Guiding Values and Principles

The Pan Valley Institute’s Guiding Values and Principles
Our underlying vision and mission

The mission of the Pan Valley Institute is to create welcoming spaces where immigrants can gather to converse, create and learn as equals. We want to provide a place where we can have one conversation in many languages. Our hope is that, as a result, the Central Valley will become a place where all people are respected, cultural diversity is embraced, and members of immigrant communities take active social, civic and political roles in creating a more democratic society.

1. Knowledge and Problem Solving
Fundamentally, we have faith in people’s capacity to solve their own problems and guide their individual learning and training. We know that people can arrive at an understanding by themselves, in collaboration with others, by addressing issues that are important to them, as opposed to topics determined by “experts.” We believe in the dignity of every person’s experience and knowledge, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, culture, faith, education level and language.

2. Immigrant Leadership
We value immigrants as thinking beings and encourage the development of new immigrant leadership, including women and youth. We support current leaders who are struggling to find a place at the table, empowering them to have a greater impact.

3. Consciousness Building
We believe that through collective and individual learning, sharing, reflection and action, we can transform our communities to improve the world in which we live. At times, this will require breaking free of things we have traditionally been led to believe but that are holding us back; other times, it may require holding tightly to our traditions in the face of opposition.

4. Long-term Commitment
The work we are committed to is a long-term process and requires commitment, patience, time and dedication. There is no immediate solution to the problems we face and are working to change.

5. Grassroots Democracy/Participation
We want to develop communities that have control over the decisions that affect our lives. We believe that democracy is about the rights of all people to participate in civic life on their own terms. 

6. Strength in Diversity
We promote the building of positive, respectful relationships that transcend the differences that can sometimes be divisive. We recognize the importance of sharing commonalities, as well as disparities, to find a shared agenda as the basis for mutual understanding and action.

7. Spontaneity
Rather than a blueprint agenda, we provide the necessary space and time to learn in a way that allows the process to unfold for participants. We encourage spontaneous discussions, and let concerns and issues take form, believing that they contribute to a sustained process of learning and change.

8. Multilingualism
We are committed to enabling the participatory learning of, and communication amongst, people who speak different languages.

9. Education for Action
In order to bring about social change, we believe that the best education is action, and the best action is education. We hope to foster this education by providing a gathering place where people can learn from one another and conceptualize strategies and actions.

10. Appropriate Environment
We place great importance on our learning environment and its impact on participants’ ability to think, learn and act. We provide a comfortable space, adequate time, food and attention to other details that encourage communication, creativity and the building of relationships that are necessary for people to learn and work together.

How PVI Defines Popular Education

The Pan Valley Institute defines popular education as a democratic process for bringing about social change. It’s not a strategy or approach as much as a philosophy and a way of working that focuses on everyday people. Yet equality in popular education is found not in the philosophy, but in the practice. Ultimately, popular education is a process of transforming a disenfranchised person into an advocate.

This is what that process looks like at PVI:

• It starts with a group of people coming together to analyze their situations, share experiences and collectively find solutions through active participation. They share a common desire for change and are committed to making it happen.

• People from the community are involved in the decision-making process.

• The process takes place in a number of different settings, because it’s not a classroom or parish that’s needed to make this process successful–it’s the people involved. Regardless of location, the setting is safe and welcoming.

  We recognize the value of each participant’s knowledge, thereby empowering them to act. It’s not about teaching; instead, it’s about encouraging participants to discover what they already know.

  The group facilitator, who leads the exercises and shapes the direction of the gatherings, encourages action as the solution for resolving problems.

  We understand that this process takes time and results are never immediate. It’s a fluid progression that evolves differently in each situation. We celebrate small victories on the way to bigger ones.

Principles at work in popular education include:

• Start from people’s experience
  

• Learners participate in determining what is to be learned People work collectively (in groups), share experiences, and encourage Participation.
  

• Collective Study, mutual learning leads to ACTION –“we don’t know if things work unless we take actions on things”
  

• Not teaching but allowing participants to discover what they know 
  

• Offer Feedback about the process once projects are complete 
  

• Provide a safe and welcoming learning space
  

How PVI Defines Participatory Action Research

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a process of generating collective knowledge that is then utilized for changing a specific social condition that impacts the most marginalized members of society. By validating the knowledge of the most oppressed groups, this methodology allows them to enhance their understanding and use it to transform their conditions of oppression.

