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| Students at Ayotzinapa Normal School (Teachers College) (Photo: Daniel Cruz) |
Milenio: Israel Navarro and Rogelio Augustín Esteban
Ayotzinapa, Guerrero • After two months of conflict with teachers of the State Coordinating Committee of Education Workers of Guerrero [CETEG] Governor Ángel Aguirre has another problem looming with the rural normalistas [Normal School, or Teachers College, students].
A week ago, the Governor confirmed that the Secretariat of Public Education will not grant more positions for the normalistas. He even said that in order to resolve the future conflict he will meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto to ask for the spaces demanded by the students.
"We have to look at the issue of the normal schools. They are graduating more than 700 young people. They're reporting that there will be no federal positions, which is going to deepen the conflict. I will see what form it takes, but I have to search for an alternative for these young people who will have to be subjected to an evaluation process and the academic is the only criterion that will prevail," he said.
In this regard, the teacher Raúl Zapata said the rural normalistas from Ayotzinapa are ready to take to the streets to demand what they are entitled by law: places to work.
"If there no positions, we are not going to work, and then what? We're going out to demand. When the state government sees us it has fear, it is is frightened, this is what we have learned. We know that we can do many things, and we will fight together."
The rural Normal School Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, survives multiple adversities: lack of support from the state government, lack of resources, and its geographical location. The 522 students rely on government assistance of 50 pesos [$4.10 USD] a day to subsist. With it they must have their three meals and purchase their school supplies.
Until 2012, they received 35 pesos [$2.87 USD], but following the death of Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, who were struck by gunfire from federal and state police during the eviction of a group of students from that campus who had blocked the Highway of the Sun, the state raised them 15 pesos.
Since its founding in 1926, the rural normal school students have been truly self-sufficient and a clear example of social support: they have crews that go to the villages to do cleaning work, others "are good for painting and go where they are called". After classes, some help collect donations from drivers at highway crossings, which has caused altercations with the authorities.
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The Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa is 30 minutes from Chilpancingo, the state capital, and the surrounding villages have 310,000 people who are grateful for the young people's support. At the entrance to the campus, visitors read this legend spelled out in black letters on white background:
"Cradle of Social Consciousness".
Behind the slogan is the stone-hard face of Manuel Altamirano, writer, journalist, teacher and Mexican politician, who guards the students.
What stands out about the old building is its cleanliness and the various murals that adorn it, most painted by future teachers. As if it were a business, on its front door one reads the mission and vision of the Rural Normal of 'Ayotzi', in addition to several alumni plaques that evoke their passage through those classrooms.
Although simple, the library has in its six bookcases about 15,000 books, including those by Octavio Paz, Jaime Torres Bodet, Juan José Arreola and José Joaquín Blanco being the most read. Also, the titles of Education Evaluation, Cuisine of Writing, How Children Learn and How to Speak in Public are best-sellers.
The Raúl Isidro Burgos Normal School is one of few academic institutions that subsidizes students, and it has the capacity and resources to receive only 522 students.
The annual graduation of 140 students opens their spaces, which are filled by launching an enrollment call. The only admission requirement is "to be of scarce resources [poor]". To confirm it, the executive committee, made up of future teachers, go to the homes [of prospective students] to conduct a socioeconomic study.
"Sometimes we would like to have more spaces for the young people who come to register, but we do not have the infrastructure or the money to maintain them," Zapata commented.
The 50 pesos that the government gives them for their three meals a day provides for breakfast, an egg with sausage or pork; for the main meal, beef broth or beef with vegetables; and for supper, bread or vegetables and atole [traditional hot corn drink].
In Ayotzi they also honor their dead: in the central plaza [square] are plaques that memorialize Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, who died on December 12, 2011. There we read:
"For your blood spilled on these lands of Guerrero".
At about 11:45 AM on that day, about 500 normalistas blocked the Highway of the Sun and the federal highway, at the elevation of Chilpancingo.
Their main demand was an audience with Governor Ángel Aguirre in order to ask, among other things, that the school enrollment be increased from 140 to 170 seats for the 2011-2012 school year and that applicants with an [academic] average of '7' be allowed to take the entrance examination.
Their main demand was an audience with Governor Ángel Aguirre in order to ask, among other things, that the school enrollment be increased from 140 to 170 seats for the 2011-2012 school year and that applicants with an [academic] average of '7' be allowed to take the entrance examination.
The blockade had just begun when at least 300 troops of the federal and state police, the latter led by General Ramón Arreola Ibarría, Undersecretary of Security in Guerrero arrived. Investigative Police [Public Ministry] arrived later.
Minutes later, one of the students set fire to a fuel pump, which is when federal police fired in the air. The students were attacked from two sides, north and south, on both lanes of the Highway of the Sun, and Huacapa River Bridge.
A group of students tried to take shelter in one of the trucks, and another tried to repel the police with fireworks and stones, but was unsuccessful. To the contrary, the gunfire intensified. Bus windows and bodies were destroyed by gunshot.
"Another of our requests that day was that they might increase the subsistence support. Unfortunately, the increase came at the death of our fellow students...," laments Zapata.
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A few meters below the plaza that evokes the dead are two, two-story buildings where students are trained "with socialist and communist thoughts".
Facing them are the dormitories, which are simple bunks set in rows. On one of the outer walls is a mural dedicated to Subcomandante Marcos [Zapatista leader].
The dining room also has art. The students enjoy their food under the watchful gaze of Lucio Cabañas, Manuel Altamirano, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
At the back of this area are tennis courts and a swimming pool ... that has no water.
"Here in Guerrero there are very few opportunities to study or work. We prefer to be here and be an asset to the community rather than committing crimes or doing other things," says Zapata.
After completing their classes, students flock to nearby towns, including Chilpancingo for social work like sweeping the streets or painting houses.
"We're good for everything: to study, to march, to speak out. We have the idea of a greenhouse to grow our own food. Here we are short of resources, but never of the ability to reason," says Zapata.