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Academia Cuauhtli and the Eagle: Danza Mexica and the Epistemology of the Circle

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Academia Cuauhtli and the Eagle: Danza Mexica and the Epistemology of the Circle Academia Cuauhtli and the Eagle: Danza Mexica and the Epistemology of the Circle Angela Valenzuela, Emilio Zamora, and Brenda Rubio An out-of-school program for fourth-grade English learners in Austin, Texas – jointly developed by the school district, the City of Austin and a local community group – has co-constructed a curriculum that incorporates the Aztec dance or ceremony Danza Mexica as a core component. nglish learners are best support- and dual language teachers in our ed when they receive culturally community of Austin, Texas, have Erelevant content-area instruction called for curricular resources. In in their first language. Numerous response, a group of researchers, studies (e.g., Lindholm-Leary 2001) community advocates, and former support this approach, and bilingual public school teachers established Angela Valenzuela is a professor in the Educational Policy and Planning Program, Department of Educational Administration, and the Cultural Studies in Education Program, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, at the University of Texas at Austin and is director of the University of Texas Center for Education Policy and of the National Latino/a Education Research and Policy Project. Emilio Zamora is a professor in the Department of History and faculty associate in the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Brenda Rubio is a doctoral student in the Educational Policy and Planning Program, Department of Educational Administration at the University of Texas at Austin. 46 Annenberg Institute for School Reform the community-based organization THE DANZA CURRICULUM Nuestro Grupo (“Our Group”) in EMERGES: DEEP LEARNING AND September 2013 to lead the effort. CONNECTION TO FAMILY AND Through a series of partnerships that COMMUNITY included Nuestro Grupo, the school We found that valuable learning often district, the City of Austin, university takes place while learners are doing faculty and students, Mexican things that might not have initially American scholars, civic and cultural occurred to us as we prepared the organizations, indigenous leaders, and curriculum on topics like danza. Danza many others, we co-constructed a is not a relic of a distant past nor Mexican American history curriculum simply a source for teaching a dance for fourth-grade Austin Independent and musical repertoire; it is a form of School District (AISD) students who cultural maintenance and survival with attend a Saturday morning school that a lineage that survived the genocide of we created and named Academia native people throughout what is Cuauhtli (“Eagle Academy”). In the known today as modern Mexico process, we – the researchers and (Aguilar 2009; Colín 2014). community leaders – were transformed, and the curriculum we developed These learnings have gradually come evolved into a deeper learning experi- into greater focus as we contemplate ence than we ever imagined. This the meaning of the circle as a funda- article explains how this happened. mental aspect of danza (Stone 1975; Colín 2014). Rather than simply a geometric symbol, the circle as con- HONORING THE CULTURAL veyed through the danza performance WEALTH OF OUR STUDENTS is powerful as an epistemology, or way of knowing, that simultaneously Rather than treating the symptoms expresses a host of communitarian and purporting to “fix” our children values and speaks to a potentially to make them higher achievers and deeply felt history among the mostly more engaged in school, we sought to Mexican children who are historically advance learning in our schools and connected to the Mesoamerican peoples district through an academy and that originated danza. curriculum project that values and honors the cultural wealth of our While introducing children to ancient participating students, parents, ways of knowing and experiencing life, teachers, and local arts institutions family, and community – some are in Austin (Yosso 2005). already familiar with danza through community and school events – the Our evolving curriculum includes dancing in circle form also reenacts a lessons on migration, civil rights, sense of unity that pulls the concentric indigenous heritage, cultural arts, and lines of formation into a sacred center local history within the broad context of spiritual oneness. This contrasts with of U.S., Mexican, and transnational more typical individualistic experiences history, but with a focus on Mexican- and feelings of isolation and estrange- origin people and other Latinas/os from ment from schools and society – and the Austin area. This article is informed perhaps especially so in a city that is by the more recent lesson plans on deeply stratified by race and class indigenous heritage, cultural arts, and (Weldon 2015). the Aztec dance or ceremony Danza Mexica, which we also sometimes simply refer to as danza. Angela Valenzuela, Emilio Zamora, and Brenda Rubio VUE 2015, no. 41 47 Guided by the idea of revitalizing the TCEP invited two speakers to the Spanish language and