Academia Cuauhtli /Cuauhtli Academy-January 17, 2015 Inauguration

Mexica Xochipilli member

Susana Almanza, Jessica Ochoa & Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli

Drs. Emilio Zamora, Pauline Dow, Juliet Garcia and me

Saturday's inauguration of Academia Cuauhtli at Austin Isd Performing Arts Center was so very special. It was wonderful having our inaugural cohort of children and parents in attendance—all from either Metz, Sanchez, or Zavala.

Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli

Our event—which had incidentally been postponed to this weekend following bad weather last weekend—happened to coincide with our beloved Martha Cotera's birthday.
After a press conference, the Travis High Alumni Mariachi with Zeke Castro directing surprised her with their singing of Las Mañanitas (traditional Happy Birthday song in Spanish) with such a full, lush sound. As you can see from the photos, Martha was truly surprised by this. The mariachi and ballet folklórico performers were all great. Tejano musicians Joel Guzman and Sarah Fox were outstanding. The danza Mexica ceremony by Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli and El Grupo Xochipilli was also very moving and sincere. We had a number of elected and appointed officials present and our community was present in full force. All in all, a great success! Thanks, everybody for coming out. All of us in Nuestro Grupo/Academia Cuauhtli are off to a great start!
#ATX #Cuauhtli #Eagle #CulturallyResponsiveEducation #Tejas #indigena #NuestroGrupo #AISDProud #keepaustinbilingual @vlnzl

A surprised & happy Martha Cotera

We are very grateful to the following sponsors for their support of this event: The UT Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, the UT Center for Mexican American Studies, and the Austin Area Association for Bilingual Education. Thanks, as well to the Texas Center for Education Policy and the National Latino/a Education Research and Policy Project, our fiscal agent.

Pan dulce galore!

Martha Cotera, Herlinda Zamora, Mariaelena Martinez, Tina Carrillo, Dina Flores and me

Claudia Torrescano, baby, Brenda, and me

Tiffany Moreno & Dr. Ramón Martinez

McCallum Ballet Folklórico

Delicious O.J., coffee, pan dule, fruit and tamales for all!

A gracious & enthusiastic audience of parents, children & community