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Indigenous & African
Peoples
Transnational Corn
Threatens Food Sovereignty of Indigenous Communities
Bulletin "Chiapas Today" No. 258
CIEPAC; CHIAPAS, MEXICO
(September 5, 2001)
In 1996, the federal government began
privatizing the state business Conasupo (The National Company
of Popular Subsistence), importing more and more corn from the
United States in the framework of NAFTA, eliminating price controls
of the tortilla, and reducing subsidies and technical advisory.
In the same year, they also told the campesinos (subsistence or
small farmers in the countryside) to stop growing corn, and to
start growing other products because the Conasupo would now buy
corn cheaper from the United States. It was then that corn growers
from the Central Zone and Frailesca Zone of Chiapas, the "tortilla
basket" of Chiapas, blocked roads and brought the economy
of Chiapas to a standstill for many days. During
this conflict, the private company Maseca that is located in the
region, in the municipality Ocozocoautla, bought around 90,000
tons of corn from the United States, according to the Union of
Corn Producers (UPROMAIZ, A.C.) located in the municipality Villaflores.
Pressure from the campesinos was so strong that the government
and Maseca, now privatized as "Aztec Mills of Chiapas S.A
of C.V., Industrial group Maseca S.A. of C.V. (GIMSA), agreed
to continue buying corn from local growers. But they were only
setting a trap. The same transnational corporations that sell
corn to Maseca began to sell patented seeds and big agrochemical
packets to local producers. The new seeds in addition to fertilizers
yielded more tons of corn per hectare, so Maseca argued that the
Creole corn does not offer high yields, and threatened the campesinos
that they would not buy the local corn because it was contaminated
with fungus. However, according to this organization, in the present
year, Maseca bough 57,000 tons of corn from the local growers
and 187,000 tons of corn for feed from the United States.
Producers from the countryside, facing the crisis and not willing
to give up their lands, began to celebrate the mirage of higher
yields and profits. Starting in 1999, the transnational
corporations and the government echoed these arguments. While
the companies promised higher yields, the government promised
subsidies so that growers could buy the "technology packets"
from the corporations. Currently, UPROMAIZ sells producers five
types of patented seeds from the companies Pioneer, Asgrow, Cargill,
Cristiani Burcal and Novasem. With these seeds, producers yield
between 8 and 10 tons of corn per hectare, like in the United
States, while paying lower production prices. In this year, the
producers were paid 1,510 pesos per ton, while in 1998 they were
paid 1,350 pesos for the same amount. This is only a 160-peso
increase in price, which is negligible considering the cost of
fertilizers, which continues to increase. Today, a ton of fertilizer
costs 1,850 pesos per hectare and a half, or maximum two hectares.
In this new system, the producer chooses the private seed they
want to buy, goes to UPROMAIZ to get the form from the corresponding
business, and later goes to the bank to deposit 220 pesos to the
bank account of the company. Next, they are directed to the offices
of the transnational located in the municipality of Villaflores
to pick up their "technology packet" that consists of
the patented corn seed, fertilizers, and agrochemicals. Finally,
the company applies to the government to charge 320 pesos for
the rest of the cost of the "technology packet" turned
over to the campesino, given that the cost of the packet is between
550 and 684 pesos depending on the brand. The government program
"Alliance for the Countryside" covers this cost, financed
through external debt with multilateral banks like the World Bank
or Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). If the producer chooses
the most expensive "technology packet", they use resources
from Procampo (Program of Direct Support to the Countryside) that
not all producers have (829 pesos per hectare), to access the
credit, or as collateral for the machinery that they can also
rent, or they simply use the deed to their ranch as collateral.
UPROMAIZ has a presence in at least 14 municipalities, including
Villaflores, Angel Albino Corzo, Villa de Acala, Chiapilla, Jitotol,
Comitan, Villa Corzo, La Concordia, Venustiano Carranza, Socoltenango,
Totolapa, Ocozocoautla, San Lucas and Chicomuselo. Recently, the
program consisted of around 20,000 producers in Chiapas, a number
that has grown because other municipalities in the highlands have
begun to incorporate themselves in this system. In the highlands
region as well as the northern zone and jungle we see the billboards
and advertisements of Monsanto, Novartis and other companies.
