Mexico: Being a Woman, Indigenous and a Teacher is Source of Pride for Guerrero Activist

Activist member of Guerrero dissident teachers' group, pre-school teacher Flora Pérez defends her cause.
Photo: Francisco Olvera

La Jornada: Sergio Ocampo Arista

Chilpancingo, Guerrero

"Governor Angel Aguirre Rivero should know that we will not leave the movement; we will continue to the end. If he thinks that because he repressed us we are going to be afraid to keep fighting, he is wrong. It isn't so. We as women, teachers and humble people of the Mountains [region] have dignity," said Flora Perez.

She warned that as long as the governor doesn't resolve the teachers' demands,

"we will be here. I arrived at the sit-in on February 25, when the movement began. My colleagues and I have not returned for a single day to our communities. We didn't take the Easter vacation. But no matter, the most important thing for us now is the fight and we support our leaders completely, so that the education reform won't happen in Guerrero."

Proud of her indigenous origins, born in the municipal seat of Zapotitlan Tablas, in the Me'phaa  (Tlapaneca) peoples' region in the High Mountains, she says:

"I am a preschool teacher in the town of Tlacoapa. I had to go and live there for 28 years with my husband, who is also here in the movement. In that time my three children were born, who are now 27, 24 and 23."

The teacher was interviewed at the encampment set up at the headquarters of the State Coordinating Committee of Education Workers in Guerrero (CETEG). In general, Tlapanecos make decisions collectively, so during the talk five companions were present, attentively listening to the responses of the women who apparently is their leader.

"I am in the movement because the government is making its reforms without considering the needs of indigenous peoples who live discarded because we don't have what they have in the cities," she adds.

"We analyzed the changes proposed in the education reform and we concluded that they will affect parents, and we believe the only way to support them is struggling in this way, because the government doesn't know what happens in our communities nor does it live together with people, and it doesn't take account of the problems and needs of children in the Mountains. It just wants to make the reform because it is being pushed by another country, and now they want to do it in Mexico."

- Is the education reform viable?

"Not in our Mountains. It won't do anything for the poverty in which parents find themselves in their communities. For example, if we talk about schools, we would say that they don't even have furniture, and now they intend to implement their reform which affects us in every way."

- Do you have fear of being evaluated there in the Mountains?

"No. The issue is that we don't want to be evaluated as the government proposes. We know that we have the capacity to assess our students. I am a graduate of the National Pedagogical University. I think teachers in the Mountains have the same capacity and therefore we are not afraid of any kind of evaluation, but we will not be assessed just for the fun of the government.

We evaluate our students, we do it with understanding of the environment in which they find themselves, because we can't compare a child in the city with one in the Mountains, because many of them have never been to the sea or Chilpancingo [the state capital], much less to the city of Mexico.

"My students, to get to kindergarten from their communities, take 40 minutes, some are from Tlacoapa, but most are not. We must take into account that the children are three to six years old, and the distance is too great for their age. It must be said that other children come from even further away to study in primary or middle school.

In kindergarten, I take care of 28 children. It's hard work, because classes are taught in two languages, Me'phaa and Spanish, because usually there are children who do not speak one of the two. I speak in Spanish and then in Me'phaa, i.e., I teach simultaneously in both languages; you can't teach in one language first and then the other; you have to use both."

The conversation began in an atmosphere of mistrust, but the teacher gradually opened up more freely. Dressed in blue pants and blouse, in flip flops, she spoke of one of the recurring problems in the schools of the region: food,

"One must say that there are differences, because there are children who do not receive adequate food and when they come to school, they are hungry.

When there are necessities in the schools, a meeting is held; agreements are made in an assembly. If cleaning products are missing, they cooperate. If parents believe that with 50 or 60 pesos [US 40-50 cents] they can covers the requirements for the entire school year, that is the amount that is set. "It is the only fee that is charged, because we have to cover these and other expenses."

Suddenly, she addressed the issue of the eviction by the Federal Police that occurred on Friday evening:

"The eviction was wrong because the government wants to solve our rejection of the reform in that way. The government shouldn't solve it violently; it ought to count on dialogue, seriously analyzing the proposals we made. [We want] (the governor, Angel Aguirre) to recognize that he didn't take into account the population, who are the ones that brought him to power, and now he represses his people, the teachers.

"In his campaign for governor, he said that he would support education and indigenous peoples more, but what he is doing is not supporting anything. We havn't seen a single rehabilitation by the SEP [Secretariat of Public Education] in any school in our area.  It doesn't worry about going to see what is missing in schools," she claimed.

Flora Pérez spoke about the situation of women in the High Mountains:

"We don't have jobs for women. They are mostly housewives. Those of us who work do it in order to eat. There are no resources to buy things or go to a restaurant, of which there aren't any. Seeking to make a living, some take care of houses or work in the fields. What else can we do in an environment of poverty and neglect?"

 Spanish original