EU4YOU - Job Shadowing report Mexico - Emmeline Kuhn

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“EntreprenEUrship for CultYOUre” (EU4YOU) Job Shadowing report 30 Oct. - 20 Nov. 2018 in Mexico - hosted by IIC-MX Written by Emmeline Kuhn - Youth Express Network

At the end of October 2018, I took the great challenge to fly over to Mexico for a job shadowing of 3 weeks. My mission was to discover cultural and social enterprises in Santiago de Queretaro, home of my host organisation “IIC-MX Iniciativas Internacionales para la Cooperacion Mexico” and states around. Vamos!


Chapter 1 “Getting artsy in the jungle” (Xalapa)

Dia de los muertos in Naolinco with Kyriakos and Gabriela

Sinestesia Festival in Xalapa

My journey started in Xalapa, in the state of Veracruz, where I spent 4 days in company of my duo Kyriakos Kavakliotis, from the Greek partner organisation “BIC Business & Innovation Centre of Serres”. Veracruz is a state famous for its coffee, unique and delicate, that we had the chance to taste. Its second biggest city, Xalapa, where we stayed, is well known for its University and Anthropology museum. We were welcomed by Gabriela Moncayo, a young musician who showed us a bit the surroundings and who took us to Naolinco to experience “Dia de los muertos”, which is the traditional Mexican celebration of the dead on 1st of November: memorable! So it is in the middle of the jungle that the adventure begins.

Sinestesia Music Festival - cultural initiative In Xalapa, Kyriakos and I attended the music festival “Sinestesia” on 2nd and 3rd of November. The festival takes place in a small and artisanal brewery called “Cervezeria Brujula” in Briones, in the outskirt of the city. The place is hidden but magical: it hosts art exhibitions inside and the music festival in the backyard. The festival is born from a local youth initiative and is financially supported by private sponsors and the civil society. It engages local business to sell beverages and prepare food for the public, but it is mostly volunteerbased for the rest of the organisation of the event! Sinestesia is a springboard for young local artists to perform live and to get more popularity. For this edition (the 3rd), the festival also programmed bands from other parts of Mexico, and foreign countries like Colombia, Chile, the United States and... France!

Our host in Xalapa, Gabriela, played for the two evenings of the festival with her bands ‘Guacamole’ and ‘Lava de Hawai’: what a talent! Being a festival at quite a small scale, it promotes local (both in the artists and the food), indie music and diversity. There is no music genre at the heart of the festival but a lot of different sounds that appeal all generations and backgrounds. One of the attendee mentioned to me: “it’s nice to see this kind of events here, where indigenous people, Spanish descendants and internationals mix together”. The festival was a success, and we both had a lot of fun there, meeting with the locals and dancing to the sounds of (Latin) America and France. More infos: Facebook / Instagram / Press article


Chapter 2 “The cultural capital of Mexico” (Queretaro)

Meeting with Roberto Losano, Director of the Municipal Art Gallery, which helps young emergent artists to expose

Intercultural workshop at the Tecmilenio University with Victoria’s high school students

Nueve Arte Urbano - cultural initiative Meeting with socially active and artsy students at the UAQ with Leslie

After saying goodbye to Kyriakos who finished his job shadowing, I continued my journey to Santiago de Queretaro in the state of Queretaro. The city, often simply called “Queretaro”, is the home of my host organisation IIC-MX Iniciat i vas Internact ionale s para la Cooperacion Mexico: on spot, I was welcome by t wo volunteers, Leslie and Victoria. I enjoyed Queretaro a lot: the city centre is walkable and very pleasant with many parks, churches and monuments to acknowledge. Culturally, it is incredible: from museums to film fe st i vals, through dance happenings and indigenous’ culture fair, one cannot get bored in Queretaro!

