Latin America has an important history of cultural and ethnical diversity. Original people (or first Nations) were diverse before the European invasion and had developed important cultural alternatives in order to establish good relationships between different groups. That does not mean that everything was peace, but that they highly valorized differences and could learn ones from the others. For example, Andean people (nowadays from Peru, Bolivia, Equator, Colombia, Chile) build their civilization taking advantage of diversity instead of trying to standardize everything. In that way, they could develop agriculture in the very hard environmental conditions of the Andes.
The Spanish conquerors did not understand very well this kind of development and generally ignored or fought again the technological and cultural practices they did not understand or did not share. And even more, the political and economic domination came together with racism and cultural discrimination. The current difficulties of cohabitation in Europe existed first – and still exists – in Latin America. Therefore, the Latin American reflection about intercultural relationships and its experiences in intercultural education can help in some way in the current reflection in Europe.
Some useful videos (all of them in Spanish)
Interculturality in Latin America:
Peru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDshNEtrypk
Equator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PMkZ09N0Tk
Colombia (con metodología de una profesor española:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArJYgzNDR5g
México: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtx87xWUYNs
Intercultural and bilingual education in Peru
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