Discrimination - from "The Tree of Knowledge" at www.docfilm.com

http://www.docfilm.com - Set in Huehuetla, Puebla, a Totonac Indian community in East Central Mexico, The Tree of Knowledge contrasts two systems of education. The public school system uses patriotic symbols to "integrate" Indian pupils into the national culture while teaching them to reject their own identity. In contrast, the Danza de los Huehues urges young Totonacs to learn from the mestizos ("whites"), yet warns them not to abandon their own culture.

But there is also a deeper, older level to the ritual: it is not the mestizos, but the living spirits of trees, who are the real spirits of the Danza, and who teach the Totonacs how to live in harmony with nature. That is where the Dance began...

"Throughout the film we see the divided nature of the town: a close-up of a caged dove - the Indian locked into a Spanish world. The remarks of the school principal (of course a mestizo): 'Our main interest is that the children learn Spanish . . . If we speak to a sixth grade pupil in Totonac, he is insulted. He says, 'I speak Spanish now. Why do you talk to me in Totonac?'' . . . Lane's approach is indirect and symbolic; he avoids interpretive narration in favor of allowing visual and spoken symbolism to carry the message . . . Lane has made a useful contribution both to peasant studies and to the methodology of ethnographic film as well."

—Dr. Michael Logan, The American Anthropologist

http://www.docfilm.com -
Ethnoscope Film & Video

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Totonac
• Puebla
• Indian
• Education
• ritual
• school
• Huehues
• dance

[docfilm]

There are three films about Huehuetla, Puebla, a Totonac Indian community, on the DVD, available from ethnoscope at docfilm.com: The Tree of Life. The Tree of Knowledge, and Democracia Indígena. There are two clips from each of the films on YouTube (and Google).

[pame546]

Yo creo que la situacion indigena todavia no se a resolucionado, pero espero que el gobierno nacional tenga mas iniciativa de proteger las communidades autonomas indigenas y de darles el derecho de gobernar entre ellos mismos. Tambien me encabrona la gente que discrimina a los indigenas, especialmente los mestizos que tambien son de herencia indigena ellos mismos. Es como si estas odioando a tu misma gente o tu raza. Que pinche tristeza.

[CRIMSONGHOST1308]

Man , the mestizos they speak of make me feel bad to be a mestizo...

damn jerks...

[jugamebo15]

pues realmente soy mestzo pero me siento orgulloso de mi sangre india, osea que no podemos juzgar a todos los mestizos igual.

[SitandNote]

More like.. Hispanics, mestizos and indians are three different people...

[Enseni]

If anyone needs to see that Indians and Latinos/Hispanics are two different people then these vids and what the Indian people in them have to say about ethnic matters are proof enough.

[oo00Epidemic00oo]

esta bien que nos llamen indios porque eso somos pero el mestizo no sabe quien el es. hahahahahha

[triroberto]

Que tristeza...