The Mexico Solidarity Network introduces students to dynamic new experiments in autonomous, community-based organizing and to build solidarity with Mexico’s most important and dynamic social movements. The lessons you learn from organized communities in Chiapas, Tlaxcala, and Mexico City, will strengthen your social justice work back home.

Academics

This program offers a truly unique opportunity to learn the theory and practice of living social movements directly from the people building those movements.


Academic Options

The program is 13-weeks of interdisciplinary study offering up to 16 credits at the undergraduate or masters level. While the course is interdisciplinary, MSN offers the following course breakdown for accreditation at institutions that do not work under interdisciplinary regimens (example Mexican Social Movements syllabus):
Interdisciplinary Course work (each course is 3 credits, 45 class hours)
- Political Economy (Econ 351/551)
- Modern Mexico (Pol Sci 352/552)
- Mexican Social Movements (Soc 353/553)
- Mexican Culture (Ant 303/503)

Intensive Language Study (4 credits, 60 class hours)
- Non-native Spanish speakers take:
Intensive Conversational Spanish (Span 203, 303, 403, or 503)
- Native Spanish speakers take:
Introductory Tzotzil (Tzotzil 101)

Workshops

Get out of the classroom and into the community! To help you gain a better understanding of the day-to-day realities of the communities you live in, students participate in at least two workshops each week conducted in Spanish, including:

-Traditional weaving, boot-making, indigenous culture, introduction to autonomous education [Chiapas]
-Traditional cooking, herbal medicine, emigration dynamics, organic fertilizer production, local festivals [Tlaxcala]
-Meetings with former political prisoners, student organizers, and human rights defenders [Mexico City]

Housing

A centerpiece of the Mexico Solidarity Network’s study abroad program is your immersion in communities actively involved in political, economic, and cultural organizing. During the program your lodging includes:

-Housing in rustic collective dormitories on the campus of the Universidad de la Tierra, a center for educating indigenous youth in practical trades [San Cristóbal, Chiapas]
-Collective dormitories [Oventic, Chiapas]
-Homestays with campesino families living at the base of La Malintze, one of Mexico’s largest mountains [Toluca de Guadalupe, Tlaxcala]
-Homestays in La Polvorilla, a cooperative which is part of Mexico’s largest urban housing movement [Mexico City, Federal District]

You will develop lifelong, cross-cultural alliances, new analytical tools, and dynamic organizing skills that will literally change your life in important ways.

Costs

The basic cost of the MSN semester is usually the equivalent of a full residential semester at Guilford in Greensboro, plus airfare. This includes all instruction, fees, housing, program-related travel, and meals. Additional expenses will depend upon your own preferences. All federal, state, and college financial assistance, with the exception of work-study funds, is applicable. Competitive Board of Visitors scholarships are available to defray travel expenses.

For students wishing to participate in the extension program in Chicago after re-entry, there will be a surcharge.