Spring break has come and gone and we are back to the books! However, the experiences and memories made this past week in Mexico City will not soon leave us. Formerly known as the Federal District of Mexico, similar to our Washington D.C., Mexico City has now claimed statesmanship as its own municipality and capital. I couldn’t believe that this entire city was built on water, which goes to show how truly amazing and creative the people of Mexico have been throughout time.

Entrance to Frida Kahlo museum

Mexico City has about 8.8 million people that call it home, sitting at the 23rd largest city in the world. As I sit and reminisce of the immense size of the city and it’s districts my mind wanders to the countless walks we took on the large city streets. One our first adventures was to the museum of Frida Kahlo. The blue house, as it’s called, wasn’t initially meant to be a museum at, as it was originally her former house. When she died she requested that her husband, fellow artist Diego Rivera, keep her things hidden. Following her request, when Diego died he demanded that her belongings be locked in a bathroom of the blue house until 15 years after his death. Some conspiracy theories suggest politics, including the couple’s communist beliefs and relationship with Leon Trotsky, are behind this request.

A portrait of Frida Kahlo

A corner of Frida’s kitchen

After brief (3.5 hour) wait in line, we learned about the life of Frida Kahlo, a prominent influence in the art scene of Mexico. One of the most interesting facts I learned was that from her experience of polio, one of her legs stopped growing. In response to the stunted growth in her leg, she made dresses that covered her disability. The dresses she made are part of the art that influences modern art displayed in her museum today! Her art also represented some of the struggles with her disability, including her infertility and desire for children, her medical past, or occasional confinement to her bed. However, she also used her art to explore worlds beyond what she herself could know, and painted many works with native Mexican plants and animals, pre-Hispanic symbols and traditions, and imaginative surreal worlds. All of this is displayed in the possessions and artwork in la Casa Azul, the house in which she was born and died.

During the week of February 13th to February 18th, students from the Education and Migration and Globalization programs lived with host families in the town of Amatlan. In the traditionally indigenous village of Amatlan, we were able to learn about the indigenous attitudes to aspects of schooling, farming, and migration that affect life on both personal and global scales.

A focus of the week was to learn about the relationship between the indigenous community and their natural surroundings. Overall, the people of Amatlan try as best they can to live in harmony with nature. Spiritual traditions surrounding the sacred nature of farming practices prevent land, crops, and animals from being exploited. Currently, the community is engaged in struggles to prevent their environment from exploitations from outside sources like tourism or multinational farming companies. We took an eco-hike with the head of the volunteer wildfire control brigade, who told us the ways that the natural resources have been compromised in a way that puts the whole community in danger. We also heard from an elder named Dona Irene who has protected her own farmlands against chemical fertilizers and genetically modified seeds, and plans to pass her traditional farming practices on to her nephews. Both of these talks showed the ways that the people of Amatlan protect their environment because of the reciprocal relationship they have with their mother earth – if they respect her, she will take care of them.

Waldorf’s school playground that we visited

During the homestay we were also able to visit nearby schools in the city of Tepoztlan. One school in particular followed the teaching philosophy known as Waldorf, that is, teaching without the integration of technology. The school was almost completely engulfed by the trees and ecosystem around it. The environment provided students with an opportunity to learn from one another while simultaneously developing an appreciation for the natural world. The students engaged in classes known as “permaculture” to learn how to create a sustainable and self-sufficient ecosystem. For example, the students recycle scraps of food and biodegradable waste into compost and use it to fertilize the trees and plants that surround their school. After all, the earth provides us with nutrition to thrive, it makes sense to give back to it what we can. Do you or your family compost? A challenge I leave with you from our experiences thus far in Mexico, the next time you’re ready to toss leftover food scraps or biodegradable waste in the trash can, reconsider it as your garden’s next meal. Little by little we can each do our part to return what’s left of the gifts that Mother Nature has given us.

As global competence becomes increasingly favorable in the workforce, studying and traveling abroad has become an interest of the millennial generation. The new and trending study abroad adventures are followed with trips to the United States with hopes of obtaining a “western” education that looks amazing on a new graduate’s resume. These beliefs, along with the ideal Hollywood perception of a U.S. college life, are compelling reasons for Mexican students to study in the U.S.

For a better illustration, after China and India, Mexico sends more university students to the United States than any other country (2015 statistics “From the Field: Trends in Study Abroad for Mexican Students”). Mexico sent only 14,779 students to U.S. higher education institutions in school year 2013-2014, compared to China’s 274,439 students and India’s 102,673 students. But with influence of the Obama administration’s Proyecta 100,000, “an initiative designed to send 100,000 Mexican students to U.S. universities and to enroll 50,000 U.S. students at Mexican institutions by 2018”, things can really change the ballgame for Mexicans students looking for a university educational experience across the border. In terms of the new administration in the United States under President Donald Trump, there is no news of the removal or termination of this program agreement between the two governments.

Mexico remains one of Latin America’s largest education markets. “Despite continuing fluctuations in the rate of inflation within Mexico, and similar ups and downs in the exchange rate between the Mexican peso and other major world currencies, the economic outlook for 2017/18 is for relative stability and continued growth in demand for study abroad” (“From the Field: Where are Mexican Students Going Now?”). Alongside other reasons to pursue education in the United States, the most popular reason is learning the language.   In Mexico City, as the financial capital of all of Latin America, English is required for business transactions.  What better way to perfect one’s communication skills than to study in an English-speaking country?

 “While the US will remain a leading destination for students, there is an increasing interest in other English-speaking destinations, including Canada.”

(“From the Field: Where are Mexican Students Going Now?”)

Currently, due to rocky international relations between Mexico and the United States, we are actually witnessing Mexican students choosing to go to countries such as Canada (as stated above), Australia, UK, and Ireland instead of the U.S. “I don’t want to go to the USA because they treat us badly,” said a Maria, a seventh grader. Asked to elaborate, she continues, “well they think we can’t speak English and that we are dumb people.” Though only a 12-year-old, Maria has a point to the stereotype imposed on Mexicans in the United States, both those with legal documents and those without. In tutoring an English class, we read news articles by the New York Times, BBC, CNN, the Telegraph, and The Los Angeles Times for two reasons: (1) to think about social and political issues along with the practice of following the media, and (2) for English practice to enhancement their already astounding vocabulary.

It’s commonly said that a student learns best when challenged until the breaking point. Important to note, excelling students like Maria are among dozens of outstanding students in English classes speaking English as well as many American student. There are small grammatical errors that are commonly found with many U.S. middle schoolers.  As we note the common trend of interest in entering U.S. higher education institution, we are also witnessing a shift, as the next generation of leaders are looking for education elsewhere.

Works Cited

“From the Field: Trends in Study Abroad for Mexican Students.” Icef.com. ICEF Inc, 26 Jun. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2018.

“From the Field: Where are Mexican Students Going Now?” Icef.com. ICEF Inc, 20 Nov. 2017. Web. 12 Feb. 2018.