, like in Mexico and parts of South America, the Spanish made the Americans become slaves, and work in mines

39. The Americans began to fight back, but the Spanish had horses and guns, and the Americans only had their spears made of wood and stone, and shields made of animal skins

40. The most dangerous weapon the Spanish had was the diseases they brought with them. The Americans had no defense against them, and millions of Native Americans died.

41. The Spanish built forts in many places they went. This is St. Augustine, In Florida, the oldest Spanish settlement in the Americas.

42. They also built many churches, called missions, so they could convert the Americans to believe in the Christian god.

43. The Americans had their own religions. This is TLALOC, one of the most Important gods of the Aztecs in Mexico.

44. The Aztecs wrote many books, called codices, that explained about their culture, their history and their religion.

45. The Spanish priests tortured anyone who did not become a Christian, and burned every codex they could find. Now there are only four codices left, and we have lost much information about the Aztecs and their culture.

46. Times became hard for the Americans. Many people left the big cities, and went to live in the Spanish towns. They gave up many of their old ways of living and began to become more like the Europeans.

47. This map s Everywhere you can This map shows how much land was controlled by Spain between 1492 and 1898.

48. Every year Spain would load hundreds of ships with the gold, silver and other riches of the ‘new world’ and send them back to the king of Spain.

49. These ships are called ‘galleons’, and they carried many men and cannons

50. The Spanish ships often had to fight pirates, because everybody wanted some of the gold.