My Huichol Indian Friend

On the night of December 12th, after the processions for Guadalupe had finished, some teacher friends introduced Lety and me to Guillermo, an Huichol Indian, from Mesa del Tirador, a tiny town in the northern part of the state of Jalisco.

Guillermo teaches English in the high school in his village, which has about 300 people, all Huichol Indians. He is fluent in English (his third language), Spanish (his second language), and his native language of Huichol! The children learn the Huichol language from birth, but when they go to school, they are taught in Spanish since, living in Mexico, they should know Spanish also.

Guillermo was in PV to attend a conference on teaching English. This was his first visit to Puerto Vallarta and he said he liked the city very much. I asked him how far his village is from PV. His reply: I take a 3 hour bus ride to the city of Tepic, where I change buses and continue on the bus for 9 more hours to the town of Tuxpan de Bolaños. Then I have a 2 hour walk to my village because there are no roads where the bus can go."

He and I had a lively dialogue about teaching English and he was very eager to discuss teaching strategies. Even though it was after 11:00pm, we continued our visit at a local restaurant with Lety and 3 of the other teachers from PV.

He invited me to visit his village. I told him I couldn't walk for 2 hours (duh!!!) and that we could email each other. He said he doesn't have a computer---his village does not have electricity! "I have seen computers but I don't know how they work."!!! A classic case of young/old age and previous/present times!

He also explained to us about some of the ceremonies that the Huichol Indians still participate in and showed us pictures which he had brought. He gave me a photograph of one of the ceremonies.

We had such a pleasant evening and I think his students are very lucky to have a teacher who is fluent in English and so enthusiastic about his subject.

Hasta luego.