Maya Communities and Social Justice in Chiapas, Mexico

After being back home in the US for a few days and reflecting on my experiences, I must say those seven weeks in Chiapas were some of the best and most eye-opening weeks of my life. San Cristobal de las Casas is a small, enchanting city nestled in the mountains of Chiapas. It is rich in culture and history and despite its small size, there is always something new every day. As you can probably tell, I fell in love with this city and cannot wait to go back.

In addition to the awesome location, this study abroad program is unique for several reasons. The first is that we were taught by a professor who traveled with us from the University of Oregon. This was a great opportunity to get to know a professor outside of the traditional classroom setting. Forming personal relationships with professors can be pretty difficult at UO sometimes, but this study abroad program made it easy to get to know not only the other students in the group, but our professor as well.

This program also had a two week service learning portion where we each had different projects working with various non profits throughout San Cris. Everyone in the group was paired with a Mexican student as well to help facilitate the project. Mine was a little bit unique because it was actually located in Zinacanta, a Mayan community about 15 minutes outside of San Cris. I was able to get a glimpse of a whole different culture. I had a great time those two weeks working with kids in Zinacantan and getting to know the other student I was working with. Some of my best memories from the trip are from my service learning project.

Also, minus the fact that the bus rides there were kind of uncomfortable due to the winding, bumping roads, the excursions on this trip were really amazing. Waterfalls, Mayan ruins, gorgeous countryside... This area of Mexico really is beautiful and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to explore it!

There were also quite a few guest speakers for our classes which I enjoyed because they covered a wide range of topics and gave new perspectives on various issues or ideas.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this trip. I left the link to the blog I wrote while I was there as well if you are interested in some more specific stories of my time in Chiaps!

https://searchingcielos.wordpress.com/blog/