The Politics of Community

Abstract

Wrapping an alpaca blanket around my body, already layered with thermal underwear, two long-sleeved shirts, a sweater, and a fleece jacket, I sat huddled close to Juana,1 a good friend and the director of a small school in Ccara, a community in a harshly cold and desolate region of Cuzco, Peru. We were listening to a small group of self-labeled authorities on education policy, including a representative of the Peruvian government's regional education center, a teacher-trainer from a local nongovernmental organization (NGO) involved in education programs in the area, a health specialist from the nearest medical post (about a five-hour walk away), and a teacher from a community near the highland city of Cuzco. Packed into one of the three classrooms that made up the school, women and men from Ccara listened patiently to the reasons the visitors presented for the forthcoming change in their children's education. By way of introduction, the NGO representative proudly informed them that Ccara had been chosen as one of ten communities that the Ministry of Education in Lima (the Peruvian capital) had recently added to its jurisdiction. This meant, among other things, that teaching at their school would no longer be conducted in Spanish only.