Small-group activities encourage students to become historians as they evaluate letters from Hernando Cortés, poetry from the Aztecs, and pictures of the Danza de la Conquista. They come away from this unit with a richer knowledge of the Aztec/Spanish encounters; an understanding of concepts such as bias, perspective, interpretation, and balance; and an appreciation for the complexity of writing history.

In this unit, students examine two important episodes in the history of U.S.–Mexico relations: the Mexican-American War and the Bracero Program, created to fill a critical need for farm labor in the United States. This unit is Part I of the U.S.–Mexico Relations bundle.