Maximizing Indigenous Student Learning in the Mainstream with Language and Culture

In this paper, we explore the importance of being conscious of the needs of indigenous students within the education system in order to increase their learning process and decrease their dropout rates. Specifically, we discuss how Mayan language, culture, and ideologies affect the educational outcome of Mayan students in mainstream classes in Guatemalan schools. From this discussion, we highlight the impact that these factors have on both teacher training and the education of the indigenous student population. A simple “teaching to learn—learning to teach” model is explained which discusses the importance of multilingual and multicultural aspects of teacher training and real-life implications in the indigenous student learning process

Gregori Mayans i Siscar (1699-1781)

Breu biografia de Gregori Mayans i Ciscar, destacat intel·lectual valencià del segle XVIII, orientada a destacar les seues aportacions a l'estudi del món clàssic

Diversity of HLA Class I and Class II blocks and conserved extended haplotypes in Lacandon Mayans.

Here we studied HLA blocks and haplotypes in a group of 218 Lacandon Maya Native American using a high-resolution next generation sequencing (NGS) method. We assessed the genetic diversity of HLA class I and class II in this population, and determined the most probable ancestry of Lacandon Maya HLA class I and class II haplotypes. Importantly, this Native American group showed a high degree of both HLA homozygosity and linkage disequilibrium across the HLA region and also lower class II HLA allelic diversity than most previously reported populations (including other Native American groups). Distinctive alleles present in the Lacandon population include HLA-A*24:14 and HLA-B*40:08. Furthermore, in Lacandons we observed a high frequency of haplotypes containing the allele HLA-DRB1*04:11, a relatively frequent allele in comparison with other neighboring indigenous groups. The specific demographic history of the Lacandon population including inbreeding, as well as pathogen selection, may have elevated the frequencies of a small number of HLA class II alleles and DNA blocks. To assess the possible role of different selective pressures in determining Native American HLA diversity, we evaluated the relationship between genetic diversity at HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 and pathogen richness for a global dataset and for Native American populations alone. In keeping with previous studies of such relationships we included distance from Africa as a covariate. After correction for multiple comparisons we did not find any significant relationship between pathogen diversity and HLA genetic diversity (as measured by polymorphism information content) in either our global dataset or the Native American subset of the dataset. We found the expected negative relationship between genetic diversity and distance from Africa in the global dataset, but no relationship between HLA genetic diversity and distance from Africa when Native American populations were considered alone

El "Tractatus de Hispana progenie vocis ur" de Gregorio Mayans y su aportación a la Historia Antigua Valenciana

En 1779 Gregorio Mayans publicó su Tractatus de hispana progenie vocis UR, una obra escrita en 1755 con la intención de cumplir el requisito de presentar un trabajo original para el acceso a la Academia Latina de Jena. Aunque de planteamiento filológico, el Tractatus aporta, entre otras, informaciones históricas de importancia para conocer el pensamiento de Mayans sobre diversas cuestiones de la Antigüedad valenciana. D. Gregorio, a través del comentario de algunas ciudades, revisa su origen, instituciones, fuentes clásicas, posturas historiográficas, etc., evidenciando sus amplios conocimientos y el interés que mostraba por este tipo de temas. (A

Maternal short stature does not predict their children's fatness indicators in a nutritional dual-burden sample of urban Mexican Maya.

The co-existence of very short stature due to poor chronic environment in early life and obesity is becoming a public health concern in rapidly transitioning populations with high levels of poverty. Individuals who have very short stature seem to be at an increased risk of obesity in times of relative caloric abundance. Increasing evidence shows that an individual is influenced by exposures in previous generations. This study assesses whether maternal poor early life environment predicts her child's adiposity using cross sectional design on Maya schoolchildren aged 7-9 and their mothers (n = 57 pairs). We compared maternal chronic early life environment (stature) with her child's adiposity (body mass index [BMI] z-score, waist circumference z-score, and percentage body fat) using multiple linear regression, controlling for the child's own environmental exposures (household sanitation and maternal parity). The research was performed in the south of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, a low socioeconomic urban area in an upper middle income country. The Maya mothers were very short, with a mean stature of 147 cm. The children had fairly high adiposity levels, with BMI and waist circumference z-scores above the reference median. Maternal stature did not significantly predict any child adiposity indicator. There does not appear to be an intergenerational component of maternal early life chronic under-nutrition on her child's obesity risk within this free living population living in poverty. These results suggest that the co-existence of very short stature and obesity appears to be primarily due to exposures and experiences within a generation rather than across generations

Barriers to Care Amongst Rural Indigenous Mayans in Guatemala’s Western Highlands

Information presented here is based on 5-week volunteering experience at Primeros Pasos clinic in the rural Palajunoj Valley outside the city of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Almost all of the patient population is rural, indigenous Quiche Maya. Guatemala has a relatively high GDP and patient-doctor ratio (1000:1) compared to its neighboring Latin American countries, but these resources are extremely localized to its capital, Guatemala City, where 70% of the country’s physicians work. Only the wealthy are able to utilize private clinics and hospitals that are known to provide the highest quality care. At these clinics, patients pay out-of-pocket. Indigenous, rural communities typically rely on under-funded, understaffed, overcrowded government Puestos and Centros de Salud that are often far from their homes and difficult to access. Theoretically, these public clinics allow for Guatemala’s healthcare system to claim “universal coverage,” but a lack of funding for public hospitals and clinics have left many of them in dire condition. By 2015, 4 out of the 44 public hospitals were forced to shut down all but emergency services because they could not afford to pay their employees. [3] Guatemala’s Deputy Prosecutor, Hilda Morales, blames the lack of funding and resources on “structural failures,” such as corruption within the system, debt, delays in payment to suppliers, and the poor maintenance of medical equipment. Many of these issues are rooted in the violence, corruption and prejudice against indigenous cultures during the Civil War.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/cwicposters/1015/thumbnail.jp