The Universidad Autónoma Comunal de Oaxaca (UACO) was created out of decades, if not centuries of indigenous peoples’ struggle resisting manifestations of colonialism and tendencies towards assimilationist curricula within the national education system. It is not a coincidence that this project occurs in a region of México that is a hotbed for teacher’s resistance and intercultural educational methods championed by Oaxaca’s educational workers union known as el Magisterio. The intercultural approach to education incorporates indigenous language and local cultural customs into the classroom, better catering to the specific needs of historically marginalized communities around the state.
My research takes place in Guelatao de Juárez, a small community tucked away in the lush mountainous Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca, which is the birthplace of the Bachelor’s program in Comunalidad. Comunalidad is not a concept nor a theory for academic analysis, rather it is a way of life, a means for understanding the world through the lived experience of community members also known as ciudadanos. The theoretical foundation of the UACO has been meticulously constructed by the intellectual architect and current president of the university, Jaime Martínez Luna, along with many other compañeros throughout Oaxaca. These leaders are committed to providing viable alternatives to a current educational system which many consider promotes ethnocide and homogenizes indigenous communities. These monumental efforts have transformed into sixteen Centros Universitarios Comunales (CUCs) across Oaxaca’s eight regions.
The Comunalidad Bachelor’s program in Guelatao is structured around the four main “pillars” of Comunalidad. These central tenets are territory, organization, work, and fiesta, all integral principles that guide the lives of community members within Guelatao and act as a structural base for the UACO’s curriculum. The curriculum, classes, assignments, and projects that are completed during a student’s time at the UACO Comunalidad Bachelors program are based on these four pillars. My time at the UACO was spent actively participating and observing courses with third semester students. I additionally interviewed administrators, educational facilitators, and students with the goal of enriching existing research on intercultural education and highlighting the extraordinary achievements of this unique university.
The UACO does not bind itself to a specific classroom or institutional space. The university has a variety of different locations that it temporarily occupies for classes throughout the community. There is great significance and symbolism behind the fact that classes take place in buildings that represent Guelatao’s commitment to resistance, autonomy, and collective education. For example, one of the common classroom spaces is the Cine Too theater. Cine Too was inaugurated on December 17th 2016 with the mission to provide community members with access to independent films and high quality cinema. This space was entirely organized and constructed by the community with a consistent schedule of independent cinema highlighting relevant themes of resistance in the region. Titles that are screened in Cine Too include Tio Yim, a locally produced documentary covering the life achievements and community activism of Jaime Martínez Luna and Gente de Mar y Viento, a documentary based on the problems of wind energy in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Cortés, 2017). Cine Too is yet another example of spaces within Guelatao de Juárez that are contributing to an informed and conscientious populace through collective education projects. Some additional areas in Guelatao that served as an educational space include the lagoon amphitheater, the UACO Café, and the Pemex Gasolinera de Bienestar. The fundamental idea behind this constantly evolving educational space is to deconstruct the hierarchical and often closed-off nature of a traditional classroom, exposing students to different parts of the community and encouraging interaction with citizens. To fully grasp the importance of the UACO’s educational approach it is integral to construct a base understanding of the four pillars that form the curriculum.
Territory is that initial link that connects a people to their common shared place. It is something that is tangible, something that holds essential collective tales and stories of the community. Territory represents an inextricable connection between humans and the earth that provides for our sustenance. To be able to understand the significance of territory within the UACO’s Comunalidad Bachelor's program, one must grasp that deep connections are formed with territory through learning to embrace its many lessons. The teachings of territory demonstrate that its health is necessary to strengthen life, its communal ownership is integral to extract solely what is necessary to be healthy, exist, and enjoy its many fruits (Martínez Luna, 2015, 33). Territory classes at the UACO construct an understanding of the territorial limitations of the community while highlighting prospective local development projects that could benefit the collective. These courses illuminate the mystical importance of territory. Territory is not only a physical space, but the stories that develop around certain territorial characteristics such as the lagoon are evidently connected to profound parts of cultural identity.
During my time with the UACO’s Comunalidad Bachelors program, third semester students participated in the course, Communal Political Exercise, which forms part of the organization pillar of their studies. This pillar focuses on the political functionings of the community such as the communal assembly and the escalafón de cargos. 418 out of the 570 municipalities in the state of Oaxaca currently function under the local governing system, usos y costumbres. This local form of governance employs a communal assembly as its central decision making body, excluding any and all presence of political parties. The escalafón de cargos refers to a scale of mandatory communal work that is assigned to citizens every few years by the communal assembly. This work usually spans the length of one to three years and is an essential part of communal life in Guelatao. Students at the UACO were tasked with picking a research topic within the cargo system and interviewing municipal workers to better understand how they conducted their work. This type of research aided in deepening students comprehension of local customs surrounding governance, contributing to the preservation of vast and complex local knowledge.
The third pillar taught at the UACO is collective work, characterized by the cultural custom of the tequio. The word tequio derives from the náhuatl word, tequitl, which means tribute. Tequio is essentially communal work projects where citizen’s participation is solicited by the municipal government to improve certain conditions of the community. This work can range from fixing potholes on the highway to reforestation projects on nearby hillsides. In the UACO classroom, we would read articles by local academics such as Jaime Martínez Luna or Floriberto Díaz that highlighted the importance of this ritual. Communal work is seen as reciprocal. It allows citizens to accumulate prestigio within their community which increases the likelihood that they will be considered for positions of increasing authority in the municipal government. During my research at the UACO students engaged in the course, Forms of Communal Work. The educational facilitator guided enriching discussions where students reflected on their experiences during tequio and reciprocal work (gozona) proudly explaining this unique approach to life that is so integral to their cultural heritage.
Finally, Guelatao’s UACO Comunalidad curriculum provides a space for analyzing and reflecting on the fiesta. In Guelatao all of this collective work and effort towards managing the community throughout the year coalesces in the fiesta on March 21st. This is a time when the community celebrates through cultural, athletic, gastronomic, and creative expression. In the UACO course, Communal Recreation, we analyzed the inner workings of the fiesta addressing how these festive spaces are constructed and elaborating on their significance. This course set out the goal of orienting students on meaningful, safe, and healthy recreation opportunities within their communities.
Educational projects such as the UACO are part of a movement decolonizing learning spaces throughout academia. The UACO came into existence to combat decades of assimilationist curricula that promoted ethnocide of indigenous ancestral knowledge in an attempt to homogenize a nation state. UACO is a consequence of this phenomenon and an evident resistance to this homogenization in favor of pluralism and communal autonomy. The curriculum systematizes the communal experience and forms citizens willing to be active agents advocating for positive change in their communities.
Pictures by Dylan Dornfeld
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Works Cited:
1. Martínez Luna, Jaime. Educación Comunal. Colectivo Casa De Las Preguntas, 2015.
2. Cortés, Alberto. “Cine Too – El Cine Encantado De Guelatao De Juárez.” Desinformémonos, 7 Jan. 2017, https://desinformemonos.org/cine-too-cine-encantado-guelatao-juarez/ (https: //desinformemonos.org/cine-too-cine-encantado-guelatao-juarez/).
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The opinions expressed in this blog post represent the views of the author and not of the UCLA Latin American Institute.