Follow up to Friday at the Fort

Friday at the Fort, the educational event at the Presidio San Agustin Del Tucson, was last Friday and let me tell you what an amazing experience it was.

Held for the fourth graders of Carrillo Elementary school, the event kicked off with all the students lining up according to color groups. All the students were then given red bandannas and taught basic soldier commands before being named 'recruits' for the Spanish Fort.

After a brief introduction the students spread out among the eight stations displaying activities of everyday life at the Presidio. The stations ranged from washing clothes, to blacksmithing, to making tortillas.

Each station lasted about 20 minutes and the time to switch stations was marked by a shot from the musket.

Watching the kids do these activities was so interesting. I actually heard one of them say while 'grinding corn for breakfast' in the metate, "Wow, they had to work really hard." Watching the kids observe how different life was was definitely the best part.

The eight booths were a perfect blend of hands on activities and the looks on their faces during these activities were priceless.

The teachers and parents who came along for the field trip also seemed to be having a very good time. I think they learned almost as much as the kids and I heard nothing but positive feedback.

At the end of the eighth station rotation, everyone met back in the middle and the Presidio soldiers fired the cannon. The cannon seemed to be the highlight of the event and the kids would not stop talking about how loud and awesome it was (They also got a kick out of how the loud noise set off nearby car alarms).

To see more photos of Friday at the Fort, check out the photo slideshow below:

Friday at the Fort

There are a lot of awesome landmarks in Downtown Tucson, but at the corner of Church Ave. and Washington St. is The Presidio San Agustin Del Tucson. This 1800’s style fort is built to replicate part of the original fort, which is where Tucson started.

This Friday, at the Presidio, they are hosting ‘Friday at the Fort,’ an experimental educational program. The program is being done for fourth graders as social studies state standards for the grade focus on Arizona history.

The day will consist of sending students through eight stations teaching: cow roping, butter churning, tortilla making, soldiering, and other daily living skills. The idea is to use on the hands-on exercise to give students an idea of what life was like in Spanish Colonial Tucson.

The President of the Tucson Presidio Trust told me, he hopes this goes well and they can start to do it four times a year. This first event will be for the fourth graders of Carrillo Elementary School.

The event is going to be run by Presidio volunteers and living history reenactors.

As a local Tucsonan, I remember we used to go on field trips to Tubac and Tumacacori to learn abut Arizona history, but the Presidio wasn’t opened yet. They had their grand opening in May 2007. I think it is pretty neat that kids will now get to go to where Tucson first started to learn about Arizona history. It puts more of a local angle on it.

Click here to watch Presidio Soldiers fire the cannon!

A Little off Track...

So this week I am going to go a little bit off track in my post, but since it is Spring Break, I figured it was okay.

My cousin, who is from Tucson but lives in Flagstaff, came home for the break and yesterday we were all hanging out. After a busy day of shopping, we were hungry. My cousin said she wanted some authentic Tucson Mexican food. Lucky for me, all my research about Tucson's Barrios came in handy. I immediately suggested we try out El Minuto Cafe on S. Main Ave in Barrio Viejo.

We arrived at the restaurant about 6 p.m and I had been raving about all the great things I had heard the whole way down there. When we got there they had a huge wait so unfortunately we couldn't stay, but we promised each other we would go back another time. I told her about how nice the owners are and how good the food looked when I was there and we decided we will definitely be going back soon.

We ended up going to La Parrilla Suiza instead and while the wait there was almost just as long, the food was delicious! So our lesson was learned, all restaurants have waits on a Saturday at 6 p.m. next time we will try the cafe in the Barrio.

Check out this video from El Minuto that I did as part of my project on Barrio Viejo:

A More Personal Take on Barrio Style

For those of you who may have checked out the Border Beat special projects, you probably saw mine about Barrio Viejo. Well, in section number two, I talked a lot about the style of Barrio Viejo. In this blog post I am going to give a more personal account of that style.

I think the colors down in Barrio Viejo are my favorite part. It is so awesome to walk around and see red, blue, purple and yellow houses. I have lived in Tucson my whole life, and I mean it when I say, this is the only area where you can see such a variety of colors.

