Public school teachers in the U.S. and Mexico have unwittingly for years participated in the cultural genocide of indigenous children. The idea that children needed to be educated implied they needed to be stripped of their native identities and "civilized." That this would be done in the conquerer's language was a prerequisite. And the systematic process has taken its toll. Where literally thousands of languages once flourished, now only a few hundred remain, and the number of speakers shrinking.

But a group of teachers in Oaxaca have accepted the responsibility of stopping this process and of turning it around. The Coalicion de Maestros Y Promotores Indigenas de Oaxaca have, since 1974, recognized their role and have worked to preserve and stregthen their languages and cultures.

"The policy of the Mexican state was to end our culture and languages. The plan was to extinguish them (through the school system," said Simon Acevedo Ojeda, a Chinanteco speaker. "We organized ourselves to work against this and remove ourselves as instruments of that political goal."

Ojeda and two other teachers visited Albuquerque, New Mexico in the fall of 2001 to speak at the Cosecha bilingual educators conference. They also held panel discussions at the First United Methodist Church.

"One of our purposes was to create educational alternatives that responded to the needs in our communities," Ojeda said. The first step was to reflect deeply and analyze our own teaching practices, he said.

Ojeda said that a group of public school teachers held regional congresses, independent of the Mexican government, to ask the communities to dialog and decide what the purpose of education should be and what and how to teach. The congresses were held in different linguistic areas of the state, of which there are 14. Out of the different congresses came different plans, each reflecting the particular communities' needs and beliefs.

The Plan de Tinu in the Mixteco region had six major points: That Mixteco should be used and promoted in every place, not just schools; that books should be published in Mixteco; that all the different pueblos should organize to promote the use of Mixteco; that the community should continue meeting to discuss problems and solutions; that teachers and parents would work together for the children; and that people work to strengthen language and culture.

The goal was quality education that strengthens the cultures, not destroys them.

"The agreements reached in the congresses were very powerful political statements," said Beatriz Gutierrez Luis, an Ombeayiuts speaker. All the agreements said Spanish should be learned by all as a second language, as a foreign language. But that it should be taught in a more humane way than teachers had used before.

In practice, the agreements meant that Spanish would be taught15 minutes per day, in communities which said the emphasis should be on teaching the native language. Children are becoming literate, but in their own languages first.

"This is a tremendous contrast to what we used to do," said Luis. "It used to be mono-lingual Spanish." But parents agreed that attention should be paid to the languages that are almost extinct. Spanish is still powerfully dominant through radio, television and the language of government.

There have been many obstacles on the path, the teachers said. One is the government. While the teachers are still government employees, they are not supported for their approach. Instead, their support comes from the community, called a tequio, from the Nahuatl word tequitl, which means community work. Also, the 571 native-speaking communities in the state of Oaxaca are often isolated and cannot be reached by auto. The teacher walk for days, crossing rivers and mountains, to reach some of the towns.

Another obstacle has been convincing other teachers to join them. Another has been parents who don't realize the value of their native language. Another has been that many of the languages have not been written down and there are no published materials to use to teach. Some of them have been written by missionaries since the 1970s.

The teachers have published their own books, classroom materials and have made a video demonstrating good teaching techniques. Some of the books are handmade on colorful, recycled paper, depicting animals, colors and nature. Many of them use repetition to teach words in the various native languages. They paste words on the walls to provide constant visual cues for the students. They also use music to teach.

The teachers continue to hold public forums to raise the consciousness of parents and their teaching colleagues. They plan a nation congress on indigenous education. They talk about what is at risk if they lose their languages. Luis said:

"In our languages, we have a way of talking with everything. It is important to understand how language is used to communicate. Language gives us our identity. If we lose it, we lose everything. We lose communication with everything, with the cosmos."

The 14 indigenous languages being taught in Oaxaca are: Zapoteco, Mixteco, Mazteco, Chinanteco, Amuzgo, Chatino, Chontal de Oaxaca, Cuicateco, Huave, Nahuatl, Triqui, Zoque, Chochos and Ombeayiuts