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Students Learn From Members Of The Tarahumara Tribe

Tarahumara

Members of the Tarahumara tribe from the Copper Canyon in Mexico traveled to Southern New Mexico this weekend to celebrate their native culture. They stopped at La Academia Dolores Huerta to talk with students about their lifestyle.

Students sang and dance to welcome members of the Tarahumara tribe to La Academia Dolores Huerta. Principal Octavio Casillas says it’s important for students to learn about different indigenous cultures.

“Because there is a lot that we can learn from them,” Casillas said. “And I believe some of the reasons that kids lose their place in life is because they forget who they’re ancestors were, and who they are supposed to honor.”

Casillas says there are also lessons to be learned from their lifestyle, they are almost exclusively vegetarians and eat only what they are able to grow.

“The Tarahumaras,” Casillas said. “What’s special about them is they have been able to maintain their culture. And their lifestyle is beautiful you know they have like no diabetes, no high blood pressure, they don’t have any cancer. They’re vegetarians, they live a very healthy life, they’re highly mobile.”

Irma Chavez Cruz spoke with students about her culture, and about how living a healthy lifestyle is out of respect for nature.

“I believe we can adapt,” Chavez Cruz said. “Because in that way the importance of nature can be respected and appreciated because without it we would not have what we have.”

Running also holds spiritual significance for the Tarahumara tribe, as part of their beliefs they think that running helps make the world go around, and they run out of respect for God.

“Because it is the way we show appreciation,” Chavez Cruz said. “It is the thanks that is given to nature, because then we are part of everything, and everything is part of nature. We live in it, we breathe it. There is water we drink from, where we eat from, We have to be thankful because it gives us everything, and gives us that soul that we should follow walking.”

Chavez Cruz hopes the students can take something away from the visit.

“We are just one world,” Chavez Cruz said. “We all deserve respect. We all deserve to be treated with dignity. So, together we are able to achieve something from our heart. To make a change for all the things happening in the world, the violence, and so I would like for them to walk with us in the spirit with nature, respecting every being that walks on the ground, like the ants, like the chameleons, for the Raramuri every animal has a meaning and a function in life.”
 

Samantha Sonner was a multimedia reporter for KRWG- TV/FM.