Friends,
Our lovely Saturday school, Academia Cuauhtli, is a finalist in the 2021 HABLA con Orgullo Latino Community Organization awards.
Nomination for the 2021 HABLA Con Orgullo Award
Latino Community Organization Category
by
Emilio Zamora, Ph.D.
I wish to nominate Academia Cuauhtli/Cuauhtli Academy for the outstanding community organization award. I am a co-founder of Academia Cuauhtli and one of the conveners for Nuestro Grupo, the organization that hosts its Saturday morning school and related activities.
Academia Cuauhtli was established eight years ago during a community meeting convened at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACCC) to discuss the issue of literacy in Mexican American history and culture among our public school youth. Our central concern has been to maintain a cultural revitalization program of instruction in Spanish for fourth and fifth graders from eastside, Austin ISD schools (Sanchez-Metz, Zavala, Houston, Perez, Travis Heights and Harris). This has involved Memoranda of Understanding with collaborating institutions, including the ESB-MACC, the City of Austin (via Parks), the University of Texas at Austin and, especially the Austin ISD, the official sponsor of Academia Cuauhtli.
Establishing and maintaining Academia Cuauhtli has also involved the development of curriculum that incorporates Mexican American, Indigenous, and Gender and Women’s Studies, hosting professional development workshops involving Austin ISD teachers assigned to Academia Cuauhtli and numerous other district teachers, maintaining associations with other instructional programs in the district (e.g., the Seed Project at Houston) and offering regular convivio activities with Academia Cuauhtli parents, teachers and volunteers.
Hundreds of volunteers have served Academia Cuauhtli during its lifetime, including graduate students and faculty from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University and Houston-Tillotson University, as well as Austin community activists, ESB-MACC staff and Austin ISD teachers. Around 20 volunteers serve approximately 30-40 Academia Cuauhtli parents and 20-30 children on a regular basis. A measure of success is the improved and verifiable academic performance of our students in their respective schools.
Although we are proud to be known for our instructional program, Academia Cuauhtli is also engaged in a number of related educational initiatives in Austin. For instance, we assisted the Social Studies Department of Austin ISD in developing and Ethnic Studies curricula, preparing teachers to teach the material, and implementing Ethnic Studies courses in all of the high schools in the district. With the help of teacher volunteers in Academia Cuauhtli, we have also collaborated with the Austin Area Association for Bilingual Education in initiating an annual and successful Adelante conference in Austin. Some of our work has also reached beyond Austin.
Academia Cuauhtli has involved itself in campaigns to advance Ethnic Studies (especially Mexican American Studies) as a research-based field of study and learning that has proven academic benefit for our youth in the public schools. Our volunteers have led in numerous initiatives, including professional development workshops for teachers and curriculum-writing projects across the state, formal presentations on Ethnic Studies, Mexican American Studies and Academia Cuauhtli before professional organizations (e.g., state bilingual association conferences, the annual Mexican American Studies Summit in San Antonio (five years). We have also offered expert testimony in court cases (e.g., the Arizona case involving Mexican American Studies in the Tucson schools) and before the State Board of Education and the Texas Legislature. Our location in Austin has given us the opportunity to assume special responsibilities at the Texas Education Agency and the Legislature. The expertise by some of our conveners and volunteers in History, Cultural Studies, Mexican American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies has also given Academia Cuauhtli the opportunity to extend our services beyond Austin. Above all, our recognized work with Academia Cuauhtli in Austin has given us entry into these state and national venues.
In sum, we have provided a valuable educational service to our local Austin Latino community for the last eight years. In the process, we have established an institution that provides teachers and students an opportunity to sustain a learning environment for parents, youth and themselves. Academia Cuauhtli has also successfully represented the local Latino community in state and national efforts to advance the educational voice and standing of our community.