The ten largest transnational companies in the world that produce
seeds control 30% of the world commercial market of seeds valued
at 24.4 million dollars in the year 2000. DuPont (Pionner) is
in first place, followed by Monsanto, Novartis (Syngenta), Groupe
Limagrain, Pulsar, Advanta and Netherlands, Dow (Cargill), KWS
AG, Delta and Pine Land and Aventis.
UPROMAIZ accepts that the Creole corn no longer exists in the
region, and nobody knows of or remembers this indigenous seed.
Growers are very familiar with, for example, the corn 30F94 and
3086 of the transnational company Pioneer (DuPont), or of their
hybrids 3086 and 30F94. In this manner, food sovereignty is being
lost quickly, without the state government taking notice or wanting
to prevent the loss. In many regions, previously, indigenous people
and campesinos planted their corn, harvested it, ate part of the
harvests and sold the other part or kept it for the next harvest.
Now they buy the seed from a company, produce many tons at a low
cost for the company, consume millions of dollars of agrochemicals,
and later sell the product at a low cost and buy a packaged tortilla
from the company.
The Central and Frilesca regions of Chiapas are the image of the
transnational empire. On all of the roads and store buildings
are advertisements for the brands of seeds and agro-toxics for
corn from the principal transnational corporations like Decistab
of Aventis, Rival, Faena, Faena Fu, Glyfos, Herbipol Glifosato,
Harness and Rangel of Monsanto, Quron of Dow AgroSciences, Gesaprim
of Novartis, Forza, Brigadier, Coloso, Nuvacron, Semevin, Esteron
*47M, Tacsa Quat, Herbipol Amina, Herbipol Para Quat, Karate,
Chapoleo-E 400 CE, Chapoleo-A 480 SC, Secaszone 25 SC, Gramocil,
Finale SL 14, and others.
Last year, Novartis controlled 20% of the world market in agrochemical
sales. This transnational corporation sold a total of $6,100 million
dollars, putting it in first place. Monsanto was in second place
with 14% of world sales, Aventis in third place with 11%, BASF
in fourth place with 11%, Pionner (DuPont) obtained fifth place
with 8%, Bayer was in sixth place with 7%, and Dow in seventh
place with 7%. In other words, the ten largest agrochemical corporations
in the word control 85% of the sales and market.
The government continued serving as an agrochemical distributor
for the indigenous communities and campesinos. They distribute
the products of companies like Faena, Rangel or Rival of Monsanto
whose base is glyphosate, active herbicide substance and biochemical
agent. This pesticide was the third highest cause of health problems
among rural workers in California. Glyphosate impedes plants ability
to retain nitrogen, therefore eliminating fungi that help plants
to absorb water and nutrients. Monsanto, with its "agent
orange", sprayed millions of hectares of forest in Vietnam,
and continues to do the same with Glyphosate in South America
under the "Colombia Plan", which they spray from airplanes,
destroying biodiversity because the chemical stays in the land
for long periods of time. This has led to a debate between the
government of Colombia and its legislators who demand the prohibition
of glyphosate spraying because of harms to the health of campesinos
and indigenous people. "What has been missing is that they
say that you can eat glyphosate with Corn Flakes", said Senator
Rafael Orduz, who also stated that, "the fumigations are
a failure because during the ten years that they have fumigated
in Colombia, cultivation of illegal crops has increased from 40,000
to 160,000 hectares, and announced that he would present a law
to indefinitely suspend the fumigations as Bolivia and Peru have
already done."
According to the International Foundation for Rural Progress (RAFI),
just five powerful transnational corporations, the so-called genetic
giants, dominate the agro-biotechnology sector, among them Monsanto
(Pharmacia), DuPont, Syngenta (Novartis and Astra Zeneca), Aventis
and Dow. Recently Bayer and BASF have joined the list. Four industrial
crops (soya been, corn, cotton and colza) represent 100% of the
area of commercial crops that were planted in the year 2000 principally
in the United States, Argentina and Canada, where 98% of the area
was planted with genetically engineered seeds. However, only one
company that manufactures genetically engineered seeds is responsible
for 94% of the area cultivated with commercial genetically engineered
crops in the whole world: Monsanto.
It is important to remember the denunciations that Greenpeace
made about the importations to Mexico from the United States,
of genetically engineered corn mixed in corn flour produced by
Maseca. The imported corn is also used for the production of high
fructose syrup that is a substitute for sugar cane, which has
put sugar producers into crisis in the country. Chiapas has two
sugar refineries: Pujiltic and Huixtla.
