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Black and Latino Studies

  • Writer: Madelyn Varano
    Madelyn Varano
  • Jun 11
  • 3 min read

By: Bryan Velasquez-Diaz


At Portland High School there are a variety of elective classes to choose from. One class in particular that gets overshadowed in the mist of picking classes as a junior and senior is Black and Latino Studies - a full year elective credit class that highlights the misconstrued and lost history of Black and Latino Americans. The class became a requirement under the Act 19-12 in 2022, not only in Portland High School, but all the high schools in Connecticut. The Act was made to ensure that every high school includes Black and Latino studies as an elective. The class will hit its fourth year in Portland next year, and it is taught by Ryan Ott.

What's so special about this class is the amount of creativity that comes with the assignments assigned to students. BLS is mostly a project-based class so the format that comes with teaching this class is very different than any history class in the school. 

In BLS, the information given to students is not taken with a grain of salt. Projects are the main focus of most of the lessons. Before completing these projects, students spend a lot of time researching. One of their main forms of research is watching movies. The class is very big on visual representation. Watching movies and having discussions with each other as a class really helps students develop creative ways to complete the projects assigned throughout the whole year. 

The Ballot or the Bullet project, and the Blackout Poetry project were the projects that required various classes to compose and complete. When preparing for big projects like these, Ott always makes sure to let students know what they are learning, why they are going to learn it, and how it will contribute to their projects, beforehand. 

Many times, in other classes, teachers just assign projects without any warning. Ott, however, spends a lot of time creating resources for students to use even before the projects are assigned. To start off, Ott assigns small assignments that are either done with a partner or individually, either way it is discussed as a class. These little assignments give students background information for the movies that they will be watching. The movies reflect a lot with the project itself and are used as symbolism for the projects. “Projects are designed to include a lot of personalization. So, in addition to learning about these important issues and questions in America (past and present day), students are also making personal connections and developing their own personal philosophies on these issues” Ott said.

Recently, the class just completed the Blackout poetry project. The project tasked students with creating their own poetry from scripts of the national hero Cesar Chavez. They displayed these poets with an art piece symbolizing Cesar Chavez and the Chicano Movement. This project differs from others because it was the first Latin X project students had to complete. Schools tend to limit Latin history in their normal history curriculum. Students only get to learn about colonization of Spanish countries, and they never get to hear accomplishments within the Latin X community. When asked, what project was your favorite from the class, senior Bo Strycharz said, “My fave project was the Blackout Poem cause it was fun to create my own poem and create artistic symbolism.”

Giving students the chance to not only be as creative as they want,but also appreciate other cultures is why this class is so important in this school. 

The Ballot or the Bullet Project also allowed a great deal of artistic freedom. This project tied to the third unit of the year, which was on Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights Movement. The main question throughout the unit was, “If you were a teenager living in America in 1964, which CRM leader and protest/activism philosophy would you follow and why?” To answer this question students had to take two events from the Jim Crow era, and two events from the Civil Rights Movement and create a symbolic abstract representation of the unit. Another huge part of the project was to choose if you either agree with Malcolm X's or Martin Luther King's Philosophy throughout the movements. Other than those exact needs, the artistic representation could have been anything and that is what makes the projects in this class really admirable.

Nija Chester-Payne, another student form BLS said, “in a small town with a majority white population it helps to reconcile stereotypes while rebuilding those gaps with the knowledge on why those stereotypes are even made.” 

This class goes way beyond just in class learning. The information given to students gives them a chance to challenge their views on certain prominent issues going on today and that’s what makes the class special.


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