Community

Marina Sanchez Hernandez:
Educator – Indigenous Leader – Advocate
b y Lisa B. Martin

Many of us may know Marina Sanchez Hernandez as the Director of the Netzahualcoyotl School in Zihuatanejo, or the woman who recently served a three-year term as Regidora (city councilwoman) of Education and Culture under Mayor Amador Campos. Few know her history and the depth of her dedication to education for indigenous and all children in need, to families, and to her community.

Born in the remote mountain village of Copalillo, Guerrero, March 3, 1961, Marina Sanchez was the oldest daughter of nine children by her mother, Emilia Hernandez Salvador and her father, Acension Sanchez Coronel, both indigenous Nahuatl. Of the six sisters and three brothers in her family, four became teachers, and even Marina’s mother, eventually came to work in a kindergarten in her village. In 1961, Copalillo had a population of 500, all Nahuatl indigenous, and today, it has grown to three or four thousand. Inland from the state capital, Chilpancingo, and seven hours from Zihuatanejo, it is nestled in a quiet, dusty mountain valley, and is still a center for corn farming, some cattle ranching on the high plains, and the making of hammocks.

Marina’s life as a young girl in an indian village was likely typical. She would rise at two in the morning to help her mother make bread in the family business. After school, she would work from two to six pm selling bread and rolls door to door: 20 centavos for small, 50 centavos for large, one peso for those covered with sugar. When it was corn harvesting time, she would work long days in the fields picking alongside her brothers and neighbors. She has clear strong memories of when she was aged four and five, with long dark braids, standing in the hot corn fields, with the mountains rising all around her and the templo – ancient Olmec ruins – nearby. Though she has lived by the sea for over twenty years, las montanas are still her true home, and she visits when she can, as nearly all her family still resides there.

Marina’s love of school and teaching has been with her as long as she can remember. “In my village the primary school teacher only knew Spanish, and I knew Nahuatl and Spanish, so when I was in the first grade I would translate for her with the thirty indigenous children in the classroom,” she recalls. “That was when my interest in teaching began.”

When she reached age ten, the option for Marina to continue in school to grades four, five and six required that she commute weekends, a one-day ride by burro to Atenango del Rio, the nearest town that had a boarding school for several hundred girls. Marina’s mother reluctantly agreed, convinced by an uncle that it was a good idea. Marina attended secondary school even further away in Palmira, in Morelos, near Cuernavaca, another boarding school. It was Marina’s own experience in boarding schools that lead her two years ago to build Zihuatanejo’s first forty-bed dormitory at the Netza school, as it makes it possible for children who live in distant neighborhoods or in very large or troubled families to get to and stay in school, with safe supportive housing and meals, four nights a week.

From Teaching to Building

Marina attended high school or prepa in Chilapa, and began taking teaching courses in San Gabriolito near Iguala. She’s continued her pedagogical training ever since, becoming a certified teacher and then directora of The Netzahualcoyotl School for Indigenous Children, which she founded eleven years ago under a tree with one other volunteer teacher, twenty children and no books. When Marina and her husband Bernardo moved to Zihuatanejo in 1986, there was no school for the children of the indigenous families, as the requirement was to speak Spanish to enroll, along with a small tuition fee, uniforms, shoes, and money for books. The Netza School operated under that tree for three years, growing to over 100 children; then families got together and built rustic wooden palapa style classrooms in the heart of the Colonia Premier Paso Cardenista neighborhood where many of them lived.

Today, the Netza School serves over 325 children ages three to fourteen in kindergarten through grade six, and Marina has ridden the many challenges of keeping a growing school operating, and building a new one on city-donated land, atop a steep hillside. The site itself, neighbors, and even parents and teachers at times have challenged its progress, but Marina persevered, negotiating and working with the community to strengthen its value of education.

Continuing its original commitment of equal-access to education for all children regardless of their language or economic situation, Netza today has about 30 percent indigenous children, plus local Spanish-speaking children from families that need a free or truly cooperativo school where they can contribute what they can with funds, or through work. Uniforms are optional, and through the generous support of dozens of visitors and tourists, and donors including Rotary International and Zihua SailFest, Por Los Niños de Zihuatanejo, The Bellack and Underwood Foundations, The Netza School Project and others, donations of books and materials, repairs and physical improvements at the school have rapidly accelerated the quality of education and safe conditions available. Ten permanent cement classrooms, a dormitory, a playground, bathrooms, and a daily lunch program have resulted from the unique neighborhood, community, government and international partnerships Marina has courageously helped facilitate. Over 150 children are also registered at Netza, but attend classes at its nearby “sister” school, Nueva Creacion, which will start building new classrooms on recently donated land in 2006.

“I want to say “thank you” to all who have made possible my dream of helping Mexico’s impoverished children,” say Marina. “Many hands and hearts make this happen.” She acknowledges that improvements at Netza’s new campus would have taken over ten years to complete in what has been accomplished in three.

In her role as city council woman for education Marina oversaw and worked to improve conditions at Zihuatanejo’s 150 public primary schools, over 100 kindergartens, and the handful of secondary and prepa schools. “I learned so much about the government process, and what is and what is not really possible,” she says. “Our teachers need to be more concerned with the quality of education, but this is a challenge with their training and sometimes conditions in the schools. There are limited funds for construction, repair or furniture, and so parents and teachers and directors really need to work hard, together, for a quality school. It’s not easy.” In addition to completing construction at the Netza School and teaching fifth grade there too, she’s assisting other schools as well, and advocating for adult literacy programs, a multi-lingual indigenous office in city hall that can help with social services, and she envisions a large free or low cost comidor (lunchroom) for secondary school children, many of who don’t each lunch every day.

Progress and Pride for Mexico’s Indigenous

It was the making and selling of hammocks that, in part, brought Marina and her husband Bernardo to Zihuatanejo in the mid 1980’s. Bernardo, who is also from Copalillo, came first with his uncle who sold hammocks, and then with his father who made the eight hour journey by truck and bus to sell ironwood carvings in the street in front of the Catholic Church on Avenida Cinco de Mayo. When he moved to Zihuatanejo with Marina and their one-year old son Vladmir in 1986, Bernie recalls that there were only 36 indigenous vendors in the makeshift craft market and earlier, in 1978, only 12. Today there are over 400 and about half of the people vending or operating market stalls are indigenous. Indigenous people who can be self-employed and speak some Spanish have a better means of support than many who work in dangerous construction jobs or sweeping streets for about 30.00 USD a week. Bernie still operates a market stall (#s 121-123) seven days a week vending hammocks and leather goods, and is very proud to be sending both their sons to university.

Today, there are 61 tribal dialects still spoken in Mexico among 12-14 million of its 100 million inhabitants. Of Zihuatanejo’s 100,000 or so residents, about 3,000 are indigenous, speaking Nahuatl, Amusgo, Tlapaneco and Mixteco. These First People, like Marina, have fascinating stories of immigration and relocation, far from their home villages, and they have challenging lives still today. Many were not so lucky to learn Spanish or get an education - yet. With a leader like Marina Sanchez Hernandez, once a small Indian girl picking corn in the remote Sierra Madre mountains, there is hope and opportunity for all.

Lisa B. Martin has been a frequent visitor to Zihuatanejo since 1999. She is a sometime contributor to ADiP, as well as a professional writer and international philanthropist. Reach her at lisa@lisabmartin.

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