Evening star., 1934-09-08
MEXICO INCREASES
INDIAN SCHOOLS
Mrs. Ickes Told Classes Are
Training Future Rural
Leaders.

MEXICO CITY. Mexico.-The rural
Indian schools Of Mexico which Mrs.
Anna Wilmarth Ickes has just been
visiting 70 get ideas dt is under
stood for John Collier, United States
Indian commissioner. are not . pro-
ject for sman racial minority, as
in the United States. In Mexico.
where Indians and those Of mixed
blood greatly outnumber those Of un-
mixed white descent and where by
the latest census nearly 4,000, 900
speak only Indian tongues, such
schools are q necessity 20 national un-
ificationS.
Nor are these rural schools simply
traditiopal places to teach boys and
girls to read. write and cipher; they
are oficially described as agencies
also for adult leadership and COM
munity development, "in full battle,
carrying on social campaigns"
Consequently a central plank in
the dominant national revolution
ary) party's 6-year plan-scheduled
to go into effect formally when
Gen. Cardenas takes ONCE as pres
ident in December-iS the multi
plication Of rural schools from some
$500 to 10000 in 1910. Five hun
dred and twenty new schools are to
be opened this year.
A Young Movement.
The movement is young. The first
OF these schools was established not
more than IA years ago. Mexico, says
Prof. Rafael Ramirez, director of rural
schools, is country where the edu-
cation Of the peasant has only begun"
The social objectives Of the school
are best indicated by the conditions
some Of them face, as described by
the wife of 9 school administrative
official:
Peasants in this area work for
IS cents (Mexican) q day and six
quarts Of pulque; their daily fare is
one tortilla with salt or chile and
the pulQue. which they drink to
drown hunger with the result that
children and adults are drunk by
nightfall."
In some cases the rural school
goes hand in hand with another
phase Of the dominant party's pro-.
gram, the division of the large es-
tates among the peasants. Not every
where as yet has this agrarian reform
been q success. Even in some places
where 1t has been put into operation,
peasants continue to use the archaic
wooden plow, for. as one Of them told
Roberto Haberman, Mexican delegate
TO the. American Federation OF Labor:
Iron chills the earth and the corn
can't grow so beautifully" Elsewhere,
as education has accompanied the
reallotment Of the land, there are
signs Of progress. An instance II
Estancia, in the state Of Hidalgo.
- Story Told by ReIiefs.
Here land now held and cultivated
by ., group Of campesinos (peasants)
was formerly part Of . great private
estate. The story Of what happened
Is told by wall reliefs in the COM
munity hall. These reliefs were made
Of clay by peasants and painted with
native pigments.
The reliefs show nude figures In
chari0ts, on horseback, afoot. They
are quantity distinguished from each
other by the derby Of the landlord
and the sugar-loaf sombrero Of the
campesino. In the first relief the
landlords Chacendadosl are riding
down the peasants (campesinos) and
cracking their whips; in the second
the tables have been turned, the cam
| pesinos are on horseback or at the
reins, Of the chariot.
4 The peOple of the community hava
built the modern-looking village hall,
the schoolhouse, the electric plant.
and are planning to replace with
modern housing the huts Of adobe and
maguey leaves, where the only lux
urtes are flowers and Gagged xensontle
birds c"birds Of q hundred thousand
voices"). From the earnings Of their
produce they are buying additional
land.
(copyright. 1934)