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| Fortunato Morales belongs to the teacher protests in Mexico City. He is bilingual (Mazatec-Spanish) and holds the B.A. in Mathematics Photo: Arturo Cano |
Teacher Fortunato Morales Pastelín regrets that he doesn't have cable television.
"I can only get the channels where they call us burros [colloquial Mexican expression: oafs or dimwitted], where nothing positive about us is seen or broadcast ... Televisa is not willing to spend time on what I have done in my school," he says, and looks as the march begins to move behind him.
"Perhaps there might still be a few teachers with minimal studies, but the majority of us demonstrating here have degrees."Teacher Fortunato is bilingual (Mazatec-Spanish), and he has earned the Baccalaureate in Mathematics and is matriculated at the National Pedagogic University (UPN) for a Baccalaureate in Indigenous Education. He wants to complete these studies and pursue a Degree in Mathematics Education at the National Polytechnic Institute.
"I like looking for training opportunities, to study, to train me," he says. Some of his teachers in the UPN, teachers with Master's and Doctoral degrees in various institutions, confirm his statement.At the end of high school, Fortunato wanted to study computer science, but failed to do it because his family couldn't afford his upkeep outside his home in San Jerónimo Tecóatl.
The eldest of six children of a family that makes bread in addition to growing coffee and corn, he went to Puebla to work for a year, until an uncle, a teacher, told him that they were admitting high school graduates to take teacher education courses. Given a teacher shortage (although it is sometimes said there are too many), high school graduates take courses for several months and upon completion, they begin to work as teachers.
It was his case. In 1994 he began his course in Tuxtepec and finished in Oaxaca City with a grant of 800 pesos per month.
After the course, his first assignment was to report to a sit-in that Section 22 of the SNTE had in the City of Oaxaca's main plaza. A week later he began work in the classroom in San Antonio Eloxochitlán, a Mazatec village where there is no trace of the birth--there in 1873--of the child that a rural teacher named Ricardo Flores Magón [1873-1922; journalist, writer, politician and Mexican anarchist recognized as among those who sowed the seeds of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920].
Teacher Fortunato's first position in Eloxochitlán was serving third and fourth grade students in a small school.
Years later, always interested in further study, he went to Tehuacán, Puebla, to the headquarters of the Superior Normal School, with the intent to pursue a Baccalaureate in Mathematics ("because it fascinates me"). The department coordinator initially refused him, then he came via the bilingual education subsystem.
"He told me that the studies were for secondary [high school] teachers, preferably from the city and, besides, that the examination was very difficult and it was not going to happen."After much insistence, he got to take the exam. He scored among the first five places. With his Baccalaureate, he has held senior positions in the area of bilingual, intercultural education, but he has not wanted to stop.
Held Prisoner for 21 Days
Concerned about "the difficulties that my students have writing in their mother tongue" and in order to bring community knowledge to the school space, he decided to pursue a degree in indigenous education at the National Pedagogic University. He currently resides in Mexico City with his wife Lizeth (who is an architect), and their daughter Fatima who was a baby when her father went to jail, trapped in a protest after the Federal Police took the City of Oaxaca in 2006.
"I was in a prison in Nayarit for 21 days. When my wife came to visit, I told her not to worry, because I had not done anything. It didn't matter. I was a political prisoner."
La Jornada: What is a good teacher?
"A good teacher is dedicated to her work in the classroom, but also willing to work outside, visiting families, getting close to the kids, getting close to the authorities. The good teacher is also one who plans, thinks and provides for the children's needs. They pay us to teach, but it isn't only that the students learn to read, add and subtract, but we should intervene in other of their needs. For example, in my community there is a lot of violence towards children; the problem of alcoholism is severe. I have gone to talk to parents, and there are people who take it well and others who, unfortunately, tell us to go fly a kite."In recent weeks, Fortunato has participated in teacher demonstrations in Mexico City--although the UPN has only joined the strike for a few days--because he thinks that the reform "of the Pact for Mexico doesn't even touch" the educational [issues]. At this point, he explains with very concrete examples of his work in the classroom, why standardized testing is opposed.
Every year, at the UPN a cultural week of the original peoples is held. As Fortunato thinks that "much has been folklor-ed", he chose to invite several sixth grade students:
"Three of the four who came had never visited Mexico City. I asked them to come and show what they know how to do. They were worried because they had to speak, but I insisted that it didn't matter that they might say 'el cubeta' (in Mazatec, the article for masculine and feminine is indistinct). They expressed themselves very well. We brought corn, sugarcane, tepache, and the children spoke about the Corn Festival, the Day of the Dead, of how what they do every day are the subjects that we are studying in the school [UPN]."The march is about to start, and Fortunato bids farewell:
"It's annoying when they say that we're driving the city crazy. But the government has left us no other way."Spanish original