This roundtable will foster a conversation about Indigenous literacies and popular education in Latin America from the late colonial period to the near present. The panelists will compare schooling, literacy trainings, radio schools, and other educational programs in Indigenous communities, contrasting how these projects were implemented between the Andes and Mesoamerica in different periods.

Drawing from cases in Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala, the panelists will address the introduction and transformation of these educational and literacy programs. They will respond to the politics and policies that led to the creation of educational initiatives within Indigenous communities and how the philosophies, approaches, and participants changed over time. Both in the colonial and national periods, Catholic religious workers frequently facilitated these programs with their own social and spiritual goals in mind. However, Indigenous students, teachers, and leaders adopted and adapted these programs in diverse ways, reorienting educational materials and pedagogies to serve their communities and other activities. To that end, the panelists will discuss the wide-ranging and evolving applications of these projects. In different moments, educational initiatives took the form of state control, assimilationist campaigns, inclusive social and cultural experiences, and grassroots resistance.

As a whole, the roundtable discussion seeks to highlight the participatory opportunities and political limits posed by literacy courses and educational projects for Indigenous communities, while emphasizing their impact on various conceptions of Indigenous identity and community across Latin America over time.