This is a series of illustrations I made for a documentary film called "La Piedra en el Zapato" (TheĀ Stone in the Shoe) tellingĀ a film telling the story of theĀ struggle of rural normalistas in Mexico for the transformation of society through education as well as resistance to attacks of Neoliberalism.
Watch the TRAILER.
Read more about the topic down below.Ā
The poster for the Piedra en el Zapato documentary filmĀ
The map of Mexico showing the states, where the rural normal schools still operate.Ā
An episode depicting police violence in Guerrero
An episode depicting police violence in Aguilera
A normalista kidnapped and interrogated by the police officersĀ
A scene where detained female normalistas were taken to Cerezo 14 prison, known as the home for the most dangerous criminals.Ā
Female normalistas kidnapped undergoing a humiliating checkup in front of male police officers
A testimony by one of the detained normalistas who wasn't allowed to use toilet privately.
A scene telling about one of the most violent clashes between the police and the civilians.Ā
About the NormalistasĀ
The ānormalistaāĀ schools, the educational centers that provideĀ professional teachersĀ with an undergraduate education, were born during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 when the country was still mostly made up of farmers. JosĆ© Vasconcelos, rector of Mexicoās National Autonomous University (UNAM) and Minister of Education from 1921 to 1924 embarked on an educational crusade using rural teachers. He chose them because they were the figures that could widen the spread of the spirit of the Revolution. āHe attempted to give Mexicans a sense of their country. The teacher taught reading and writing and how to make soap or undertake carpentry work,ā explains historian Lorenzo Meyer. āIt was a difficult time. In the 1920s teachers were being treated badly. The Cristeros (Catholics in arms against the Revolution) did not accept them and ended up killing or mutilating a great many of their number.ā
Problems arose when Mexico stopped being rural and the government ceased being revolutionary: āThese schools had a left-wing, radical outlook, so much so that they wanted to close them. But that proved no easy task because they provided the only opportunities for people from the countryside.ā
In 2013, passage of theĀ PeƱa Nieto governmentās educational reformĀ lawĀ sparked fury among students and teachersĀ who took to the streets in several of the Republicās southern states. Protests were especially virulent in Guerrero. Among other measures, the government introduced a system of periodic evaluation for teachers.Ā
The absence of guarantees in the transparency of the assessment process was one of the top complaints of the protesting ānormalistasā.
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