PAR research methods are based on the principles of popular education, subscribing to the idea that everyone involved brings expertise to the equation and provides equal value to the process. The hope is that the knowledge that’s generated will lead to action that will eventually change the problem that was being addressed, improving the lives of participants.

Because PAR is a collective process of studying and analyzing one or more pressing issues, participation is crucial. Those involved must accurately and fairly represent their communities and voice their concerns. Participants must be committed to taking action toward solving the specific issues addressed. 

Traditional research, on the other hand, is more in the hands of scholars and other professionals, who typically decide on the core topic of the research on their own. Traditional researchers also tend to establish hierarchical relations with members of the communities observed, who are viewed as subjects to be studied and not agents of change.

In traditional research academicians have total ownership of the knowledge resulting from the research, even though in most cases the knowledge gained is enhanced by the information from participants observed or surveyed. In traditional research, there is an obvious gap between those who research and those who are researched. In light of these distinctions, we also recognized that both methodologies could function synergistically, provided that equal control of the process is maintained, and that equity is established among those with formal knowledge and those with knowledge based on life experience.

How PVI Defines Cultural Organizing

At the Pan Valley Institute, cultural organizing aims to revitalize and sustain immigrants’ artistic expression and cultural practices in order to support them in their efforts to become more socially and politically included, and to help build stronger, more active communities. Our guiding principle when engaging in cultural organizing is that the participants must always choose how to express their culture and how they want to participate in civic life. Following this general premise, our approach makes the following assertions:

1. Cultural rights are human rights.
Based on our central belief that the world is not static, that it is open to change, and that the poor and oppressed play an active role in creating a better future, we have seen that acts of creativity, self-expression and identity formation are central to activating this change. In a society where those who don’t reflect the image of mainstream culture are told that they have nothing to contribute and their values and culture hold no value, the marginalization can become crippling and lead to an inability to analyze and solve problems. We embrace cultural organizing as a means to create a better world for future generations by celebrating immigrant contributions.

2. Cultural organizing creates a sense of belonging.
For immigrants in strange and unwelcoming places, cultural organizing creates opportunities for them to practice and share their cultural knowledge with one another and to focus on connections rather than problems. By nurturing a sense of economic and cultural wellbeing through the recognition and marketing of cultural assets, cultural organizing promotes a sense of belonging. Using a holistic approach that does not separate organizing from the arts, people from place, or specific strategies from the complex contexts in which they are applied, we’re able to re-weave the interconnected fabric of community.

3. Cultural organizing builds cross-cultural relationships and public engagement.
Cultural organizing helps immigrants find a sense of vindication when it comes to their own identities by allowing them to decide who they want to be based on their migration journey, rather than adopting a societally imposed identity. It encourages them to hold on to their personal history and gives them the freedom to express cultural practices. In our diverse area, it implies a process of “intercultural learning” that encompasses understanding, respect for differences, and negotiating to engage in collaborative community building practices.

“Cultural organizing is the use of the arts and traditions by cultural practitioners as a departing point to promote wider participation beyond the cultural celebrations. Cultural organizing promotes art and cultural expression as a decolonizing step that ultimately aims at building voice and power among Central Valley immigrants for addressing issues of social inequality and exclusion. Ultimately, cultural organizing utilizes culture and art as a venue and resource for strengthening immigrant leadership, and for building a sense of place and belonging that inspires and promotes active participation in public life.” 

—Juan Santiago, TCOFP alumni

How PVI Helps Participants Find a Sense of Belonging

“My family feels like why bother getting involved
or doing things here if you are just a guest;
and not only that, but an unwelcome guest.”

—Minerva Mendoza

During the Pan Valley Institute’s fellowship programs, feelings of not belonging and the importance of building a sense of belonging were areas of substantial findings for the fellows. These findings corroborated what we have been observing and listening since the first time we convene a group of South East Asian and Mexican Indigenous women in 2000.

