Note that all the quotes were translated from Spanish to English, but not by me, and may not perfectly reflect the original Spanish. Also note that I did not talk directly with someone from CIDECI so nuances and student perspectives are missing.
CIDECI (Centro Indígena de Capacitación Integral, ‘An Indigenous Centre for Integral Learning’) is located on 20 hectares of land in Chiapas, México in a neighborhood outside of San Cristobal de las Casas. (CIDECI blog/website only in Spanish: http://www.cgtchiapas.org/cideci-unitierra).
CIDECI is part of the Unitierra movement that began in Oaxaca, Mexico with Gustavo Esteva. The Unitierra movement is an autonomous learning movement. Much has been written about this movement, and I don’t attempt to fully explain it here, but to provide some context, here are some quotes by Gustavo Esteva from http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/liberate-your-space/reclaiming-our-freedom-to-learn).
Raymundo Sanchez Barraza is the primary organizar of CIDECI in Chiapas. For an interview with him about CIDECI and more in depth information about the context of CIDECI, see http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/rsb_int_eng.html.
CIDECI is inspired by the Zapatista struggle. “All of this could only be done within the panorama of what the Zapatista struggle has been able to open up: autonomy, self-determination, radical democracy, no to party politics, no to taking power” (Barraza). For those with no prior context for the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, see the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/sdsl-en/.
CIDECI has been around since 1989. In the words of Barraza: “It’s an Indigenous Center. This is what makes it significant and what gives it its unique characteristics. It’s not a center that’s just for, but it’s also by, the indigenous. It’s an indigenous center in its work, in its definition, in its method of operating, in its components, in those who make it up.”
CIDECI receives no resources from and doesn’t depend on the state. It serves 800-900 students every year, however this number doesn’t include students who come in from the city (San Cristobal) for parts of the day. Students all come for free. “What is the dominant current? Everything is marketed, everything has a price, everything is bought and sold -- organs, the body, genomes, even the soul. We say that everything of ours is free” (Barraza). There is no enrollment. Students can come for any amount of time -- a few weeks to a couple years – depending on their interest and time. Afterwards, they typically go back to their communities with the skills they acquire. The ages of students ranges from 12 to 25.
CIDECI favors the population of indigenous youth who didn’t have schooling or who were cut off from their schooling. Students speak the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Chol and Tojolabal languages. Spanish allows for intercultural exchange, as students come from all parts of Chiapas, some from Guatemala, some from Oaxaca, and sometimes from the Yucatan. CIDECI works to promote the autonomy of local indigenous communities. “The primary component, as I told you, based on a principle which gives this place its identity, its form, its destiny, is the indigenous, and the non-indigenous is stated clearly here to be the opposite. In the outside world, you are here, and they are there. Here it’s the opposite, they are the ones in first place” (Barraza).
No one needs to meet any formal education requirements to become a student at CIDECI. Additionally, students work at the school in addition to their apprenticeships/study. CIDECI doesn’t prepare their students for the market, but to return to their communities or organizations. In this way, the school rejects capitalist norms. The teachers are not paid professionals, but people from the communities who want to share their learning. They receive a small sum for travel and upkeep. Course areas include but are not limited to mechanics, sewing, architecture, shoemaking, printing, weaving, music, library, seminar forums, farming and agroecology. Many ex-students have taken the role of teachers on the various courses that are offered at CIDECI, which range from technical skills, to health and nutrition and food cultivation. There are also weekly and monthly seminars that bring together others from outside CIDECI and there have also been a number of international seminars.
CIDECI rejects the norms of what is considered a “good education” and what the University system (a Western invention) stands for. “We have to expropriate those who monopolize the prestige of knowledge and expression. We too are a university which has knowledge” (Barraza).
