The difficult access discouraged teachers from reaching government primary schools in the zone’s ejidos, and there were no government secondary schools in rural areas. “Sometimes the government teachers would only come three days per week, but they were paid for 5,” a resident of La Garrucha told a Chiapas Support Committee delegation. “They taught the children in Spanish, but many of the children only spoke Tseltal and didn’t understand Spanish,” he continued. “They taught the history of the invaders from Europe,” he concluded, speaking in past tense because he also said that the government teachers stopped coming to La Garrucha and many other communities with government schools after the January 1, 1994 Zapatista Uprising.
After the Uprising, the Zapatistas prioritized the construction of their own autonomous government, which includes developing an autonomous education system that decolonizes teaching and learning. Education trainers came from the northern states to help with the development of a curriculum and the capacity building of indigenous peoples in the communities to become teachers, or education promoters as they are called in Zapatista Territory, and also to become trainers (formadores) of teachers. Each community selects its own teacher in a community assembly. The curriculum falls within four basic categories (subjects): mathematics, language, history, and environment (course information at link). The same subjects are taught in both primary school and secondary school at an age-appropriate level.
The education coordinators have asked the Chiapas Support Committee to fund the training of secondary school teachers from the four autonomous Zapatista municipios (counties) that comprise the Caracol of La Garrucha. They have also asked us to fund the construction of 4 classrooms, one in each of the four middle schools to be constructed (one in each municipality belonging to the Caracol of La Garrucha). The total cost of their request is approximately $25,000.00 US dollars and we’re asking you to make a generous contribution to that crucial project.
Your donation will help Zapatista children obtain an autonomous and de-colonial education at the middle school level. These children are the ones who will carry on the Zapatista resistance to neoliberalism and will move into positions of responsibility in another 5 or so years. It is important to maximize their potential to contribute to this alternative organizational model.
You can make your donation online via PayPal by going to our website and clicking on the donate button.
Or, you can send a check made payable to the Chiapas Support Committee to the address below:
Chiapas Support Committee
PO Box 3421
Oakland, CA 94609