What Does It Mean to Belong?
A sense of belonging is the connection of people to a place or land, whether that be a country, city, town or even neighborhood. It’s also the commitment an individual has for caring for that place and its people. A sense of belonging is important for an individual’s interaction within their community’s sociopolitical and economic context.

Some important elements included in the concept of belonging include:

In direct contrast to a sense of belonging it that of feeling unwelcome, a dominant feeling experienced by many immigrants of color and poor communities, whether they are documented, undocumented or naturalized. Rather than being viewed as agents of change, public opinion focuses instead on victimizing and criminalizing immigrants, exposing them to exclusion that leads to feelings of rejection and isolated living. Because they are make feel like a social burden with nothing to contribute, they lack the confidence to get involved and participate civically.

Most immigrants we work with have been living in the U.S. for long periods of time (20 to 40 years) and are here to stay. However, the more they feel rejected and unwelcome, the more connected they feel to their homeland, sometimes even forgetting the unjust circumstances that forced them to leave. They want to make a home and be accepted here, while not being forced to abandon the memories and cultural heritage they brought with them.

The most common approaches to supporting immigrants and refugees focus on integration, placing all the responsibility on them: If they would only speak English, figure out how the government works and learn to navigate the system, then they would be fully integrated members of society. While these are important factors, our experience shows it to be a one-dimensional strategy that excludes the contributions immigrants can bring to the process. Helping them feel a sense of belonging and giving them reasons to invest in the community results in a more inclusive integration process. We should expect them to adapt while also respecting their right to be different.

Active Citizenship

Immigrant civic participation is often discussed in terms of naturalization and legal citizenship, and voter registration and voter turnout. While both of these areas of immigrant civic engagement are important to PVI, we also recognize a broader array of civic engagement values and principles as central to our Cultural Organizing work. Within and beyond cultural expression, exchanges and organizing within immigrant communities we believe in the full and meaningful engagement of immigrants in civic life. The principles of full engagement embraced by PVI and activated through our Cultural Organizing work include paying close attention to the value of:

• • Developing and nurturing the individual leadership, voice, skills, knowledge, and strengths of immigrants engaged in public problem solving at all levels despite their immigration status.

• • Building strong social and professional networks and institutional relationships, that enable people to work together across common boundaries, and effectively address the issues they care about in a way that builds deep and sustainable work for the long haul.

• • Strengthening immigrant institutions including the resources, governing structures, and organizational capacities that enable long term support systems and broad-based problem solving in the public arena.
  

• • Mapping and supporting community capital, or the mentors, elders, informal associations and helping systems that enable individual immigrant leaders and immigrant groups to engage beyond their own local communities and beyond their communities of origin.

• • Inspiring immigrants to engage in civic life as full contributing members of society and democratic life including as thinkers and actors around local problem solving, public debate, and policy-making.

  In keeping with our popular education, participatory action research and cultural organizing values and principles we believe that civic engagement begins when immigrants work on issues that affect their own lives, not just in citizenship classes or voting booths. Through learning together and by building relationships with diverse Valley stakeholders it is our conviction that immigrant communities can make important and absolutely essential and necessary contributions to the civic fabric of our region and nation. 
  

• In response to the realization of the centrality of culture the Pan Valley Institute decided to launch a public cultural festival to bring the voices, cultures, practices, and pride of the diverse Valley immigrant communities to the public stage. With a grant from The James Irvine Foundation, in collaboration with the Center Valley Partnership for Citizenship, and with support from many Valley organizations the Tamejavi Cultural Exchange Festival was born in 2002. Beyond the bi-annual festival, PVI began to develop an approach to supporting Valley immigrants organizing creative spaces, cultural practices, and ethnic education programs in their own communities. We also learned that cultural celebrations such as Fiestas del Pueblo, Hmong New Years and other traditional celebrations could be catalyzed as a strategic intersection for broader civic engagement. For many of the immigrant participants in PVI’s cultural programs, the cultural offerings they organize in their own communities are the only opportunity they have to break with the social isolation they experience on a daily basis. Cultural celebrations are also a great occasion for immigrants to become socially engaged, to organize, and to come together among themselves and on their own terms. We have witnessed how cultural organizing is a means by which immigrants tell their own stories and bring a new narrative about their contributions and capacities to public life.
  

