Estructura de Resultados del Sector Cooperativo

Before discussing the analysis of these two textbooks, it is also important to quote the premises for IBE put forth by the CGEIB, the General Office of Intercultural Bilingual Education. Their definition conveys the following:

The intercultural approach is defined as a form of educational intervention that recognizes and serves cultural and linguistic diversity. It promotes respect towards differences; it seeks national unity by strengthening a local, regional, and national identity. As well as the development of attitudes and practices that search for liberty and justice for all. (Dirección General de Educación Indígena, 1999, p. 25, my translation) This definition locates issues of national identity, unity, and the democratic exercise of human rights as fundamental to citizenship in Mexico. However, as it will further developed in this chapter, these premises conflict with the segregationist and assimilationist functions of IBE within the education system in Mexico (Despagne, 2013).

A Critical Discourse Analysis of La Educación Intercultural Bilingüe

The first textbook analyzed, La Educación Intercultural Bilingüe: Mayo de Sonora y Sinaloa, was published by both the Ministry of Education at the national level (SEP) and the General Office of Indigenous Education (DGEI). This textbook is used primarily for Grades 5 and 6. Other texts in the same series are also offered in the following combinations: Grades 1 and 2, and Grades 3 and 4. The book contains 211 pages, which include many pictures and drawings that guide the students through different heuristics and exercises. It is divided into eight thematic units as follows:

1. We are Mayo and Mexican (Somos Mayos y Mexicanos).

3. Democracy is a commitment for all of us (La democracia es compromiso de todos). 4. Solidarity among peoples and nations (La solidaridad entre los pueblos y las naciones).

5. Let’s take care of our health (Cuidemos nuestra salud).

6. Let’s take care of the environment (Cuidemos el medio ambiente). 7. Let’s do science (Hagamos ciencia).

8. Let’s solve problems (Resolvamos problemas).

The topics these units address includes such issues as: caring about health and environment, science, addressing the concept of solidarity among nations, and technology. When looking at the titles of each unit of the book, one notes a political subtext infiltrating into the title for Unit 3: “Democracy is a commitment for all of us.” This particular phrase is generally attributed to a PRI (the ruling party for over 70 years after the Mexican Revolution) member of Mexico’s House of Representatives in the early 1990s. After the PRI lost power to Vicente Fox in the 2000 election, it was used as a motto during Fox’s presidential term (2000–06), and was converted into a unit for indigenous schooling. In a similar manner, the Office of Intercultural Bilingual Education (CGEIB) in Mexico uses a term that has been appropriated by several Latin American nations (e.g., Bolivia): “Intercultural education for all.” This phrase assumes that mainstream nonindigenous (Mestizo) people in Mexico are aware of the cultural and linguistic diversity in the country and also aware of the discrimination, oppression, and poverty rampant in indigenous communities throughout the country. As van Dijk (2004) explains,

Textbooks are known to be shaped by the dominant ideologies of society. They are intended not only as means to realize the explicit curriculum of socially accepted knowledge, but also as the conduit for prevailing norms, values and attitudes. (para. 11)

Through the use of general statements such as “Democracy is a commitment for all of us” (my emphasis), the general population of Mexico is made co-responsible for actively and hence democratically engaging and participating in the process. However, as seen in the last presidential election in 2012, most Mexicans know that democracy is only an imaginary construct, since at the outset of the 2012 election there were a multitude of irregularities, and there was no recall of votes despite evidence shown by a vast majority in social networks around the country, as well as in complaints filed to the Election Tribunal.

I now proceed to describe the emergent themes from both textbooks analyzed: La Educación Intercultural Bilingüe: Mayo de Sonora y Sinaloa and Yoremmnoki. In looking at ways in which issues of identity and representation are enacted in these textbooks, I examined the visuals and the particular uses of titles within the book La Educación Intercultural Bilingüe: Mayo de Sonora y Sinaloa. I encountered mainly the following themes: (a) Nationalism above all, and (b) Racial differences: Defining us vs. them and the myth of unity. Defining us vs. them and the myth of unity merge in this textbook, and the myth of unity is taken up again in the other textbook, Yoremmnoki.

Nationalism Above All

Throughout the book, children are reminded of a sense of duty and patriotism through the visual image of the flag and with the aid of text defining their responsibilities and rights as citizens of Mexico (e.g., p. 75). As a preface to the book, one can find a one-page explanation of how this book can be used “with friends, family, and members of the community in promoting the importance of being Mayo Mexicans, and appreciating their linguistic, ethnic culture and national wealth” (p. 5).

Illustration 20 is on the cover and front page of the book. This picture shows the Mexican flag outside of the picture margins with a child signaling the salute to the flag, which is also used when singing the national anthem.

Illustration 20. Nationalism Above All

In this image we encounter not only notions of nation-state inscribed in the textbook, but also a version of historical amnesia that erases past struggles and a history of oppression of indigenous peoples. Nowhere in the book is there a discussion of the past. Instead, one encounters a vision of a utopian future that builds from the ahistorical assumption that indigenous children as minority language students have never encountered discrimination or racism and are not in a historical relationship with those whose views of the nation-state instantiate these particular texts as curriculum. Giroux (1997) suggests that narratives conjuring national identity, culture, and identity need to be challenged “as part of a pedagogical effort to

provide dominant groups with the knowledge and histories to examine, acknowledge, and unlearn their own privilege” (p. 236).

Ironically, when I finished my first observation of the children’s Grade 6 class in January 2008, the children were all eager to sing the Mexican national anthem in the Mayo language. With regard to how a national identity is constructed, Block (2007) explains,

National identities have always been forged, or instilled in individuals growing up in particular places and times, as “a complex of common or similar beliefs or opinions internalized in the course of socialization… and the common or similar emotional attitudes as well as common or similar behavioural dispositions” (Wodak, de Cillia, Reisigl and Liebhart, 1999: 28), all relating directly to a particular nation state. (p. 29) Another example of the links between patriotism, the flag, and the national anthem resurface again on pages 24 and 25. In these pages, students are provided with the following explanation:

We Mexicans have a flag that represents us and identifies us as a free, grand, and glorious country. Our flag is very beautiful because it has three colors and a coat of arms where the indigenous origins of our nation are recognized. (p. 24, my translation)

This text is followed by an activity where students are asked to color the coat of arms in the flag. The coat of arms consists of an eagle standing on a cactus and with a snake in its beak. Legend (or, as many believe, history) recounts that when Aztecs immigrated from Aztlán (i.e., Los Angeles) to Tenochtitlan (i.e., Mexico City) they had been told that a sign that they were in the right place would be the manifestation of an eagle in that pose. In this manner, myths are being mobilized throughout the textbook to create an illusion of unity in diversity. On page 25

about our Mexico and our duty as Mexicans to protect it so it continues to be a free and sovereign country” (p. 25, my translation and emphasis).