And a few more quotes for context on the framework and ideology behind CIDECI: “Hope, therefore, belongs to the resistance, but it’s the hope that something else is possible and that, even though we’re immersed in the contradictions of the world, in some details of our dealings, our work, our thought, our seeing, you have to realize that we’re going by another path, not by this world’s path with its model of profits, marketing, exploitation, greed, control, contempt for the different….In hopes of what? That another world is possible. That we won’t fall into the trap of those who tell us that what exists is inevitable destiny, there’s nothing else. We say there is, we’re seeking it…. With whom? With those who have resisted for centuries….” (Barraza). “Looking to the future I believe this system has reached its secular limits and the indicators we have of crisis, of disorder, of entropy, are the indicators of a terminal crisis. That’s what we’re experiencing. If you look at the world from that angle and look at what we’re doing, then what we’re doing is valid. We’re in the future, and we’re sounding an alert because we also believe that the critical fluctuations over the next few years will be such that they’ll collide with catastrophe. Look at New Orleans, it’s a horrific mirror, even of this size. It’s a horrific mirror of what awaits us” (Barraza).
Further resources specific to CIDECI (English):
Note: There seems to be a Unitierra Califas in California as well, it is mentioned in this article http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/lets-see-ourselves by Gustavo Esteva. However, I could not find information about it online.
CIDECI (Centro Indígena de Capacitación Integral, ‘An Indigenous Centre for Integral Learning’) is located on 20 hectares of land in Chiapas, México in a neighborhood outside of San Cristobal de las Casas. (CIDECI blog/website only in Spanish: http://www.cgtchiapas.org/cideci-unitierra).
CIDECI is part of the Unitierra movement that began in Oaxaca, Mexico with Gustavo Esteva. The Unitierra movement is an autonomous learning movement. Much has been written about this movement, and I don’t attempt to fully explain it here, but to provide some context, here are some quotes by Gustavo Esteva from http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/liberate-your-space/reclaiming-our-freedom-to-learn).
- “We have learned, with the Zapatistas, that while changing the world is very difficult, perhaps impossible, it is possible to create a whole new world. That is exactly what the Zapatistas are doing in the south of Mexico. How can we create our own new world, at our own, small, human scale, in our little corner in Oaxaca? How can we deschool our lives and those of our children in this real world, where the school still dominates minds, hearts and institutions?”
- “Our challenge thus became to find ways to regenerate community in the city, to create a social fabric in which we all, at any age, would be able to learn and in which every kind of apprenticeship might flourish.”
- The Unitierra model is built on the idea of apprenticeship. “Students learn the skills of the trade or field of study as apprentices of someone practicing those activities.”
- “We call Unitierra a university to laugh at the official system and to play with its symbols. After one or two years of learning, once their peers think they have enough competence in a specific trade, we give the “students” a magnificent university diploma. We are thus offering them the social recognition denied to them by the educational system.”
- “Our diplomas have no use for those who wish to show off or to ask for a job or any privilege. They are an expression of people's autonomy. As a symbol, they represent the commitment of our “students” to their own communities, not a right to demand anything. Nonetheless, 100 percent of our “graduates” are doing productive work in the area they studied.”
Raymundo Sanchez Barraza is the primary organizar of CIDECI in Chiapas. For an interview with him about CIDECI and more in depth information about the context of CIDECI, see http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/rsb_int_eng.html.
CIDECI is inspired by the Zapatista struggle. “All of this could only be done within the panorama of what the Zapatista struggle has been able to open up: autonomy, self-determination, radical democracy, no to party politics, no to taking power” (Barraza). For those with no prior context for the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, see the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/sdsl-en/.
CIDECI has been around since 1989. In the words of Barraza: “It’s an Indigenous Center. This is what makes it significant and what gives it its unique characteristics. It’s not a center that’s just for, but it’s also by, the indigenous. It’s an indigenous center in its work, in its definition, in its method of operating, in its components, in those who make it up.”
CIDECI receives no resources from and doesn’t depend on the state. It serves 800-900 students every year, however this number doesn’t include students who come in from the city (San Cristobal) for parts of the day. Students all come for free. “What is the dominant current? Everything is marketed, everything has a price, everything is bought and sold -- organs, the body, genomes, even the soul. We say that everything of ours is free” (Barraza). There is no enrollment. Students can come for any amount of time -- a few weeks to a couple years – depending on their interest and time. Afterwards, they typically go back to their communities with the skills they acquire. The ages of students ranges from 12 to 25.