The Role of Immigrant Women at PVI

Betterment and Wellbeing of Low-Income Families

We, the women of the San Joaquin Valley, and members of the immigrant women’s network “A Road to the Future” let the following be known…

The network of immigrant women “A Road to the Future” in defense of the betterment and wellbeing of low-income families, including immigrant families, demand the respect and implementation of our basic rights to education, dignified work, health and the right to preserve and exercise our cultural identity. Fresno, Calif., 2003

*****

One of the Pan Valley Institute’s first projects was the Immigrant Women’s Network. The group was compiled of 10 Latino, Mexican Indigenous and Southeast Asian women who were identified for their leadership potential and invited to participate in a popular education process from 1999 to 2003.

In 2000, they produced a calendar documenting their migration journeys, followed by a book, “Immigrant Women: A Road to the Future.” They have gone on to become influential, income-generating leaders and role models within their local communities while maintaining their relationships with one another and continuing to collaborate with the Pan Valley Institute.

From the very beginning, it was our intent to identify women who were capable of emerging as grassroots leaders from the largest immigrant populations: Indigenous Mexican and Hmong. These women have set the stage for what it means to build interethnic relationships while strengthening the leadership role, presence and voice of women in shaping a newly emerging immigrants’ rights movement, all while redefining their own traditional roles. These women have brought authenticity and simplicity to the path that leads to social change. Their first call to action was to give visibility to immigrant women who play multiple roles. More than caretakers, wives and daughters, they fill the positions of breadwinners, activists and cultural holders, reclaiming a place at the table in the battle for immigrant dignity.

Our work with this group of women was our first attempt at bringing together people with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. They came to the Valley from far apart places of the world and had dissimilar migration histories. It was during our work with this group that we initiated our popular education and participatory research practices, and took the first steps towards entering into the cultural strategy that we currently call cultural organizing. We did not have any curriculum or sophisticated popular education techniques; just principles we relied on to guide our work. It was indeed a collective learning journey, and the foundation on which the next 20 years were built.

“The great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed
is to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well [….]
Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed
will be sufficiently strong to free both.”

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1993:26)

Decolonization

The Pan Valley Institute (PVI) has spent the last 20 years working with diverse communities in the Central Valley. From Hmong and Syrian refugees to indigenous Mexican migrants like Mixtecs, Zapotecs and Triquis to Mexican mestizo farmworkers, we strive to build a community space where these diverse communities can feel welcome and empowered and find a mutual sense of empathy. Toward this end, PVI has developed this Decolonization Toolkit based on a long-term engagement with grassroots organizations in the area through a series of popular education processes and community convenings. The main goal of this decolonization section of the toolbox is to introduce the core concepts of decolonization to community-based organizations using the principles of popular education. We want readers to apply these core concepts in their organizing projects and train others on how to use them in their own social justice work.

One of the main challenges we faced in developing this section of this toolbox was to find a common thread in the migration histories of such diverse groups of people we work with in the Fresno, Madera, Merced, Tulare counties: Hmong refugees from Cambodia, long-term legal mestizo migrants from Mexico and recent undocumented indigenous migrants from Oaxaca. The concept of “colonization” and its effect on colonized subjects proved to be useful in understanding the process of immigrant incorporation of each of these groups, how they navigated their own identity formation (as refugees or undocumented migrants), and the type of political decisions they made as they settled in communities within the Central Valley.

A key insight is that the political identities refugees and migrants exhibit once they arrive in the U.S. start forming at home in the context of their own histories in their countries of origin. In the case of Hmongs and Mixtecos, that political identity is one of indigenous people. Once they arrive in the U.S. as refugees and undocumented migrants, they start navigating a new political landscape, adapting their own histories and incorporating new references that are prevalent in the U.S. Political identities such as “refugee” and “undocumented migrant” are labels they acquire upon arrival to areas like California’s Central Valley.

