Familia Indigena Unida

Southern Border Latino/a/x Native American Dance Folklife/Other Multi-genre Music Visual/Craft/Material Arts 2009 2010

Familia Indigena Unida strives to empower the Mixtec and other indigenous peoples by providing language instructions, social services, and Mixtec cultural workshops.

One of the major points of conflict in immigrant communities is the enormous gap created between immigrant parents and their U.S.-born children. The moment the children go through formal public education, the gap is magnified because there is no support for maintaining the cultural base of their life.  Familia Indigena Unida strives to stop this process that leads to broken homes and identity loss by building a base of self empowerment where young people learn to appreciate the great value of their culture and heritage, thereby elevating the self-esteem of both parents and the children, weaving the two generations together again.

As a participant in ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program in 2009 and 2010, Familia Indigena Unida established the Mixtec Intergenerational Initiative, providing traditional arts programming and language classes in order to strengthen and validate the cultural identity among the Mixtec population.  The initiative includes classes and workshops on traditional medicine, music and dance, crafts, foodways, and ceremonies.