Promoting Cultural Pride
At Ak' Tenamit, we don’t believe that improving conditions in indigenous communities and educating young people should draw them away from their culture. In fact, Ak’ Tenamit’s work in the Río Dulce region has resulted in a local cultural renaissance, with more young people learning traditional music, dance and religious ceremonies. Ak’ Tenamit bases all of its work in traditional Q’eqchi Maya culture, combining the use of medicinal plants with western medicine, participating in community ceremonies on important dates of the Maya calendar, and appealing to the balance between the sexes and between human beings and nature that are part of the Maya cosmovision.

Q’eqchi Maya culture plays an important role in the curriculum at the Fr. Tom Moran Education Center, which offers a bilingual – Spanish and Q’eqchi – education that is complemented by English classes, and employs a Maya priest full-time to provide students with training in their culture and religion, and lead traditional ceremonies. Students learn to play traditional marimba music and dance pre-Columbian folk dances, which they perform in full costume at campus celebrations and events around the country. The result is a new generation of indigenous youth who are well educated, computer literate, and trained in practical skills, but who are equally knowledgeable about and proud of their culture, which they are committed to preserving.