Core concepts from the decolonization literature allow us to find common ground in understanding the sources of oppression and path to liberation. We cover three thematic areas: 1) Understanding Oppression covers the positive aspects of histories and identities, as well as the adverse ways immigrants have internalized the negative feelings of marginalization they bring with them from their own countries; 2) Understanding Power Structures centers around understanding the historical legacy of racism and prejudice against indigenous people and how this is manifested in lack of economic and political opportunities, both in their countries of origin and here in the communities where they now reside; 3) Paths for Liberation discusses the importance of developing a prophetic imagination to allow immigrants to visualize the transformation of the world they want. How can they live their lives not as passive victims of oppression, but without becoming the oppressors or reproducing injustice in their struggles?

The Importance of Decolonization

One of our goals at the Pan Valley Institute is to help immigrants and refugees celebrate and maintain their native culture in their new land, but that can be a struggle due to a long history of colonization. Follows is a brief history of colonization and how its damaging impacts can be reversed through the process of decolonization. 

When the colonization of the Americas began in the 1500s, indigenous people were forced into a new lifestyle and repressed of their cultural and historic knowledge and their creative expression. Their languages were labeled as inferior to that of the Spanish conquerors. This classification of indigenous people as inferior continues to this date. For example, in Mexico, if someone is heard speaking an indigenous language in public, they are labeled inferior and often called “indio,” which means indigenous, but in a pejorative manner.

Decolonization is the process of undoing the impacts of colonialism by which indigenous people regain and validate their cultural identity and world vision. It also challenges labels attached to them like “inferior” or “indio”.

The aftermath of being called an “indio” explains the domino effect that discrimination can have. For some indigenous parents, it justifies why they refuse to teach their children their native languages. This imposed sentiment of inferiority has also lead parents of indigenous children to reject, ignore or deny their heritage, and instead welcome a culture outside that of their native land. It’s a consequence of a childhood where they were bullied because of being indigenous. A cost of assimilating in order to be accepted is that they tend to leave their indigenous background behind. This is what scholars call internal colonization.

One approach to decolonization or addressing internal colonization can be to offer opportunities to communities impacted by colonization for reclaiming and validating their cultural heritage and identity. For centuries, indigenous people have been made to feel inferior and worthless, resulting in psychological trauma. They may come to believe that the work they do, or even their very existence, are meaningless, and internal colonization can result. People reject their indigenous culture by abandoning their native language and adopting the predominant one. They may also reject their family history and native culture.

At PVI, we have learned that a key component for gaining cultural pride is to offer opportunities for indigenous pople to regain knowledge of their own history. Knowing and valuing the richness and diversity of their history, validating their accomplishments, strenghs and creativities is a first step for building cultural self-reliance. Decolonization gives immigrants the right to speak their own language, honor their native traditions and regain their own sense of identity.

Glossary

This glossary provides the definitions of terms and concepts frequently used by the Pan Valley Institute. The terms have been defined through a process of collaboration with community activists that have participated in PVI’s programs, projects, activities and committeess. We place a great deal of attention on language, and want to make sure that the words we use speak specifically to our work and are relevant to the communities we work with. This glossary brings together these terms and their definitions as they relate to our mission to the best of our ability. It was first developed for PVI staff, committee members and constituencies participating in our work. We understand that the use of these terms isn’t always necessary when practicing the work we do, so this gloassary is meant to serve more as a guide for practicioners. We recommend being sentitive and avoiding the use of words whose meaning may be irrelevant to the average person.

American Friends Service Committee: The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice as a practical expression of faith in action. Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, AFSC nurtures the seeds of change and respect for human life that transforms social relations and systems. AFSC has over 77 programs across the world that, while incredibly varied, all have at their core the mission of promoting social justice and ensuring that the voices of marginalized communities are heard.

Capacity Building: Capacity building, or to “build capacity,” means to develop new skills or to build upon existing skills, traits, knowledge, abilities and other facets related to increasing personal growth and character. 

California’s Central Valley: The “Central Valley” is one of the largest regions in California, running from the upper Sacramento Valley area in the north down to the Kern County and Bakersfield area in the south. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, “the Central Valley is one of the fastest growing regions of California.”1 In 2003, there were 6.2 million inhabitants in the Valley. By 2040, that number is estimated to reach12 million. 

Community Visits: A community visit is an opportunity to observe people in their everyday lives, in familiar geographic social and cultural context. It’s also a demonstration of respect and committment by showing people we don’t expect them to come to us; we will go to them, connect with their community and get real insight into where they live. There are different circumstances in which community visits can take place: when you are invited to attend community events, intentional visits to familiarize yoursef with where people work and live, and the homes or places of work of potential allies and partners. 

