Patacancha Colegio

A high school’s revolutionary approach: help the indigenous do what they know and love best.

“Mathematics and Communication are taught, but they are not so important here.” Educators, you may now raise your eyebrows. Balisario, director of the Patacancha Colegio, was explaining the curriculum. His school, considered a model for this region of the Peruvian Andes, has a different set of priorities. “The Quechuans know how to communicate with the land – the water, the earth, the mountains – that’s what’s important so that’s what we emphasize.”

Patacancha Colegio is a bulwark not just against the rampant poverty that runs through present day Peru, but also the rapid disappearance of indigenous culture, as rising birthrates and the attractions of modernity spurned a massive migration out of the mountains and into the slums of Lima and other urban centers in the latter half of the 20th century.

Poverty takes on different meanings here, depending on the altitude and subsequent level of remaining native culture. Patacancha is a remote town a few hours drive from the regional hub of Cusco, and nestled in a valley near 13,000 feet. A typical family might earn less than a $1000 per year. The money comes from sources such as weavings sold to tourists, wool and meat from their herds of alpaca, llama, sheep, and cows, and work as porters on popular trekking routes. The income is supplementary to a subsistence lifestyle that largely works. Absent are many of problems endemic to other Peruvian communities, such as rampant alcoholism, petty crime, and violent politics, symbolically held at bay by the brilliant textiles the inhabitants still weave and wear with pride. As Balisario put it, “I don’t know any bad people here because everyone is essentially happy.”

But poverty is still poverty; malnutrition exists and early-teen pregnancy is common. Few women are conversant in Spanish, a valuable skill for trade, and necessary to deal with outsiders of many sorts. One of the ways the school helps is by teaching agricultural techniques to supplement a diet overly dependent on potatoes, the only traditionally viable crop at altitudes over 12,000 feet.

The innovative approach of this nonprofit-supported school is to reinforce the ways of living the Quechuans have thrived upon for millennia. As Balisario says, from their perspective, the future has a lot to do with the past, looking back on the glories of their Incan ancestors for both knowledge and inspiration to rebuild a culture severely damaged by colonialism.

The school’s approach is threefold; to offer a traditional and bilingual education (in Spanish and Quechua); to teach agriculture; and to teach sustainable ways of living with the environment, such as conserving native plants. As a result, natural and practical sciences are emphasized along with the benchmarks of modern schools, math and writing. Classrooms sit alongside greenhouses and animal husbandry buildings.

The Colegio’s primary goal is not to push its students into higher professions and the national economy. Balisario seems unconcerned that just a few of his alumni moved on to university in places like Cusco and Arariwa, with one former student studying medicine in Bolivia. The purpose, rather, is to help the community thrive on it’s own terms and keep the rich and increasingly rare Quechuan traditions alive.

The colegio’s teachers are all native Quechuan speakers, but hail from communities much more modernized that Patacancha. They share a commitment to preserving their common heritage, though it requires personal hardship. Faculty live on campus, dormitory style, and are only able to visit with their families on the weekends, a few hours drive back down the mountain. A single payphone serves the entire community. While Balisario loves his job and bemoans a mandatory transfer in two years, he confesses his wife – at home in Urubamba with his two young children –  is not so happy.

The school’s approach is winning applause and respect from both locals and international agencies because it is tailored to the local culture. In the past Peru has suffered bitter politics largely because the central government has enforced homogenous policies on a land of many languages and cultures. The country can be divided into three primary regions; the narrow coastal desert, the Andes, and the Amazon. The coast, home to the capital of Lima and the traditional seat of colonialism, has controlled most of the wealth and politics in Peru’s tumultuous history, often with little sensitivity and concern for the indigenous mountain and jungle peoples.

As far as politics, Balisario is not very interested. “Capitalism, Socialism, they will both destroy the Earth. We are Andean; we know we will survive, if only the world will let us.”