Last Saturday's speaking engagement

Here are some photos from the Día Internacional de la Lengua Materna conference/panel:

I wasn´t as nervous as I thought I would be. In fact, I think I did a good job. After all, I wasn´t the only second language Spanish speaker in the room; pretty much everyone there spoke a different "lengua materna."

Some young musicians from San Juan Chamula performed at the beginning of the event.

My Tstosil professor spoke about the dangers of loss of values and traditions with the extinction of languages.

The other speakers on the panel included a woman who works in university education and showed a movie clip of youth attitudes toward indigenous languages, a primary school teacher who has learned other indigenous languages besides her own in order to teach in various local schools, and a teacher from Oaxaca who helped develop bilingual 6th grade projects that focus on local knowledge (natural medicine, arts, cooking).

At the end, a man from the group shared a bilingual song from his CD and made everyone dance. For those of you who work at BMPV, it felt like the end of a typical assembly where the staff has to go up on stage and dance. A little ridiculous.

So, aside from being 5 1/2 hours long, it was an enjoyable experience.
And if you want me to speak at your upcoming event, better call soon. I´m booking up fast. ;)

Queen of my castle

This weekend I moved into my own apartment!

It's not that I was unhappy in my old house. It had a lovely garden patio:

My housemates - the landlady, a young Mexican woman who works with an organization that supports indigenous radio programming, and a French journalist - were good people, and the rent ($100/month) was great.
There were downsides, though:
*shared bathroom that I had to walk outside (in the cold) to get to at night
*dark - 2 windows the size of index cards in my room
*cold, damp, moldy
*shared kitchen

I've never had my own apartment before, so I decided to explore. Some friends here would be appalled that I am now paying almost $200/month in rent, but compared with DC housing... it's amazing.

 

Some upsides to my new home:
*giant windows
*an indoor bathroom
*plenty of space in the refrigerator
*opportunities for decorating
*a FIREPLACE (we're planning a s'mores party soon)
*soon to have an extra little bed so I can have visitors... maybe YOU?!

Bilingual education - a world of parallels

This Sunday, February 21, is International Mother Language Day.

In honor of the holiday, an interdisciplinary independent working group on indigenous education is hosting a conference/panel "Indigenous Language in Educational Processes in Multicultural Contexts: Advances and Challenges." And representing the international component of the panel will be... yours truly.

What doesn´t kill you counts as another day of "Fulbright personal growth."

 Government sponsored bilingual education in Mexico began much as it did in the US - as a way to assimilate language minority students into mainstream culture. The purpose seems to be shifting more toward an affirmation of the value of linguistic and cultural heritage. Implementation has been problematic. 

One issue (similar to dual language schools in the states) is finding certified professionals who speak and read and write the language of the community. This problem is exacerbated because the government frequently sends any bilingual teacher to teach in a rural community, regardless of whether or not the teacher´s native language is the same as that of the community. Even if the teacher speaks the language, she frequently lives outside of the community. One chapter I read suggested that government organizations and politicians used bilingual teachers as liaisons with communities, and that many bilingual teachers ultimately landed advantageous political positions.

Another challenge has to do with the consciousness of teachers and families about the purpose of bilingual teaching. I have heard that both teachers and families frequently claim that the children already speak their home language - why do they need to study it in school? Two weeks ago I visited a supposedly-bilingual school, and the 4th grade teacher I met with gave that justification for only teaching the language as its own subject twice a week. There is a lack of education on the cognitive, social, and economic value of bilingualism and biliteracy - the fact that preserving your first language can actually help in acquiring a second. As in the US, many language minority parents grew up in a time of extreme racism and were severely punished for speaking their home language at school; they don´t want their children to face the same brutalities.

As in the US, educational materials in minority languages here are hard to find. The government has made an effort to produce textbooks in indigenous languages, but with 68 national languages, it is a difficult task. So far they do not come with a progression for different grades. Frequently, it is not just the language that makes texts inaccessible - the schema of students in rural indigenous communities is very different from a mestizo child in San Cristóbal. One teacher talked about a lesson on fractions that used the example of pieces of pizza. The children had never seen a pizza in their lives!

In spite of these challenges, there are some sources of optimism in the struggles for identity-affirming, language-preserving, biliteracy-promoting education. Sources like this working group and their conference this weekend. Like parents who advocate for their children to maintain their home language. Like community groups working to produce local literature. 

