Vicky’s story

Greetings to you on this day of Vernal Equinox, the day that marks equal days and nights and is universally known as the first day of spring.  For the living Maya, the equinox is a time to reconnect with nature, honor ancestors, and maintain harmony with the universe. 

The ancient Maya civilization developed one of the most sophisticated, precise, and advanced mathematical systems in the pre-Columbian Americas. Their "love of numbers" was deeply rooted in a desire to track time, observe the cosmos, and manage agricultural cycles

Today's story is about Vicky, a Maya indigenous woman from Zinacantán, who has loved numbers since she was a child.

As a young teen, she was offered a scholarship from Yo’onik, which allowed her to continue studying. She was an avid learner and took great pleasure in tutoring the younger children so they could stay in school as long as possible. 

During over a decade of helping children with their homework, she watched many of them staring blankly at a wall when they didn’t know the answer to a math problem.

She joked that she was going to paint numbers and formulas on the walls, and the children said that’s a great idea! 

So she painted multiplication tables on the back wall of the learning center. That way, the children can see the numbers as they come and go to classes and play. She loves it when she catches a child scanning the tables as they walk by. The photo on the left captures one of those moments. 

Of course the whole thing was spontaneous and there’s no system set up to monitor the results, but Vicky loves to tell stories about the children who ask permission to go to the bathroom at strategic moments during a math session—because she knows it’s an excuse to consult the wall!

There’s a game the children like to play when they're out of the classroom. One child stands with their back to the numbers and the other children call out formulas and the child with their back to the numbers answers. If the answer is wrong, they continue until they get one right. Then another child says it’s their turn to give it a try. 

School attendance is better in Zinacantan than in the more remote rural villages in the municipality, but the attrition rate is still very high. The Yo’onik tutors are aware of that and do everything they can do to help keep the children in school as long as possible. And even when children don’t continue studying because of family financial needs, whatever they learn before they quit school is information they take with them for the rest of their lives. 

Vicky is currently focusing on completing the requirements for her final year at the university and is no longer tutoring at the Yo'onik Learning Center.  Time will tell where she ends up taking her affinity with numbers. The current blessing for Yo'onik is that she discovered a way to transmit a love of math into a colorful, creative way to memorize multiplication tables.

Therefore, her legacy at continues.  How do you measure that? 

Saludos, 

Anita Smart

Executive Director, Natik Esperanza