Educational and leadership opportunities

Huichol youths have few places in their vast homeland to continue their studies after sixth grade. The Huichol Center provides students with access to higher education and computer skills, and motivates them to make a commitment to return to their communities in the future as professionals.

The Center sponsors several students each year to attend high school in Huejuquilla. so they can be close to home. Students receive room and board, and are trained as cultural archivists where they practice their newly acquired computer skills.

Education enrichment for schoolchildren

As the present generation of Huichol children enroll in government schools that teach Spanish, they are led away from their ceremonial life, oral tradition and language. As a result, they are rapidly losing interest in their own cultural traditions.

Ventajas ("Advantages") teaches schoolchildren ages 3 to 12 to value their cultural heritage and Huichol identity. The children have access to culturally relevant materials in their maternal language, subjects that are not taught in Mexican schools, such as the Huichol numeric system and math, folklore and native arts.

To further the integration of their traditional culture and the modern world, the children are taught to read and write in Huichol and Spanish, and are taught from the Mexican school curriculum.

Adult literacy is also championed at the center. Last year, 24 Huichols, mostly women, were taught to read and write by volunteer Huichol high school students. Being able to read and write opens up new opportunities for women, including leadership positions in their communities and tribal government.