Meeting with Santa Maria Linguistic Project (PLSM), Cabrican

Today we travelled to the community of Cobrican, a Mam speaking community in a remote area in the mountains, founded as a municipality in 1664. There is a tremendous effort being made to protect the language and culture in this area.

PLSM is supporting inter-cultural bilingual education and working mainly with Mam and Kiche communities. The organization monitors and advocates for public policies to implement the 1996 peace accords. They produce culturally-specific curriculum and have formed citizen communities of parents and educators to demand government accountability. PSML trains intercultural bilingual educators. PSLM has successfully raised the profile of indigenous education with politicians in the Western highlands.

Obispo Rosales, executive coordinator of SML took us to visit a Mam primary school. We were welcomed by educators trained in bi-cultural, bilingual education. The school has 140 students and is now supported by the ministry of education however this only translates into 1 teaching position that is funded by the government.

The educators explained that 50 years ago they were ashamed to speak Mam and were punished for doing so. They said that people still think that if Mam is taught to children, they will be backwards.

One educator said: “Your visit here is a sign that we are not alone. When I see people who come from different places and value my culture, I realize that what we are doing is important.”

After our meeting with the teachers we visited a grade three classroom. Darlene greeted the children in Ojibway. A spontaneous exchange occurred and Darlene taught the children to count in Ojibway, then we counted in Mam to the children’s delight.

We were then taken to meet with the director of education for Cabrican and surrounding communities. The director highlighted the lack of resources to produce culturally specific materials for children. Nonetheless, the staff was enthusiastic about the gains that had been made in indigenous education.

Education Reform in Guatemala

1985 Constitution
Indigenous language and culture was recognized
1996 Peace Accords
The Accord on cultural identity stipulates that indigenous people have the right to health care that is culturally appropriate. Indigenous children have the right to intercultural bilingual education. The government signed these accords with the guerillas (URNG) and committed itself to implement the accords.

PSLM director, Obispo Rosales said that while some legislative changes have

occurred, the government has made no move to actually support these changes. Funds are often diverted from the health and education budgets and the funding that reaches education and health is often diverted to urban areas, where there is less indigenous representation. Obispo explained that civil society has to push the government to be accountable. He called for international organizations to support civil society efforts to hold the government accountable, not just to provide funding to efforts on the ground. Obispo’s philosophy and vision actively subverts any attempt by others to impose an instrumentalist, one-dimensional view of solidarity.