This summer, 80 K–12 teachers and librarians from across the United States converged at Cal State Northridge and other Southern California sites for a workshop, “The Spanish and Mexican Influences on California, 1769–1884,” funded by a Landmarks Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

As project director for the $157,000 grant, CSUN’s Josh Sides, Whitsett Professor of California History, aimed to help educators improve their curriculum by introducing them to the Spanish and Mexican influence on California’s language, culture, arts, architecture and land use during this critical period in the nation’s history.

“If you look at the popular textbooks for history and social science teachers, the U.S.-Mexican War gets relatively short shrift, and the Spanish and Mexican influences become footnotes in the grand story of America’s westward expansion,” said Sides. “My goal is to get people to understand the extraordinary impact and influence thousands of years of indigenous history, 50 years of Spanish history and 30 years of Mexican history has had on the landscape that is now California.”

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