On Roberto’s advice, I met with Ricardo Quezada, Head of Communication & Marketing for “Incusa” and “Nueve Arte Urbano”. In 2010, for the bicentenary anniversary of the country, the paintings’ retailers’ company Incusa launched a contest for young graffitis artists to express on the topic “what makes you feel Mexican” on murals around the main parks in Queretaro. From the success of this contest, the company decided to continue to work with murals and created Nueve Arte Urbano with a platform of artists to start to develop programmes within neighbourhoods or public spaces. For example, they collaborated with the “Centro Educativo y Cultural Manuel Gomez Morin” in Queretaro for a murals’ project on the topic of natural resources of the world and indigenous culture (see photo below). So far, they produced around 1000 murals in Queretaro! In Nueve Arte Urbano, they see murals and street art as the equal of art galleries, because people tend to visit places on purpose in order to see street art. In Mexico, he said, people don’t feel the necessity to purchase art so their goal is to put the artists in the spotlight and make Mexicans get in touch with their roots. All in all, they try to change the reality of art! More infos: Website / Facebook / Instagram


My Me xic an jour ne y ended in Santiago de Anaya, in the state of Hidalgo, to discover the work of the social enterprise “Rutopia”, which propose s ecotouristic trips among indigenous communities in Mexico. As the best way to learn about this enterprise, I went on a trip among the “hñähñu” community (“otomi” in Spanish) who developed an ecotouristic site around an ancient cave called “Grutas Xoxafi”. I stayed on the site to visit the cave but I also was in immersion in the community to learn about their culture and traditions. This adventure was definitely one of the best human experience I ever had.

Chapter 3 “Another side of the country” (Santiago de Anaya) The Grutas Xoxafi ecotouristic site was initiated in 2001 around an ancient cave, to create employment for the community and promote the hñähñu culture. More infos: Facebook

Rutopia - social enterprise

After my trip at the Grutas Xoxafi in Santiago de Anaya, I had the chance to interview Diego Espinoza Silicio, one of the founder of Rutopia. This social enterprise started a bit more than 1 year ago, from the initiative of 3 friends who identified the issue that indigenous communities tend to migrate to bigger cities or abandon their traditions due to a lack of economical opportunities. They developed the idea of the social entreprise on being a sort of “front desk” for the communities, like a platform that puts them on the map. In contrary to traditional travel agencies, Rutopia only keeps 20% of the income from a trip booked with them. The 80% left is given to the communities as a source of income and value, so that they feel proud and empowered. The destinations are chosen according to several aspects: - They use the “market ready” method to see if the communities have the capacity to host travellers and if they are “culturally and naturally attractive”; - They promote only small destinations, meaning that they will not promote destinations that are already successful and don’t need their help; - They only work with groups (not individuals), who have an agreement inside the community to welcome tourists. With 15 group trips organised and 140 travellers so far, the impact for the communities is big: more than 2000 € directly given to communities and a monthly income raised up to 12,5% for 1 trip in certain communities. Besides, Rutopia also measures the impact on their will to perdure their traditions (how many kids want to learn their mother tongue, if they feel more proud in wearing their traditional clothes etc.) Rutopia has now 6 persons working as volunteers, but expects to employ them all in a 1 year-time if the company is successful enough: for now, they have 300% growth each 6 months. They are willing to expand their company to other countries, to collaborate with other agencies in Mexico and attract more international travellers. More infos: Website / Facebook / Instagram


My job shadowing experience took me to several states of Mexico, discovering different sides of the country and the indigenous culture(s). What I will remember the most is how Mexicans are connected to the past, still marked by the wounds left from colonial times. The cultural and social initiatives that I visited all strive to make the traditions and the indigenous culture(s) survive in a way: through music, art or tourism. “Muchas gracias” to Leslie and Victoria from IIC-MX for welcoming me so nicely, but also to Kyriakos, Gabriela, Oscar, Camila, Roman, Carlos, Diego and all the others who contributed to make this journey an amazing one.

This job shadowing has been organised within the Capacity Building project (KA2) “EntreprEUnership for CultYOUre” (EU4YOU) coordinated by Youth Express Network with 7 partner organisations from 7 different countries: ABS - Active Bulgarian Society (Bulgaria), Active Youth (Lithuania), BIC - Business & Innovation Centre of Serres (Greece), IIC-MX - Iniciativas Internacionales para la Cooperacion Mexico (Mexico), CSDS - Centre for Sustainable Development Studies (Vietnam), Brigada de Voluntarios Bolivarianos de Peru (Peru), Fundacion SES Sustentabilidad, Educacion y Solidaridad (Argentina). This project is financially supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. This report has been written by Emmeline Kuhn, representing Youth Express Network, as part of the project results. It does not represent the official point of view of Youth Express Network, nor the one from the partners or the financial supporter.

Youth Express Network Maison des Associations 1A Place des Orphelins 67000 Strasbourg France Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube

EU4YOU project Website / Articles


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