An indigenous voice for textbooks
The appointment of Nadia López García as general director of Educational Materials of the SEP did not go unnoticed. The Mixtec poet and pedagogue reaches a position that decides what millions of students read. And of course, the official machinery has already brought out its scheduled applause.
The Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, was quick to praise his career. On social networks he wrote:
“It reflects a deep commitment to intercultural education and the cultural diversity of our country.”
Nice words that sound good in a statement. But one wonders: how much real weight will a poet have against the usual educational bureaucracy?
The predictable applause
From Morena, Camila Martínez celebrated that “an indigenous woman and defender of native languages now decides what millions of childhoods read and how they learn.” Oaxacan legislators Tania Caballero and Lizbeth Concha also added their congratulations.
INBAL, where López García coordinated literature, guaranteed that his experience “will strengthen the processes of creating and updating educational materials with an intercultural perspective.”
All very cordial, very celebratory. Nobody questions his merits – which he has – but one remembers other “historic” appointments that ended up drowned in procedures and insufficient budgets.
The true test will not be the speeches at the National Palace, but what happens when it tries to change content that has not been critically reviewed for decades. There we will see if this “transformation with a woman’s face” is more than another photo for the archive.