Erika Pinzon Navarro, investigator of Agricultural Sciences at
the Autonomous University of Chiapas, confirms that Chiapas is
one of the states with the highest level of cancer caused by use
of high-risk agrochemicals that have been banned in other countries.
In a meeting held this August about environmental and health evaluation,
the Secretary of Health of Chiapas, Angel Rene Estrada spoke of
the necessity of lowering the risks that impact health. What he
does not know is that the same government that he works for is
distributing through government programs the same risks, the same
agrochemicals.
In the region of Soconusco the use of pesticides like "Malation"
are causing grave harms to human health. In the municipality Mazatan,
eleven minors were injured due to consuming water contaminated
with pesticides. In the mentioned meeting, the fact was mentioned
that 96% of growers apply high-risk pesticides, and 95% of those
growers do not use personal protection devices. In addition, there
is traffic of pesticides from Guatemala, as well as deficient
application of regulations, according to data from the National
Institute of Geographic and Informative Statistics (INEGI). (Cuarto
Poder, August 6, 2001)
In the month of July, drought in Central America threatened to
unleash a humanitarian catastrophe worse than the one caused by
Hurricane Mitch five years ago. People were starving in the coffee
growing zones of Nicaragua in the months of July and August, and
children and adults died of hunger in the communities of Las Calabaceras,
La Quemazon and El Aguacate. The Nicaraguans began to migrate
towards Costa Rica in search of work, but they only found more
immigration controls that impeded their entry to this country.
(El Diario de Hoy, July 21 and 22)
Honduras declared a State of Emergency due to the starvation of
150,000 campesinos who depend on subsistence crops, in half of
the provinces of the country. Around 1.5 million "quintales"
(1 quintal equals 100 kilograms) of corn and beans cultivated
on about 65,000 hectares of land were lost. In July, the World
Food Program sent the first 450 quintales of corn and 300 of beans
to families in some regions, as part of a shipment of 227 tons
of food that was meant to support the population.
In Guatemala, the government reported that the lack of rainfall
has caused the loss of almost 20 million dollars in harvests and
the situation was worsened by the increase in taxes as part of
the Fiscal Reform imposed on them by the International Monetary
Fund, which has led to a wave of protests and systematic repressions.
In El Salvador, 2.4 million quintales of corn were lost due to
the drought. In some regions between 75 and 100% of the harvests
were lost. Facing this crisis, the government launched the "Sowers
Plan" through which once again the transnational corporations
strengthened their market and the dependence of poor countries.
Between August and July, the government of El Salvador began to
distribute 5,200 quintales of patented or hybrid corns seeds (variety
HQ61) and 500 quintales of been seeds (variety Centa 2000) to
the campesinos. The government assured people that it was safe
to consume the agrochemicals that these seeds require. Later,
the program would bring credits, the seed would not be given for
free, and the cycle of dependency will start again.
"Africanization" and famine are coming to Central American
and Chiapas. Migration is growing and in this context the government
of Mexico announced the creation of the "Southern Plan"
to strengthen the sealing of the border with more soldiers and
police bodies in an attempt to contain poverty in the south. Recently,
President Vicente Fox opened an office of the National Human Rights
Commission (CNDH) in the border region of Chiapas to counteract
the constantly increasing violations of human rights of migrants
from Central America.
This August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (where personnel
from the company Monsanto work) announced the imminent commercialization
of the "Terminator" technology. Under this plan, license
is given to their private associate Delta Pine Land (DPL), one
of the international giants in seed production. This technology
will produce sterile or "suicide" seeds of soya, rice,
wheat, corn, and other crops, which will stop campesinos from
keeping seeds from the harvest for use in the next growth cycle.
According to RAFI, in Mexico, 3 million producers of basic grains
will be affected, and world-wide almost 400 million people, nearly
all poor campesinos who depend on keeping the seeds for the next
harvest. Even though other transnational companies that are leaders
in biotechnology like Monsanto, Aventis, Novartis and DuPont that
do business in Chiapas, have patents on Terminator technology,
only the DPL has openly reported their intention to commercialize
these seeds.