This Sunday, don´t forget to wish your friends "¡Feliz día internacional de la lengua materna!"

Operación "escapa el papa"

(Operation Escape the Pope - not to be confused with "Operación escapa LA papa," which would be Operation Escape the Potato)

Yes, the pope was in México this week. Yesterday he came to my town - San Cristóbal de las Casas. Now I don´t have anything against Francis, but I frankly did not want to be around for the "gran caos" that I knew would be happening. A week before he arrived there were protesters camped out in front of the cathedral. People were busy cleaning and repainting the exterior, and then the day before I left town, there was already fresh graffiti:

We don´t want the pope we want justice

I left on Thursday afternoon for a 14 hour bus ride to Mérida, the capital of the Yúcatan, and current home to fellow Fulbrighter, Andrea. It was well worth the tiring journey.

While Andrea was in Spanish class, I visited a bookstore, walked around the town square

and visited the anthropology museum, which had an exhibit on Mayan sculpture:

After Andrea´s Spanish class, we visited a local cantina and then went back to the square to watch a demonstration of the Mayan ball game, pok-ta-pok, where players pass a heavy rubber ball with their hips, shoulders, and buttocks:

The next day, along with Andrea´s welcoming gringo neighbors, we rented a car and drove out to the coastal town of Celestun, where we took a hair-raising boat ride and saw flamingos,

Mangroves, and a swimming hole that was not so tempting for the sane members of our crew. Can you spot why?

Then we enjoyed a meal of fresh seafood and spent some time relaxing on the beach.

When we got back to town, we went out to dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant, chanced upon a Valentine´s concert in the park, and visited a fancy ice cream shop.

Flavors: Mango, plantain with hibiscus, pineapple with chaya (like spinach), lime with mint, mamey fruit

That day was my favorite day in Mexico so far.

On Sunday, Valentine´s day, we had coffee on the Paseo, a road that they close off for biking and walking on the weekends. We were too late to rent a bicycle for four, but enjoyed some excellent people-watching of families, dogs, and balloon-sellers.

We visited Animaya, an animal park, and got to witness lunchtime disputes among the animals:

In the evening, we relaxed and read at the neighbors´ pool.

On my last day, we did some work at Andrea´s apartment, sampled some Yucatecan cuisine, and visited a contemporary art museum.

One of my Tsotsil classmates sent me a long list of Yucatecan specialties to sample.
 I didn´t manage to check off the whole list, so I guess I´ll have to go back. 

Just some plastic bag baobab trees with a background of Philip Glass... and an Andrea!

Many thanks to Andrea and her neighbors for being such incredible hosts in Mérida!

School days

After living here for a month, I have established regular visit days at three different schools. Each is within San Cristóbal city limits, but they are truly different.

I. 31 de marzo is a public school toward the periphery of the city. Although it is not a bilingual school, it does have a large indigenous population, and the academic needs of the students are high. I connected with this school through my Claremont contact, who had helped with an investigation project with my Alfabetización y cultura teachers and who provided tutoring to a small group of students for a few years afterward. I followed her lead and offered to work with groups of 4th-6th graders on literacy. I think it will serve as a great way to collaborate with the teachers at the school, and I am excited about doing a little teaching again.

II. Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez is a large and prestigious public school. There are 3 sections of each grade, first through sixth, with as many as 40 students per class. I agreed to help the school in designing a plan for teaching English as part of their extended day program. According to the law in Mexico (and most Central American countries, I believe), English instruction is a mandatory part of primary school. In practice, this often doesn´t happen - perhaps because the teachers do not speak English? It presents a challenge for even the better supported schools.

Second graders do a lot of work with wordplay - tongue twisters, poems, rhymes

Very engaging group work filling this graphic organizer on Mesoamerican
 civilizations in sixth grade.

III. Pequeño Sol is a private school where many expats send their children. My first day, I joined the morning meeting of the second grade class. Morning meeting is part of Responsive Classroom, a social curriculum which they employ much more faithfully than we do at my school in DC. In the meeting, the students asked me questions about myself and introduced themselves, sharing what they liked (baby tigers, art, videogames) and what they disliked (bothersome siblings, pizza crust, bathing...) One girl shared about a trip around the world she had taken with her family.

