A mural of resistance in the village of Agua Calientes against the building of a dam (La Parota) that would destroy local communities By Shannyn Piper
This past week, SJGELA went on its week long travel seminar to the Costa Chica region in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. During this week we stayed in Acapulco and the pueblo of Cuajinicuilapa. The theme of the trip, as I saw it, was resistance and identity. To explore these topics we looked at the cultural experiences and struggles of Afro-Mexican and Indigenous populations in the area through dialogue, exhibits, and even dance. We also explored the issue of the environment in connection to local culture by speaking with biologists working to preserve sea turtles that nest on the shores of Guerrero. Even though I had the opportunity to participate in these amazing experiences, I think the experience that will forever stay with me because of its strong impact is when we visited a bilingual school in Acapulco.
On our first night, we visited the bilingual school called Emperador Cuauhtemoc in the neighborhood called La Chinameca in Acapulco. The school teaches primary level education (kindergarten through sixth grade) in both Spanish and Mixteco, the native language of many people in that neighborhood. 99% of the students that attend the school speak Mixteco as their primary language. The mere existence of the school greatly encompassed the two themes of the trip. According to the school instructor who spoke with us, the school began not out of government mandate, but out of necessity. Many people began migrating from the countryside years ago from Mixteco speaking villages. It became a problem when children who spoke Mixteco entered schools where only Spanish was spoken and those often discouraged and shamed children into not speaking Mixteco.
One may not at first think that this is such a horrible thing, being that Spanish is the official language of discourse in Mexico. They can just speak their own language at home, right? This could not be farther from the truth. What I’ve learned in the past couple of months being in Mexico is the role that language has in preserving one’s culture and through that, one’s group identity. The instructor explained that before the existence of the school, youth often chose not to speak the language out of embarrassment and fear of ridicule, and so the language was in danger of being lost. With the loss of language comes the loss of part of worldview and a loss in the ability to truly express oneself. Some expressions and concepts simply cannot be translated. As the instructor said, “Just because children are not in purely indigenous community, in the city, does not mean that they have to lose their culture.
The individuals of this community had to fight to preserve their community. It took five to six years to find teachers for the schools, which finally had 2 teachers by 1998. After constant fighting with the municipal government, the school was able to get Mixteco books and one year ago, gained an inhabitable school building. This community resisted the cultural assimilation encouraged by the wider culture and got their deserved resources from the government. I cannot say how it filled me with happiness when the instructor said that the children, for the most part, will speak with someone in whatever language they are approached, without shame or consequence. CEMAL definitely did its job in providing an experiential learning experience that I could not have gotten in a classroom or through readings. This seminar was invaluable.
SJGELA students released baby Leatherback Sea turtles after an initial talk with biologists
An exhibit at the Museo de Cultura Afromestiza de Vicente Guerrero
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