The Spanish-American War

The Spanish American War was a war that lasted 3 months. This is how it all started. In the time period of 1508 and 1890 Spain had a lot of land in the Americas (North America, South America, and Central America). By 1898 Spain only had 2 colonies left which were Cuba and Puerto Rico.

I got this map from the internet:http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/carib.htm

People in Cuba wanted independence. The Americans were on the rebel side. President William McKinley sent out a boat called the U.S.S Maine. He was scared that the Americans in Cuba were not safe.  So, he sent the ship to Cuba to help the Americans that live there.

I got this picture from the internet: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-last-sunset-of-the-maine-1898-the-uss-maine-a-pre-news-photo/463958791#the-last-sunset-of-the-maine-1898-the-uss-maine-a-predreadnought-picture-id463958791

When the U.S.S Maine got there all the crew were scared because they thought the Spanish planted a mine to keep them away. At 9:40 PM on February 15, 1898 the boat exploded.  

I got this picture from the internet: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/navalbattles1800s/p/ussmaine.htm

But they did not know if it was a mine that blew them up or if it was something else. After the ship blew up some of the Spanish went down to look for any evidence of a mine but they didn’t find anything. They still thought that a mine blew it up so they sent out a report that said a mine blew the ship up but didn’t say who did it. 

After that, President McKinley said “you have to let Cuba be independent or there’ll be a war,” but, the Spanish refused and that’s what started the war. The war went on for 3 months and a lot of people died.

The Americans won and got Puerto Rico and part of Cuba.

  

75 years after the war ended people looked in the boat (the U.S.S Maine) and found that the boat didn’t get blown up by a mine, it blew up because they stored the coal next to the weapons which caused a fire.

I think that the Spanish American War was interesting because I think how it started was interesting.

Spanish Explorers

About 500 years ago, there was time period called the Renaissance. It was a time when people were curious about a lot of things: art, music, writing, and exploring new places. Spain sent out many explorers to find gold, land, and people to turn into Christians.

Puerto Rico is one of the places where Spanish explorers settled.  Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover it.  On his second voyage, he brought a person named Juan Ponce de Leon.  

 

This is a picture of Juan Ponce de Leon from another website.

 Juan Ponce de Leon became the governor of Puerto Rico. After that, the king sent Juan Ponce de Leon to find a special fountain called the Fountain of Youth. It was called this because people thought that drinking the water from it would let you live forever. This fountain was supposed to be in Florida. The name Florida means full of flowers. They failed at finding the Fountain of Youth.

The Spanish explorers were very important because they changed history. They brought their culture to Puerto Rico and changed it forever.

Indigenous People: The Taíno

About 4000-6000 years ago, people called the Taíno came to Puerto Rico. They were a group of the American Indian people of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands). The Taíno people stayed on these islands for thousands of years. They were very skilled in farming, fishing, hunting, sailing, and making things like boats.

 

 

A Taino canoe. I got this picture from another website.

 

 

They played games with balls and had dances. They had interesting beliefs including their Creation Story. They believed that all people came from two caves: the Taíno people came out of one cave and everyone else came out of another cave.

 

This is a cave drawing, also called a petroglyph. I got this picture from another website.

  

In 1492 Christopher Columbus came from Spain looking for gold. The Taíno didn’t know anything about the Spanish and the Spanish didn’t know anything about the Taíno. Both sides felt curious, confused, and scared. The Spanish wanted the Taíno to do work for them. They also wanted them to become Christian. The Taíno didn’t want to do those things. That caused a problem. One day the Spanish blamed the Taíno for stealing clothes. This started a war that went on for 10 years. 

During this war, two main things helped the Spanish win. These were that the Spanish had weapons the Taíno didn’t have, like cannons, and the Spanish brought different germs that gave the Taíno diseases they never had before, like smallpox. A lot of Taíno got sick and died. Most of the Taíno people died. Before the Spanish came, there were between 20,000 and 50,000 Taínos. By 1544, there were only 60 left.

Today we know the Taíno lived here because we can find evidence of some of their ball fields and villages. Many names we use today for places, plants, and animals (like iguana) came from the Taíno.

Halloween in Puerto Rico

Many places around the world celebrate Halloween but they all celebrate it differently. Here in our neighborhood in Puerto Rico, we celebrated Halloween on Sunday. There was a party at the park  with treats. There were a lot of kids with creative costumes. I dressed up as a cat and my brother used make-up to look like he'd been in a fight. We dressed in costumes that would keep us cool since the weather is so warm.

One of the kids was dressed up as Rey from the new Star Wars movie. One of the boys was dressed like Zorro. One kid was dressed like a vending machine! I was surprised because almost all of the kids spoke English.

After about an hour, we went trick or treating altogether  Our neighborhood is a mix of apartments and houses. About seven houses had decorations so we knew we could trick or treat there. Some of the adults and kids were saying a chant that went like this:

Halloween, tricortri
dame chavos, no mani

This means:
Halloween, trick or treat
Give me money, not peanuts

At home in Shrewsbury, we usually have a little party at our friend's house then go trick or treating after that. Many of the houses have Halloween decorations so we have a lot of houses to visit.

 I think it was interesting to spend Halloween in Puerto Rico.

Trying Local Foods: Breadfruit

There are many different kinds of unfamiliar fruits in Puerto Rico. One of them is called a breadfruit or pana in Spanish. The pana tree can get up to 25 M (82 FT) tall. They are monoecias meaning the male and female flowers are growing on the same tree.  When the flowers bloom, the male blooms first. There is also a special liquid in the tree called latex that can be used to make rubber gloves and some kinds of paint. 

Our pana is the big green circular fruit right in the middle - next to the pineapple and under the bananas.

There are also recipes using panas.  You can make curry using coconut milk and spices. Boiled panas are a famous dish.

We decided to make pana French fries. We started by peeling the pana. Then we cut it into rectangles. We coated them with olive oil and salt and cooked them in in a hot oven until they were crispy. 

We cooked our pana fries along with sweet potatoe fries.

This is my brother James and me trying the pana fries.

I didn’t think they were very good. We all thought they tasted sort of like potatoes and bread…..OK but no one’s favorite.

Introduction

Hi to all my friends in Mrs. Darling's class at Paton School! I'm in Puerto Rico with my family for eight weeks and I'll be home-schooled during that time.  I'm looking forward to sharing some of what I do and what I learn with you.

 

The first time I saw an Iguana it grabbed my attention. It was giant!

It had a spiky back and striped tale. I saw at least five iguanas the first day I was here. I saw them in a park, walking on the grass, and climbing on trees. Have you ever wondered about where Iguanas live? Green Iguanas live in the north of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean Islands and southern Brazil. They spend most of there time in trees except when they are mating, laying eggs or finding a new tree. Some people keep Iguanas as pets! But if they do, they only stay alive for about a year. If they’re kept as pets they feed on dark green leafy vegetables, yellow, red, orange and green peppers, beans, and a lot more. If you ever see an Iguana you will be amazed. They are really cool animals.

Here are some of the iguanas I saw!