Colonization: Colonization refers to the historical process of expansion and domination of Western European countries to the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The main European countries active in this form of colonization included Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Germany, and, beginning in the 18th century, the United States. Most of these countries had a period of almost complete power in world trade at some stage in the period from roughly 1500 to 1900. In many settled colonies, Western European settlers eventually formed a large majority of the population after killing or driving away indigenous peoples. Examples include the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. Western European settlers formed minority groups, which often used more advanced weaponry to dominate the people initially living in their places of settlement.

Community Assessment: A community assessment’s central intention is to directly engage people within a community with issues that are important to them, and to organize opportunities for them to join in a creative learning process that is based on common action and shared reflection. Reflection is a critical part of popular education. We see a community assessment effort as an exercise to provide opportunities for reflection at key junctures in a popular education process. These include opportunities for community people to 1) reflect critically about key community problems, challenges, and opportunities they confront; 2) choose and organize the creative cultural action they will take in response; and 3) decide how effective the action was and apply what was learned to continued creative and civic action.

Cultural Organizing: For PVI, cultural organizing is a community-building process in which people share cultural traditions and artistic expression with one another to build stronger, more active communities. We propose that it is not the cultural form itself, but rather the sharing, exchange and engagement that leads to increased community participation and action. A central guiding principal for PVI in this work is that the community engaged in cultural organizing work must always choose how to express its culture and how to participate in civic life. 

Culture: By culture, we mean people’s mythical and/or religious beliefs, their ways of seeing and interpreting the world, their artistic creativities, social and political negotiations and practices, plus the economic development, social and political strategies for improving their quality of life. 

Cultural Rights: In the context of working with immigrant and refugee communities, by “cultural rights,” we mean a process of vindication of identities, recapturing of histories, and the freedom to hold and express cultural practices and creativities. We also believe that immigrants have the right to decide and engage in the formation of new identities that emerged through the migration process, and the inclusion of new cultural values in a humane and respectful way, rather than by imposition. 

Cultural Oppression: Cultural oppression refers to, but is not limited to, the social isolation, discrimination and lack of resources or space to practice one’s culture. It also describes the inability to have a voice in public affairs, which is a frequent occurrence for immigrants and is often a result of their ethnic and/or immigrant background. 

Cultural Exchange/Sharing: Cultural exchange is defined as a means by which communities come together across cultural lines to learn from one another, to re-assert their cultural traditions, meanings and voices to themselves and others, thereby establishing the sense of belonging and connection necessary for meaningful participation in civic life.

Cultural Kitchen: The cultural kitchen is a practice of cultural exchange through a culinary experience that brings diverse people to the table to dialogue about who they are through traditional dishes and flavors. Its is also a space to validate and reclaim the food-based traditions of indigenous people.

Cultural Organizer: A cultural organizer is someone who listens carefully to the needs and concerns of their communities. He, she, they become a community leader who pays close attention to the importance of culture and art, and uses the power of culture and cultural history to bring people together to build relationships. A cultural organizer also facilitates and strengthens the cultural voices of immigrants through vehicles of creative expression like art, storytelling, poetry and other forms. Cultural organizers work collectively in partnership with local immigrants to begin identifying ways to address their social oppression and isolation, and to begin to instill a strong sense of belonging and identity.

Cultural Holder: A cultural holder is someone that has deep insight and understading of the beliefs, values and world interpretations of a specific ethnic group. A cultural holder also has deep understanding of the cultural traditions and its practices. In indigenous communities, cultural holders play a key role in keeping the identity of their people alive, as most of the history and culture have been passed down through oral tradition and by practice. 

Civic Engagement: Immigrant civic participation is often discussed in terms of naturalization and legal citizenship, as well as voter registration and voter turnout. While both of these areas of immigrant civic engagement are important to PVI, we also recognize a broader array of civic engagement values and principles as central to our cultural organizing work. Within and beyond cultural expression, exchanges and organizing within immigrant communities, we believe in the full and meaningful engagement of immigrants in civic life. 