For this group, February is the "mes de conferencias," when students present independent research projects, all connected to a general theme of San Cristóbal de las Casas. I was blown away by the 10 minute exposition by one shy boy (coincidentally the son of the principal) on domestic and wild plants.

The fact that families of this private school are unique in being able to support a mostly-outside of school project like this is similar to the public/private, wealthy/poor school dichotomies in the US. Beyond this, though, the differences in school culture and values are also striking. Pequeño Sol clearly values creativity and autonomy. Students speak to adults almost as peers, they do not wear uniforms, and they are encouraged to think outside the box in their academic tasks. Meanwhile, in the public schools, students wear uniforms, they stand up when adults enter the room, and assignments seem to be evaluated mostly based on accuracy (one expected answer) and neatness.

 All of these traits - creativity, independence, respect, accuracy, and appearance - are valuable. It is not hard to imagine, however, that emphasis on some over others may be a way of preparing children for specific roles in a societal hierarchy.

Students respond to their classmate´s presentation on native plants of San Cristóbal

First graders write the colors in their flower drawings

Evidence of Responsive Classroom -
time out slips

Caminando Chiapas

As if I don´t do enough walking with all my circling around town from school to school to university to home, I joined a hiking club here in town: Caminando Chiapas. They organize hikes about twice per month, and so far it has been a great way to meet people and see more natural areas of Chiapas.

The first hike seemed harmless enough, albeit a bit of a steep climb. Then, after a lovely shared picnic near the top, it turned out that our guide did not know of an actual trail to go back down the mountain. Instead, we followed the property line markers down leafy cliffs and back up muddy hills, over a creek, and again down hillsides that would have been best traversed on a sled (and many of us traversed a good portion on our backsides).

The picture doesn´t do it justice - it really was almost a 90 degree drop!

For the next hike, the organizer asked if I would be interested in an early-morning sunrise climb. "Why not?" I say, and I agree to meet her at 5:30 at the bus terminal (about half an hour from my house). In my timely gringa style, I am already at the meeting point at 5:25 when I receive a text asking if I´m awake. The group eventually shows about around 6:15, and we drive to the base of the hill. Needless to say, we missed the sunrise.

As we climb, the leader suggests we go in silence and contemplate the nature around us... and then she proceeds to spend the rest of the hike reminding us of how to place our feet, how to breathe, what to notice, etc. Then we spend as much time on a mandatory photo shoot at the top as we do on the hike itself. Even so, I can´t be too grumpy about the adventure - it was absolutely beautiful.

Ja' jbi Jordana...

Likemun tal ta Washington.

Nakelun ta Varyo El Cerrillo.

Chi-abtej ta BMPV.

Ja' jchanubtasvanejun.

Chichanvunaj ta Escuela de lenguas.

Ta jchan bats'i'kop.

Oyun ta sba semestre.

Chik'opoj ta inglés ta kaxlankop jutuk alemán xchi´uk jutuk bats´ik´op.

Oy lajuneb xcha´vinik ja´vilal.

Ja´ noóx, kolavalik.

That was about the extent of my knowledge of Tsotsil at the end of week one, but I was pretty proud of myself. Jchanubtasvanejun = teacher. Lajuneb xcha´vinik = 30. These are not easy words to learn!! (And it is somewhat embarrassing to keep asking how to say the number thirty when everyone else in the class is about 19 years old.)

And speaking of the class... Today was our twelfth day, and there has yet to be a day when the class has been made up of the same students as any other day. The first day it was just me and one other student until a third showed up 45 minutes through the one hour class. I thought, "This will be great! So much individualized instruction!" The following day, only one of the two others showed up, but three different students were there - native speakers of Tsotsil! Now we are a group of 12... I think. The professor himself is not sure. The second week, I was nominated as the class communication liaison because I was the only person who had been to every class.

So far, I´m enjoying the class. It´s been a nice way to meet people and learn about Mayan culture. It has also taught me a few new words in Spanish. Yesterday, they were trying to explain what a borrego was (chij in Tstotsil), and some were calling it a fuzzy cabra (goat), but one of the students from Mexico City who has lived in the states was sure it was a sheep (which it is). From that, we started discussing the difference between a cabra and a chivo (tot tentsun in Tsotsil) and finally determined that a cabra is a female goat and a chivo is a male goat.

MORAL OF THE DAY´S LESSON:

You can have queso de cabra, but you cannot have queso de chivo.