With the use of this Terminator technology, 30 types of corn in
Mexico will be put at risk along with hundreds of varieties. Campesinos
and Indigenous people would lose total control of their food,
nourishment, sovereignty and varieties. Because of them, we need
a brave Governor who is capable of banning the patents and genetically
engineered seeds before the campesinos, like in Brazil, become
obligated to burn the factories and the thousands of hectares
with genetically engineered foods. In this case, Pulsar located
in the state of Chiapas, is running this risk. But also, it is
necessary for the indigenous and campesina organizations to learn
about the problem and organize to defend their corn that is their
identity, food, autonomy, and spirit that inspires the soul of
indigenous resistance.
Therefore, to further the goal of education, it is important
for indigenous and campesino communities to realize that:
1) In several years, they will be unable to plant any other products
on their land. Agro-toxics will impact not only their lands, but
also biodiversity and the poisoned water supply.
2) The Croele corn has disappeared from the region and from their
hands, which means they have already lost the possibility of self-sufficiency,
of controlling their age-old seeds, of manufacturing their own
foods when the companies decide to leave. They have also lost
the autonomous producing of their own food with dignity.
3) The transnational corporations leave earning more money, selling
their private corn seeds, they control prices and control the
market, and they sell more agro-toxics then required for growing
corn.
4) The campesinos turn in more tons of corn at relatively lower
prices.
5) The federal and state governments support this policy, subsidize
the transnational corporations with external debt, and expect
that the campesinos and indigenous people will survive in misery
under the mirage of great wealth.
6) The subsidies are not for the producers, but for the transnational
corporations. The 220 pesos that the companies charge is more
expensive when the federal government has to return the loans
they solicit by raising taxes for the population to pay, opening
the border more to so-called "free trade" that benefits
the big businesses, and selling them more state run businesses.
7) In a few years the producers will only have two options: to
immigrate to the cities or to the United States, or to change
to cultivating products for agro-exports that the transnational
corporations impose by whim, increasing poverty as well as increasing
business profits. This is already occurring in the border regions
of Chiapas, most of all in the districts of the municipality Frontera
Comalapa and Chicomuselo, where growers have already planted cantaloupe,
watermelon, or the cempasuchil flower proposed to them by the
companies. This new production causes more migration, loss of
corn, and indebtedness that they try to pay by giving the campesinos
advance money from the Procampo resources of the coming years.
Even worse is the pretension to pay credits with the turning over
of their lands, by demanding property title before giving credit,
which was promoted by Procede, the Program of Certification of
Common Land Rights. In this context campesina and indigenous women
suffer the worst consequences because the properties remain in
the hands of men.
8) That if the invasion of patented corn enters the highlands,
northern and jungle region, where the indigenous campesinos due
to land conditions produce less tons per hectare, it will provoke
more hunger and misery in the Chiapas countryside.
The Mexican government continues declaring war on the Mexican
countryside and its producers, and with the Indigenous people
this is aggravated by not complying with the San Andres Accords
with the approval of the Cocopa Law on Indigenous Rights and Culture.
Mexico urgently needs a governmental policy for the countryside
that benefits poor people, campesinos and indigenous people, guaranteeing
food self-sufficiency without turning over our sovereignty to
U.S. transnational corporations. The indigenous people have had
corn in their hands for millennia; they have cared for it and
diversified the seeds. Hundreds of species of corn were born and
have been enjoyed by humanity. Now we are losing this biodiversity
and it is being patented and privatized by companies that are
pirating the seed, wrenching it out of indigenous hands and returning
it to them with brands, prohibitions, controls and more agro-toxics.
Indigenous resistance is not only political, but also deals with
food. Whoever controls food and seeds controls the lives and the
resistance of the people. Maintaining Creole corn is defending
our identity, food, culture and future. The resistance of the
Creole corn is the resistance and responsibility of everyone.
Gustavo Castro Soto.
Center for Economic and Political Investigations
of Community Action, A.C.
CIEPAC, member of the "Convergence of Civil Organizations
for Democracy" National Network
Education
and Indigenous Autonomy
Bulletin "Chiapas Today" No. 259
CIEPAC; CHIAPAS, MEXICO
September 26, 2001
Many are asking "What is indigenous autonomy for the
Zapatistas?" As part of a series of bulletins on this subject,
we have spoken already on women and health. We will now touch
on the subject of education in the context of the counter-reform
on indigenous rights and culture, approved by the Executive and
Legislative powers.
It is this autonomy that the governmental powers continue to harass
in the indigenous communities and territories, an action that
has sharpened in the context of the terrorism that destroyed the
Twin Towers in New York. The militarization in indigenous territories
in Chiapas has increased.
