Papillon, Butterfly, Mariposa, Xepje, Tümü, Kolombrini Parakata

THE VISIT

“Benito Juárez” Indigenous Kindergarten

“Sabaneta Quintana” Community

“Sierra Chincua” Sanctuary

Coordinates: 19.6668245 -100.1902361

Symbolic Migration next traveled to another indigenous school near the “Sierra Chincua” Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. Students from the neighboring elementary school volunteered help to carry the didactic materials and, of course, your Ambassador butterflies which were anxiously awaited by these kindergarten students!

Estela brought the mini-forest lesson and introduced monarch butterflies to the group. She told of their journey from far away in the cold north to spend a mild winter in our beautiful Oyamel forests. This was an annual journey witnessed by their own great-grandparents since they themselves were little children!

It was great to share with the teacher at the school, who was a native, perfect bilingual Mazahua-Español speaker! How beautiful yet different each language speaks the word butterfly!

Kolombrini Parakata (Mariposa Monarca in Purépecha language)

Xepje (Mazahua)

Tümü (Otomí - Hñahñu)

Mariposa (Español)

Buttterfly (English)

Papillon (French)

Estela explained to the children that monarchs come from far away lands where people speak different languages. She pronounced each of the words for butterfly in the various languages. Here in our large communities many people also speak different languages, but all have one single thing in common: They all have shared monarch butterflies for a very long time.

Canadians and people who live in the United States have monarchs during the spring and summer. Our indigenous local groups living at the Reserve and in surrounding towns, welcome them for the winter!

Here the letters of good-will from our indigenous Mexican children attending kindergarten at the schools around the Monarchs’ Reserve to their counterparts in different regions of the United States and Canada, containing both of their mother languages, Mazahua and Spanish!