Half of the Indigenous children in Tijuana don’t go to school, activist says
SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — More than half of Indigenous children in Tijuana don’t attend school due to a lack of translators.
Catalina Pablo Bautista, a member of the Mixtec community in Baja California, says the children don’t have access to basic education because most schools don’t have the personnel to teach in Mixtec, which is primarily spoken in the Oaxaca region in southern Mexico.
The language has been around since long before the arrival of the Spanish in the Western Hemisphere.
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“Sadly, our children are being excluded and end up selling candy and gum at stoplights around the city,” said Bautista. “They can’t study because they don’t know Spanish.”
According to Bautista, many mothers simply choose to have their children work the streets out of fear their kids will struggle in school.
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“There are 58 different ethnic groups of Mixtec people who have migrated to Tijuana from Oaxaca,” said Bautista. “There are no programs recruiting Indigenous teachers into the state’s school system, this would benefit our people, help the children academically.”
She also said teachers overall, don’t have the patience to help Mixtec children in the classroom.
“Our children aren’t getting the same opportunities as other citizens, they have no access to education programs or scholarships available to other young people.”
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