We will begin our analysis of autonomous education in an autonomous
Zapatista community.
"Autonomous education began seeing to the necessities; it
is not like government education." (Regional Education Commission).
"Education is very important, as everything comes from education."
(Education promoter)
When the EZLN arose in 1994, one of their principal demands was
education. Nonetheless, part of their autonomy has signified for
the indigenous that they begin to construct their own reality,
without waiting for the government to comply with their demands.
For this reason, in many autonomous Zapatista municipalities,
autonomous education is already being implemented; an educational
system that offers an alternative to the governmental education
system.
GOVERNMENT EDUCATION AND AUTONOMOUS EDUCATION
Consciousness is born when problems are recognized, upon understanding
ones reality, and identifying ways in which a people are oppressed.
For the indigenous Zapatista communities, State education has
been just one more way for the government to mistreat them, to
deny them their culture and rights. The Regional Education Commission
explains why they decided to form an autonomous education system,
and what it signifies:
"The relationship between education and autonomy can be seen
in our own autonomous education system. We can teach our own people
as we wish. We reflect on how we want to learn and we teach accordingly.
It is based on autonomy and it is different from the governmental
education, because in the governmental education system they teach
a single language (Spanish) and we want to be able to learn in
our own language. In their language, we are obligated to learn
their ideas, and we believe that it should not be like this. We
have observed that if we want our own education, it is better
to do it ourselves, to name our own teachers, promoters, and also
to include our own culture. In the official education, our culture
could get lost, and indigenous children will not have the opportunity
to know their own culture. And they would be ashamed to be indigenous.
We have seen this in cases where people that have gone to study
in government schools. It is not right we do not agree with this
system. We want an education that supports the people, not the
government. The government has an education system that benefits
them and nothing for the people. This is why we have decided to
look for our own teachers and to teach them how to teach."
"In the official education, they are hiding what, in reality,
is happening in the country: exploitation, oppression. They do
not help to understand the situation in the country, the suffering
of the people, the reality that we live. The government is hiding
the truth through its teachers, because teachers are the ones
who insert the governments ideas into children's minds so that
they do not wake up, so that they do not learn the country's history
or their own reality. But what we want to study is the real history,
to discover our own thoughts, not only to read and write. We want
to study the situation in the country, how our ancestors organized.
For example, they never tell us that they had their own autonomy.
Waking a child, the government is afraid that a political organizer
will arise, a person who truly knows reality."
"What the government wants is that we take on their customs.
It wants to obligate us to use the same customs and ideas as they
use. They tell us stories, but they are stories of the country's
suffering they are stories of cities, stories of how they are
living. The ideas of the government started with the children,
when they were still studying with the government teachers. They
taught us things that made us lose sight of our culture, for example,
that our ancestors did not read and write, that they did not use
arithmetic. But we know that is not true, that our ancestors did
use math. They were very wise."
"Our fathers started losing the culture of our ancestors.
Not because they wanted to, but because the governments plan was
very strong. The government forced their ideas upon them. What
we want to rescue is that which is not yet lost, what exists still
today in the communities."
Along with the rejection of indigenous culture there are various
concrete complaints of many of the official teachers: that they
abuse the children, that they do not teach in native languages,
that they work for a salary and not for conviction, and that they
work few days a week. When the indigenous communities began to
organize, they knew that they would no longer accept these things.
"I only finished the third grade of primary education in
the government school. But I learned there, by experience, that
one does not really learn in the government schools. It is not
a good course of study, the teachers are not good, they only come
one or two days a week, and they collect their full salary. We
learned next to nothing. We believe that children should not be
beat. For example, in the government schools, if you miss a day,
the next day they are waiting with a ruler to hit you. This is
not good one should not hit children. When they make mistakes
they should be corrected so that they understand their errors.
When children are hit, they dont feel like learning the only thing
they learn is fear and dejection."
The education promoters are the community teachers; they are the
ones that implement the autonomous education, the ones that teach
children in their own communities. Some of these community teachers
speak of government education and autonomous education:
"Our autonomous education is very different from government
education because the government teachers us things that are not
useful. They teach us for their own interest, not because they
care for the indigenous. For this reason, autonomous education
systems were formed, so that children can be taught our culture
and rights in our own language. When I went to the government
school, it was very different from our autonomous schools because
they do not teach us in our own language and they beat us mercilessly.
