UCLA-CBDIO Collaborative Mixtec Curriculum Development

This project collaborates with Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO), a non-profit organization whose goal is to promote awareness of and respect for the cultures, languages, and knowledge of the Indigenous people of Mexico, many of whom live and work in California. CBDIO runs an after-school program at two elementary schools in the Santa Rita Union School District in Salinas, California. In the program, children learn about the languages and culture of the Mixtec people of Mexico. The goals of the project are to create an adaptable, ready-to-use set of 16 Mixtec language lessons for CBDIO staff to use in their after-school program, and to provide staff members with pedagogical training and hands-on practice in creating lesson plans. This project represents the beginning of a collaborative partnership between UCLA and CBDIO, which will enable future linguistic and educational research.