Zacatecas Institute for Teaching and Research in Ethnology
Origins
In 1990 nine young Nahua students from the Huasteca region were invited by Antorcha Campesina, a political organization, to attend high school in Zacatecas and participate in the organization's political activities. Most left Antorcha Campesina after finishing high school, but continued their studies taking advantage of the support programs offered by the State University of Zacatecas for low income students. More importantly, they began inviting friends and relatives from the Huasteca to make use of the educational opportunities in Zacatecas, creating over the years a social network that today informally supports more that eighty indigenous high school, undergraduate and graduate students from the states of San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo and Veracruz. In 1997 Dr. John Sullivan, professor of Nahua language and culture at the University's graduate program in Colonial History, granted scholarships to two Nahua students from the Economics Department, Urbano Francisco Martínez and Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz. They collaborated in Dr. Sullivan's research projects and participated in the design and teaching of a course in conversational Nahuatl through the University Language Center. Four years later, both students graduated with a senior thesis titled, "Economic context of an agrarian conflict in the Huasteca, 1970-1985." In 1999 Angelina Belmontes Martínez, professor at the State School of Social Work began writing her Masters thesis in Social Science, "Immigration of Nahua Indians from the Huasteca región (San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo and Veracruz) to undertake studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas", on the development and structure of the above-mentioned social network. She will defend her thesis during the first semester of 2002. In 2001 John Sullivan, Angelina Belmontes Martínez, Urbano Francisco Martínez y Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz decided to found The Zacatecas Institute for Teaching and Research in Ethnology (IDIEZ) in order to promote the following objectives and activities.
In 1990 nine young Nahua students from the Huasteca region were invited by Antorcha Campesina, a political organization, to attend high school in Zacatecas and participate in the organization's political activities. Most left Antorcha Campesina after finishing high school, but continued their studies taking advantage of the support programs offered by the State University of Zacatecas for low income students. More importantly, they began inviting friends and relatives from the Huasteca to make use of the educational opportunities in Zacatecas, creating over the years a social network that today informally supports more that eighty indigenous high school, undergraduate and graduate students from the states of San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo and Veracruz. In 1997 Dr. John Sullivan, professor of Nahua language and culture at the University's graduate program in Colonial History, granted scholarships to two Nahua students from the Economics Department, Urbano Francisco Martínez and Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz. They collaborated in Dr. Sullivan's research projects and participated in the design and teaching of a course in conversational Nahuatl through the University Language Center. Four years later, both students graduated with a senior thesis titled, "Economic context of an agrarian conflict in the Huasteca, 1970-1985." In 1999 Angelina Belmontes Martínez, professor at the State School of Social Work began writing her Masters thesis in Social Science, "Immigration of Nahua Indians from the Huasteca región (San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo and Veracruz) to undertake studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas", on the development and structure of the above-mentioned social network. She will defend her thesis during the first semester of 2002. In 2001 John Sullivan, Angelina Belmontes Martínez, Urbano Francisco Martínez y Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz decided to found The Zacatecas Institute for Teaching and Research in Ethnology (IDIEZ) in order to promote the following objectives and activities.
Objectives
1. Promote cultural heterogeneity as the stabilizing and integrating basis for Mexican society.
2. Construct a model for higher education which allows indigenous students to become integrated into Mexican society as professionals, reinforce their ethnic identity and customs, and continue participating in the devolopment of their community.
3. Sensitize and educate the general public in regards to the value and contents of ethnic cultures through direct contact with indigenous teachers.
4. Generate knowledge about ethnic cultures past and present, making it available to the scientific community, the general public, and the indigenous communities themselves.
Activities
1. Provide support for indigenous students during their higher education with scholarships, educational orientation, and social services.
2. Participate in teaching, research and cultural extension related to the indigenous cultures present in the region (Nahua, Huichola and Tepehuana).
3. Involve affiliated indigenous students in the activities of the Institute as pupils, teaching assistants and research assistants.
Social Services
IDIEZ provides services designed to facilitate indigenous students' access to higher education. The Department of Social Work at the Institute applied a questionaire to fifty of these students in Zacatecas for the purpose of detecting their needs, as well as the obstacles they encounter during their education. We are now in the process of affiliating the more than eighty Nahua students currently in Zacatecas in order to be able to offer a series of services designed to reinforce the informal social network they have created, and in this way counteract the factors that work against learning and finishing a career.
We are aware that an important factor affecting studies is the lack of economic support. Many of the Nahua students must work a low paying full time job in order to support themselves during their stay in Zacatecas, others work half-time, and some receive support from their relatives. Physical and mental exhaustion, as well as class / job schedule conflicts result in low academic yield and ultimately in high dropout rates. For this reason, one of our objectives at the Institute is to offer scholarships to indigenous students who have demonstrated academic excellence, to cover their educational and living expenses. In exchange for this service, the student will participate a maximum of fifteen hours per week in the activities of the Institute, working as a teaching or research assistant.
Other problems affecting this group of students are the culture shock produced by the move from a small indigenous agricultural community to a Mestizo metropolis, weak mastery of the Spanish language, alchohol abuse and unplanned pregnancies. The Institute's Department of Social Work offers students primary orientation and refers them to public institutions specializing in each one of these types of needs.
In the near future the Institute plans to establish agreements with the Mexican private and public sector for the purpose of offering job placement services to students upon graduation.
Teaching
IDIEZ offers three types of courses through the Language School of the State University of Zacatecas:
1. Nahuatl workshop for non-native speakers (trimesters).
2. Nahuatl seminar for native speakers (trimesters).
3. Intensive course in classical and modern nahuatl (five weeks during summer vacation).
Research
Students, teachers and researchers may take advantage, either in residence or electronically, of the Institute's bibliographical, electronic and human resources in the following areas:
1. Transcription and translation of indigenous language colonial manuscripts.
2. Methodology and curriculum development for the teaching of indigenous languages.
3. Preparation of scientific and literary texts (dictionaries, grammars, essays, personal and community histories) in modern indigenous languages.
4. Scientific research on the culture of indigenous communities, past and present.
Cultural extension
IDIEZ aspires to promote public circulation of information dealing with the indigenous cultures of Mexico, through the following instruments:
1. Electrónic circulation of didactic tools for learning indigenous languages and cultures (images, videos, voice recordings, dictionaries, grammars, distance learning).
2. In person and electronic consulting for students, teachers, researchers, public and private sector, and the general public, in matters of indigenous language and culture.
3. Electronic publication of original literary texts in indigenous languages (testimonies, essays, poetry, short stories, theatre).
4. Electronic publication of an academic journal on the cultural aspects of indigenous communites, past and present.
Personnel
John Sullivan. Native of Palos Verdes, California and naturalized mexican citizen. B.A. in Elementary Education from the Escuela Normal "Manuel Avila Camacho" in Zacatecas, B.A. in Philosophy and Spanish from the California State University, Dominguez Hills, M.A. in Spanish from the University of Southern California, Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, San Diego. Member of the Mexican National System of Researchers. Professor of the Graduate Program in Colonial History at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. currículum vitae
Delfina de la Cruz. Native speaker of the Nahuatl language and native of Tepecxitla, Veracruz. B.S. in Economics from the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas.
Urbano Francisco Martínez. Native speaker of the Nahuatl language and native of Chapulhuacanito, San Luis Potosí. B.S. in Economics from the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas.
Angelina Belmones Martínez. Native of Zacatecas, Zacatecas. B.A. in Social Work from the Escuela de Trabajo Social del Estado de Zacatecas, M.A. in Social Sciences fom the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. Professor at the Zacatecas State School of Social Work.
About IDIEZ
