SAN BERNARDINO, CA—On Nov. 14, San Bernardino High School (SBHS) was host to 19 Jones, Bing Wong and Warm Springs Elementary School students as they competed in San Bernardino City Unified School District’s (SBCUSD’s) First Annual Elementary Latino History Bee.
SBCUSD held its 11th Annual Latino History Bee in March 2025. Coordinated by the District’s Multilingual Department, the annual competition has become a celebration of Latin-American culture, as well as a chance for middle and high school students of all backgrounds to improve their knowledge of Latino history.
This year, for the first time, District elementary students had an opportunity to test their knowledge on topics ranging from which famous poet from Chile won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, which famous Puerto Rican singer is known as the “King of Latin Pop” and in which country the ancient city of Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, is located. The answers are Pablo Neruda, Ricky Martin and Peru, respectively.
Unlike a typical spelling bee where students take turns answering questions, all students participating in the Latino History Bee had an opportunity to answer all history questions in the first round and art questions in the second round using tablets. This is similar to the middle and high school-level Latino History Bee. During the third round of competition, participating students recited a cultural poem in English or Spanish that they had previously selected. Winners were determined by the total scores from all three rounds.
The winners of SBCUSD’s First Annual Elementary Latino History Bee were:
First Place: Isbalek Tamayo Pena, Bing Wong Elementary
Second Place: Aitanna Tejeda Figueroa, Jones Elementary
Third Place: Anna Flores Perez, Jones Elementary