Dinamicas: Dinamicas are learning activities frequently used in popular education. Dinamicas have different purposes; there are learning, energizing and relationship-building dinamicas. Sometimes, dinamicas are used in regular meetings; however, putting a dinamica into practice does not necessarily mean that a popular education process is in place, since popular education is more about principles and values than techniques and tools.

Decolonization: Decolonization is the process by which a colony achieves its independence from a colonial power to which it was subjected. Decolonization is the opposite process of colonization. More recently, the term "decolonization" has been used to refer to a posture and cultural operation, aimed at revealing and reversing institutional, cultural and epistemological situations affected by the eurocentrism and other mechanisms of subordination and power. This meaning is driven by the current postcolonial and colonial calls. Decolonization also refers to the process of consciousness-raising by populations who underwent a process of colonization and freeing themselves from ideas and concepts internalized by the process of colonial domination and imposition. Decolonization refers to the process of ideological, mental, cultural and political liberation of the people and inhabitants who underwent the process of colonialism.

Guelaguetza: A Zapotec word that means offering or gift, making reference to the reciprocity or mutual help (ayuda mutua) between fellow citizens. The Guelaguetza festival is an annual summer music and dance festival that is traditionally celebrated in the city of Oaxaca. A number of musical and dance interpretations from the diverse regions that comprise the state are performed, so it is presented as a pan-Oaxacan festival. The event dates back to the 19th century to the festivals called Lunes del Cerro (Mondays on the Hill) that took place the two Mondays following July 16th, at Cerro del Fortín.

Intercultural Learning: Intercultural learning refers to the acquisition of new knowledge about other cultures, understanding and respect for differences, and to the most basic human understanding that occurs when individuals come together in dialogue or in expression with people of different cultural backgrounds. This experience creates a two-way flow of “intercultural” knowledge and self-reflectivity since when participants learn about other cultures and their unique facets, it encourages them to learn more about their own.  

Learning Group: Learning group refers to a group of people or a small support network consisting of community members, local artists, organizers and others who gather around a specific theme or topic. While intensively engaging in dialogue and relationship-building within a popular education format, learning groups work collectively to express and communicate with others in the community about issues, concerns and interests related to their theme or topic. Learning groups are generally led by one or two cultural organizers.

Pan Valley Institute: Founded in 1998, the Pan Valley Institute (PVI) creates safe spaces for immigrants and refugees to learn from one another and design organizing strategies for promoting social change and building community. To increase immigrant participation and power across California’s Central Valley, PVI brings a diverse range of grassroots immigrant leaders together through cultural gatherings, leadership trainings, thematic workshops, retreats and its fellowship program —the Tamejavi Cultural Organizing Fellowship Program (TCOFP). From 2011 to 2017, 24 fellows graduated from the TCOFP, and approximately 200 people indirectly benefited from the program in their roles as learning group members. 

Popular Education: Popular education is a community education effort aimed at empowering adults through cooperative study and action, directed toward achieving a more just and equitable society. Popular education prioritizes what we like to call “everyday people:” the poor, oppressed and marginalized people of the world. Popular education is based on the assumption that the world can be changed, and that everyday people can make that change if given the opportunity to understand the world around them. It is essentially inviting people to learn about the world in order to make it a just place for them, their families and their communities. 

Participatory Action Research: Similar to popular education, participatory action research (PAR) is a process of collectively generating information and knowledge to change a problem or situation in one’s community. Instead of being studied by outside expert researchers, a community or group of people control the research process themselves by determining what issues they want to address, what they need to find out to address the issue, where they will find the answers, and ultimately, what they will do with the information they uncover. 

Residential Gatherings: Residential gatherings are retreats intentionally organized to remove fellows from their daily activities and bring them to a remote space in which they can avoid distractions in order to engage in deep learning and reflection. The residential gatherings also offer fellows a place and time to engage in informal interactions, build meaningful relationships, unlock creativity, acquire skills, and to practice and learn cultural organizing and popular education. Residential gatherings are only a first step in creating a space where people can reflect and build consciousness though deep dialogues centered around common problems that result in visions for solving such problems.

Reflection Circle: This is a space where people working together in cultural organizing or popular education gather to share what they have learned and draw experiences from the learning process, as well as plan for further steps and actions. 

