Panama Canal Song Activity

Panama Canal Song Activity

Ashley Symons

Time: 45 Minutes

Grade: 11th grade US History II

Materials:

Song Title: “The Man Who Swung a Pick at Panama” 1909 by C.K. Gordon

Poem: “To Roosevelt”by Ruben Dario

History of Panama:

1880- Panama was a province of Columbia. French government just purchased a 5 year concession from Columbia to build a canal across Panama.

1901- Money, illness, and mismanagement caused the project to flop and French sold to lease to US. However, US still needed to obtain permit from Columbia. Meanwhile, Columbia was waiting for concession to expire so they could sell lease for a higher price. President Roosevelt was outraged by this and conspired with an official of the French company. Together they helped to organize a Panamanian revolt against Columbia.

1903- Roosevelt sent a gunboat to wait offshore in order to provide support for Panamanian rebels. The USimmediatelyrecognizedPanama as an independent nation and then quickly signed a treaty to build the Panama Canal.

1904-Roosevelt justified “policing”Latin America by means of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine)

1921- Congress paid a $25 million “guilt”payment to Columbia in recognition of US’s illegal means of acquiring Panama Canal Zone.

Lesson

Objective:

1) Compare and Contrast music and poem from the 1900’s depicting the Panama Canal.

2) Analyze the actions of the United States government which resulted in the acquisition

of Panama

3) Determine whether Theodore Roosevelt was a hero or “wild man”

Intro:

Students should already be knowledgeable about Roosevelt and his actions as President. Students should also know how Panama was acquired and the problems associated with the building of the canal

1) Do Now: Think-Pair-Share: What are some conspiracy theories involving the US government?

2) Relate to Do-Now conspiracy question to conspiracy between French company official, Panamanian Rebels, and Roosevelt in order to acquirePanama Canal

3) Play Song: “The Man Who Swung a Pick at Panama”

4) Small Group Analysis and Class Discussion: What is the tone of the song? How would you feel if you were working on canal? Why? What is song about? Is song pro or anti America? Imperialism? Roosevelt? Why or why not? Expand upon these questions as needed

5) Read Poem: “To Roosevelt”

6) Small Group Analysis and Class Discussion: What is poem about? Is poem pro or anti America? Imperialism? Roosevelt? Why or why not? Expand upon these questions as needed.

7) Graphic Organizer: Compare and Contrast Song and Poem

8) Snow Ball Fight: (Students write the answer to the question on paper and roll it in a ball. Students throw the ball, someone else picks up the paper and writes a response to the question. Some students are asked to share their response.) Do you think the USgovernment was ethical in its means of acquiring the Panama Canal? Why/ Why not? This can lead into a class debate if time permits.

9) Closure: Post it Note: (Students write response on post it note and upon leaving room stick it to door) Using info from book, song, and poem, determine whether Roosevelt was a hero or “wild-man”?

10) HW: Write a letter to Roosevelt from the perspective of a Columbian or Panamanian. Discuss your feelings about the US controlled Panama Canal Zone.

Song Title: “The Man Who Swung a Pick at Panama” 1909

Lyrics: C.K. Gordon

Music:Geo. J. Leavitt

Lyrics can be found at above site

Poem
“To Roosevelt”

By Ruben Dario

While many people loved the democracy that the United States promised to bring, many people also feared it. That fear can be seen in the poem written by Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío (1867-1916). Dario wrote this poem in responseUnited States intervention in Latin America.

It is with the voice of the Bible, or the verse of Walt Whitman,
that I should come to you, Hunter,
primitive and modern, simple and complicated,
with something of Washington and more of Nimrod.
You are the United States,
you are the future invader
of the naive America that has Indian blood,
that still prays to Jesus Christ and still speaks Spanish.
You are the proud and strong exemplar of your race;
you are cultured, you are skillful; you oppose Tolstoy.
And breaking horses, or murdering tigers,
you are an Alexander-Nebuchadnezzar.
(You are a professor of Energy
as today's madmen say.)
You think that life is fire, that progress is eruption,
that wherever you shoot you hit the future.
No.
The United States is potent and great.
When you shake there is a deep tremblor
that passes through the enormous vertebrae of the Andes.
If you clamor, it is heard like the roaring of a lion.
Hugo already said it to Grant: The stars are yours.
(The Argentine sun, ascending, barely shines,
and the Chilean star rises...) You are rich.
You join the cult of Hercules to the cult of Mammon,
and illuminating the road of easy conquest,
Liberty raises its torch in New York.
But our America, that has had poets
since the ancient times of Netzahualcoyotl,
that has walked in the footprints of great Bacchus
who learned Pan's alphabet at once;
that consulted the stars, that knew Atlantis
whose resounding name comes to us from Plato,
that since the remote times of its life
has lived on light, on fire, on perfume, on love,
America of the great Montezuma, of the Inca,
the fragrant America of Christopher Columbus,
Catholic America, Spanish America,
the America in which noble Cuahtemoc said:
"I'm not in a bed of roses"; that America
that trembles in hurricanes and lives on love,
it lives, you men of Saxon eyes and barbarous soul.
And it dreams. And it loves, and it vibrates, and it is the daughter of the Sun.
Be careful. Viva Spanish America!
There are a thousand cubs loosed from the Spanish lion.
Roosevelt, one would have to be, through God himself,
the-fearful Rifleman and strong Hunter,
to manage to grab us in your iron claws.
And, although you count on everything, you lack one thing: God!