Research in Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico, indigenous history, traditions, and folklore to inform learning for a Latino culture course, facilitate collaborations with English Language Learners in the special education program, and engage Spanish speaking parents.
When we visited Oaxaca City, we had a chance to take a local tour of the food and culture and also visit the ancient ruins of the Zapotec. This experience opened my eyes to how diverse the culture and language of Mexico really is and how little many of our students may even know about their family origins. Our second experience took us to Chiapas, where we stayed with a host family and visited a language school to learn the indigenous language of the Tzotzil and Tzeltal people.
I learned that there is so much to learn and that visiting Mexico gives one a feeling of being a tourist in your own homeland. Many Mexican Americans that were born in the United States often have a deep sense of feeling connected to Mexico yet have only visited a handful of times. The variety of the culture and languages within each state of Mexico really is so diverse that it is often hard for many Mexican Americans to comprehend or even understand how different it can be.
An unplanned outcome of this fellowship for me was when we stayed with our host family and developed a familial bond with the family. The host mom took care of us like family, shared everything she knew about local culture, and has stayed in contact with us today. The connections we created while visiting Oaxaca and Chiapas have left me with a desire to further explore the regions of Mexico and to continue to learn more about the local history and culture that I can share with my own students.
Our plans are to help students further develop their understanding of history, language, and culture. One goal is to have students learn about indigenous history, culture, and current events and create a comparison with minority culture living within a dominant culture and how there are many similarities between our immigrant community and the immigrant and indigenous communities in Mexico. I also want our students to further explore art and the impact that history has had on today's art.
One way that we can leverage our fellowship to create an authentic learning experience is through the connection with made with a local non-profit organization that support extra curricular and academic programs in San Cristobal de las Casas, our goal is to provide our students with an "intercambio" so that they can learn more about other communities in Mexico and communities that may have larger indigenous populations. In this way, students can learn more about communities outside of their own.
Beyond the classroom, we would like to provide opportunities to invite families in and to also help our students to share their culture with others. We hope that we can use what we have learned to provide more robust curriculum with a deeper understanding of the connection to the diverse indigenous roots that Latin American history often overlooks. We also want our students to learn more about the idea of community in Mexico and to become contributing citizens in our communities in Chicago.