Empowering Indigenous Youth in Mexican Communities

This project aims to strengthen meaningful bonds between local youth and their indigenous community culture, carrying out workshops to increase awareness and foster creative expression regarding fundamental community practices. During this period, the UMCO team facilitated a state-wide workshop, which ended with the in-person session from November 29 to December 1, and initiated the organization of two community workshops with the Elementary School of San Miguel Tequixtepec and the Middle School of San Pedro Molinos, to begin at the end of February.

Thirty young people from six communities participated in the state-wide workshop, which included two virtual sessions and a three-day workshop. The virtual sessions introduced the themes of cultural change and the concept of comunalidad (a concept encompassing four pillars of community organization: communal government, communal territory, communal service and the fiesta). The in-person session, held in San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca, focused on the local practice carried out on Ash Wednesday. On this day, a local ritual involves offering sprouts of seeds of local grains to sacred sites throughout the community. This ceremony marks the beginning of the agricultural cycle, and the different sprouts are observed to decide which grains are best for planting. The young people dialogued with elders, and then recreated the offering of the sprouts to different places of worship. At the end of the workshop, young people shared their experiences and reflections through drawings, during an event transmitted on Youtube.

In January and February, 2025, the UMCO team initiated the Study Abroad/Civic Engagement program it has developed in collaboration with Kalamazoo College. In this program, participating students design and carry out creative workshops for indigenous students to express what they have learned about their local community practices. Currently, four students are preparing workshops to be carried out in San Miguel Tequixtepec and San Pedro Molinos. In the first community the local students will learn about the management of water, healing practices and palm weaving. In the second community, local students will learn about the limits of the communal territory, the functions of the agrarian authorities, and ceremonial practices of offerings to the earth.

In summary, in this period thirty young people from San Miguel Tequixtepec, San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca, Santa Ana del Valle, Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán, San Pedro Molinos and San Pedro Tututepec expanded their knowledge and appreciation of their traditional way of life through a state-wide workshop, while UMCO facilitators helped prepare workshops to be carried out in February and March, 2025.