If one did not answer correctly, he or she was beat on the hands
with a ruler. In autonomous education, if a child does not understand
Spanish, we can explain a problem in Tzeltal or whatever language
we speak. Also, the children have the confidence of admitting
when they do not know something." (Eva, education promoter).
"On the subject of autonomous education, it is very important
for us, as education promoters and also for the community. There,
we learn how to teach children in two languages (Spanish and Tzeltal),
and to respect their rights as children and the ideas they express
in school. The government schools are different because the federal
teachers abuse children; they punish them when they do not do
their assignments. On the other hand, we have more affection for
the children and we are working voluntarily we don't earn a penny.
Only with the strength of our community behind us are we advancing,
because we have an interest in learning much more about education."
(Doroteo, education promoter)
"I am working with the children of my town, with all my heart
and with faith that they will pay good attention because they
know me, and I am very contented because each day they are learning
more about reading and writing. In contrast, the children do not
know the government teachers and are afraid of them at first."
(Nicolas, education promoter)
HISTORY OF AUTONOMOUS EDUCATION
The first step toward the formation of a system of autonomous
education was for the indigenous people to identify what they
did not like about the government education system: the abuse
of children, the lack of respect for the culture and the indigenous
languages, and that the official education was a vehicle for presenting
government ideas. Another step was to evaluate the knowledge that
the indigenous people possess, that does not come from government
schools, but that they learned on their own for being organized
through the indigenous struggle. "What we have learned has
been through our own struggle. We were taught to read and to do
addition and multiplication, but very little because we made many
mistakes and did not do it well. In the work we do with the organization
(EZLN) we achieve another kind of knowledge, another kind of experience.
For example, the community elects us for a local responsibility,
and within this responsibility we have to resolve problems, inform
about the situation, and through this we learn more. One has to
understand the political situation, the work, the problems that
we live."
"Autonomous education began seeing to the necessities it
is not like government education. We began to think of educating
among ourselves. We realized that we are forgetting how to count
and do sums in our own language. We began to think about our own
authority to educate, in having our own teachers. This is how
we began to dream about all this. And when we began to organize,
we could do it. Even better with the struggle, with the organization.
We saw that if we were going to change things, we were going to
change everything."
"In 1996 we began to promote autonomous education, through
a 60 page study that explains why it is important and why we need
to appoint education promoters in each community." (Regional
Education Commission). So they began to promote autonomous education
and to advise that communities appoint their own local promoters.
The communities named education promoters, but in the beginning
they did not have the experience nor the economic resources to
be good teachers. They had to look for the ways to learn more,
to develop an alternative methodology and autonomous materials,
and to form a regional structure to support the promoters. It
has not been easy nor fast but there have been advances in the
process of establishing an autonomous education.
One of the obstacles in the construction of autonomous education
is the difficulty of naming community teachers, if they themselves
have learned little within the official education system. "We
had to look for support to teach ourselves and to teach our promoters
about education, because we learned so little in the government
schools, and we saw that we needed to learn a little bit more.
For this reason, we had to look to civil society to support us
with training courses to learn more." (Regional Education
Commission). More than two years ago, the education promoters
named began to receive training courses from an educational cooperative
in Mexico City. "It is possible that our education is very
simple, we have very simple materials for example, the manual
that we made to be used in autonomous education. But it is the
only way that we have to keep from abandoning the children. It
had been a long time that they had been abandoned, because since
1994 they had not had classes. We have a primary school here,
but it was abandoned as of January 1, 1994. Without a teacher,
without anything."
Some communities continue to face difficulties in naming education
promoters. "It is not so easy to find education promoters,
people that are in the resistance movement that want to do this
work." (Regional Education Commission) An education promoter
explains: "I began this work 2 years and 3 months ago, when
the training course began. There were 36 promoters, but many left,
in the communities where there is no support. Now there are more
or less 30 of us. There are nine that have been working for more
than two years. The rest have been teaching for only 4 or 5 months.