I also love the doors in this neighborhood. Some of them are so rustic and have such unique, historical touches. My favorite one is light blue and lined with probably 10 locks from top to bottom.

I also think part of what makes this neighborhood so fascinating is the variety in the ages of the homes. Some are so old, and look as if they have not been touched since being built in the 1800s. Then, on the next block will be a home that looks brand new. It is a really curious feeling to see such a variety when walking down the street.

I think of all the pictures I took in exploring Barrio Viejo, my favorite one is the dark blue house with the teal door frame and the porch light on. In class, our professor was joking with me about how he has gone down there hundreds of times praying for the lights to be on so he can get the picture. I was lucky in that it was on my first time down there.

I put together a slideshow, with music, showing some of the colors and doors in Barrio Viejo, check it out:

Rosendo S. Perez Park

I have been exploring Barrio Viejo for a few weeks now and it truly amazes me the amount of history hidden in this neighborhood. Every time I walk through here, I find another park dedicated to someone of the past. I think this history is part of what makes the Barrio such a neat area of Tucson.

This week I found the Rosendo S. Perez Park. Another park, covered with unique and personal artwork, it is a must see part of Tucson's history.


Check out this video to learn what else I discovered about the park:

Click here to learn more about the Tucson Parks and Recreation website.

The Wishing Shrine...

In exploring Barrio Viejo over the past couple weeks I have discovered that there are a number of Parks and Shrines throughout the neighborhood. This week I discovered El Tiradito, or The Wishing Shrine. This quaint, yet beautiful, shrine is located on Main Ave. next to the delicious El Minuto Café.

El Tiradito translates as the castaway or the outcast. It is said that an individual of the Catholic Church once committed such a sever sin before dying that they would not allow him to be buried in the Catholic Cemetery. He was buried at this site instead.

Today the site remains as a city park. The adobe wall, which lines the back, contains holes and pockets stuffed with notes and prayers of well-being. In the front of the shrine is a large candle umbra adorned with flowers and the drips of melting wax from the thousands of candles lit over the years.

Going to the shrine today was really interesting because there was still a lot of memorabilia from the Jan. 8 shootings. Numerous photos of Gaby Giffords were displayed, with candles and prayers. It was also sad to see, that like many other places in Tucson, the near by cactus froze in the deep freeze we had a few weeks back. They poor cacti are hanging, drooping along the side of the shrine.

I can tell the shrine is still visited often. In my time there on Sunday I saw three people stop and take pictures, and there were even a few candles lit when I arrived.

Our Video About Tanias 33

So last week I blogged about Tanias 33 and how amazing it was, but what I didn’t mention, was the reason that I went there. A fellow Border Beater, McKenzie Sheldon, and I decided to do a joint project profiling the well-known restaurant.

We wanted to put together a video piece with still photos, b-roll, and an on camera interview with owner Rudy Lira. McKenzie and I ventured down there, (after calling twice to ask where they were…what can we say, apparently directions aren’t really our thing,) but anyway, despite our sense of direction, or lack there of, we found it. With my video camera, and her still camera, we went in to get our story.

Let me just say that it didn’t take long to notice that restaurant/kitchen lighting kind of stinks for photos and video. After adjusting the settings on the video camera a number of times, I thought I had it. The LCD screen showed a well-lit image, but the video footage turned out a little darker than expected. Then for some reason, it got even darker after putting the video on YouTube, which was a bit frustrating to say the least! Oh well, at least it is still visible, and I learned how to brighten footage in Final Cut, so that I can avoid this problem in the future.

Watching McKenzie take photographs I also realized something I had never thought about before. Food photography is hard. I had never realized how it is a science all its own. In fact, she blogged about it last week. Capturing the details of the food, like the colors and textures, is not easy, but she did an awesome job. The photos she took turned out great and really added to the overall quality of the video.

We also had a great time talking with Rudy, the owner. I know I mentioned this last week, but he is so friendly and welcoming. It made our film making experience even more valuable. Plus, all his talk of menudo sparked our interest. It is their best selling item and neither of us has ever tried it… Needless to say, we decided that is going to be our next adventure. I will let you know how it is!