Literacy Group

Maria used to live in an isolated community where school was often cancelled upon arriving to the one room primaria (elementary), still a common occurrence in outlying communities. Her dad wanted her to go to school, but with all the work to be done like farming the milpa (corn field), cooking, collecting water, she stopped attending in fourth grade as did many of her siblings.

Maria now lives in Zacango, about a 15-20 minute drive outside of Olinalá where MCC has been involved in the community in a variety of ways for the last ten years. She loves to talk and laughter bubbles up quickly. While she doesn’t have a high opinion about her intelligence or her ability to learn, she has an insatiable curiosity. A few years ago she was part of the sewing group with eight or so other women in the community that MCC supported. Maria enjoyed learning to embroider with ribbon and a variety of needle work that Gladys, a former MCC worker, taught the group. Maria took pride in her work and became disillusioned that the others didn’t take more time and effort in their labors.

As we eat the cupcakes that Jaime made, Maria tells us about the cooking and baking classes that she attended, also given by past MCC workers. She laughs that even if she can’t remember anything, she always wanted to be a part of the class. She comments to Jaime that she might have a better chance of learning how to bake the delicious cupcakes than her letters.

A group of five women sit in a circle at Jaime’s house talking about their school experience. The house is full of activity with community children running in and out followed by the two dogs that belong to the house. The chickens peck and squawk just outside the door and every so often the rabbits and guinea pigs are brought in for show. This is the second meeting of the women’s literacy group that Jaime initiated after hearing the needs of the community women.

The women have a variety of education levels and experiences. At one point Maria memorized the letters of her name, but she gets them confused and can’t remember in what order to write them. Veronica knows how to write her letters but would like to learn how to read. Valentina grew up speaking an indigenous language, learning Spanish as a second language. She knows how to write, but never knows where to put the commas or periods. Her husband is the elementary teacher for the community, but she’s so embarrassed that he doesn’t have time to teach her how to properly write a paragraph.

This week we talked, got to know each other and learned about why these women want to be part of the literacy group. Many of the women have not completed elementary school. Only a few have finished la secundaria (7^th-9^th grades), and still fewer la prepa (high school). As Jaime is just learning Spanish, she invited me to work with the higher level students. I look forward to Wednesday evenings when I can build relationships with this group of women in Zacango. I pray through our time together we can learn together building on our strengths.