They don't come from the same communities as before, where others
were left behind." (Edgar, education promoter)
"At any rate, the work of educating is increasing. Seeing
to the necessities is how we began to have an action plan, and
it is now a plan for the entire region." (Regional Education
Commission)
An important moment in the history of autonomous education was
the decision to reject the presence of the official teachers in
the communities and to establish autonomous education as the principal
education system in the autonomous regions. "The official
teachers were dismissed starting in December of 1999 and January
of 2000. The decision to dismiss them was made as a regional agreement;
if we are going to have our own teachers, we don't need the government
teachers there. We don't want competition or problems. We began
to inform them in a nice way, to explain why. Some of the teachers
understood, and were more or less in agreement with our autonomous
education system. They left understanding that we were going to
educate ourselves. The governments answer when it found out that
we dismissed the official teachers was to send more especially
in communities where there was division. The government wants
us to fight amongst ourselves. In the divided communities, the
"PRI" members did not want the official teachers to
leave because they do not agree with autonomous education. In
these communities, there is competition between the official teacher
and the education promoter. We continue to explain to our brothers:
we do not want problems. Although they may be from another organization,
we are all campesinos. We should always look for a solution. It
is very difficult when there are fewer "companeros"
and more PRI members. Sometimes we tell the promoters "Get
out of there so that you don't have problems." We have to
look for the way, little by little." (Regional Education
Commission).
Approximately half of the communities in the autonomous municipalities
have a community teacher. In some communities where there is division
between EZLN support bases and PRI members, they continue to use
official teachers. And there are other communities where the children
continue without schools.
EDUCATION AND AUTONOMY
So that education will really support autonomy, the autonomous
municipality has decided that autonomous education has to be based
in the indigenous culture. This includes teaching in the mother
tongue and the focusing on the importance that the earth has within
the indigenous culture. It also includes teaching respect as a
fundamental value in the indigenous culture: "Within autonomous
education respect for the culture and traditions holds an important
place that is what autonomy refers to, it is what the people are
living. We are demanding rights and indigenous culture but how
are we going to achieve this, if we don't do it ourselves?"
(Edgar, education promoter)
"In the autonomous education system, the inclusion of culture
is important. There are many things lost already, customs that
our father and grandfathers had, many customs that the "kaxlanes"
(non-indigenous people) have taken, and we recognize that. But
what we don't want to lose is what still exists. We want to defend
the culture and traditions that we still have."
"We want the traditions to apply in education: to learn to
read and write, but also to tell stories from our ancestors. In
governmental education they do not tell stories about how the
people used to organize, nor any stories about the country. What
the government wants to do is to erase that from history. That's
why we study, to know history and the problems that the people
have been lived through. To keep the culture intact, we believe
that it is important to teach in our own tongue. We also teach
in Spanish; the promoter speaks what little he knows with the
children. But if we learn only one language we are going to forget
our culture. That is why it is important to teach in our own language."
" We also teach about the land, about agriculture within
our education system, because it is part of our culture as well.
We teach the children to read and write and do addition and multiplication,
but we also teach them to sow corn and beans, because if we do
not they will not know. We saw that this idea is a good one because
if a child no longer wants to study, or even if he or she does
want to study but also wants vegetables or a plot of land to sow
corn, he or she will already know. The children are learning to
sow vegetables in a collective garden in the school." (Regional
Education Commission)
Autonomous education understands that education forms part of
the community life, and has to fortify the same as an integral
part of indigenous culture. In the official education system "they
teach children the idea that it is alright if you want to humiliate
somebody, another child. They do not teach respect. We were not
learning respect in the schools. The children learn these bad
ideas because they learn from the example of the teachers. The
child is not going to respect even his or her own family."
"We also think that education begins in the family. We see
that if the children are here and respect their teacher but do
not show respect at home, it is not a good education. Also if
they show respect at home but do not respect their brothers in
the community, it is also not a good education. That is why we
say that education springs from the family. If we are not demonstrating
a good example at home, we are not giving good education."
"The thing we want most is to respect and be respected within
our own community. The ancestors respected each other very much."
(Regional Education Commission)
Hilary Klein
CIEPAC, A.C.
Translated by Maria Elena Sanger for CIEPAC, A.C.
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Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas de Acción Comunitaria
Eje Vial Uno Numero 11
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era de México +52 9 678-5832
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C I E P A C
Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas de Acción Comunitaria,
A.C.
Eje Vial Uno No. 11
Colonia Jardines de Vista Hermosa
29297 San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México
Teléfono y Fax: (01)9-67 85832
ciepac@laneta.apc.org
http://www.ciepac.org/
CIEPAC, es miembro del Movimiento por la Democracia y la vida
(MVD) de Chiapas;
de la Red Mexicana de Accion Frente
al Libre Comercio (RMALC); y de
la Convergencia de Movimientos de
los Pueblos de las Americas (COMPA).
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