CIDECI favors the population of indigenous youth who didn’t have schooling or who were cut off from their schooling. Students speak the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Chol and Tojolabal languages. Spanish allows for intercultural exchange, as students come from all parts of Chiapas, some from Guatemala, some from Oaxaca, and sometimes from the Yucatan. CIDECI works to promote the autonomy of local indigenous communities. “The primary component, as I told you, based on a principle which gives this place its identity, its form, its destiny, is the indigenous, and the non-indigenous is stated clearly here to be the opposite. In the outside world, you are here, and they are there. Here it’s the opposite, they are the ones in first place” (Barraza).
No one needs to meet any formal education requirements to become a student at CIDECI. Additionally, students work at the school in addition to their apprenticeships/study. CIDECI doesn’t prepare their students for the market, but to return to their communities or organizations. In this way, the school rejects capitalist norms. The teachers are not paid professionals, but people from the communities who want to share their learning. They receive a small sum for travel and upkeep. Course areas include but are not limited to mechanics, sewing, architecture, shoemaking, printing, weaving, music, library, seminar forums, farming and agroecology. Many ex-students have taken the role of teachers on the various courses that are offered at CIDECI, which range from technical skills, to health and nutrition and food cultivation. There are also weekly and monthly seminars that bring together others from outside CIDECI and there have also been a number of international seminars.
CIDECI rejects the norms of what is considered a “good education” and what the University system (a Western invention) stands for. “We have to expropriate those who monopolize the prestige of knowledge and expression. We too are a university which has knowledge” (Barraza).
And a few more quotes for context on the framework and ideology behind CIDECI: “Hope, therefore, belongs to the resistance, but it’s the hope that something else is possible and that, even though we’re immersed in the contradictions of the world, in some details of our dealings, our work, our thought, our seeing, you have to realize that we’re going by another path, not by this world’s path with its model of profits, marketing, exploitation, greed, control, contempt for the different….In hopes of what? That another world is possible. That we won’t fall into the trap of those who tell us that what exists is inevitable destiny, there’s nothing else. We say there is, we’re seeking it…. With whom? With those who have resisted for centuries….” (Barraza). “Looking to the future I believe this system has reached its secular limits and the indicators we have of crisis, of disorder, of entropy, are the indicators of a terminal crisis. That’s what we’re experiencing. If you look at the world from that angle and look at what we’re doing, then what we’re doing is valid. We’re in the future, and we’re sounding an alert because we also believe that the critical fluctuations over the next few years will be such that they’ll collide with catastrophe. Look at New Orleans, it’s a horrific mirror, even of this size. It’s a horrific mirror of what awaits us” (Barraza).
Further resources specific to CIDECI (English):
- For more general information on the Unitierra movement, by Gustavo Esteva, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/liberate-your-space/reclaiming-our-freedom-to-learn
- The work of Ivan Illyich influenced the thought behind CIDECI. A little about major thought of Ivan Illich: http://infed.org/mobi/ivan-illich-deschooling-conviviality-and-lifelong-learning/#further_reading
- Seminarios Cideci-Unitierra Chiapas: http://seminarioscideci.org/cideci-uni-tierra/
- Interview with Gustavo Esteva, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/gest_int_2.html
- Books and articles by Gustavo Esteva: http://gustavo-esteva.blogspot.com.br/2011/09/books-and-articles-gustavo-esteva-has.html
- “Let’s See Ourselves,” piece by Gustavo Esteva: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/lets-see-ourselves
- Universidad de la Tierra en Puebla: http://unitierraenpuebla.blogspot.com/
- Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca: http://unitierra.blogspot.com/
- Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca Word-press: https://unitierradeoaxaca.wordpress.com/
- Facebook de Universidad de la Tierra en Puebla https://www.facebook.com/UnitierraPuebla
- Facebook de Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca https://www.facebook.com/unitierraoaxaca
- Enlace Zapatista: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/
- Revista mexicana de bachillerato a distancia sobre Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca: http://bdistancia.ecoesad.org.mx/wp-content/pdf/numero-7/Proyectos-Universidad-de-la-Tierra-en-Oaxaca.pdf
Note: There seems to be a Unitierra Califas in California as well, it is mentioned in this article http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/lets-see-ourselves by Gustavo Esteva. However, I could not find information about it online.