Sense of Belonging: A sense of belonging is the connection of people to a place or land, be it a country, city, town or even neighborhood. Sense of belonging is also the commitment an individual has for caring for that place and its people, and is important for an individual’s interaction with his or her community’s sociopolitical and economic context. Some important elements included in the concept of belonging include: the social cohesions, networks, coalitions and ways in which individuals get organized. It also includes people’s understanding and expressions of life, including their individual memories, creativities, stories and food-related traditions. Having a strong sense of belonging is important for the formation of networks of care, commitment and solidarity, and promotes the sense of dignity that stems from feeling a part of something larger than one’s self. 

Tamejavi: A word inspired by the creative antics of poet Juan Felipe Herrera, “Tamejavi” brings together syllables from the Hmong, Spanish and Mixteco words for marketplace: TAj laj Tshav Puam (Hmong), MErcado (Spanish) and nunJAVI (Mixteco). The combined syllables spell Tamejavi, representing a public place for the Central Valley’s diverse immigrant and refugee communities to gather, engage in cultural sharing and celebrate their work through building a sense of place and belonging.

Tequio (Voluntary Community Work): This is the term for voluntary community work that all adult male members of an indigenous community in Oaxaca have to perform. Usually, this work is related to the maintenance of community infrastructure (roads, community buildings, water sheds, schools, etc.). In some communities, tequio is compulsory to maintain a good standing in the community. 

Toolbox: The Toolbox is our first effort to share our journeys, experiences and vision for cultural organizing more broadly beyond our immigrant participants, allies and partners. The toolbox include stories, reflections, images and specific workshop activities and methodologies that have been compiled by PVI staff, friends and partners over the past 20 years. 

Tamejavi Cultural Organzing Fellowship Program: In 2011, we launched the Tamejavi Cultural Organizing Fellowship Program (TCOFP). Since its formation, the TCOFP has enabled PVI’s network to identify, train and support cohorts of “cultural organizers” who are deeply committed to the wellbeing and cultural resilience of their communities. Twenty-three fellows and four apprentice fellows representing a multigenerational group of men and women from Mexican Indigenous, South and Southeast Asian, Palestinian, Pakistani and Iranian communities, have graduated from the program.

Tamejavi Culture and Art Series: For the culmination of the pilot phase, the first cohort of TCOFP fellows produced events that were presented at the Tamejavi Cultural and Art Series (TCAS), held in four cities across the Central Valley. TCAS intends to be a cultural and artistic space for fellows to tell the stories of their community assessment findings. It provides a stage for local artists to shed light on their cultural assets and the diverse cultural richness immigrants are contributing to their new place.  

Tamejavi Fellows/Alumni: Tamejavi fellows/alumni are emerging leaders from the Central Valley’s immigrant and refugee coomunities who took part in one of the three cohorts of the Tamejavi Cultural Organizing Fellowship Program (TCOFP), which was implemented and coordinated by the Pan Valley Institute from 2011 to 2017.

The Grand Finale: The Grand Finale was not staged by one organization or production company, but was rather the collective effort of an entire community concerned with the cultural pride and strength of the region’s diverse immigrants. For some, it was the first time they saw their cultural heritage appreciated in public, beyond their own community. For others, it was the first time they shared the stage with fellow immigrants from different homelands.

Usos y Costumbres (Indigenous ways and customs): Usos y costumbres (indigenous ways and customs) is a set of community institutions and practices designed to maintain the primary civic, religious and political pillars of indigenous communities in Mexico. Part of these institutions are the Cargo System, Tequio and the Comite de Bienes Communales (Committe of Community Territory). The Cargo system is a community-based institution to elect community leaders and the members of the cabildo (local government). This practice allow for a great degree of autonomy within indigenous communities form the state and federal governments, since in communities governed by usos y costumbres, mainstream political parties do not participate in local elections. In the state of Oaxaca, the elections of local authorities at the municipal level is recognized by the state constitution.

Public Policy Institute of California. (2004). Just the facts. California’s central valley. Public Policy Institute of California. Retrieved May 18, 2005, from http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/JTF_CentralValleyJTF.pdf.

References