The development of the Cultural Missions plan in three municipalities of Chiapas, 1927

Abstract

The arrival of the Cultural Missions in Chiapanecan land came a little late. Between July and October 1927, the organization of Social Action Institutes, situated in the municipalities of Huixtla, San Cristóbal de las Casas, and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, resulted to be an event that reunited not only local, state, and federal professors but also alumni and local citizens. Grounded in the study of rural education, through the analyze of work reports sent from missionaries to SEP –Secretariat of Public Education–, which can be consulted in the collection of said Secretariat in the AGN –General Archive of the Nation–, this article develops the names of specialists, their work experience, what activities they carried out, with what materials, who participated, and the challenges they faced in Chiapas, a territory with particular characteristics such as its significant indigenous population, its difficult geography, the power of the upper-class land owners, and the lack of resources.