Mexican September 20 meeting: Armando American culture in our school district Rendón, a Latino children’s book and city, Nuestro Grupo entered into author; and Oralia Garza de Cortés, a legal partnership in December 2014 a renowned children’s book advocate, with AISD and the City of Austin to founder of the national Pura Belpré house Academia Cuauhtli on the Children’s Book Award, and now a beautiful grounds of the city’s Emma S. Nuestro Grupo member. Before an Barrientos Mexican American Cultural audience of Mexican American Center (ESB-MACC). The ESB-MACC historians, archivists, librarians, is a community-based cultural arts scholars, local leaders, elders, and institution located along the Colorado teachers within the district’s dual River in the heart of downtown Austin language program, Garza de Cortés and directly across the highway from offered the following critical commen- historic East Austin, where a low- tary with respect to children’s book income, segregated, Mexican American publishers located in the Northeast: community has resided for decades, They do not seek to publish our but which is currently undergoing a work because they see [Mexican contentious process of gentrification Americans] as a regional minority, (Ward 2015). Academia Cuauhtli and whenever they do publish us, opened its doors on January 17, 2015 they either portray us in ways that to predominantly Mexican-origin, reinforce negative stereotypes or fourth-grade children and their parents narrowly – always as immigrants from three nearby elementary schools. embarking on citizenship. They fail to acknowledge that we have a “THEY FAIL TO ACKNOWLEDGE history. THAT WE HAVE A HISTORY”: In reference to books in English and NUESTRO GRUPO IS BORN Spanish, Garza de Cortés added that The decision to establish Academia these publishers overwhelmingly Cuauhtli occurred when a group of get the language and, frequently, the seasoned community leaders convened aesthetics wrong, too. They will at the ESB-MACC on September 20, contract out with a translator from 2013. The University of Texas at Argentina, and their Spanish is Austin’s Texas Center for Education different from ours, making the Policy (TCEP), headed by co-author readings of these texts stilted. Yet Angela Valenzuela, organized the the problem overall, literally for meeting to discuss the issues of literacy, more than thirty years, is a sheer curriculum, and Austin’s Mexican- lack of books for our children. origin community. The event took place against the backdrop of a The dual language teachers in the growing statewide, grassroots move- audience supported Garza de Cortés’ ment to develop Mexican American commentary, saying that despite the studies in Texas (Diaz 2014, 2015), as district’s claim to be a “dual language well as major critiques leveled at the school district,” there are a lack of Texas State Board of Education, books and other curricula available to legendary for its conservative defense them. In this vein, another teacher of a statewide curricula that systemati- offered, “We may as well be in the cally excludes historical content related 1940s. All we have is what we develop to Mexican American, African Ameri- for our children in our classrooms.” can, and indigenous heritage (Erekson The teachers added that in instances 2012; Zamora 2012a, 2012b). where such materials are present, they 48 Annenberg Institute for School Reform still do not feel confident using them. Latino. According to the AISD website, Lastly, they maintained that the Latinos constitute 60 percent of youth children are alienated from school in schools, as compared to 24 percent because of a lack of curriculum and Anglo and 9 percent African American teaching that speaks to their cultures, (AISD n.d.). A full 24 percent of AISD experiences, or history. students are English learners, a good number of whom are immigrants. The Elders from the community, including ESB-MACC was equally motivated due advocate – and now Nuestro Grupo to concerns that gentrification is member – Martha P. Cotera, responded impeding their efforts to optimize by pointing to the originating docu- audience participation at its events and ments of the ESB-MACC. Established programs, including its after-school in 2005, the idea of a Saturday school program put in place to ostensibly had always been envisioned. Expres- serve children attending nearby East sions of disparity and needs motivated Austin schools. In addition to support those present to form an organization, from the district and a welcoming, Nuestro Grupo, that would continue to accommodating space, our project work to address these problem areas. included faculty with expertise in The planners of the September 20 content and provided teachers with event expected a lively discussion on relevant professional development literacy, curriculum, children’s litera- and flexible schedules. ture, and the urgency for action, since The development of our curriculum our two major speakers – Garza de relied heavily on the efforts of Zamora, Cortéz and Rendón – and many a history professor at the University of members of the audience were known Texas at Austin. He had previously for their critical views on the subjects.
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