"Vegigante" mask from the town of Loíza, Puerto Rico.

The cultural object is a "vegigante" mask from the town of Loíza. These masks represent part of the African culture heritage in the island of Puerto Rico and they are very important when we speak of the artistic expression of our country. There are other towns besides Loíza that make "vegigante" masks, but they vary from town to town.

Basically, the function of these masks, besides the esthetic function, is to be used in costumes in carnivals in Loíza, and to be exposed as an expression of art through songs and parades using the African beat. I presented the "vegigante" mask to the students and we talked about the cultural traditions. We did some brainstorming based on the description of the physical characteristics of the mask and we identified patterns, compared and contrasted features, and classified different elements based on logical-mathematical categories. After that the students wrote individual texts, based on the processes they practiced beforehand, using grammatical relations and rules that help in writing a paragraph.